3,986 stories from CurtainUp
Despite director David Esbjornson's efforts to transform this troubling episode in Darwin's life into a vivid drama, the books cited in Peter Parnell's author's note are probably more absorb…
The more than three hours fly by in this terrific three acter by Tracy Letts, with its bakers' dozen of fully rounded, damaged characters portrayed by a group of the Chicago Steppenwolf Thea…
Gilles Segal's post-World War II drama uses puppetry, fantasy, mystery and humor to create a work that is a testament not only to human endurance, but also our ability to turn trauma into me…
Langston Hughes' gospel song play Black Nativity is returning to Times Square for the first time since its Broadway debut 46 years ago, and that's good news.
Fourteen performers, in a wash of colorful costumes by Christal Weatherly, play more than thirty-five characters. All are inclined to play their roles with broad but infectious flourishes.
What we have here is a David and Goliath struggle - David being Philo Farnsworth, a young genius who was 12 years old when he had his monumental concept moment in an Idaho potato farm field;…
From one night benefit to gala CD launch . . .and on to Broadway
Like the Flu Season and the Pulitzer nominated Thom Pain, Oh, the Humanity! is well suited to this playwright's distinctive style and dialogue that brims with dark humor and rich linguistic …
Part of the success of the production can be attributed to the Pearl's typical competence and professionalism. But what really makes this all work is how well the play communicates the chara…
This is the second Haidle play I have read and seen. Like the first, Mr. Marmalade, it reads better than it plays.
Alistair Beaton's clear translation is successfully, if sinisterly, open to interpretation. The vulnerability of liberalism to categorical devastation is a universal dilemma.
If you ask why another Ray Charles story after the Oscar-winning production starring Jamie Foxx, the answer is because this is the stage and that was a movie. A musical has the stage qualiti…
This is clearly the work of a playwright to whom, to quote Elizabeth Franz in her Linda Loman role, would say "attention must be paid." And, of course, there's the pleasure of being able to …
The playwright never looks for cheap tricks. He doesn't force a love interest to spice up the action, and he keeps profanity down to the essential and appropriate minimum. This is the kind o…
In the opening number the chorus sings "Things are swell now, / Ring that bell now / We're in heaven/No more Hell now. . . " Well, Young Frankenstein is not Hell like some clunkers I've seen…
Sir Antony Sher is a Renaissance man: actor, playwright, novelist and artist. His new play The Giant is about the creation of the statue of David by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
A strikingly stylized production. Its star and co-director, Michael Cumpsty, is probably the best Richard I've ever seen. And while his Richard is the play's pivot, his vicims, enemies and f…
What's not to like about Meet Me in St. Louis, the grand 1944 Technicolor musical film that assuredly is on everyone's list of favorites?
Some of this play is in very poor taste. Despite, or perhaps because of this, it's entertaining, and certainly unforgettable.
I adore Adam Rapp. One day I hope to marry him and bear him lots of playwright-director children.
Somewhere within Howard Barker's play lies a cautionary tale. The question is not so much how deep one must dig to uncover it, but what one has found when it is in hand.
