Tim Dunleavy

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Billosophy: Life, Circus, Death’

Bill Forchion is an accomplished circus performer, a veteran of Cirque du Soleil, and Ringling Brothers. He’s also a real charmer, with a smile the size of a big top and the stage persona of an...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Surface Tension’ at Tangle Movement Arts

In Surface Tension, the Philadelphia-based circus arts company Tangle Movement Arts spotlights the skills of six female performers. They use ropes, swings, bungee cords, and aerial silks in a...

Review: ‘Mrs. Warren’s Profession’ at Lantern Theater Company

A wordy drama from the 19th century about capitalism, duplicity, and women’s role in English society. Sounds like it might be rather tough to get through, doesn’t it? Well, don’t be fooled. George...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘I Fucking Dare You’ at The Berserker Residents

The Berserker Residents, a Philadelphia-based troupe, has been writing and performing inspired comedy for years. Their irreverent 2010 offering The Very Merry Xmas Carol Holiday Adventure Show remains...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Notes of a Native Song’

“This isn’t the Ken Burns musical documentary on James Baldwin,” said Stew about two-thirds of the way through his latest show, Notes of a Native Song. He was right. Notes of a Native Song may be many...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘One-Man Apocalypse Now’

The title tells you all you need to know about Chris Davis’ new show at the Fringe Festival. When you enter the performance space – a small room inside a Southwest Philly warehouse that’s seen better...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Spherus’

Greg Kennedy bills himself as an “Innovative Juggler,” and he lives up to that billing in Spherus, his show now running as part of the 201 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Kennedy’s style is rooted in...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Animal Farm to Table’ at The Renegade Company

Animal Farm to Table isn’t like any other show in the Fringe Festival. The show, conceived and directed by Mike Durkin for The Renegade Company, is performed on an actual (but small) working farm just...

Review: ‘Cake Off’ at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA

Who would have thought that 2016 would be the year we saw not one, but two musicals about… food preparation? Just six months ago, Bucks County Playhouse premiered A Taste of Things to Come, a musical...

Review: ‘Tommy and Me’ at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia

About halfway through Ray Didinger’s new play Tommy and Me, one of the characters mentions Joe Kuharich. On the night I attended the play, the audience responded with a round of derisive laughter. So,...

Review: ‘Fool for Love’ at Princeton Summer Theater in Princeton, NJ

Fool for Love is a pretty short play, and its plot isn’t especially complex: A couple of longtime lovers with a volatile history meet to battle again in a seedy motel room in the Mojave Desert. They...

Review: ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Center Valley, PA

The new production of Love’s Labour’s Lost at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival continues a tradition the festival began several summers ago of creating a production in a fashion similar to the way...

Review: ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ at Shakespeare in Clark Park in Philadelphia

For its eleventh annual summer offering, Shakespeare in Clark Park is offering a take on The Two Gentlemen of Verona that feels light and airy as the summer breeze wafting across the park. It’s...

Review: ‘Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister’ at Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, PA

Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers haven’t even said grace. So says the Mother Superior of St. Veronica’s Convent School, the lead character in the new play at the Bucks County Playhouse. But...

Review: ‘Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope’ at New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope is a musical that’s not produced very often – but in its day, it was a huge hit. Opening on Broadway in 1972, it ran for over 1,000 performances and earned four Tony...

Review: ‘I Am Not My Motherland’ at Orbiter 3 in Philadelphia

I Am Not My Motherland, the latest play from the Orbiter 3 playwriting collective, is about a medical operation that has complications, and about a relationship between two surgeons that also has...

Review: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Center Valley, PA

Scholars, theatergoers and activists have been debating The Taming of the Shrew for about four centuries. Just what was Shakespeare, with his tale of the warring lovers Katherina and Petruchio, saying...

Review: ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead’ at Princeton Summer Theater in Princeton, NJ

Spoiler Alert: The two main characters in this play die. Well, you probably figured that out, given that the play they’re in is called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Or maybe you figured it...

Review: ‘Roseburg’ at New City Stage in Philadelphia

Roseburg examines two incidents that took place a few miles, and several decades, apart. Yet they’re connected in a tragic way, through America’s fixation on guns. And while the show is focused on...

‘2016 Summer One-Act Bonanza’ at Old Academy Players in Philadelphia

If there’s one thing the Old Academy Players are known for, it’s traditions. The venerable troupe was founded in 1923, and has been performing for most of its existence in a building completed in...

Review: ‘God of Carnage’ at Princeton Summer Theater in Princeton, New Jersey

As Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage opens, two couples meet for a civilized discussion. Their sons have just had a violent playground encounter that cost one of the boys a couple teeth, and the two sets...

Review: ‘The Jaws Project’ at Plays and Players Theatre in Philadelphia

A droll and inventive take on moviemaking, The Jaws Project mixes fact, fantasy and some show biz speculation to make a highly enjoyable comedy. Today, most people remember Jaws as one of the biggest...

Review: ‘The Bacchae: A Ritual Blood Sacrifice’ at The Phenomenal Animals in Philadelphia

With its production of Euripides’ The Bacchae: A Ritual Blood Sacrifice, The Phenomenal Animals presents a feminist spin on one of the classic works of Greek theatre. Seven of the cast’s eight...

Review: ‘West Side Story’ at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in Center Valley, PA

In one of the collections of his theatre lyrics, Stephen Sondheim writes that while most people regard West Side Story as being about “racial prejudice and urban violence,” its actual purpose was to...

Review: ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ at Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley, PA

It was in the opening moments of The Servant of Two Masters, as one of the performers stood in front of the curtain to introduce the show, that I realized this wasn’t your standard 18th century...

Review: ‘Assassins’ at Princeton Summer Theater

Assassins is about people who lived out their dream – but it’s not the dream we ordinarily think of as “The American Dream.” This audacious musical by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and John...

Review: The Arden Cabaret Series with Tony Braithwaite at Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia

At one point on opening night of his latest show, Tony Braithwaite asked if any of his fellow Georgetown University graduates were in the audience. One woman sitting up front announced that she went...

Review: ‘Trouble in Mind’ at The Stagecrafters Theater in Philadelphia

In many ways, it’s startling to learn that Trouble in Mind was first performed in 1955. Alice Childress’ play was decades ahead of its time: it’s a satire of racial stereotypes in American...

Review: ‘Happy Days’ at Quintessence Theatre Group in Philadelphia

All dolled up in her fanciest dress, she’s smiling and chipper. It’s a sunny day, and Winnie is not going to let a little thing like the gigantic mound of dirt she’s buried in up to her waist bring...

Review: ‘Time Is On Our Side’ at Simpatico Theatre Project in Philadelphia

There’s a song in the Broadway musical Hamilton that asks “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” That question is at the heart of Time Is On Our Side, R. Eric Thomas’ new play. It’s a play...

Review: ‘36 Views’ at Lantern Theater Company in Philadelphia

On the surface, Naomi Iizuka’s 36 Views is a straightforward story set against the backdrop of the art world. It’s about an art dealer with a shady reputation, an art scholar who gets drawn into his...

Review: ‘Straight White Men’ at InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia

It’s Christmastime at the Norton house. The three Norton boys – well, they’re in their forties, but they sure act like boys most of the time – are spending the holiday with their widowed dad. They’ve...

Review: ‘Steel Magnolias’ at Bucks County Playhouse

Chinquapin, Louisiana, the fictional setting of Steel Magnolias, is one enchanting place. You don’t see much of it in Robert Harling’s play – the whole show takes place in the town beauty parlor – but...

Talking with Susan Sullivan About ‘Steel Magnolias’ at the Bucks County Playhouse

There are few actresses more familiar, or more beloved, than Susan Sullivan. For four decades she’s been a regular, dependable presence on television, most notably in eight seasons as kindhearted...

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Walnut Street Theatre

Even if you haven’t seen the musical version of Sister Act, you might think you know what it’s going to be like. After all, it’s a musical based on a familiar hit movie. It’s about a bunch of funny...

Review: ‘Fully Committed’ at Theatre Horizon in Norristown, PA

Fully Committed, Becky Mode’s frenetic 1999 comedy that spoofs the unpleasant underbelly of the restaurant business, is being given a highly enjoyable production at Theatre Horizon in Norristown. It’s...

Review: ‘The Invisible Hand’ at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia

When we meet Nick Bright, his life has never looked bleaker. A midlevel Citibank employee, he’s been kidnapped in Pakistan by a group of Islamic militants, the followers of a local Imam. Handcuffed...

Review: ‘The Great American Trailer Park Musical’ at Ritz Theatre Company

The Great American Trailer Park Musical is a terrific title for a show. When you hear it, you know exactly where it takes place – and you can probably guess what the story and the characters are going...

Review: ‘White Guy on the Bus’ at Passage Theatre

Ray is a man living in two worlds. A white, middle-aged financial analyst with a spacious house in an upscale Philadelphia suburb, he spends his free time attending parties, discussing social issues...

Review: ‘All the Days’ at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, NJ

Ruth Zweigman is not a pleasant person to be around. She’s so negative that when she says “I’m in a bad mood,” her sister responds, “How can you tell?” After making a typically harsh wisecrack about...

Review: ‘The Radicalisation of Bradley Manning’ at Inis Nua Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Inis Nua Theatre Company has made a specialty of performing plays written in, and set in, the British Isles. So it may seem odd that Inis Nua is doing a play about Bradley Manning, the American...

Review: ‘A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur’ at South Camden Theatre Company

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is one of Tennessee Williams’ lesser-known plays. First staged in 1978, a few decades after his biggest successes, Creve Coeur has echoes of Williams’ best-known works,...

Review: ‘‘I Will Not Go Gently’ at 1812 Productions in Philadelphia

Back in the eighties and nineties, there was no rock star edgier or more electrifying than Sierra Mist. (No, she’s no relation to the soda.) But that was a long time ago. Now it’s 2016, and Sierra is...

Santino Fontana Discusses ‘The 2016 Oscar Hammerstein Festival’ at the Bucks County Playhouse

The 2016 Oscar Hammerstein Festival, being held this weekend at the Bucks County Playhouse, brings together a wide array of musical theatre artists, scholars, and enthusiasts to explore the importance...

Review: ‘Sex with Strangers’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

You’d probably expect a play with a title like Sex with Strangers to be provocative, entertaining and, well, sexy. And Laura Eason’s play is all that and then some. It’s not a perfect play; it tends...

Review: ‘1776’ at The Media Theatre in Media, PA

We all know that the Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents ever written. But have you ever actually tried to read it? Pretty boring, right? Who would expect such a dry...

Review: ‘Twelfth Night’ at The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre

There are few plays in the Shakespearean canon as beloved as Twelfth Night. It’s a comedy that uses mistaken identities, trickery, and a healthy dose of romance to captivate its audience. And it’s one...

Review: ‘Macbeth’ at The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre

When you go to see Macbeth, you probably take a few things for granted. You might expect to be impressed by the splendor and beauty of Shakespeare’s language, and you might expect to be drawn into a...

Review: ‘The Nether’ at InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia

Jennifer Haley’s The Nether is set partly in the near future and partly in the distant past. And in Haley’s riveting but frequently disturbing play, each of these eras can be equally dangerous. The...

Review: ‘The Secret Garden’ at The Candlelight Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware

If there’s a show that fits the definition of a “cult musical,” it’s probably The Secret Garden. The show was a hit with families on Broadway in the early nineties, winning three Tony Awards and...