Conceived with a book by Ray Roderick and Michael Berkeley, I LOVE A PIANO is a valentine to Irving Berlin music through the ages
View More I LOVE A PIANO (Walnut): A Berlin marathonAuthor: Neal Zoren for NealsPaper
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Quintessence): Swordplay and horseplay combine in a breezy adaptation
As always with an Alexander Burns production, imagery is rife, props are creative, and jokes come as much from sight gags as from dialogue.
View More THE THREE MUSKETEERS (Quintessence): Swordplay and horseplay combine in a breezy adaptationBECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (DTC): A child and her dog steal a charming musical
It’s an old show biz maxim, and true, that an adult cannot expect full attention if he or she is working on stage with a dog or a child.
View More BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE (DTC): A child and her dog steal a charming musicalGROUCHO: A LIFE IN REVUE (ActorsNET): There’s no such thing as a sanity clause
Off stage, David Newhouse looks nothing like Groucho Marx. In makeup, Newhouse’s transformation is astounding.
View More GROUCHO: A LIFE IN REVUE (ActorsNET): There’s no such thing as a sanity clauseTHE THREEPENNY OPERA (Villanova): Brecht played louder than the music
Republished by kind permission from Neals Paper. Kurt Weill’s insistent tingel-tangel score for THE THREEPENNY OPERA pervades the Vasey Hall stage, with horns and drum pumping…
View More THE THREEPENNY OPERA (Villanova): Brecht played louder than the musicUNDERNEATH THE LINTEL (Hedgerow): Following a shaggy dog to the library
One of the funniest and most entertaining of all shaggy dog stories.
View More UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL (Hedgerow): Following a shaggy dog to the libraryMERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Temple Theater): Parties and excess
The young talent the school is grooming stands out in the Temple Theater production of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.
View More MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Temple Theater): Parties and excessBASKERVILLE (McCarter): An entertaining trip to Dartmoor
Ken Ludwig taps literature’s most iconic detective with BASKERVILLE, a funny, inventive, entertaining take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”
View More BASKERVILLE (McCarter): An entertaining trip to DartmoorGHOST (Media Theatre): Animating a corpse
Director Jesse Cline doesn’t let GHOST’s musical or lyrical deficiencies stand in his way of making involving theater.
View More GHOST (Media Theatre): Animating a corpseARIADNE AUF NAXOS (Curtis Opera Theatre/Opera Philadelphia): Clowns and opera collide
ARIADNE AUF NAXOS predates Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” and David Hirson’s “La Bête” by decades, but the situation its plot depicts brings both of those later 20th century works to mind.
View More ARIADNE AUF NAXOS (Curtis Opera Theatre/Opera Philadelphia): Clowns and opera collideOSCAR (Opera Philadelphia): High notes and low in the life of Oscar Wilde
We see the tragedy of Oscar Wilde’s life played out creatively and movingly in OSCAR, a thoughtfully crafted opera by Theodore Morrison and John Cox,
View More OSCAR (Opera Philadelphia): High notes and low in the life of Oscar WildeALWAYS… PATSY CLINE (Bristol Riverside): Sweet dreams of a country superstar
Cline is a natural subject for the theater. Although the sad facts of Patsy’s marriage and difficult personal life are alluded to, ALWAYS… PATSY CLINE is more about a relationship a star was able to form with a fan than a full biography of the singer.
View More ALWAYS… PATSY CLINE (Bristol Riverside): Sweet dreams of a country superstarTHE GUN SHOW (Passage): Let me tell you some stories about guns
EM Lewis accomplishes two simultaneous intentions—to tell a story theatrically and to spur perspective on guns.
View More THE GUN SHOW (Passage): Let me tell you some stories about gunsSIZWE BANZI IS DEAD (McCarter): Being a man in apartheid
SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD is genuine work of theater and an authentic, authoritative look at a shameful period of South African history.
View More SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD (McCarter): Being a man in apartheidINTO THE WOODS (dir, Rob Marshall): Movie review
“Into the Woods” goes beyond fairy tale into exploring a basic human dilemma, how to fight a destructive common enemy.
View More INTO THE WOODS (dir, Rob Marshall): Movie reviewBIG EYES (dir. Tim Burton): Movie review
Republished by kind permission from NealsPaper.com. Though Tim Burton plays it straight in this movie about a monomaniac who uses his wife’s talent to feed…
View More BIG EYES (dir. Tim Burton): Movie reviewWILD (dir. Jean-Marc Vallée): Movie review
This is a movie about one woman gaining personal survival skills that will give her confidence to face the vicissitudes of everyday life when she returns to it.
View More WILD (dir. Jean-Marc Vallée): Movie reviewTHE IMITATION GAME (dir. Morten Tyldum): Movie review
Morten Tyldum does a fine job of blending two stories: Alan Turing’s role in deciphering Nazi Germany’s Enigma Code, and his arrest and conviction for gross indecency.
View More THE IMITATION GAME (dir. Morten Tyldum): Movie reviewBIRDMAN (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu): Movie review
The spirit of Samuel Taylor Coleridge has to be invoked practically every minute Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman” digitally projects on the screen.
View More BIRDMAN (dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu): Movie reviewFOXCATCHER (dir. Bennett Miller): Movie review
Republished by kind permission from NealsPaper.com. The characters in “Foxcatcher” are laconic in general and, when they do talk, speak in short, clipped phrases that…
View More FOXCATCHER (dir. Bennett Miller): Movie review