Category Archives: Professional

A Jug of “Wine in the Wilderness” and Thou: Perfect Together

If you want to know what a stage director does (or can do) for a play, you might want to first read Alice Childress’s “Wine in the Wilderness” and then get yourself to Two River Theater in Red Bank, New … Continue reading

Blog, Professional, Regional

A “Godot” Worth Waiting For at Barrington Stage Company

An esteemed scholar once wrote about “Waiting for Godot” that “We all bring to Samuel Beckett’s play whatever is uppermost in our minds.” As tidy as that seems, my “Godot” experience has been the opposite…or reverse: I leave performances with … Continue reading

Blog, Professional, Regional

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

Professional, Regional

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

Blog, Broadway, NY Theater, Off Broadway, Professional, Regional

“A Bronx Tale” Well Told at Axelrod PAC

The Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal Park, New Jersey has emerged from Covid lockdown with a stylish and engaging production of “A Bronx Tale,” the full-scale musical version of Chazz Palminteri’s 1989 autobiographical solo show. The 1993 (non-musical) film … Continue reading

Blog, Community, Professional, Regional

The Gershwins and Oscar Wilde Live On Stage! What’s not to like…

As ‘S Wonderful as “Who Could Ask for Anything More? The Songs of George Gershwin” is as it stands, and it truly is, I would suggest one change: adding George’s principal lyricist, his brother Ira, to the (already long enough) … Continue reading

Blog, Professional, Regional