Category Archives: Blog

Season #70 at Stratford: “Richard III,” “Chicago” and “Hamlet”

As written for MediaNews Group in Michigan: However you define Power Couple, you will not find a more representative theatrical pair than actor Colm Feore and director-choreographer Donna Feore, who ignite the stages of Ontario’s Stratford Festival. In 2009, for … Continue reading

Blog, Canadian Theatre

Compelling Conversation Goes Live: “Lessons in Survival: 1971”

From 1968 to 1973, “SOUL!,” America’s first Black-hosted nighttime TV talk show, celebrated Black literature, poetry, music and politics, largely in interview formats. In 1971, prolific poet, activist and prominent figure of the 1960s Black Arts Movement Nikki Giovanni interviewed … Continue reading

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway

Mr. Seven Times a Week: Billy Crystal

One of my favorite theater memories is of seeing Phil Silvers in “Do Re Mi” in 1960. In a scene where his character is producing a recording session, Silvers tells the six on-stage musicians how he wants the music played. … Continue reading

Blog, Broadway, NY Theater

Ontario’s Stratford Festival Emerges from The Pandemic of Its Discontent

The following article appears in the May edition of the Canadian national Mensa magazine, MC2, and online and in the print editions of MediaNews Group in suburban Detroit.     One hundred twenty-five actors in ten plays over seven months. The … Continue reading

Blog, Canadian Theatre

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

Blog, Broadway

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

Blog, NY Theater, Off Broadway