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to Philip Dorian’s SCENEONSTAGE.COM, featuring Theater Comments and Criticism as well as Random Thoughts on Other Matters.
The most recent postings will appear on the home page. Most, when no longer current, will move into the category-links above and at right: Broadway (and other NYC), Regional (includes Community), etc.
About is just that, Phil’s bio; Pair●A●Grafs will feature brief (two-paragraph, get it?) reviews; Canadian Theatre will feature coverage of Ontario’s Shaw Festival and Stratford Shakespeare Festival as well as Toronto offerings; and Contact is where you can send Phil an e-mail message.
Archived Reviews (prior to Feb 2011): Most of the last 20+ years’ reviews are available on request by show title. Leave an email address there for prompt delivery.
For an e-catalog of posts since Feb 2011, click the arc at Follow Me, where you can also subscribe for automatic updates. Blog will, as blogs do, get you to those Random Thoughts.
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Author Archives: Philip
A Starry Couple Revives a Neil Simon Triptych: “Plaza Suite” on Broadway
Between 1961 and Y2K, Neil Simon was represented on Broadway by thirty plays, winning four Tony Awards (one honorary) and the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama (“Lost in Yonkers”). The plays were basically comedies, many with serious undertones. As a … Continue reading
Ten Times Ten Equals a Sumptuous Theatrical Buffet at Barrington Stage Company
Think about the last ten new plays you saw. Were most of them really well written, with cohesive plots and well-developed characters? Were they thought-provoking and/or amusing? Well, that assessment sums up my last ten, which I saw – all … Continue reading
What’s Old Is New Again: Mint Theater Revives “The Daughter-in-Law”
In years past I have seen several plays performed in foreign (to me) languages. “Death of a Salesman” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” both familiar works, were perfectly clear in Yiddish, while Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano” (so-titled from an actor’s … Continue reading
Reality Adds a New Dimension to Off-Broadway “WIT”
Vivian Bearing, PhD, a college professor of 17th-Century poetry, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, is undergoing chemotherapy for stage-four metastatic ovarian cancer. Fifty years of age, Vivian is a fictional character. Erin Cronican, producer/actor and Executive Artistic … Continue reading
Understudy: Not a Job for the Weak of Heart
Theater lore abounds with tales of understudies who have gone on to a degree of stardom, some as a direct result of having filled in for an indisposed performer. Shirley Maclaine, who subbed for Carol Haney in “The Pajama Game” … Continue reading
“Company” Swaps ‘Bobby, Bobby Baby’ for ‘Bobbie, Bobbie Baby’
Several terrific performances in the current Broadway revival of “Company” owe their provenance to its gender-switched casting. Originally about NYC bachelor Robert/Bobby being feted on his 35th birthday by ten of his friends (five couples), who also noodge him about … Continue reading