With an ever-increasing number of new theater companies cropping up, fewer and fewer spaces remain in which they can perform. Salve Regina’s Reggie Phoenix has sidestepped that limitation by facilitating the opening of Newport’s Casino Theatre to accommodate a college-professional hybrid production of The Fantasticks that succeeds fairly well and ushers in a glorious new […]
Charles Shaughnessy, the stage and television veteran, is starring as Professor Henry Higgins in Theatre by the Sea’s new production of My Fair Lady, opening Jun 24. The story is based upon George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. “It’s the best musical created,” said […]
Ocean State Theatre Company kicked off their summer season with Richard Dresser’s Rounding Third. And, while it has many funny moments, it falls a bit short of being a home run. Perhaps a solid triple. This baseball version of The Odd Couple pits the loud, gruff, “winning is everything” little league coach Don, played by veteran […]
Tony award winning Kinky Boots is at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) thru June 14, and it’s a fast, funny and heartwarming show about the importance of being yourself. Charlie Price inherits from his father a shoe factory — a set beautifully designed by David Rockwell — and finds himself in way over his head. […]
Jukebox musicals are the theatrical equivalent of the mix tape. Sometimes, it’s just a collection of songs tossed in randomly for pure enjoyment and sometimes the songs are intended to flow together and attempt a narrative, an expression of intent using the songwriter’s words to convey something other than the original tune’s meaning. Mama Mia […]
The newest offering closing out the 51st season at Trinity Rep is, in a word, beautiful. Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical is the latest world-premiere from award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl and talented composer Todd Almond. Almost completely sung-through, the play is not what one would typically think of when one hears the word “musical” — or […]
I often say that RI theater is more than a community, it is a family. Well that is literally true at the Newport Playhouse. Newport Playhouse has been a staple on the island since 1983, and this family-run business does everything possible to make sure each patron feels special. The host with the most, Jonathan Perry, […]
Many things remind me of summer. Del’s, the window at Newport Creamery, the Rustic, and Shakespeare in the park. It’s not summer without these things! The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theater (TRIST) has been giving Rhode Islanders free Shakespeare shows under the direction of Bob Colonna since 1971. This summer, with the beautiful city as their […]
Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers is a play about family and kindness. I have never seen a production of this play that emulated that theme from the moment you stepped in the door — from the set construction, which was a family affair, to the lovely family created onstage — until I saw Rhode Island […]
Epic Theatre Company’s production of Orlando, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf, questions our view of the sexes with stunning efficiency. Written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Kira Hawkridge, Orlando is a parody of a biography. The book was inspired by Woolf’s admiration for the author and aristocrat Vita Sackville-West, to whom it is dedicated. […]