Neal Zoren chose his favorite productions, directors, and actors from the last year.

Act II Playhouse gets all dramatic with Theresa Rebeck’s MAURITIUS

“Gay PIRATES OF PENZANCE? Isn’t that redundant?” It’s more like Gilbert and Sullivan’s zany comedy is finally fully realized.

The production, though occasionally troubled, can still put a finger on the pulse of Shakespeare at its best.

Republished by kind permission from Neals Paper. SEE WHAT I WANT TO SEE receives a bravura production from Megan Nicole O’Brien and 11th Hour. But show biz brightness is not always…

A cross-temporal interpretation of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan classic injects passages of current expressions and gestures, slapstick, and original music into the well-known pastoral rom-com.

Each January, local theater critic Neal Zoren announces his picks for the best in Philadelphia theater over the previous calendar year.

This tense, evocative play explores the eternal verities of war, sacrifice, and deceit.

Local theater writers vote for their favorites in twelve categories!

Each year, Philadelphia-based reviewer Neal Zoren announces his choices for the Helen and Morris Zoren Awards for World Theater. A fair number of the picks on Neal’s list are performers and productions from the Philadelphia area.

The iconic three-act, three-hour marathon of marital warfare eviscerates the myth of the American family, revealing the drama and devastation behind the façade of our societal expectations

The theater community contains a wealth of multi-talented artists who are not only gifted actors, but also highly skilled singers, musicians, and composers.

A stakeout goes awry with hilarious consequences in UNNECESSARY FARCE at Act II Playhouse.

The family friendly holiday panto takes a wacky look at the growing pains of the future King Arthur as he faces the challenges of life, learning, and leadership.

MAN OF LA MANCHA is a play within a play. The production is the clear result of what happens when a group of professionals pour their talents into a common goal.

In September of 1900 Anton Chekhov confessed in a letter to his actress-wife Olga Knipper: “I find it very difficult to write THREE SISTERS, much more difficult than any other of my…

Over the past few years, there’s been a surprising and unlikely spark of interest in Jane Austen. Austen’s novels—Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion, et al—have been required reading for over…

Stephen Sondheim’s transcendent musical exposé of love, liaisons, and life in 1900 Sweden.

Cutting close to the bone, Lesley Headland’s ASSISTANCE is a protest, as provocative as Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal (1928), exposing the Darwinian-exploitative nature of the 2013 job market. Irony sucker punched…