By ALAN SMASON New Orleanians need little excuse to have a party. They can do so at the drop of a hat and frequently do. But as quick as they celebrate Mardi Gras and revel with October’s Halloween, there is little to connect them with a modern celebration of Christmas. That is until now. Leslie…
By EDWARD RUBIN People on trial, especially women who end up being executed, make good subjects for theater and film, as well as objects of art. The two reigning ladies, whose lives still continue to resonate long after their deaths are Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), the last Queen of France who literally lost her head, and…
By ANNE SIEGEL NEW YORK – With the Broadway success of The Lion King more than 20 years ago (and still pumping millions into Disney coffers), it was no surprise that “Frozen,” the top-grossing animated film of all time, was soon going to join its jungle-inspired predecessor. In early November, The Lion King was still…
By ALAN SMASON SAN FRANCISCO — Anyone who has ever seen a Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney film knows that the ills of the world can be transformed by putting on a show, raising needed revenue and, thus, saving the day. That was the premise behind the 1943 MGM film “Girl Crazy,” which contained quite…
By ANNE SIEGEL NEW YORK – It’s just an off-Broadway memory now, but the recently exited India Pale Ale gave audiences some serious issues to consider. India Pale Ale was written by 32-year-old Punjabi-American playwright Jaclyn Backhaus. The play won this year’s Horton Foote Prize, and Manhattan Theater Club launched the play on October 23….
By ALAN SMASON For those of you living under a rock, King Kong opened on Broadway last Thursday (Nov. 8) and, as one would expect, most every critic panned the newest addition to the Great White Way as being shallow or lacking in theatrical achievement in song and dance. In many ways they are right….
By EDWARD RUBIN If you want a bit of theatrical heaven, along with a smidgen of hell, a mini primer of late 60s gay history – with the obligatory nod to Stonewall included – and a lot of love, all both literally and figuratively, get thee to Midnight at the Never Get, the York Theater…
By HERBERT SIMPSON Despite already having knocked people out in splendidly acted versions, this important and enormously appealing play seems to be moving to “National Treasure” status in ever-more-polished versions. Geva’s has nowhere to go after its just-opened, new production, which closes November 16 and will probably sell out. But this one-actor account of the…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) If anyone questioned whether Shelbie Mac is the greatest young talent to come down the pike since the late Cynthia Owen, all doubts have been erased with her starring role in Peter Pan, currently playing the boards at the Jefferson Performing Arts Center on Airline Drive. Mac, who…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) When we last viewed Torvald and Nora Helmer in Henrik Ibsen’s immortal play A Doll’s House, Nora had made an irreconcilable decision. Simply put, she wanted more from life than being a wife and mother. Her purpose was to become “a human being” and not be defined by…
By EDWARD RUBIN The Irish Repertory Theatre’s production of Wild Abandon, Lyeena Rideout’s intimate one-woman autobiographical extravaganza – housed in the Rep’s second theatre, a cozy 50-seater – is one of a handful of Off-Broadway plays that everybody is talking about. Critics are raving, and audiences are returning again and again with friends in tow,…
By EDWARD RUBIN “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e. the reality of experience) and the distinction between the true and the false (i.e. the standards of thought) no longer exist.” – Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) Thinking…
