2015 Academy Awards — Predictions and Preferences
The 2015 film year pointedly illustrates Hollywood’s strategy to save the best for last. While “Woman in Gold,” Woody Allen’s “The Irrational Man,” and “Me and Earl and the Dying … Continue reading
The Philly Fan — Montgomery Theater
The time is so ripe for “The Philly Fan’s” return. Though Bruce Graham’s play is set on the eve of a potential Philadelphia sports triumph — Super Bowl XXXIX which … Continue reading
Death of a Salesman — Curio Theatre
Paul Kuhn’s touching, everyman portrayal of American theater icon Willy Loman would be enough to recommend Curio’s unceasingly perceptive and moving production of Arthur Miller’s modern classic. Kuhn, whether in … Continue reading
Quickies on the Hoof — The Sisterhood; A Taste of Things to Come; A Wonderful Noise
THE SISTERHOOD, Mauckingbird Theatre at The Latvian Society, 7th and Spring Garden Streets, in Philadelphia, through Sunday, February 21 — It’s the opposite of “Fiddler on the Roof.” In … Continue reading
Beauty and the Beast — National Tour — Academy of Music
“Who’d have guessed? Who’d have guessed? That this show’d be so depressed. On a scale of one to five, it would come in at seventh best!” Enough drollery! With a … Continue reading
The Government Inspector — Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium at Walnut Studio 5
When I was a child, my first inkling that life was different in the Communist world behind the Iron Curtain did not derive from propaganda but from Eastern European … Continue reading
Or, — Hedgerow Theatre
Aphra Behn should be lauded among women, especially among woman playwrights. She wrote for the theater in an era when such work was the exclusive province of men. Not only … Continue reading
Quickie Capsules — Exit Strategy (PTC) and Twelfth Night (Annenberg)
Some of these shows will receive more detailed reviews. Others are about to close and rate mention, this early 2016 being an odd with several interesting failures in which an … Continue reading
College Colors — Crossroads Theatre
Rather than go into depth, playwright Stacie Lents confined her play about racial tensions on campus to two related stories, one taking place in 1964, when attention towards civil rights … Continue reading
Cold Mountain — Opera Philadelphia at the Academy of Music
A chilling first scene sets the tone and context for Jennifer Higdon and Gene Scheer’s gorgeous and moving opera, “Cold Mountain,” an epic piece given a vibrant, unstintingly dramatic production … Continue reading
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