By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Louis Armstrong has been one of the most thoroughly researched, yet still largely unknown figures. Part of the problem is that the lens of history has been deliberately clouded and that much of his life’s story was glamorized and rewritten by no less a raconteur than Armstrong himself….
By ROY BERKO It was apparent on reviewer’s night of Hello, Dolly!, which is starting its national tour in Cleveland, that many of the audience, which was awash in red clothing, had heard of the “wear David Merrick red” to productions of this script. David Merrick red? Merrick was often referred to as the “Abominable Showman.” One…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) October 6 will be the 20th anniversary of the kidnapping, torture and beating of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard, a student at the nearby University of Wyoming, was targeted as a victim for aggression and violence because he was outwardly gay. Discovered tied to a remote…
By ROY BERKO Susan Hill, author of the book “The Woman in Black,” the source of the play of the same name now being staged at the Cleveland Play House (CPH), relates: “The Suffolk coast. Winter. The early Seventies. Behind the path giving onto the shingle beach and the North Sea, are marshes, mysterious places…
By ROY BERKO God, or a facsimile thereof, in the form of Mike Polk Jr., who in his other life is a local comedian and Fox 8 personality, is appearing on the Beck Center for the Arts stage, in a mock spiritual conversation with his audience. The script, which was written by David Javerbaum, and…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) For those mired in the mundane machinations of partisan politics as acted out on TV screens, here’s a simple suggestion. Move on over to the Saenger Theater and get a seat to see Disney’s Aladdin. Directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, this national tour should be all…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Meredith Wilson’s immortal The Music Man has been playing for the past two weeks at the Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts in Kenner, but unlike the signature song from Act One (“Ya Got Trouble”), this specific production has run without much of a hitch. It didn’t…
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) For the past three weeks Rainbow Carnage Productions has been presenting Hedwig and the Angry Inch on the stage at Café Istanbul. With a simple, but effective set and direction by Kimberly Kaye, this is the third professional production of the John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask…
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out’) Imagination has always been the spark in literature that establishes domain over the hearts and consciences of mankind. Love and the search for it has been the impetus for so many characters and the motivation for so many recorded works that it is hard to find anything…
By HERBERT SIMPSON I wondered how the old love-rock musical would play these days for an audience of younger folk unfamiliar with Hippie rebellion, flower children, 60s rock music, and a more feminine long-hair style and slovenly tie-dyed clothes-styles. For that matter, I wasn’t so sure how the now-rather-old folks, mostly more establishment, would regard…
By ALAN SMASON, Theatre Critic, WYES-TV (“Steppin’ Out”) There is a reason that the current National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s production of Fiddler on the Roof (Fidler Afn Dakh) in Yiddish has been held over not once, twice or three times. It has just been announced that it will be extended until November 18. Obviously, this…
By JACK LYONS Ambition supposedly killed Caesar, according to Brutus. However, it also became a two-edged sword that cut both ways. Literature is bursting with characters who are infected with the “ambition” virus, who sometimes beat the odds, but usually die in the effort. Themes of love and death are intrinsically linked in literature. Thank…
