Theater

Theater Review: Silver Spoon — A Lefty Valentine and a Missed Opportunity

June 1, 2011
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The musical SILVER SPOON is at its strongest when a lullaby evolves into a ballad about the arrest of a group of undocumented migrant workers.

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Theater Review: Propeller Theatre Company Takes Off

May 31, 2011
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Buckets of blood and handfuls of guts always look slightly ridiculous splashed and dangled around on stage, though I must admit that this is the first RICHARD III I have seen with a working chainsaw.

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Theater Review: Edward Albee’s Animal Talk

May 13, 2011
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The Zeitgeist Stage Company production has made me rethink Edward Albee’s HOMELIFE to the extent that the couple, well played by Peter Brown and Christine Power, generate a loving bond that adds some welcome tension (and humor) to the revelations of free-floating anxiety and confusion.

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Theater Review: A Dreamy and Acrobatic Hedda Gabler

May 8, 2011
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Henrik Ibsen’s rejection of the everyday drives this compelling take on “Hedda Gabler” – the production generates a theatrical arena that is simultaneously acrobatic and surreal.

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Theater Review: Down Chekhovian Way

April 28, 2011
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A Chekhovian dramatic fabric calls for a tough/tender gift for realism. Getting the balance right is tricky — too much reassurance veers toward easy sentimentality, while excessive punishment pushes the proceedings toward soap opera.

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Coming Attractions in Theater: May 2011

April 26, 2011
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May is usually a so-so respite before the summer season revs up, but there’s some interesting productions popping up, including Propeller Theatre Company’s all-male versions of Shakespeare’s Richard III and The Comedy of Errors, Amy Brenneman’s autobiographical show Mouth Wide Open, and an opportunity to see J. M. Barrie take it on in the chin…

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Book Review: An Authoritative Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama

April 18, 2011
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Minor translation issues aside, The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama‘s excellent selection, colloquial and stage-friendly translations, and illuminating introduction undoubtedly make the volume the authoritative choice in teaching and reading modern Chinese drama for the foreseeable future. The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama. Edited and with an introduction by Xiaomei Chen. Columbia University…

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Book Review: The Fascinating Dribs and Drabs of Tennessee Williams’ Genius

April 16, 2011
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This volume of one-act plays may gather up the whiffs and dregs of Tennessee Williams’ achievement, but their flashes of brilliance are valuable reminders of an artist who kept at his craft, come hell and high water, critical as well as popular.

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Fuse Theater Review: Death Be Not Sappy

April 10, 2011
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William King is a loving, self-sacrificing, salt-of-the-earth character mooning over the vanished past; Sonia is a saintly wife yearning for hubby to join her in Heaven; the sons care for each other and for their father—time to pull out your hankies. Broke-ology by Nathan Louis Jackson. Directed by Benny Sato Ambush. Staged by the Lyric…

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Theater Review: A Pair of Dostoevskian Inquisitions

April 3, 2011
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Dostoevsky’s theater is set on a metaphysical stage — both “The Grand Inquisitor” and “9 Circles” explore whether the actions of its central characters are meaningful or absurd.

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