Theater

Theater Commentary: Tennessee Williams — Putting What is Inexpressible in Life into Words

March 25, 2011
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I asked Davis Robinson, artistic director of the Beau Jest Moving Theatre, to share his thoughts on the 100th anniversary (March 26th) of the birth of playwright Tennessee Williams.

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Theater Commentary: Tennessee Williams at 100 — A Few Personal Thoughts

March 24, 2011
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Director and woman as I am, I would love to see A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, even The Rose Tattoo, cast with all men. Then I would push some courageous director to attempt to prove on stage that Williams’s final plays are not the work of a declining talent, but…

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Theater Review: A Superb “Educating Rita”

March 21, 2011
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Willy Russell’s play is a keeper. It’s tightly-crafted, emotionally generous, and—most of all—FUN! It provides one hell of a dramatic vehicle for a director attuned to the comedy of “higher” education. Educating Rita by Willy Russell. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Boston University Theater, Boston, MA, through April 10. By Helen Epstein…

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Theater Review: Prometheus Bound — Bound for Glory (Revised 1X)

March 14, 2011
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Bare chested and sweating up a storm, singer Gavin Creel as Prometheus makes for a rock rebel with lots of snarly attitude, defying Zeus’s tyranny by flexing his abs.

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Fuse Theater Review: The Apple Pie Beauty of “reasons to be pretty”

March 13, 2011
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Now that dramatist Neil LaBute’s scripts are being produced on Broadway he has fanned the earlier whiffs of amorality in his work away. The obscene language and provocative hooks remain, but those are not a bar to popular success (think of David Mamet).

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Fuse Theater/Book Review: An Inspiring Defense Of Why Theater is Necessary

March 12, 2011
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In The Necessity of Theater, author Paul Woodruff makes way for wisdom as theater’s final gift. In his view, theater’s wisdom lies in its use of the mask, and that mask is the sine qua non of meaning. The mask must conceal, if only to reveal.   The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching…

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Theater Review: “DollHouse”: A Door Slams in Connecticut

March 11, 2011
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Dramatist Theresa Rebeck’s updated version of Ibsen’s play strengthens one key aspect of A Doll’s House—its picture of savage incomprehension between man and woman, which drives Ibsen’s call for independence and self-respect in a society that rewards complacency, greed, and childish role-playing. DollHouse by Theresa Rebeck. Based on A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Directed…

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Theater Review Roundup: Taking in London Stages

March 9, 2011
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Reviews of eight stage productions in London, with two terrific shows noted: American dramatist Bruce Norris’s powerful study of racial relations, Clybourne Park, and Alan Ayckbourn’s 1980 farce Season’s Greetings. Another winner on the West End, the critically acclaimed War Horse, comes to New York next week. By Joann Green Breuer Penelope by Enda Walsh…

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Theater Review: A Flawed But Compelling “Ajax” at the American Repertory Theater

March 3, 2011
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Though it ends on an image of uneasy forgiveness, Ajax revolves around a worm hole of irrationality – Athena takes extreme actions and makes uncompromising demands but still insists on the “balance” of the gods

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Theater Review: Hotel Nepenthe — Rooms with a Comically Existential View

February 28, 2011
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Hard luck stories and ghostly characters flit in and out of the creepy yet elegant Hotel Nepenthe, an antique nest where guests are given leopard skin coats while they await their existential fates, sometimes lying in the bathtub. “For its own interests, humor should take its outings in grave company; its cheerful dress gets heightened…

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