Category Archives: Regional

Married Thirty-five Years and Counting (or maybe not): “Bone on Bone”Premiere

Many a fine play is waylaid by shoddy acting and/or directing. (Recall your last misbegotten Shakespeare.) Conversely, a lesser theater piece can be enhanced by superior efforts in those categories. Such is the case with Marylou Dipietro’s “Bone on Bone,” … Continue reading

Blog, Professional, Regional

Bye Bye Blackface/Send In The Clowns

Ken Ludwig’s 1980s farce “Lend Me a Tenor” revolves around two operatic tenors being mistaken for one another in costume and makeup for the same role. The play is funny…or not, depending on taste. I had always thought it so, … Continue reading

Blog, Professional, Regional

Paper Mill Playhouse is giving a ball! “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” in NJ

“Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” comes by that official title honestly. Having gone through several revisions since its debut as a TV special in 1957, the show depends for its success (or not) on how well (or not) that legendary team’s … Continue reading

Blog, Off Broadway, Professional, Regional

A sure bet: “Guys and Dolls” in Deal, New Jersey

The overture to “Guys and Dolls” is unique in that it is scripted as well as orchestrated. It is a street scene collage danced – acted-out really – by the ensemble: floozies, society dames, bobby-soxers, a cop-and-pickpocket duo, a drunk … Continue reading

Blog, Community, Professional, Regional

Revenge is a dish best served cold? Not so in “Lily”

Two things to know about “Lily,” the world-premiere play at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch. First, Christopher Daftsios’s play is constructed like an orderly three-part farce, with a situational setup, followed by a discussion about how to set … Continue reading

Blog, Professional

“An American in Paris” Touches Down in Westchester County

How long after seeing some musicals does it take to get a song out of your head? I’m stuck with “NYC” a full week after every “Annie,” and “Goodbye to blueberry pie” after “Gypsy.” Isolating any one number from the … Continue reading

Blog, Professional, Regional