Tim Dunleavy

Review: ‘Time Stands Still’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre

Time Stands Still, Donald Margulies’ fascinating drama at Bristol Riverside Theatre, seems at first as if it’s going to be a deep meditation on war and politics. But Margulies’ characters, as it turns...

Review: ‘The Humans’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

The Blakes are not your ordinary dysfunctional family. As they gather for Thanksgiving dinner in an unfamiliar locale, everything seem fine, if a little off-kilter; they engage in their favorite...

Review: ‘Passing Strange’ at The Wilma Theater

“Life is a mistake that only art can correct.” That’s not a line you’d expect to hear at a rock and roll show, is it? But Passing Strange isn’t your typical rock show, or musical, or biography. It...

Review: ‘Morning’s at Seven’ at People’s Light

Morning’s at Seven fits the definition of “quaint.” With its elderly characters and its winsome setting – a Midwestern town in the 1930s, where everybody knows each other’s problems a little too well...

Review: ‘Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG Playhouse Christmas Show’ at Bucks County Playhouse

How many versions of A Christmas Carol have you seen? Probably too many to count. But I can guarantee you’ve never seen one that mentions Doylestown, Lambertville and Peddler’s Village before. They...

Review: ‘My Fair Lady’ at Quintessence Theatre

Quintessence Theatre has built a strong reputation as a home for classic drama. But now they’ve dived into the American Musical Theatre canon in a big way by staging one of the most popular and...

Review: ‘Disney’s Beauty and the Beast’ at The Media Theatre

“Tale as old as time”? If you’re the parent of a young child who has watched a certain Disney animated film on video over and over and over, it might seem that way. But when you take that child – or...

Review: ‘Rasheeda Speaking’ at Allens Lane Theater

The setting is ordinary – an office with two desks side by side. The desks are covered with plants, knickknacks, and piles of paperwork. The sort of thing we see every day in corporate America. But...

Review: ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ at Arden Theatre Company

The list began after her first attempt. A list of everything brilliant about the world. Everything worth fighting for. If I were to make a list of every brilliant thing about the world, audience...

Review: ‘The Fantasticks’ at The Eagle Theatre

What’s not to like about The Fantasticks? It’s always been a modest, gentle show that goes down easy. The Eagle Theatre’s new production adds a few new wrinkles, putting its own stamp on this...

Review: ‘It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3

Is seeing a Christmas show in November too early for you? When I went to see this show during the first week of November, I couldn’t help thinking of the scene in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving where...

Review: ‘Blood Wedding’ at The Wilma Theater

The Wilma Theater’s Blood Wedding sets out to overpower you – and it succeeds. From its first moments, when the 11-member ensemble assembles on a long, bare, black platform, stares directly into the...

Review: ‘Red Herring’ at Act II Playhouse

Red Herring is a parody of the tough film noir mysteries of the forties and fifties. But playwright Michael Hollinger has more on his mind than mere nostalgia: his play is also a romance, a spy...

Review: ‘Wrestling Jerusalem’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

It’s been said that one of the problems with politics these days is that people talk but don’t listen. Opposing political sides state their positions, but too many speak just to their supporters and...

Review: ‘A Night with Janis Joplin’ at McCarter Theatre Center

Janis Joplin was a true original. But as the musical/tribute concert A Night with Janis Joplin proves, she didn’t just come out of nowhere. Joplin became a top star during the psychedelic rock era of...

Review: ‘2.5 Minute Ride’ at Theatre Horizon

There’s a lot going on in Lisa Kron’s life. There’s her brother’s upcoming marriage, a ceremony that’s being held at a Jewish community center with “a wonderful design out of a 1972 James Bond movie.”...

Review: ‘The Swallowing Dark’ at Inis Nua Theatre Company

“Your status has expired.” For Canaan Muponda, these are the most fearsome words imaginable. A refugee from Zimbabwe, Canaan has spent the last five years living in Liverpool with his young son. Now,...

Review: ‘Next to Normal’ at Resident Theatre Company

Next to Normal isn’t your standard Broadway musical. But this offbeat Pulitzer Prize-winner, now receiving a solid production at West Chester’s Resident Theatre Company, shines a light on a condition...

Review: ‘Godspell’ at Villanova Theatre

Godspell has always been a show filled with spirit. Ever since its New York debut in 1971, it’s been a vehicle for a lot more than a religious message. Its loose structure – John-Michael Tebelak’s...

Review: ‘Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Who was the first rock and roller? You could say it was Elvis Presley, the first rock and roll superstar. Or Bill Haley, the first rocker to have a number one hit. Or maybe it was Ray Charles, or Fats...

Review: ‘Ripcord’ at South Camden Theatre Company

Ripcord is the story of a cutthroat battle of practical jokes and dirty tricks between two women in an assisted-living residence for the elderly. Does that seem unlikely? Then you’ve never met Abby...

Review: ‘Simpatico’ at McCarter Theatre Center

“Do you want to talk, or do you want to be cryptic and weird?” Those words – which sound like they might belong in a lot of Sam Shepard’s plays – appear in the first scene of Shepard’s Simpatico. And...

Review: ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

Want to make one of the zaniest shows of all time even zanier? Just add Frank Ferrante. Ferrante has directed the Walnut’s new production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and he’s...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Airswimming’ by Half Key Theatre Company at Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5

Airswimming, Charlotte Jones’ play about two Englishwomen stuck in a mental institution for no good reason, walks – or should that be swims? – a fine line between sly humor and sensitivity. It’s...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act’ by Blue Mercury Theatre at Independence Library

For the great South African playwright Athol Fugard, the personal is political. And nowhere is that more true than in Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, a 1972 Fugard play, based on...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘GATZ’ at The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre

The program for GATZ claims that it is “A parody based on ‘The Great Gatsby’ Written by F. Scot. Fitzgerald.” (Note that Fitzgerald’s middle name is misspelled.) But a parody is, by definition, a...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Hello Blackout!’ by New Paradise Laboratories at The Drake

The cast of Hello Blackout! spends a lot of time in the dark. In the opening moments of the show, lights slowly fade up and we faintly see five people staggered across the stage. They’re wearing black...

Review: ‘Storyboard Series: Treasure Island’ at Hedgerow Theatre

After seeing a group of onstage pirates repeatedly singing “Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum,” I went out to the lobby of the Hedgerow Theatre in search of refreshment. Alas, there was no rum to be found....

Review: ‘Which Reminds Me’ at Act II Playhouse

If you’re a fan of Tony Braithwaite and his one-person (or sometimes two-person) shows – often performed at Act II Playhouse, where he is the Artistic Director – you know what to expect from his...

Review: ‘Other Desert Cities’ at Bucks County Playhouse

In the opening moments of Other Desert Cities, playwright Jon Robin Baitz introduces us to a wealthy Southern California family whose members love to play tennis – but their favorite sport is getting...

Here are the 2017 Barrymore Awards Nominations

The nominations for the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre for the 2016-17 season have been announced by Theatre Philadelphia. A total of 23 companies were recognized across 27 categories. 22...

Review: ‘The Crucible’ at Princeton Summer Theater

When you enter the home of the Princeton Summer Theater to see The Crucible, you may wonder at first whether you’ve wandered into the right place. After all, Arthur Miller’s legendary play takes place...

Review: ‘Coriolanus’ at Shakespeare in Clark Park

Coriolanus has a reputation for being one of Shakespeare’s least accessible plays. Its title character, a Roman warrior turned reluctant politician, can be hard to get a bead on – and hard to root...

Review: ‘As You Like It’ at The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

Like all of Shakespeare’s plays, As You Like It is filled with rich, quotable language. (This is the one with the “All the world’s a stage” speech.) But Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s new...

Review: ‘The Three Musketeers’ at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

The Three Musketeers has been dramatized countless times over the past two centuries, and for a good reason – it’s a rousing tale filled with intrigue, swordplay, appealing characters, and lots of...

Review: ‘Spider’s Web’ at Princeton Summer Theater

Spider’s Web ends with the unmasking of a murderer, and it starts with… a taste test. In this play’s opening moments, two veddy proper, blindfold-wearing English gentlemen drink glasses of Port and...

Review: ‘Zanna Don’t (the Reboot)’ at Theatre Horizon

For the latest show in its 42nd and Main Concerts series, Theatre Horizon tackled Zanna, Don’t!, an offbeat musical that ran Off-Broadway in 2003 and has had productions all over the world since. That...

Review: ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival

Turning The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of Sherlock Holmes’ most famous cases, from a mystery into a small-cast comedy is an idea that sure gets around. Hedgerow Theatre staged a four-actor version...

Review: ‘Pippin’ at Princeton Summer Theater

So many men seem destined To settle for something small, But I won’t rest until I know I’ll have it all… Stephen Schwartz’s lyrics for “Corner of the Sky” sum up everything that the title character of...

Review: ‘Project Dawn’ at People’s Light

Gritty and harsh, but with flashes of humor and hope, Project Dawn tackles a vital issue and doesn’t shy away from showing its worst repercussions. Karen Hartman’s play, inspired by a real-life court...

Review: ‘The Gospel According to…’ at Lantern Theater Company

The new play at Lantern Theater Company is smart, funny, fascinating and entertaining. At times, though, it’s also rude, frustrating, predictable, and morally troubling. But then again, all those...

Review: ‘Uncle Vanya’ at Quintessence Theatre Group

There’s something seriously wrong with this house. That’s what one character says early in Quintessence Theatre Group’s new production of Uncle Vanya, and boy, is she right. Uncle Vanya is set in a...

Review: ‘One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue’ at The Latvian Society of Philadelphia

Lynn Nottage wrote One More River to Cross: A Verbatim Fugue a decade ago, yet oddly enough, it has never been produced onstage before. As Nottage’s fame has grown – she just earned a Pulitzer Prize...

Review: ‘Saturday Night Fever’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

What do you remember most about the movie Saturday Night Fever? Is it the dynamic direction, the earthy dialogue, or the gritty story about a working-class Brooklyn kid trying to escape a menial job...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ at Eagle Theatre

Peter and the Starcatcher creates a backstory for one of literature’s greatest heroes, Peter Pan. But much of the appeal of Rick Elice’s play – and director Ted Wioncek III’s production – lies in the...

Review: ‘Intimate Apparel’ at McCarter Theatre Center

It was as though God kissed my hands when I first pulled the fabric through the sewing machine and held up a finished garment. That’s how the main character of Intimate Apparel describes her work....

Review: ‘Buzzer’ at Theatre Exile

Buzzer is a story about real estate, and how moving to a new home can mean more than just leaving a forwarding address. Tracey Scott Wilson’s play addresses several compelling subjects: race,...

Review: ‘Clue On Stage’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Wanna play a game? Clue On Stage is a show that doesn’t ask deep, profound questions of its audience. Instead, it simply asks, whodunit? Who killed Mr. Boddy? Was it Professor Plum in the conservatory...

Review: ‘White’ at Theatre Horizon

White is pure gold. James Ijames’ audacious and hilarious new play takes on racism, sexism, and a handful of other isms. It’s a comedy, but its message is serious. It’s bold, outlandish, insightful,...

Review: ‘My Name is Asher Lev’ at South Camden Theatre Company

A sensitive young man struggles with his heritage as he tries to make his own mark on the world. A predictable story, you might say? Well, My Name is Asher Lev is anything but predictable, and...