The mark of a classic show is one that has received multiple revivals around the world and across the decades. Such shows are brought back again and again, not for nostalgia’s sake as a piece of history, but rather because of their timelessness. Perhaps it says more about humanity than the quality of a production […]
I am waking up on the second day after seeing Trinity’s Appropriate, by Brandon Jacob Jenkins, directed by Brian Mertes. After viewing, it took me about this long to digest and come up with a coherent way to express not only what this play says to me, but how this play says something I […]
Theater today impresses audiences with the extravagant; the more authentic and intricate, the better. To keep up with television and movies, sets and props have to be so lifelike that willingly suspending disbelief is no chore at all for the audience. In these shows, the work is done for you. Such productions are impressive spectacles, […]
Poet Emily Dickinson, who was more than a little odd herself, noted that madness is what society ascribes to those who do not conform: “Assent, and you are sane ;/Demur, — you’re straightway dangerous,/And handled with a chain.” There are, I would argue, three great novels that better than any others captured this theme for […]
Billy Elliot: The Musical makes its professional RI debut kicking-off Ocean State Theatre Company’s fifth season. Winner of 10 Tony Awards, this production, under OSTC’s artistic director Amiee Turner, shows some flashes of the brilliance that has earned it so much critical acclaim, but ultimately falls short of delivering a knock-out punch. During its final preview […]
I have a confession to make, mes amies. I am a sucker for a good bedroom comedy. Yes, a deconstructed think-piece is good now and then and Lord knows, I can get behind a good musical, but no matter how tough times are, all you have to do to is mention the words — […]
There’s a lot going on in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, currently opening the season at The Gamm. A viewer unfamiliar with the play might expect the poetry or the landscape design history from a story set in a country house in the early 19th century, but they might not expect it to contain quite so much […]
Brown University’s theater department has launched its new season with By The Way, Meet Vera Stark – a truly brilliant work with some first-rate performances. The subject matter, which deals with racial stereotyping in films, couldn’t be more timely. In the 1930s, African-American maid Vera works for the glamorous actress Gloria Mitchell (Eleonora Saravale). Gloria […]
“If you’ve never seen the world then how would you know?” the titular character says to Emilia in Desdemona: A Play About A Handkerchief, at Burbage Theatre Company. “Women are clad in purdah, we decent, respectable matrons, from the cradle to the altar to the shroud … bridled with linen, blinded with lace …. […]
Some reviews write themselves, and this is one of them. Wicked has flown into the Providence Performing Arts Center for their season opener, and it is every bit as captivating and magical as you would expect it to be. I knew I would enjoy myself because I am very familiar with this show, I know the […]