Walnut Street Theatre

Upcoming shows from Jenna Pastuszek include ‘Me, Myself & Barbra’ at the Jersey shore and an appearance at NYC’s Birdland

After taking her original solo show Me, Myself & Barbra to six different states from New Jersey to California, singer, actor, creator, voiceover artist, voice teacher, and performance coach Jenna...

Griffin Stanton-Ameisen previews his ‘Free Space’ at Off-Broadway’s The Tank

Born and raised in Bryn Mawr, PA, and based in NYC, devisor/performer Griffin Stanton-Ameisen, widely known for creating the fictional “motivational sleeper” and internet sensation Yawn Yawnson, is...

Andrew Goren discusses the growing value of ‘Harmony Helper’ in light of the coronavirus pandemic

In 2017, when Andrew Goren, CEO and Founder of Harmony Helper, developed the new digital app to help vocalists with singing, rehearsing, and perfecting their harmonizing skills from the comfort of...

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: ‘Annie’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

The sun’ll come out tomorrow Bet your bottom dollar that Tomorrow there’ll be sun…. Those familiar lyrics seem fresher than ever in Walnut Street Theatre’s new production of Annie. With its book by...

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: ‘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: ‘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...

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...

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: ‘Jerry’s Girls’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3

There’s just no tune As exciting As a showtune In two-four… For Jerry Herman, the lyrics of this early composition, “Showtune,” represent a kind of mission statement. In song after song, in Broadway...

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the Walnut Street Theatre

The Walnut Street Theatre is doing The Importance of Being Earnest in high style. The Victorian era was noted for its excesses in decoration and costume, and Robert Koharchik’s set design for this...

Review: ‘The Lyons’ at Isis Productions

Expletives, insults, and accusations fly, when an unhappy wife, alcoholic daughter, and gay son gather in the hospital room of their dying husband and father for a farewell verbal slug-fest. Isis...

Review: ‘The Gift’ at Walnut Street Theatre

The fun, and perhaps coyness, of The Gift, Will Stutts’ gentle and constantly engaging play at the Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio through March 19th, is the way it uses the personae of...

Repairing and Healing the World Through Theater: An Interview With the Actors of IRC, Philadelphia’s Surreal Theater Company

Near the end of each year, Philadelphia’s only surreal theater, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium (IRC) —with their deeply philosophical mission statement, “We Bring Good Nothingness to...

Review: ‘The Enchanted’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium

A colorful clearing outside a provincial French village is visited by the spirit of a murderer who enthralls Isabel, an innocent young schoolteacher obsessed with the enigma of death. Aided by the...

From the Artful Dodger and Peter Pan to Romeo: An Interview with Brandon O’Rourke of The Media Theatre’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’

Henrik: You left quite an impression portraying the Artful Dodger in Oliver! (2009) and Peter in Peter and the Starcatcher (2016) — both at the Walnut Street Theatre. Seen from the perspective of...

Review: ‘Laughter on the 23rd Floor’ at Walnut Street Theatre

A special recipe for a belly full of laughter awaits at the Walnut Street Theatre. Take a bunch of madcap comedy show writers, mix with mayhem and a kooky secretary, add a tinge of McCarthyism, shake...

Review: ‘Last of the Red Hot Lovers’ at Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio on 3

There is one man and three different women. He’s in the midst of a midlife crisis, trying to connect with somebody not his wife, and find something “beautiful” in an affair. But it’s not that easy....

An Interview With Aaron Cromie and Matthew Mastronardi on Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ at Walnut Street Theatre

I have seen many Christmas shows, each one enjoyable in its own way, but I’ve never seen a production as moving, as unusual, and as artistically satisfying as this unique version of A Child’s...

Review: ‘Son of a Dog’ at Walnut Street Theatre

“Tawakalt ala Allah” is Arabic, and in English it means, “I rely on God”. This is the phrase that Gameel Al-Batouti uttered repeatedly as Egypt Air flight 990 went down on October 31, 1999. Everyone...

Review: ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’ at Walnut Street Theatre

From the moment I entered the Independence Studio on 3 (3rd floor of the Walnut Street Theatre), the holiday spirit was evident. Hot cider was available for the audience to savor, and once inside the...

Review: ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Walnut Street Theatre

A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others. ~ The Wizard of Oz to The Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz There’s no place like Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre...

Life as ‘The Other Place’: An Interview with Jane Ridley

Life as THE OTHER PLACE: An interview with Jane Ridley, actor and theater professor. Background: UK and US Childhood Henrik: You were born in the UK and were briefly transplanted to the US as a child....

‘The Other Place’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3 in Philadelphia

The Other Place seems at first like a straightforward drama: Juliana, a brilliant and highly esteemed 59-year-old scientist, is beginning to suffer from memory loss. This brings her into conflict with...

Review: ‘Molly Sweeney’ at Irish Heritage Theatre

Filled with poetic language, engaging characters, and penetrating insights into the human condition, Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney represents the tradition of Irish storytelling at its very best. Told...

Review: ‘South Pacific’ at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA

The hunger for optimism is never in short supply these days. Walnut Street Theatre brings life to an American classic in their current production of South Pacific under the direction of Charles...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Interview: ‘Revisiting Current Remounts of Past Hits with Terry Brennan, Tina Brock, and Greg Kennedy’

Three annual Fringe favorites have chosen to remount a past hit for this year’s festival, giving audiences a chance to see the acclaimed works they missed, or to revisit the shows they loved. I had...

2016 Philadelphia Fringe Festival Review: ‘Eugène Ionesco’s The Chairs’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium

Emptiness. Isolation. Boredom. Expectation. Emptiness. The Old Man and Old Woman over-react to the petty nuisance of mosquitoes flying around them, then yammer incessant inanities to fill up the void...

A Divine Chat with Mother Superior: Mary Martello of Walnut Street Theatre’s ‘Sister Act’

“I live my life as a flawed character” Mary Martello started performing at the age of seven and “has continued through four kids and fifty years.” She began in Michigan (where she trained at BoarsHead...

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: ‘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: ‘Lacey Ward: Girl Detective’ at The Phenomenal Animals in Philadelphia

The first of Robert Cousins’ four-part series on fictional teenage sleuth Lacey Ward makes its Philadelphia debut with the Phenomenal Animals in a short six-performance run. Self-described as a...

Review: ‘Always…Patsy Cline’ at Walnut Street Theatre – Independence Studio on 3 in Philadelphia

As one of the most iconic country singers of all time, Patsy Cline was taken away from us too quickly. At age 30, she left us with classics as “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “Stupid Cupid,” “Crazy,” and “I...

Review: ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ At Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia

Walnut Street Theatre rocked with laughter tonight. The Pirate King, Black Stache, was arguing with his mate, Smee, concerning a severed. . .oh well you have to see it. It was like old time vaudeville...

Review: ‘Too Much Sun’ at ISIS Productions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia’s own Nicky Silver delivers once again with Too Much Sun, a modern play focusing on a family and the drama that comes with a summer house in Cape Cody. The framing, shape, and journey of...

Review: ‘Red’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio 3 in Philadelphia

Mark Rothko, the acclaimed abstract expressionist painter returns to Philadelphia in Red, the Tony Award-winning play by John Logan, at the tiny Independence Studio black box of the Walnut Street...

Review: Joilet Harris: ‘From Me to You With Love’ at The Arden Cabaret Series in Philadelphia

“A chance at an intimate, up close and personal conversation.” That is how Matthew Decker, Arden Theatre Associate Artistic Director and Cabaret Series Director, described the goal of The Arden...

Review: ‘The Government Inspector’ at Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium in Philadelphia

First performed in 1836, The Government Inspector–playwright Nikolai Gogol’s unrelenting farce on socio-political corruption in Imperial Russia–has long been considered an important precursor to...

Review: ‘Harvey’ at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia

So what if he’s invisible? He’s still the best friend and constant companion of the lovably eccentric tippler Elwood P. Dowd in Harvey, a delightful revival of Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize-winning...

Review: ‘A Moon for the Misbegotten’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3 in Philadelphia

There’s no moon in the newest version of A Moon for the Misbegotten. The set, designed by Andrew Thompson, looks great, but because the ceiling of the Independence Studio on the Walnut Street...

‘Becoming Dr. Ruth’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3 in Philadelphia

Becoming Dr. Ruth is a cute little show about a cute little lady. A one-woman show about Ruth Westheimer, the world’s most famous “German-French-Israeli-American” TV sex therapist, Becoming Dr. Ruth...

‘A Christmas Story, The Musical’ at Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia

During intermission at A Christmas Story, The Musical, a woman sitting a few seats to my right marveled to me that her guest for the night had never seen the 1983 movie that inspired this musical....

‘Shipwrecked!’ at Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3 in Philadelphia

At the beginning of Shipwrecked!, Greg Wood bounds onto the stage of the Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio and greets the audience: “Hello,” he says, “and welcome to this temple of...

‘High Society’ at The Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia

Philip Barry’s 1939 play The Philadelphia Story has long been rightly celebrated as a model of wit and sophistication. It inspired a classic movie version the following year and then, in 1956, High...

In the Moment: Walnut Street Theatre’s Touring Company Brings ‘A Life in the Theatre’ to GMU’s Center for the Arts on February 6th

America’s oldest theatre, Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, PA, also has a touring company component. The touring company is a regular presence at the George Mason University Center for the Arts,...

Walnut Street Theatre’s ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts by Kari and RJ Rothstein

After recently hearing that Driving Miss Daisy is a play that contains the “presence of love,” that statement caused the mind to begin searching the script for evidence. Who shows love and to whom and...

Walnut Street’s ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ at George Mason U’s Center for the Arts by Francine Schwartz

Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio brought audiences at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts a fast-paced adaptation of Jules Verne’s masterpiece Around the World in 80 Days this...