By JACK LYONS, Desert Local News (PALM SPRINGS, CA.) – As the early scenes of playwright Karen Zacarias’ 2019 comedy play-with-a-bite unfolds, one would think “I’ve seen this play /story before.” But, you would be incorrect. More precisely, we’ve all seen productions of the subject matter in Native Gardens. However, playwright Zacarias brings a new […]
By ANNE SIEGEL MILWAUKEE, WI – Although it’s not “official,” playwright Bill Cain and Milwaukee’s Next Act Theatre seem to be having a love affair or, at least, a mutual admiration society. Next Act already has presented three of Cain’s plays in recent years: Equivocation (2018), How to Write a New Book for the Bible […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) It’s taken 25 years for Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman to birth their baby, but Harmony: A New Musical, with direction and choreography by Warren Carlyle, is proof of the time-worn adage, “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” This time, the Off-Broadway production presented […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II set out to write Cinderella, their only musical to be aired over the nascent medium of live television, they could not have envisioned it would eventually be transformed into a full-fledged Broadway stage production nor that it would eventually be […]
By AARON KRAUSE Accurately depicting Damon Runyon’s fantasy world of colorful characters can prove a tough task. In particular, a director and his or her cast must aim for broad comedy without coming across as cartoonish. To their credit, a talented cast succeeds in several respects with MNM Theatre Company’s production of the classic 1950 […]
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 ROY BERKO Shakespeare, in his comedies, writes of trickery, false accusations, restoration of harmony and romance. He uses lots of double entendre and encourages fun and farce as well as broad performances. Charles Fee, the Producing Artistic Director of Great Lakes Theatre (GLT), loves nothing more than staging expansive melodrama, farce and slapstick. As […]
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 JACK LYONS, Desert Local News Its springtime in Palm Springs, CA. and love is in the air, especially, on stage at the Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) where bravado and bragging go hand in hand in 17th-century French playwright Edmond Rostand’s famous classical romantic comedy-tragedy of unrequited love: Cyrano de Bergerac. The rousing production directed […]
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 […]