New York

Review: ‘Electra’ at Villanova University, in Villanova, PA

The mists of ancient history paint the birth of theater as religious ritual that gradually transmuted into drama.The Ancient Greeks always considered attending a play festival as a religious act and...

Come to KAT’s ‘Cabaret’: Part 2: Meet Chuck Dluhy

In Part 2 of a series of interviews with the cast of Kensington Arts Theatre’s (KAT) Cabaret, meet Chuck Dluhy. Joel: Where have local theatergoers seen you perform before on our local stages? What...

Who’s in Town?: An Interview With Anaïs Mitchell, Appearing with John Gallagher, Jr. Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

Anaïs Mitchell is a singer-songwriter and musician who has been called the queen of modern folk music. Her 2010 album Hadestown, a folk-opera based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and set in the...

Who’s in Town?: John Gallagher, Jr. on Appearing with Anaïs Mitchell Tonight 9/22 @7:30 PM at The Hamilton in DC

John Gallagher, Jr. is a Tony-Award winning actor and musician. He won a Tony-Award in 2007 for his portrayal of Mortiz Stiefel in the rock musical Spring Awakening and was recently back on Broadway...

Review: ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical’ at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson, NY

Legally Blonde: The Musical opened Saturday night, September 17, 2016, at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson. Based on the book written by Amanda Brown, and also the popular 2001 movie, Legally Blonde:...

Review: ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ at the Media Theatre

While there seems to be a never-ending stream of books or movies remade into musicals, few compare to 2014 Broadway musical The Bridges of Madison County. The book by Pulitzer Prize winning Marsha...

Review: ‘Sister Act’ at Toby’s The Dinner Theatre of Columbia

Nuns are more fun in the round. That’s a catechism we learned at Toby’s Dinner Theatre via Nunsense and other shows so many times it became an article of faith. Now Toby’s is up to its wimples in old...

Review: ‘Guys and Dolls’ at the Old Opera House Theatre Company

If you have to take a gamble with your theatrical options this weekend, this reviewer bets you will thoroughly enjoy the classic musical comedy Guys and Dolls at the Old Opera House Theatre Company!...

Magic Time! ‘Come From Away’ at Ford’s Theatre: ‘A show on its way to Broadway that’s so moving and inspiring I would see it again in a heartbeat’

When I saw this new musical on the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, there were no more than ten minutes during it when my eyes were dry. They welled up from the first scene. Sure, I know I tear up...

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...

Review: ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’ at Colonial Players of Annapolis

This remarkable production of The Cripple of Inishmaan is a fantastic way to kick off Colonial Players’ new season, its 68th. Written by Martin McDonagh and directed by Dave Carter, it tells the story...

Review: ‘All My Sons’ at Vagabond Players

‘All My Sons’ highlights painful secrets from the past Vagabond Players’ All My Sons, expertly directed by Michael Byrne Zemarel, is a masterful staging of a classic work by one of the great American...

Review: ‘EDWIN, The Story of Edwin Booth’ at The Theatre at St. Clement’s in NYC

Renowned as the greatest American Shakespearean actor of his day, Edwin Booth (1833-93), the brother of Abraham Lincoln’s killer John Wilkes Booth, could have easily become the collateral damage of...

A Preview with the Cast and Team of ‘The Vanity’ at Theatre Row in NYC

What do you get when you mix The Picture of Dorian Gray with Sunset Boulevard and Valley of the Dolls? A high-camp melodramatic parody on the consequences of aging in a profession where youth and...

Review: ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ at The Goodspeed

I have been viscerally connected to this charming musical about teenage life during the mid-1950s, when pop music was surrendering to the hot wave of rock ‘n roll started more or less by icon of the...

Come to KAT’s ‘Cabaret’: Part 1: Meet Sarah Jane Bookter

In Part 1 of a series of interviews with the cast of Kensington Arts Theatre’s (KAT) Cabaret, meet Sarah Jane Bookter. Joel: Please introduce yourself to our readers. Sarah: Hello! I am Sarah Jane...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Cyrano: A Love Letter To A Friendship’

Edmond Rostand’s classic French play of 1897, Cyrano de Bergerac, is re-envisioned through a post-modern gay lens in Grind Arts Company’s Cyrano: a love letter to a friendship. The triangular story of...

2016 FringeNYC Review: “Steve Got Raped”

Relationships are hard. And that goes double if you’re pushing 30, but still haven’t made the psychological and emotional transition from youth to adulthood. In The New Collective’s world premiere of...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Take One”

Sometimes even the most inspired geniuses need to do some rethinking, reworking, and rewrites of their greatest creations to forge an unforgettable masterpiece. Such is the case with God,...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Dementia Americana”

On June 25, 1906, famed architect Stanford White, of the firm McKim, Mead & White (among whose most noted works is NYC’s Washington Square Arch), was shot and killed by crazed multi-millionaire Harry...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Einstein!’

15,000 documents ÷ 3 years of intensive research + 1 actor x 9 characters = the formula for success with Einstein! Written and performed by Jack Fry, the one-man tour-de-force brings the titular...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?’

From the time she was a kid, Ronna J Levy knew that she wanted to be an actress. How she ended up being a teacher is the theme of her original one-woman show of 2012, This Gonna Be on the Test, Miss?...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Tribulation: The Musical’

A post-modern take-off on the Book of Revelation, Tribulation: The Musical, with book and lyrics by Molly Miller and music by Brad Kemp, reimagines the Apocalypse through the eyes of a recent college...

Review: ‘Detroit’ at Theater With a View, in Pottstown, PA

Do you know your neighbors? Even their names? Years ago, (before the internet, video games, and cable TV), people routinely visited their neighbors, to share cups of sugar and companionship. Today, we...

An Interview with The Bang Group’s David Parker on ‘Stuck on You’ at Philadelphia’s GayFest! 2016

“Dance theater with a queer sensibility, high spirits, and a spirit of adventure”: An interview with The Bang Group Co-Founder David Parker, performing at Philadelphia’s GayFest! 2016 Laughs abound as...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Cabtivist’

After listening to John McDonagh’s hilarious reminiscences about his life as a New York cabbie, you’ll be convinced that few jobs are as rife with comic material. Born and raised in Queens, the son of...

In the Moment: Theatre Communications Group Reaches Out to Veterans

Reaching out to new or underserved audience for audience development is likely a major, on-going activity for any local theater troupe. Given the large number of military families and veterans in the...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Joey Variations: A Play with Dance’

A poignant and uplifting three-hander, Joey Variations: A Play with Dance, written and directed by Jon Spano, is a seemingly simple story about the psychological and emotional complexities of...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘The Legend of Oni’

Fulfilling a ten-year dream, the all-female Musical Company OZmate, from Takarazuka, Japan, has brought its epic tale, The Legend of Oni, to FringeNYC, and NYC couldn’t be more fortunate! Based on...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Humorously Horrendous Haunted Hideaway’

If you’re a fan of the fright genre and nostalgic for classic Saturday morning TV shows for kids, Playlab NYC’s Humorously Horrendous Haunted Hideaway will have you screaming with laughter! Written...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘The Intriguing Engagements of Frances and Meg Cheatham, Ladies of Society’

As two upper-crust English sisters of marriageable age in the Victorian era, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw and Natalia Dyer bring new meaning to sibling rivalry in the titular roles of Adaire Kamen’s The...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘The Theatre Made in Paradise’

What better reason to leave Elizabethan England than to stage a production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the New World and to found an indie theater there? That’s the witty premise of playwright...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Algorithmism’

Traditionally, one of the defining factors of human civilization is a society that creates art. But are the hand, mind, and emotions of the artist integral parts of the creative process, or can the...

2016 FringeNYC Review: ‘Till Birnam Wood’

Philadelphia’s John Schultz brings an immersive sensory experience to FringeNYC with Till Birnam Wood, an original adaptation of Macbeth. Already a hit in the 2014 and 2015 Philly Fringe Festivals,...

An Interview With ‘My Favorite Husbands’ Playwright Andrew Marvel-Playing at GayFest! 2016 in Philadelphia

Just when the US is in a political freefall, with Trump and Clinton battling it out, while Stein and Johnson are waiting in the wings, Playwright Andrew Marvel opens a Pandora’s box with Gay...

Review: ‘The Little Mermaid’ at Glyndon Area Players

Look at it all, look how it gleams! Glyndon Area Players’ (GAP) 2016 production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid is certainly somewhere beyond my wildest dreams! Playing through this Sunday, August 7th...

Interviews With The Playwrights of the Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival 2016-Opening Tonight 8/3/16 and Playing Through Sunday 8/7/16

The Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival 2016 (PWTF) opens tonight, August 3rd and runs through this Sunday, August 7, 2016. It offers the following Staged Readings, introducing Philadelphia to...

Review: ‘The Gold’ at the New York Musical Festival in NYC

For Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Philip Yosowitz, the story he weaves in The Gold, a fictional history of the impact the Holocaust had on one extended family of German Jews, is very personal. His own...

Ray Didinger and Joe Canuso Kick Off ‘Tommy and Me’ at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia

When award-winning sportswriter and radio-show host Ray Didinger was a kid, he never could have imagined that he’d end up helping his boyhood hero, wide receiver Tommy McDonald, be inducted into the...

Steps from Broadway: “How To Quit Your Day Job” Makes Its NYC Debut

DC to Broadway! That’s the dream of the cast and creative team behind the new musical How To Quit Your Day Job. And they are well on their way thanks to a packed house and standing ovation at the...

Review: ‘BSO: The Music of David Bowie’ at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) honored the remarkable career and personality of glam rock icon David Bowie with a spectacular tribute production: The Music of David Bowie, featuring the late...

Review: ‘A Class Act’ at New World Stages in NYC

As a practicing trial and class-action lawyer for 46 years, playwright Norman Shabel has seen the American legal system from the inside, and it isn’t pretty. He draws on that first-hand experience for...

Nibbles and Sips Around Town: Ashlar at the Morrison House ~ The Return of The Majestic ~ True Food in the Mosaic District ~ Author Luncheons at the Hay Adams ~ Edible Flowers Decorate the Plate

Swank Modern Interior and New Chef Dazzle at the Morrison House At long last the Morrison House the elegant boutique hotel in Old Town, Alexandria has shed its dowdy decor to feature a snazzy redo by...

Review: ‘Unforgettable Hits’ at Steel River Playhouse, in Pottstown, PA.

Atlantic City came to the Philadelphia area last night and it was a rare treat. Those who primarily know Rebecca Shoemaker and Michael McGeehan from their videos from Caesar’s Palace or their CDs or...

Review: ‘Tink!’ at the New York Musical Festival in NYC

From Peter and The Starcatcher to Finding Neverland, the ever popular tale of Peter Pan continues to inspire original interpretations for the theater. A different take on J.M. Barrie’s beloved...

‘Something Rotten’ Revisited at The St. James Theatre in NYC

I first reviewed this unselfconsciously entertaining musical comedy at the beginning of its run in April 2015. I wanted to see it again to determine how it was holding up now that five of its...

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: ‘Ring of Fire” at People’s Light in Malvern, PA

The man in black has come to Malvern. It’s a long way from The Grand Ole Opry, but People’s Light has imported a cast that seems to have grown up in that world, with musical instruments in hand. Ring...

‘How to Quit Your Day Job’ to Debut at NYC’s Feinstein’s 54 Below on Saturday, July 30th at 11:30 PM by Star Johnson

How to Quit Your Day Job to Debut in New York City on July 3oth Jonathan Larson wrote a song a day. This may be a musical theatre urban myth, but it’s constantly on loop in my mind. In any other...

Review: ‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’ at Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre & Children’s Theatre

A first-rate production of Monty Python’s Spamalot opened last night in the intimate Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre & Children’s Theatre, in Frederick, Maryland. Spamalot is the creation of Monty...