Quintessence Theater’s founding artistic director Alex Burns, has written a new translation from the original French
View More NO EXIT (Quintessence): A new translation of a hellishly absurd classicCategory: Reviews
[NYC] PURLIE VICTORIOUS (Music Box Theatre): A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
Ossie Davis’s brilliant and hilarious play is part vaudeville, part sermon. And if preaching is theater, theater is preaching. And the lesson is that “faith…
View More [NYC] PURLIE VICTORIOUS (Music Box Theatre): A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton PatchASSASSINS (Arden): A celebration of psychopaths
The wall of the F. Otto Haas Stage features pictures of targets and X’s for murdered presidents. Starting with John Wilkes Booth’s killing of Abraham…
View More ASSASSINS (Arden): A celebration of psychopathsTARTUFFE (Lantern): Delightfully over-the-top
Before he became a celebrated playwright, Jean-Baptiste Poquelan was a poor thing in a touring shoestring theater company. Although he had wanted to be a…
View More TARTUFFE (Lantern): Delightfully over-the-top10 Days in a Madhouse (Opera Philly): This is not a time for quiet art
Director Joanna Settle wants you to know that 10 Days in a Madhouse is not just an opera. It is an “announcement … almost a…
View More 10 Days in a Madhouse (Opera Philly): This is not a time for quiet art10 Dates with Mad Mary (Inis Nua): A real piece of work returns
10 Dates with Mad Mary is playing upstairs at a favored watering hole, Fergie’s Pub. The show was so popular last year that it’s back!
View More 10 Dates with Mad Mary (Inis Nua): A real piece of work returnsTWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Beach blanket Bard
There’s a lot of Twelfth Night going around in the Philadelphia area, all different. The Wilma conjures a fresh seaside setting. A dock moves forward.…
View More TWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Beach blanket BardTWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Foolery shines everywhere
“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines every where.” Leaving Copernicus aside, the Fool’s wry remark is an apt description…
View More TWELFTH NIGHT (Wilma): Foolery shines everywhereTWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Some are born great
Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night (1599-1600), one of his few fantasy plays, immediately before he penned his incomparable Hamlet (1600-1601). As Artistic Director Charles McMahon describes…
View More TWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Some are born greatTITANIC (Fulton Theater): 60-second review
Featuring a large cast of fantastic singers, Fulton Theater’s production of Titanic is worth the drive to Lancaster. Telling the story of the infamous ocean…
View More TITANIC (Fulton Theater): 60-second reviewTWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Shall we set about some revels?
“Shall we set about some revels?” Yes! The battle begins: Lantern Theater Company opened its excellent and enjoyable production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night; soon to…
View More TWELFTH NIGHT (Lantern): Shall we set about some revels?GALILEE (Azuka): A tale from down under
A small town’s main business—tourism— dries up and bit by bit small businesses follow.
View More GALILEE (Azuka): A tale from down underTHE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG (1812): Fall-off-your-chair hilarity
This is not the admiring smirk or a contemptuous Ha-ha!, but fall-off-your-chair, eye-mopping hilarity.
View More THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG (1812): Fall-off-your-chair hilarityPerry, Schumann, and Mahler (Curtis Symphony Orchestra): Season-closing performance
Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that there are two types of writers. And because he’s Kurt Vonnegut, he gave them both silly names. First you’ve got…
View More Perry, Schumann, and Mahler (Curtis Symphony Orchestra): Season-closing performance[NYC] CAMELOT (Lincoln Center): Back to the round table
Sometimes cynical, ultra-cool critical disdain—much in evidence these days— just won’t do. I loved this show; it’s filled with wonderful songs and wonderful singers, an…
View More [NYC] CAMELOT (Lincoln Center): Back to the round tableLADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL (PTC): A living portrait and an evening of wonderful songs
At 15th & Bainbridge—only a few blocks from Philadelphia Theatre Company’s stage at Broad & Lombard—there stood a legendary dive bar called Emerson’s. Jazz greats—John…
View More LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL (PTC): A living portrait and an evening of wonderful songs[NYC] SWEENEY TODD (Lunt-Fontanne): How to review a show that is just about perfect?
I should have such a problem all the time: how to review a show that is just about perfect.
View More [NYC] SWEENEY TODD (Lunt-Fontanne): How to review a show that is just about perfect?JOHNNY DEPP: A RETROSPECTIVE ON LATE STAGE CAPITALISM (Jenna Kuerzi): A coin-tossing good time
Funny, eye opening, and sometimes maddening in its acknowledgement of how our society worships celebrities.
View More JOHNNY DEPP: A RETROSPECTIVE ON LATE STAGE CAPITALISM (Jenna Kuerzi): A coin-tossing good timeTHE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Theatre Unspeakable): An historical miss
The American Revolution has an intrinsic connection to the city of Philadelphia, and as a story, it has been adapted many times over with successful…
View More THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (Theatre Unspeakable): An historical missSIX (National Tour): The merry wives of Henry VIII
And now, “live in consort,” the six wives of Henry VIII: “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.”
View More SIX (National Tour): The merry wives of Henry VIII