Philadelphia

Review: ‘Really’ at Theatre Exile

If you’re in the mood for a straightforward narrative with a clear-cut beginning, middle, and ending, then Theatre Exile’s Philadelphia premiere of Really, by Brooklyn-based playwright Jackie Sibblies...

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: ‘Copenhagen’ at Lantern Theater Company

With most of the performances sold out before the show even opened, Lantern Theater Company has already announced a one-week extension of its current production of Copenhagen, and that’s good news for...

An Interview with ‘The Summer Club’ – Previewing ‘A Big Band Valentine’s Day’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

Since its premiere in the Jersey-shore town of Cape May in July 2014, The Summer Club has been bringing the retro sound of the Big Bands, the sophisticated stylings of the Swing era, and the...

Review: ‘The Summer Club: A Winter Holiday’ at Venice Island Performing Arts Center

Don’t let the name fool you. They’re not just “the boys of summer,” they’re here year-round to keep the spirit of Swing, the sounds of the Big Band era, and the camaraderie of the “Rat Pack” alive,...

Review: ‘Bad Dates’ at Act II Playhouse

Bad Dates, by Theresa Rebeck, is the third one-person play I’ve seen in the past two months. The others were 2.5 Minute Ride, an autobiographical drama by Lisa Kron which was produced at Theatre...

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: ‘Peter Pan’ at the Arden Theatre

Arden Children’s Theatre opens its 20th Anniversary Season with a delightful production of Peter Pan, adapted for the stage by Douglas Irvine, and based on J.M. Barrie’s books. Whit MacLaughlin...

Review: ‘Crimes of the Heart’ at Curio Theatre Company

Curio Theatre Company’s production of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize winning tragicomedy, Crimes of the Heart, is the dark and hilarious tale of the Magraths — as twisted a set of sisters as you will...

Review: ‘The Craftsman’ at Lantern Theater Company

Guilty or not guilty? And of what crime? An intriguing real-life episode from 20th-century Art History provides the basis for The Craftsman, Bruce Graham’s latest world-premiere play commissioned and...

Review: ‘Intimate Apparel’ at Villanova Theatre

Villanova Theatre’s final production for 2017 is Intimate Apparel, directed by Valerie Joyce. The play, penned by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, tells the story of Esther Mills (played by Sisi...

Review: Mike Daisey’s ‘This Is Not Normal’ at Philadelphia Theatre Company

It has been exactly one year since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. In that year, countless artists, performers, actors, and professionals have found various forms of...

Review: ‘The Gap’ at Azuka Theatre

The Gap, Emma Goidel’s world premiere play for Azuka Theatre, focuses on Lee, a theater practitioner constructing a performance piece about her older sister, Nicole. Nicole claims, with no irony or...

Haunted by Loss and Abandonment: Talking with the Cast of ‘By the Bog of Cats’ at The Irish Heritage Theatre

By the Bog of Cats – a modern Irish drama by Marina Carr, who has taught in Ireland and the U.S., including at Villanova University – echoes classical Greek theater, especially Medea by Euripides. The...

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: ‘By the Bog of Cats’ at The Irish Heritage Theatre

“To the Bog of Cats I one day will return In mortal form or in ghostly form And I will find you there and there with your sojourn Forever by the Bog of Cats, my darling one.” If there ever was a title...

Review: ‘Quartet’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre

Every few weeks we read in the news about the death, at 90+ years, of a beloved celebrity or artist. Someone always asks, “Whatever happened to them? I thought s/he was already dead.” What does happen...

Previewing ‘The Craftsman’ at Lantern Theater Company: An Interview with Artistic Director Charles McMahon and Playwright Bruce Graham

Philadelphia theater-goers have something extra to be thankful for this Thanksgiving month. Bruce Graham’s latest play The Craftsman, commissioned and developed through Lantern Theater Company’s New...

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...

Troubled Men: Talking with the ‘Father and Sons’ of Quintessence Theatre’s ‘Long Day’s Journey into Night’

Eugene O’Neill, the only American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1936), a man who struggled with alcoholism but who had the courage to address problematic, taboo subjects,...

Review: ‘TouchTones’ at Arden Theatre Company

TouchTones is a new musical by playwright/lyricist Michael Hollinger and composer Robert Maggio. Directed by Emmanuelle Delpech, it delves into the romantic relationship between Christine and Justin,...

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: ‘Ideation’ at Theatre Exile

Ethics, morality, self-interest, and accountability are the big issues addressed in Theatre Exile’s smashing production of Aaron Loeb’s Ideation, in a sardonic send-up of over-the-top ambition, greed,...

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: ‘Blithe Spirit’ at Hedgerow Theatre

Universal button-perfect delivery of delicious Noël Coward lines takes Carly L. Bodnar’s production of Blithe Spirit at Hedgerow Theatre miles into gratifying comic territory, but rollicking payoffs...

A Look Back at Opera Philadelphia’s O17 Festival and ‘The Magic Flute’

When Opera Philadelphia’s O17 Festival was announced in October of 2015, the company headlined its importation of the Berlin’s Komische Oper (Comic Opera) production of The Magic Flute. That...

Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Bristol Riverside Theatre

“We are the slightest bit bizarre” may be quite an understatement when describing some of the delightfully strange tweens competing in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, now playing at...

Review: ‘Cabaret’ at Arden Theatre Company

“Why do we continue to allow destructive powers to gain control?” – Matthew Decker, Director of Cabaret This is the question that runs through Arden Theatre Company’s production of the musical...

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: ‘We Shall Not Be Moved’ by Opera Philadelphia

The sole Philadelphia-based offering in Opera Philadelphia’s O17 Festival is We Shall Not Be Moved. Its powerful message is that the city’s children, and particularly its black children, are deprived...

Review: ‘War Stories’ by Opera Philadelphia

War Stories is a clever pairing of two music dramas dealing with battles, presented by Opera Philadelphia as part of its O17 Festival. The two separate compositions are staged in adjacent areas of the...

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: World Premiere of ‘The Wake World’ by Opera Philadelphia

Inside a museum dedicated to art from the past, the O17 Festival has brought a new opera which celebrates musical and literary styles from the past. Composer/librettist David Hertzberg built upon...

Review: Sondra Radvanovsky in Recital at Opera Philadelphia

Sondra Radvanovsky’s recital as part of Opera Philadelphia’s O17 Festival was a spectacular event. That may seem like an oxymoron to some readers, who expect singer/pianist recitals to be intimate...

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: ‘SEVENTY IV SECONDS… to judgment’ by GoKash OnSTAGE at Arden Theatre Company

Who decides who lives or dies, and how is that just? These are the questions playwright Kash Goins implores audiences to think about in his new play SEVENTY IV SECONDS… to judgment at the Arden...

2017 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘I, Peaseblossom’ by Curio Theatre Company at The Woodlands Cemetery

I, Peaseblossom, written by Tim Crouch and directed by Dan Hodge, is a fun, magical way to become more familiar with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The dreams of the fairy Peaseblossom...

Review: ‘Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3

How is theatre superior to film or TV? What special magic is found in live performance? This question is superbly answered in Souvenir, A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins, Stephen...

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...

Review: ‘Red Velvet’ at Lantern Theater Company

A scarlet curtain lines the stage of the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, London with a controversy lurking on either side. Outside, angry Londoners flood the streets protesting the 1833 Slavery...

Review: ‘Aesop’s Fables’ at Quintessence Theatre Group

All of the characters in Lee Cortopassi’s colorful cartoon-like adaptation of Aesop’s Fables sparkle, and speak, just like the original ones drawn up way back circa 600 B.C. But they also snap,...

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: ‘Die Fledermaus’ at the Santa Fe Opera, and What We’ve Learned

This Santa Fe production of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus was the least Viennese of any I’ve ever seen. No, director Ned Canty did not set it in the American Southwest — which might have been an...

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...

Review: ‘Alcina’ at Santa Fe Opera

Editor’s Note: Our Steve Cohen is in Santa Fe, New Mexico this week, where he’s enjoying the local arts scene and seeing the work of Santa Fe Opera, a company with a close connection to Opera...