By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The debate over mainstreaming children of special needs has raged in this country for many years with advocates on both sides making their cases. Is it advantageous to make special needs children feel inclusive and not at all different by having them work side by side with […]
By ALAN SMASON If, as the adage says, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then satire must be the epitome of adoration. Two one-act plays by famed playwright Christopher Durang and another by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have served to turn the tables for longtime fans of Tennessee Williams, accustomed as they are to themes of […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s taken more than two years to finally open the revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite at the Hudson Theatre, a show that was preparing to begin previews in 2020 when the pandemic set in and closed Broadway until recent times. With real-life married stars Sarah Jessica Parker […]
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – The Tony-nominated play Indecent, written by noted playwright Paula Vogel, comes vividly to life in this part of the Midwest. Thankfully, Milwaukee has a perfect space for it: the Cabot Theatre, a recreation of Europe’s old-style “jewel box” theaters. Both grand and gloriously decorated, the theater was created by a […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Lin-Manuel Miranda was 17, he was exposed to the musical Rent for the first time and he became attuned to the original contemporary music and diverse casting demanded by Jonathan Larson, the show’s creative genius. That inspiration and connection to writing for theatre was reinforced when […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts announced two years they were mounting The Drowsy Chaperone, there were smiles on many musical theatre lovers’ faces. The reason was their previous 2011 endeavor: a joint production with Rivertown’s own artistic producers Theatre 13 – Kelly Fouchi and Gary […]
By ROY BERKO The film “Pretty Woman,” with its signature Roy Orbison song, was originally planned to be a tale about class and prostitution, but was re-conceived into a romantic comedy and opened to both critical and audience delight. Starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, it still gets a considerable audience when it is shown […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) There are times when resetting a classic work in an updated time or alternative setting makes sense to breathe new life into staid works or to give them a new perspective. Take, for instance, Jonathan Miller’s 1982 production of the English National Opera’s Rigoletto. He famously moved the 16th […]
By JACK LYONS The country’s pandemic hit the Coachella Valley pretty hard. We lost CoyoteStageWorks, one of our multi-award-winning leading professional theatre companies, who after more than ten years, was forced to turn off their “ghost light” forever. Other theatre companies have been hanging by their fingernails amid this pandemic monster. But, for how long […]
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. – Next Act, one of the city’s longest-running theaters, opens the new year with an exhilarating, funny and disturbing Wisconsin premiere of Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline. The play, which runs one hour and 40 minutes without an intermission, moves at breathtaking speed as it describes the world of a Black family […]