August is not the best of theater months. For most theaters, mainstream and small, the season is still a September or October to May session.…
View More Don’t Worry Philly, There Will Be Theater in AugustCategory: Theater
The best source for independent coverage of Philadelphia theater.
AVENUE Q (Mazeppa): A puppet oasis in the summer heat
Rob Henry and Brian Seaman, founders of Mazeppa Productions, the newest resident musical theater company in Philadelphia, offer an oasis of entertainment in the Sahara…
View More AVENUE Q (Mazeppa): A puppet oasis in the summer heatPlayed in Philadelphia (PHM): The insanity of Phillies fans
I went to the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent last week on a tipoff from Mary Syndor. “The Played in Philadelphia gallery,” claims their website,…
View More Played in Philadelphia (PHM): The insanity of Phillies fansRETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE (SmokeyScout): 60-second review
Josh McIlvain’s RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE should be put in a time capsule and used by future generations as a how-to…
View More RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE (SmokeyScout): 60-second reviewTHE VIOLENCE OF THE LAMBS (OR THE ANIMAL VS. HUMAN WAR) (Chris Davis): 60-second review
As the established Philadelphia companies enter their long off-season, the SoLow Festival is providing a welcome dose of idiosyncratic theater at some unusual venues around…
View More THE VIOLENCE OF THE LAMBS (OR THE ANIMAL VS. HUMAN WAR) (Chris Davis): 60-second reviewAnother take on GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade)
Pacified by a pre-show serving of *Little Baby’s* ice cream, the Renegade Company’s audience sat in a cozy room with broken victrola records scattered on…
View More Another take on GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade)Afterthoughts on UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo)
EgoPo’s show closes at Plays & Players in Philadelphia tonight. I finally got to see it at the end of the run. The finale of…
View More Afterthoughts on UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo)SOME OTHER KIND OF PERSON (InterAct)
The title of Eric Pfeffinger’s SOME OTHER KIND OF PERSON, now in production by Interact Theatre Company, refers to a purposefully misquoted line of Aristotle,…
View More SOME OTHER KIND OF PERSON (InterAct)GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade): 60-second review
Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie is described as a “memory play”: its plot an extended flashback, its theatrical pretense laid bare. GLASS: SHATTERED, Michael Durkin’s…
View More GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade): 60-second reviewUNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo): An unfortunate production
Rooted like wooden figurines in a nineteenth-century music box, the cast of EgoPo Classic Theater’s adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s UNCLE TOM’s CABIN stand in…
View More UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo): An unfortunate productionAMERICAN SLIGO (New City): Wrestling with dysfunction
The American dysfunctional family was the theme of New City Stage Company’s successful 2012/13 season, and it would be hard to find a play which…
View More AMERICAN SLIGO (New City): Wrestling with dysfunctionBARCELONA (People’s Light): Transatlantic tension, transatlantic truth
She’s an American tourist on a girls’ holiday, seeking out a romantic, exotic fantasy of Spain. He’s a dashing, seductive Spaniard who takes her to…
View More BARCELONA (People’s Light): Transatlantic tension, transatlantic truthThe Arden Hits a High Note with A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Stephen Sondheim’s transcendent musical exposé of love, liaisons, and life in 1900 Sweden.
View More The Arden Hits a High Note with A LITTLE NIGHT MUSICVENUS IN FUR (PTC): 60-second review
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is known today primarily for the word derived from his name: masochism, and for his scandalous 1870 novel VENUS IN FUR, the…
View More VENUS IN FUR (PTC): 60-second reviewJust one asshole with an opinion: theater critic Mark Cofta on the art of reviewing and observations on Philly’s theater scene
Originally published on the FringeArts blog. Republished with kind permission. “I see 150 to 180 plays a year, and still always regret missing a bunch.”…
View More Just one asshole with an opinion: theater critic Mark Cofta on the art of reviewing and observations on Philly’s theater sceneHEROES (Lantern): Quieter guns of August
It’s 1959. Two veterans of the Great War sit in silence. HENRI: I love the month of August GUSTAVE: I knew it couldn’t last, the…
View More HEROES (Lantern): Quieter guns of AugustBOOTYCANDY (Wilma): Bringing genitalia to the stage
There is a certain brand of comedy that bases its entire aesthetic on the idea that genitalia, in and of itself, is hilarious. A lot…
View More BOOTYCANDY (Wilma): Bringing genitalia to the stageTHE LYSISTRATA PROJECT (Simpatico): A momentary delight
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides introduced his majestic History of the Peloponnesian War by claiming it was “not a piece of writing designed to meet the…
View More THE LYSISTRATA PROJECT (Simpatico): A momentary delightTHE GAMBLING ROOM (Hella Fresh Theater): An ambitious conundrum
Hella Fresh is staging THE GAMBLING ROOM at Papermill Theater in Kensington. One of several little companies working in small neighborhood venues, Hella Fresh is…
View More THE GAMBLING ROOM (Hella Fresh Theater): An ambitious conundrumAzuka Charms with FAILURE: A LOVE STORY
In 1900 the city of Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that it discharged into the Mississippi River instead of Lake Michigan.…
View More Azuka Charms with FAILURE: A LOVE STORY