Alice Still is an important and most pertinent drama that presents the lingering effects of Alzheimer’s on a family, especially a 50something person in their prime of life. It is filled with compassion, humor and humanity with razor-sharp clarity. How the disease affects each family member is plausibly presented
Read MoreI think for Big Fish to be a hit on Broadway, it needs to consider casting stronger singers; play Edward with more warmth, charm and heart. I’d also cut some scenes and songs to give the show a more streamlined flow. The ending needs to be re-thought and tightened. The eye-popping visuals and the costumes and choreography are the best elements of the show. Now, re-focus the book and make Edward a loveable rascal and this show could swim with other Broadway big fish. There is making of a show here.
Read MoreWhile Donnelly’s drama tries to depict the tepid attempts by the British school system to educate even the losers, it wonders of into a sexy no-man’s land with the Zoe-Maz and Zoe-Daniel encounters. It seems that the teachers and students in this school have a predilection toward acting on their sexual desires. But when the Harry tries to bribe Zoe into changing a report about Mickey’s conduct, the tone of the play changes into a series of cover-your-ass exchanges and actions.
Read MoreMuti was more convincing in the Beethoven Fourth Symphony that ended the program. The performance of the Fourth, Beethoven at his most playful, was filled with the same delightfully singing lines and imaginative phrasing heard in the previous pieces – to Muti’s credit, this was clearly a meticulously rehearsed performance – yet there was more real vigor than in the Mozart, even if it was somewhat restrained
Read MoreEclipse Theatre Company, whose 2013 season will feature the work of English dramatist Alan Ayckbourn, opened this week with the 1985 black comedy, Woman in Mind. The story of a middle class English hausfrau’s descent into madness, the play features Ayckbourn’s characteristic wit and bold flair for experimentation in theatrical form. Still, though director Steve Scott has delivered a successfully atmospheric production, featuring some delightfully cheeky performances by its non-Equity cast, something nonetheless feels lost in translation.
Read MoreNo, Hunter thankfully has more respect for his audience, and he doesn’t shirk from showing how Charlie’s gross obesity is emulative of something equally pained within. Rather than making a martyr or a saint of Charlie (Dale Calandra), suffering at the hands of a society which has tragically failed to understand him—as in the vein of Bernard Pomerance’s 1977 play The Elephant Man—Hunter has wisely opted to pit Charlie against himself and to make of him his own worst enemy.
Read MoreUtilizing David Greig’s streamlined version of the classic 1888 August Strindberg’s Creditors, director Sandy Shinner has cast three expert actors to tell the psychological drama where the power of suggestion can fuel mistrust. Adolph (Gabriel Ruiz) is the younger husband of Tekla (Linda Gillum). he is a painter/sculpture artist who is passive toward his aggressive wife who loves to go out evenings while Adolph works at creating his art.
Read More… the success of this transition is highly dependent on the performance of McCraney’s leading lady. Thankfully, Cheryl Lynn Bruce as the widowed matriarch Shelah is a revelation, keeping well apace with the broad emotional and spiritual arcs that McCraney sets her on over the course of the play and delivering one of the most inspired acts of self-healing you are likely to see on stage. And Tina Landau’s deeply sensitive direction successfully is well-paced and attuned to the unique formal challenges posed by McCraney’s play. And David Gallo and Collette Pollard’s scenic design—which includes the remarkable onstage collapse of Shelah’s home—is as technically dazzling as it is emotionally resonant.
Read MoreThis is a wrenching love story with visceral romantic elements. Galatz is memorizing as he exudes all the rage and pent-up anxiety of the totally alienated and violent truck driver. Kingsley is equally effective as the guilt-ridden woman with low self-esteem. This 80 minute drama is engaging and wonderfully acted. While the play presents the bleakness of alienation it also presents the hope that people can change if they only take the changes to embrace change when it presents itself. This show is worthy of an audience.
Read MoreThe sustained popularity of Oliver!—loosely based on the classic novel by Charles Dickens (or more likely, David Lean’s 1948 film version)—is largely derived from the virtuosic talents of its composer and lyricist, Lionel Bart, who peppers the rise of Dickens’s iconic workhouse foundling with a rousing score of Old English folk songs, hymns, chorales and dances. From the stirring opening number “Food Glorious Food” to the hauntingly plaintive “Who Will Buy” to the insufferably catchy “Consider Yourself,” Bart’s spirited music continues to move each successive generation of theatergoers fifty years later.
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