By SCOTTY BENNETT Storytellers are artists who use a palette of verbal and physical effects to paint, in sound and motion, the picture the wordsmith creates in words on a page. David Dean Bottrell is both a craftsman and an artist. His show, Teenage Wasteland: Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, True Stories of Heartbreak, Hard-ons & Hair, […]
By EDWARD RUBIN I seem to remember reading, in all of the hoopla surrounding the Baryshnikov Art Center’s Production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, somebody saying “Unlike anything that you ever saw before.” This talking head could also have said, as audiences were soon to find out, that this production, adapted, created, reimagined and directed […]
By EDWARD RUBIN Despite countless closings, postponements, cancellations, empty seats, COVID interventions, and the annoying requirements of having to wear a mask, present proof of a vaccination with a valid government-issued photo ID, and go through a security check, even before you enter the theatre, New York City’s theater scene appears to be chugging along, […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Times have been very busy both together and separately for the composing team of composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korie. The team had worked previously on the opera The Grapes of Wrath, which premiered in 2007 and was later revised and expanded in 2010. In […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Rob Ulin must be a very happy man. He obviously has been saying his prayers and living a proper and pious life. That must be the case because his play Judgment Day recently enjoyed a filmed reading as a benefit for the Barrington Stage Company recently and three […]
By EDWARD RUBIN The night I attended a live production of Jacob Storms’ one man show, Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams, held at the Cell Theater in New City, it was raining lightly. Though the playwright-actor was protected by a small overhang which covered the staging area, the umbrella holding, stage-facing audience, seated […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out”) At the start of this pandemic-impacted season, New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse unveiled bold plans to present four productions. The first two were one-person shows (Bad Dates and Fully Committed) filmed at a safe home provided by executive producer Sharon Karmazin. This made sense during what was […]
By EDWARD RUBIN Tiny Beautiful Things, George Street Playhouse’s filmed play, based on Cheryl Strayed’s book, “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar,” a 2012 collection of Strayed’s columns is beautifully brought to life by actress Laiona Michelle, who as Sugar, plays a down-to-earth, expletive-spouting advice-giving columnist. While the play’s three accompanying […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) Cheryl Strayed published her book “Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar” in 2012, based on several of the actual letters she had received and responded to as an advice columnist for The Rumpus, an online literary magazine. Using the street-smart sense of […]
By ALAN SMASON, WYES-TV Theatre Critic (“Steppin’ Out“) The third entry in the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s season using the Aubible platform was released in late December. This world premiere of Animals by Stacy Osei-Kuffour is an ear-opening, gut-wrenching and comedic examination of the pitfalls of today’s interracial dating experience and identity. Directed by Obie Award […]