By JACK LYONS North Coast Repertory Theatre (NCRT) of Solana Beach, CA., brings gifted, multiple award-winning actor Tovah Feldshuh to their stage to star in playwright Mark St. Germain’s breezy and delightful one-woman stage play Becoming Dr. Ruth in the platform streaming movie format. Ruth Westheimer, Ph.D., the diminutive (4’ 7”) munchkin-like, giggling, “grandma” image and […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) At the start of this pandemic-impacted season, New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse unveiled bold plans to present four productions. The first two were one-person shows (Bad Dates and Fully Committed) filmed at a safe home provided by executive producer Sharon Karmazin. This made sense during what was […]
By JACK LYONS If this COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, then it’s forced the American viewing public to think outside the traditional creative arts box when it comes to entertainment. “Streaming” was not a familiar term a couple of years or so ago, unless one was speaking of water or possibly flags streaming in […]
By EDWARD RUBIN Tiny Beautiful Things, George Street Playhouse’s filmed play, based on Cheryl Strayed’s book, “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar,” a 2012 collection of Strayed’s columns is beautifully brought to life by actress Laiona Michelle, who as Sugar, plays a down-to-earth, expletive-spouting advice-giving columnist. While the play’s three accompanying […]
By JACK LYONS Ernest Hemingway, the American novelist and author, became a giant of American 20th century literature. His style was new in the early 1920s. It was fresh and it was largely embraced by readers. In his later years he loved being called “Papa” by his friends and admirers, which were legion. But his admirers never […]
By ALAN SMASON No. It’s not a latter-day Our Town. Nor is it Love Letters for couples. It is, however, somewhere in between. Streaming sales for a filmed stage reading of Dan Clancy’s Middletown are ending today and with it the last chance to see Sandy Duncan (Peter Pan), Didi Conn (“Grease”), Donny Most (“Happy […]
By ALAN SMASON When playwright Becky Mode wrote her first piece Fully Committed, she wrote well of what she knew. She had worked for many years as a worker in fine New York eateries taking reservations and even checking customers’ hats on premises, so the topsy-turvy and sometimes wacky world of what goes on behind […]
By EDWARD RUBIN For great fun, and a breathless romp through one woman’s topsy-turvy life, Bad Dates, George Street Playhouses’ filmed version of Theresa Rebeck’s 2003 zany one-woman play starring Broadway actress Andréa Burns (In The Heights, On Your Feet, The Nance), is the hip place to be. Cleverly directed by Burn’s husband Peter Flynn, […]
By JACK LYONS How does one cover 2000 years of religious history of the Jewish people and Gentiles in the Common Era (C.E.)? Perhaps, a good start would be seeing life through the lenses of the others regarding the impacts that major religions have experienced on the planet we all call Earth. For starters, it […]
By ALAN SMASON Anyone who knows Theresa Rebeck’s writing knows she has a devilish sense of humor that has an odd way of popping up at the most opportune, yet unexpected moments. Her writing style has been marked by very taut scripts that say what is absolutely necessary with no countenance given for extra phrases […]