Monthly Archives: June 2018

“Half Time” hip-hop at Paper Mill Playhouse: Never Fresher

Posted on June 24, 2018 by Philip Leave a comment

You’ll know how “Half Time” ends about five minutes in. So what; getting there is the fun part. And “Half Time” is fun. Its premise is simple enough (even to a fault, but anyway): a fictional New Jersey NBA team, … Continue reading →

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A Grand Ol’ (Checkhovian) Opry in New Jersey: “Songbird”

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Philip Leave a comment

Country music has never appealed to me. I might leave it on a rental car pre-set, but would never seek it out. If, however, it was all as flavorful as Lauren Pritchard’s music and lyrics for “Songbird,” I could become … Continue reading →

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Welcome Aboard “A View from the Bridge” in Brooklyn Harbor

Posted on June 11, 2018 by Philip Leave a comment

Playwright Arthur Miller maintained a lasting interest in his own plays, frequently popping in to productions unannounced. (I once spotted him at a performance of “Death of a Salesman” in New Jersey.) Miller’s 1955 “A View from the Bridge” was … Continue reading →

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway

Theatrical Alchemy: A Henry James Novella into an Off-Broadway Dance Play

Posted on June 4, 2018 by Philip Leave a comment

Henry James’s 1903 novella “The Beast in the Jungle” is a melancholy treatise on unrealized romance and thwarted passion that unfolds in James’s characteristically elaborate prose. The same-titled theater piece inspired by the story is essentially a ballet, with intermittent … Continue reading →

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway