Newport Playhouse deploys an obviously talented cast in their production of A Doublewide, Texas, Christmas who struggle valiantly to elevate a script from the writing team billing themselves as “Jones, Hope, Wooten” – actually Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten – who collectively have authored nearly two dozen plays that possess all the humor, charm, and […]
Let this be a lesson to all those aspiring performers and producers out there. Sometimes you just need to get on the phone and make things happen for yourself. Such is the case with the much buzzed-about upcoming local production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the acclaimed Tony Award-winning rock musical opening January 18 […]
When you enter to take your seat for Wilbury Theatre Group’s production of Futurity, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve passed through the curtains into a slightly shifted dimension. Instead of a play, a chalkboard on stage advertises live music – “tonight at 7:30!” – played by “The Algorhythms.” Brien Lang, Futurity’s director, explained […]
Each new adaptation of A Christmas Carol or Wonderful Life carries the burden of creating something fresh, bold, innovative and memorable. Then, there are the holiday plays that need no prompting to be different. Among these is William Gibson’s 1975 acid flashback Christmas pageant The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, & the […]
One of my favorite conversations as part of the AD’s World series was the conversation I had with Curt Columbus about Trinity Rep’s 2017 – 2018 Season. Curt was nice enough to sit down with me again and discuss the 2018 – 2019 season, which has already kicked off with a record-breaking production of “Pride […]
While Island Moving Company is packing away its Nutcracker at Rosecliff in Newport, the rest of New England is just beginning to celebrate the magic of Christmas. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Providence Ballet Theatre’s one-night-only holiday performance, returns. The production is inspired by Clement Clarke Moore’s classic poem, and professional dancers, along with […]
“We wrote a Civil War sci-fi musical,” states frontman César Alvarez and his New York-based indie rock band The Lisps. “It will melt your heart and ignite your brain.” This genre-defying musical is Futurity, a wild ride of a tale in which Civil War soldier Julian, along with the meta-physician Ada Lovelace, invents a steam-powered […]
The 1946 Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life has become such a beloved classic that nearly everyone has seen it at least once and knows the story, so I’m going to assume that “spoilers” are impossible in describing the stage musical by the Community Players at Jenks Auditorium in Pawtucket. If you’ve somehow managed […]
Brown University’s theater programming has long held a fine reputation in the state, and it is currently progressing in exciting ways! The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies (TAPS) is the intellectual and artistic center at Brown for faculty and students interested in the aesthetic, historical, literary, practical and theoretical explorations of performance in global […]
On the surface, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria appears to be about millennials trying to make it as employees of a print magazine, just as such “primitive” forms of news are beginning to die. Even if that premise were the sole basis for the play, that would be enough to make for a potentially interesting show. But […]