By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When MGM was giving itself a hearty pat on the back back in 1974 with the release of their tribute movie “That’s Entertainment,” the 1952 film “Singin’ in the Rain” was given the nod as the greatest film musical in its catalog. That may have been self-serving, […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) With seven seasons under its belt, the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans, superintended by the diligence of producing artistic directors Augustin Correro and Nick Shackleford, has succeeded in its founding premise: to present authentic works by Williams – especially infrequently produced and rarely-seen pieces – […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) With its undercurrent of racism, statutory rape and threatened castration, Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth is not a play for the meek. Set in the 1950s, it is a story of two desperate characters seeking salvation in the fictional town of St. Cloud, Mississippi. The first […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Many fans of Tennessee Williams know of the feelings of anguish he experienced when dealing with his sister Rose Isabel Williams. Rose, who had suffered mental instability and had outwardly expressed her own sexual desires, was the victim of a botched prefrontal lobotomy authorized by her domineering […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a very funny work. That much has been clearly established in the decade since the original one-act play premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center, was expanded into two acts and later transferred to Broadway quite successfully more than a […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Meredith Wilson composed what may have been the most iconic of American musicals with his The Music Man that took home five Tony Awards including Best Musical, ran for 1,375 performances and received the very first Grammy Award for an original cast album. In that same year […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) In a town famous for launching its most famous celebration on Twelfth Night, one might think the connection to the self-named Shakespearean comedy would be a given. But, alas, the title selected by the Bard for this memorable work has absolutely nothing to do with the promise […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Author Mark Haddon created a best-selling novel 20 years ago in Great Britain with “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” a book whose narrator is a 15-year-old savant boy with autism. The simple premise of the work is to transport the reader into the […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Despite its having won a Tony Award for scenic design, The SpongeBob Musical appeared to be a lightweight entry on the season for Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts. It was, after all, based on a rather inane Nickelodeon Cable TV show that gravitated to mostly puerile interests. […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) In 1851, in an article written for DeBow’s Review that was published in New Orleans, Dr. Samuel Cartwright, a physician, created a pseudoscientific term he called “drapetomania.” He crafted drapetomania, from two Greek words drapetes (“runaway slaves”) and mania (madness) to explain the reason why Southern slaves […]