By ROY BERKO When I saw the show in its Broadway run, I wrote in my review: “The total effect of Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is breathtaking. The traditional music, dress, stylized acting, and Josh Groban’s booming voice add to the over-arching effect. Yes, this is more than a musical, it […]
By ROY BERKO Thurgood Marshall, the subject of Thurgood, on stage at Cleveland Play House’s Allen Theatre, was the grandson of slaves. He was born in segregated Baltimore and attended all-Black schools. After high school he enrolled at Lincoln University, the oldest college for African Americans in the United States. Marshall desired to go to […]
By ROY BERKO Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist who came to national attention via her long-running comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For.” She combined her life story and her comic strip style in the graphic memoir “Fun Home.” It is the adoption of this book that went on to become the musical which was […]
By ROY BERKO “Guilt, the gift that keeps giving.” “Marriage has no guarantees. If that’s what you’re looking for, go live with a car battery.” “Encourage independence in your children by regularly losing them in the supermarket.” “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have all died.” What do these quotes all have in […]
By ROY BERKO Doubt: A Parable, which is now on stage at Beck Center for the Arts, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. It ran for 525 performances in its Broadway run and was adapted into a much-heralded feature film. The plot centers on the conflict between Sister […]
By ROY BERKO The setting in which a musical production takes place, often affects the pleasure one gets from the experience. A perfect case in point is Ain’t Misbehavin’ presently being staged by Great Lakes Theater (GLT) in its intimate Hanna Theatre home. Ain’t Misbehavin’ is a musical tribute which celebrates Fats Waller and his music. […]
By ROY BERKO It’s always exciting and challenging to see a “new” play script come alive in a staged production, especially by a creditable performance company. What We Look Like, now being presented at Dobama, Cleveland’s self-proclaimed off-Broadway company, is a case in point. Written by B. J. Tindal (they/them) a Black queer playwright, the script […]
By ROY BERKO In the late 1950’s through the 1980s The Theatre of the Absurd theatrical movement was the intellectual rage. Based on the concept of Existentialism which asks, “what happens when human existence lacks meaning or purpose and communication breaks down.” The structure of the plays often centered on the finishing point, being the same as the […]
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – This Midwest state is currently swept up in a slate of new plays, all part of a project called World Premiere Wisconsin. The project, with multiple sources of funding, is designed to showcase new work in theaters across the state. The first “World Premiere” production to open is Milwaukee […]
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI. – January temperatures rarely rise above 30 degrees here, so indoor activities are welcomed. Local theatergoers can watch a foot-stompin,’ whooping and hollering Texas hoedown in the 1970s musical, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, courtesy of Bombshell Theatre Co. This theater company is devoted to bringing little-seen musicals to […]