Two stories are retold in parallel structure—the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the 2015 Umpqua Community College shooting.
View More ROSEBURG (New City Stage): A difficult thing to talk about
Tag: Russ Widdall
FULL OF GRACE, part 2: Oppressed Catholic voices on stage
More thoughts on the good, bad, and ugly presented in Scott Barrow and Robert Choiniere’s play about LGBT Catholics.
View More FULL OF GRACE, part 2: Oppressed Catholic voices on stage
DEATH OF A SALESMAN (EgoPo): A Jewish take on the classic of American theater
DEATH OF A SALESMAN is often seen as a cultural comment on the American Dream, in EgoPo’s production it is a moving look at a man, his son, and their personal tragedies.
View More DEATH OF A SALESMAN (EgoPo): A Jewish take on the classic of American theater
HINCKLEY (New City Stage): Life, Death, Celebrity
“Anything’s possible in a world where media rules all.” In 1981, John W. Hinckley Jr. fired into president Ronald Reagan’s entourage, hitting four men, including…
View More HINCKLEY (New City Stage): Life, Death, Celebrity
FROST/NIXON (New City Stage Company): A gripping game of psycho-political chess
New City Stage Company’s Philadelphia premiere of FROST/NIXON is anything but the dry historical debate you might expect. Under Aaron Cromie’s brilliant direction, playwright Peter Morgan’s story of the series of TV interviews conducted by faltering British talk-show host David Frost in 1977 with disgraced US President Richard Nixon is a painfully tense and surprisingly humorous cat-and-mouse game.
View More FROST/NIXON (New City Stage Company): A gripping game of psycho-political chess
RFK (New City Stage): An American tragedy
Director Ginger Dayle and sound and video designer Ren Manley intersperse audio and visuals from the 1960s in New City Stage Company’s RFK, complementing Widdall’s powerful performance with a great soundtrack and contextualizing video clips. Following pre-show newsreels from JFK’s assassination, the play begins in 1964—eight months after the fateful day in Dallas.
View More RFK (New City Stage): An American tragedy
Revisiting New City Stage Company’s RFK
Since my original review of New City Stage Company’s stellar production of RFK in October 2012 (reprinted below), the show was featured in Washington, DC’s…
View More Revisiting New City Stage Company’s RFK
A Hollywood Wasteland: New City’s HURLYBURLY
“When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain? When the hurlyburly’s done, when the battle’s lost and won.” —William Shakespeare, MACBETH…
View More A Hollywood Wasteland: New City’s HURLYBURLY
RFK (New City Stage): Remembering the Turmoil and Ideals of the Sixties
With all the mud-slinging in the current American presidential campaign and negativity about the state of our nation, it is an appropriate time, before the…
View More RFK (New City Stage): Remembering the Turmoil and Ideals of the Sixties
A Taste of the Fringe in Early Summer: New City Stage Presents Two Sam Shepard Shorts
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival receives hundreds of applications from American drama troupes every year. Philadelphia’s New City Stage Company is in talks to become one…
View More A Taste of the Fringe in Early Summer: New City Stage Presents Two Sam Shepard Shorts
WHY TORTURE IS WRONG AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM (New City): Side-Splitting Satire on a Timely Topic
Written by Durang (a Bucks County native) in 2009, in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib and in the midst of America’s unending involvement in the Middle East, WHY TORTURE IS WRONG, AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM will have you howling, as well as questioning the sanity of our elected officials, national security advisers, and the growing reactionary fringe of our voting populace (if you don’t already).
View More WHY TORTURE IS WRONG AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM (New City): Side-Splitting Satire on a Timely Topic