How universal is Romeo and Juliet? Challenging hetronormative assumptions.
Shakespeare is timeless. Romeo and Juliet is a universal love story. You have probably heard those sentiments expressed before, but are they true? Well, it’s…
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LUCKIEST KID (White Pines): 60-second review
Philly-based playwright Martha Kemper’s memoir-based LUCKIEST KID is an achievement just this side of brilliant. Playing the protagonist and main speaker in a story of…
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Modern dance DNA is Childs’ play
The retrospective of Judson Church choreographer-dancer Lucinda Childs’ SELECTED DANCES, 1963-78 last week was instructive and artistically purposeful. This work is still so vibrant in its exploratory nature that Childs’ innovations are part of the evolving dance stream.
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The Perfect Company in the Perfect City: REGENCY AND REVELRY at Lantern Theater Company
It’s now two hundred years ago that the famous line was published: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of…
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THE BROTHERS SIZE (Simpatico): 60-second review
The stories of the orishas, a pantheon of spirit personalities, has a lasting influence on the descendants of enslaved Africans throughout the Americas (The great…
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DO NOT PUSH (GDP): Clown Symphony
Where invention, precision and skill are present, great theater is possible. Alex Suha, creator of DO NOT PUSH, has applied all of these attributes with a clever…
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Revolution Shakespeare! The FIVE BEST Shakespeare plays according to artistic director Griffin Stanton-Ameisen
The FIVE BEST Shakespeare plays according to Revolution Shakespeare artistic director Griffin Stanton-Ameisen.
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NICE AND FRESH October (SmokeyScout): New art pops up
Fresh from the inaugural weekend of NICE AND FRESH, I’m heartened to report that SmokeyScout Productions (founded by Josh McIlvain and Deborah Crocker in 2008)…
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12 ANGRY MEN (Gokash): A revealing look at social justice
According to Wikipedia, 12 ANGRY MEN was originally a television play broadcast in 1954, eventually making its way to the (actual) stage and then to the silver…
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THE MUSIC YOU REMEMBER (White Pines): An Introspective Journey through Love, Loss, and ‘60s Nostalgia
When burned-out middle-aged Professor Paul Diollio (Jerry Perna) learns via cell phone messages that he has been denied tenure, his car has been repossessed, and…
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PARADE (Arden): A Musical Tragedy of Bigotry and Injustice
Set in Georgia between 1913 and 1915, PARADE examines the true story of Leo Frank, a transplanted Brooklyn-bred Jew accused of killing a thirteen-year-old girl…
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EMMA (Lantern): Meddlesome Matchmaking and Regency Amusements
The Lantern opens its twentieth anniversary season with the Philadelphia premiere of Jane Austen’s class-conscious romantic comedy of manners, in which a young idle-rich heroine’s…
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NICE AND FRESH theater in Mount Airy
What a pleasant corner of Philadelphia is Mount Airy. A suburban urban neighborhood: trees and grass yards but also sidewalks and train lines; driveways and…
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EMMA (Lantern): Philly falls for Austenmania
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…
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The Best of the 2013 Philly Fringe Festival
Phindie‘s recent Critics’ Awards proved very popular. These awards used input from theater reviewers across town to compile a list of the best performers of…
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THE RAINMAKER (People’s Light): The Promise of Hope in Times of Hardship
People’s Light & Theatre Company has enjoyed success with its past offerings of masterworks about life in America in the first half of the 20th…
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[78] STUDY HALL (Philly Improv Theater): Fringe review
The conceit of Philly Improv Theater’s STUDY HALL is that we the audience are a bunch of prep school students, awaiting a lecture in an…
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[77] BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL (Life Theater Company): Fringe review
Weekly World News is known for a lot of things, but heartfelt sentiment isn’t one of them. Surprising, then, that the tabloid birthed BAT BOY:…
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[76] BASTARD PIECE (No Face Performance Group): Fringe review
You are in a spacey kind of facility thing. It’s all white in there, with some technological lookin’ kinda lights. There are three doors; soon,…
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[75] REGGIE’S BRODIE: A VAUDEVILLE EXTRAVAGANZA (Cut House Productions): Fringe review
Is your only experience with burlesque the 2010 Christina Aguilera / Cher movie? Never fear: the good people of Cut House Productions are here to…
View More [75] REGGIE’S BRODIE: A VAUDEVILLE EXTRAVAGANZA (Cut House Productions): Fringe review