Alexander Hamilton: A Favorite Before It Was Fashionable
Lin-Manuel Miranda did Alexander Hamilton, and students of American history, a gratifying favor. Reading Ron Chernow’s excellent biography of Hamilton earlier in this decade, Miranda saw a life of drama … Continue reading
Bullets Over Broadway — National Tour — Academy of Music
Much in the touring production of Woody Allen’s “Bullets Over Broadway” is directly from the musical’s unwarrantedly short 2014 Broadway run. Susan Stroman’s gravity-defying dances, re-created for the road by … Continue reading
Yardbird — Opera Philadelphia at Perelman Theater
Maestro Corrado Rovaris begins the downbeat, an easy drum riff that leads a mellow combination of horns. Daniel Schnyder’s score for his and librettist Bridgette A. Wimberly’s view of jazz … Continue reading
Ariadne auf Naxos — Curtis Opera, Opera Philadelphia at the Perelman
“Ariadne auf Naxos” predates Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George” and David Hirson’s “La Bête” by decades, but the situation its plot depicts brings both of those later 20th … Continue reading
Dialogues of the Carmelites — Curtis Opera at Perelman Theater
Life and death, and particularly death, are pertinent subjects for the characters of Francis Poulenc’s 1957 opera, “Dialogues of the Carmelites.” The France in which they live is in the … Continue reading