Before he became a celebrated playwright, Jean-Baptiste Poquelan was a poor thing in a touring shoestring theater company. Although he had wanted to be a…
View More TARTUFFE (Lantern): Delightfully over-the-top
Tag: Frank X
THE CHAIRS (Quintessence): 60-second review
Due to the pandemic, it had been many months since I’d visited the Sedgwick Theater in Germantown. October 1 was opening night for The Chairs…
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Lantern Theater’s Brave Return to Stage: A Man For All Seasons
What a brave return to live theater this production is! Lantern Theater Company gives us old-time drama and powerful theater, full of big ideas and complex language, rather than a bit of fluff to amuse or console us. With a top-notch cast and clever direction by Peter DeLaurier, it’s a heady three hours.
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Philadelphia theater through the eyes of J. Cooper Robb, Part 2: 2004
Revisiting Philly theater history through the eyes of one of its finest critics.
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THE TEMPEST (Lantern): Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not
Lantern Theater’s production of THE TEMPEST, Shakespeare’s last play, is an enjoyable, modest show, full of comedy and romance and the gentle spirit of human forgiveness.
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Why Wait? Director Ken Marini talks about Quintessence Theatre’s brilliant WAITING FOR GODOT
Quintessence Theatre’s production of WAITING FOR GODOT just closed. Henrik Eger spoke to the director about his background and his experiences directing Samuel Beckett’s classic.
View More Why Wait? Director Ken Marini talks about Quintessence Theatre’s brilliant WAITING FOR GODOT
WAITING FOR GODOT (Quintessence): Really absurd
Quintessence Theatre Group’s WAITING FOR GODOT strikes a balance between humor and pathos, between realism and ridiculousness.
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AS YOU LIKE IT (Lantern): As you’ve never seen it!
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.
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PASSION (Arden): Pretty anticlimactic
Excerpted from NealsPaper.com by kind permission. Stephen Sondheim’s musical PASSION comes to a pivotal point at which a young soldier, Giorgio (Ben Michael), suddenly becomes deeply…
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UNCANNY VALLEY (InterAct): What makes us human?
Post-modern technology collides with human ethics in InterAct Theatre Company’s revolving world-premiere production of playwright-in-residence Thomas Gibbons’ UNCANNY VALLEY.
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Best of Philadelphia Theater, 2011-12
Here are my annual picks for the best of Philadelphia theater: Best Play: August: Osage County (Arden) Honorable mention: The Island (Lantern) Best Actor, Male: Frank…
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Sisyphus Sings in Silent Joy: Lantern Theater Company’s THE ISLAND
In his essay The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus compares man’s existence to the figure from Greek mythology, condemned for eternity to push a rock up a…
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Romeo and Juliet (Lantern Theater Company): Do we need another R&J?
You may ask, “Do we need yet another production of Romeo and Juliet?” The answer is yes we do. This is the Lantern. Next question? The…
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Shakespeare in Philadelphia: The Arden’s Romeo and Juliet Introduces a Season of the Bard
Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare remains the world’s most produced playwright. For evidence of his enduring popularity look no further than the region’s stages:…
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InterAct’s Little Lamb Now Onstage at the Adrienne Theatre
InterAct Theatre Company has established itself as a daring production company, eager to take on hot-button social issues and support the careers of emerging Philadelphia…
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Little Lamb at the Adrienne Theatre, InterAct Theatre Company
It’s a shame to begin the blog this way but I think it has to be said: Little Lamb is a stinker. On stage through…
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