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American-Repertory-Theatre

Theater Review: “The Plough and the Stars” — Life Under Pressure

This is a galvanic production that stirs the spirit and demands that we reflect on what the script says about our own time, our own struggles.

By: Robert Israel Filed Under: Featured, Review, Theater Tagged: Abbey Theatre, American-Repertory-Theatre, Sean O'Casey, The Plough and the Stars

Fuse Theater Review: “Icarus” in the Dust Bowl

Icarus proffers plenty of spectacle and talent, but the show only recycles a story we’ve seen countless times on stage and screen.

By: Ian Thal Filed Under: Featured, Review, Theater Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, Club Oberon, Jason Slavick, Liars and Believers, musical

Coming Attractions in Theater: May 2010

By Bill Marx The month contains plenty of summerish entertainment, from a new baseball musical to a campy Alfred Hitchcock parody and a jazzy update of The Mikado. For me, the standouts are the more demanding fare, such as a festival of new American theater pieces and an exciting opportunity see Shakespeare’s rarely staged Timon […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Coming Attractions, Theater Tagged: Actors' Shakespeare Project, American-Repertory-Theatre, Bach at Leipzig, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston Red Sox, Charlestown Working Theater, Craig Lucas, Dan Hurlin, Diane Paulus, Disfarmer, Emerging America, Farragut North, Gold Dust Orphans, Hot Mikado, Huntington-Theatre-Company, Institute of Contemporary Art, Itamar Moses, Johnny Baseball, Kate Warner, musical, New Repertory Theatre, Peter-DuBois, Portland Stage Company, Poste Restante, Prelude to a Kiss, Ryan Landry, Shakespeare, The Gulls, They Gotta Be Secret Agents, Timon of Athens, Tracy Letts, Watertown, Zeitgeist Stage Company

Theater Commentary: Isn’t It a Question of Relevance?

The reviews of the Huntington Theatre Company (HTC) production were generally ecstatic. And what could be timelier than an oft-produced American drama that focuses on the tragic costs of war profiteering?

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Theater Tagged: A Question of Mercy, All My Sons, American-Repertory-Theatre, Arthur Miller, BCAP, Boston, Bread and Puppet Theater, Clifford Odets, David-Rabe, Groundswell, Huntington-Theatre-Company, Jim Petosa, Lyric stage company of boston, Paradise Lost, Persona Non Grata, Relevance, Tear Open the Door of Heaven, Theater

Coming Attractions in Theater: October 2009

By Bill Marx October includes the usual line-up of plays by seal-of-approval dramatists, Edward Albee and Conor McPherson, but there’s some welcome new blood, from Punchdrunk’s athletic adaptation of “Macbeth” to “Little Black Dress,” playwright Ronan Noone’s latest salvo at our national psyche, and “The Overwhelming,” the Boston premiere of a critically acclaimed study of […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Coming Attractions, Theater, World Books Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, Bash, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston Playwrights Theatre, Brandeis Theatre Company, Company One, Conor-McPherson, Edward Albee, Everything in the Garden, J. T. Rogers, Laurie Theater, LIttle Black Dress, Macbeth, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Neil-Labute, Publick-Theatre, Punchdrunk, Ronan-Noone, Shakespeare, Shawn LaCount, Shooting Stars, Sleep No More, Stephen Dietz, The Overwhelming, The Seafarer, Theater on Fire, Trinity Repertory Company, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Theater Review: The A.R.T. Shakes Its Ass

Observe the ass … his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals. — Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson” The Donkey Show Conceived by Randy Weiner. Directed by Diane Paulus and Randy Weiner. Presented by the American Repertory Theater at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA Presented by American Repertory Theater, […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater, World Books Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, Diane Paulus, Disco, Persona Non Grata, Randy Weiner, The Donkey Show, Zero Arrow Theater

Theater Review: Of Sex, Death, and Ducks

Let us hob-and-nob with Death — Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Duck Variations by David Mamet. Directed by Marcus Stern. Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. Directed by Paul Stacey. Presented by the American Repertory Theatre at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA, through June 28. Reviewed by Bill Marx Death be not mentioned in David […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Theater Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, David Mamet, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Duck Variations

World Theater: Sucked Dry, or Let Romania Speak for Itself

By Bill Marx Earlier this month, Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, stoked up the cultural consternation machine when he implied that American writers are too provincial to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. American literary life is “too isolated, too insular” he opines, its writers don’t translate particularly well and they aren’t […]

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Books, Featured, Theater, World Books Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, Anne-Washburn, Books, Featured, Norman-Manea, Persona Non Grata, the-communist-dracula-pageant, Theater, World Books

Arts Commentary: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Marketing

Revving up marketing machinery raises some uncomfortable questions: Why should donors give funds to a theater if their money is going to pay for focus groups and demographic studies rather than to support the work of artists?

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Arts and Sciences, Theater Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, audience-trends, Boston-Business-Journal, Boston-theater, Huntington-Theatre-Company, Josiah-Spaulding, marketing, Persona Non Grata, Robert-Orchard

Response: Critical Justification

A certain number of people (not huge) want to read critics who take the arts seriously, who do more than tell readers what is worth spending their money on.

By: Bill Marx Filed Under: Featured, Theater Tagged: American-Repertory-Theatre, Pauline-Kael, Persona Non Grata, Theater, theater-critic, theater-criticism, theater-reviews, Thomas-Garvey

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