Diane Paulus

Theater Review: “Witness Uganda” — From Africa, With Schmaltz

February 17, 2014
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“Witness Uganda” is a quintessential American musical — a work of cultural tourism that condemns cultural tourism.

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Theater Review: “Pippin” Up the Dance

January 6, 2013
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When this version of Pippin hits New York, it will be a welcome alternative to the trend among many of the current Broadway musicals to demote dance elements to the background.

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Theater Review: “Pippin” – A Circus of Arrested Development

January 6, 2013
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Nervous mainstream audiences could breathe easy, the messy cultural ruckus of the ’60s was over: it was ok to find yourself in the suburbs.

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Theater Impressions: Cirque du Soleil’s “Amaluna” — Diane Paulus Turns “The Tempest” Into a Circus

May 19, 2012
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A.R.T artistic director Diane Paulus, entrepreneur extraordinaire, seems to have plucked impulse for character and meandering plot from a watered (down) idea of The Tempest.

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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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Coming Attractions in Theater: March 2011

February 26, 2011
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An exciting month, and that isn’t hyperbole. A couple of North American premieres: a futuristic opera from MIT’s Tod Machover and poet Robert Pinsky and a drama tweaking The New Testament from Howard Brenton. Toss in iconic director Peter Brook staging Beckett, F. Murray Abraham as Shylock, and Car Talk:The Musical and you are talking about taking out the smelling salts

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Coming Attractions in Theater: February 2011

January 28, 2011
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A hold-onto-your seat month with some intriguing world premieres, including a musical version of a Korean folktale, an attempt to turn Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound into a rock event, and a cerebral confab featuring Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli. By Bill Marx. King Lear by William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Grandage. NT Live screens the…

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Theater Commentary: For Mature Audiences?

September 4, 2010
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By Bill Marx After four years in the position, Louise Kennedy is leaving her post as theater critic for the Boston Globe to work on a book project. I wish her well: she’s had to persevere as the position becomes the afterthought of a Tweet. Perhaps she sees the handwriting on the printer’s wall. Her…

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Theater Review: The ART’s Musical “Johnny Baseball” — Safe at Home

June 6, 2010
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Perhaps the inspirational cliches, by-the-numbers storyline, and fan cartoon hijinks are what’s expected in a baseball musical. Johnny Baseball, Music by Robert Reale, Lyrics by Willie Reale, Book by Richard Dresser. Story by Dresser and Reale. Directed by Diane Paulus. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, MA, through July…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: May 2010

April 25, 2010
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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…

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