With Murder Ballad, The Wilbury Theatre Group’s latest in-your-face rock musical, set designer Josh Christofferson has dressed down their Broad Street space to create the bare bones King’s Club, a dark, back alley bar that brings one right back to the old club days when Living Room, One Up and Rocket ruled Providence night life. […]
Studs Terkel, the son of a tailor and a seamstress, is an interesting cat. Equipped with a law degree he decided to instead become a concierge, followed by a career in theater and radio. In 1974 he published a transcript of one of his recording series named, Working: People Talk About What They Do All […]
Blues for Mister Charlie is an angry play from an angry time. The “Mister Charlie” of the title is a euphemism for “cracker,” a pejorative racial epithet for white people that has etymological roots in the slave driver of the antebellum South who literally cracked a whip. Trinity Rep deserves enormous credit for putting on […]
The Salve production of Spring Awakening is currently running at the Casino Theater in Newport through April 17, and you should make the time to go see it. You know a piece of art deals beautifully with the taboos of human experience when it has been banned and censored more frequently than it’s been able […]
Providence activist, artist, poet and musician Jared Paul has never been a stranger to radical political thought. He also has been a huge advocate for the rights of all, including animals. On Tuesday, April 19, at Ada Books on Westminster Street in Providence, Paul will be putting on a celebration ringing in his 19th year of […]
George Orwell was one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century and Animal Farm is his most widely read book, but that is because it is short rather than because it is good. Orwell was primarily an essayist: His journalism and non-fiction, although no longer commonly read, demonstrated remarkable prescience and ability. His […]
Catholic School Girls is a memory play written by Casey Kurtti and currently playing at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren. The play follows four girls as they grow up together from their first days of St. George’s School in Yonkers, New York, through their eventual graduation from eighth grade, and into adolescence. Set in the […]
Mr. Burns – A Post-Electric Play begins with an intriguing premise – the survivors of a nuclear apocalypse gather together and reminisce about a classic episode of “The Simpsons” — and then proceeds to do nothing with it. The story then jumps ahead 7 years, when the group attempts to recreate that very same episode […]
Nunsense 2: The Second Coming is like an endurance test for the audience. If you can survive two hours of corny puns, cheap gags and forgettable songs, then you deserve some sort of award. The original Nunsense, which I have not seen, was a huge international hit. The plot of Nunsense 2 is as threadbare as […]
Marilyn Busch: Your shows are literally a laugh a minute – how much of that is scripted and how much off-the-cuff improv? John Thayer: What’s with the hard-hitting questions? Just back off and I’ll tell ya! Actually our shows are heavily scripted. By that I mean we have four set scenes we perform in between courses […]