Another 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 review
UNCLE 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 production
AMERICAN 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 dysfunction
BARCELONA (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 truth
The 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 MUSIC
VENUS 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 review
Just 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 scene
HEROES (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 August
BOOTYCANDY (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 stage
THE 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 delight
THE 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 conundrum
Azuka 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
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Curio): 60-second review
“Rare moths, wives pretending to be sisters,” deadly moors, escaped killers, and a legendary hellhound: the plot points of Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE HOUND OF…
View More THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Curio): 60-second review
THE MISANTHROPE (Quintessence): What’s not to like?
I hope one day to see (and understand) a Moliere play in the original French, though as I’m not doing anything about that desire except…
View More THE MISANTHROPE (Quintessence): What’s not to like?
The Purpose of Criticism: Roger Ebert, Lester Bangs, and Psychotic Reactions
Following his much-discussed piece on Gimmickry in Theater, Michael F. Fisher considers the role of the critic, and how theater criticism in Philadelphia compares to…
View More The Purpose of Criticism: Roger Ebert, Lester Bangs, and Psychotic Reactions
Studio X-hibition at Studio X
On May 6 this reviewer took in the second of three play readings in Theatre Exile’s New Play Development Series. On tap was FLESH, celebrated…
View More Studio X-hibition at Studio X
JAPANAMERICA WONDERWAVE (Team Sunshine): Post-tsunami, pre-understanding
I came to theater through literature: words brought to life onstage. But seeing any small amount of theater, you quickly realize that that much is…
View More JAPANAMERICA WONDERWAVE (Team Sunshine): Post-tsunami, pre-understanding