Friday, April 26, 2024
In 2002, Long Island Reads initiated a program designed to bring together readers in Nassau and Suffolk Counties to discuss a Long Island-related book. Unsurprisingly, the first book was the…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 09:20AMTuesday, April 23, 2024
Years ago, I taught the book The Outsiders to classes of teenagers. My students were intrigued by the two warring gangs separated by economic circumstances: the Socs, wealthy kids in madras …
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 04:18PMThursday, April 18, 2024
Adaptations are common in theater and often popular shows are revised and modified to reach different audiences. Shakespeare is a favorite source of material.“Hamlet” inspired “Fat Ham…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 08:36AMWednesday, April 10, 2024
“The Who’s Tommy” The music from “The Who’s Tommy” is part of the fabric of my life. I grew up singing it, hearing it and loving it. Snatches of songs immediately evoke images an…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 07:12AMSunday, March 31, 2024
I was 14 years old when i went to the circus for the first time. I don’t recollect any of the acts, but I can remember the sideshow and even bought a souvenir ‘giant’ size ring. Overal…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 07:43PMTuesday, March 26, 2024
It’s good to know that classical theater continues to be relevant. Although “An Enemy of the People” by Henrik Ibsen was written in 1882, it feels pertinent today, and as I sat in the …
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 04:57PMSaturday, March 23, 2024
Creating a musical from a successful book and movie is a mixed bag. The upside is that the material already has thousands of loyal fans. At the same time, it attracts audiences with expectat…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 09:49AMTuesday, March 19, 2024
If you ever watched “The Office” (and is there anyone who hasn’t?) you know Holly Flax, the HR person who becomes Michael’s girlfriend. Played by Amy Ryan, she is always smiling, opt…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 08:42AMFriday, March 8, 2024
The latest musical by Jason Robert Brown about working and fact-checking is set at a famous New York magazine in the late 1990’s before the term “fake news” became so popular. Those of…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 12:07PMSaturday, March 2, 2024
There’s a scene in a dark version of Cinderella where the stepsisters, anxious to make the glass slipper fit, cut off their own toes. They will do anything they can to cram their feet in �…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 11:36AMTuesday, February 20, 2024
Who is Jonah? Is he the awkward, bumbling sweet young man infatuated with Ana (Gabby Beans) or is he symbolic of something more? During the first part of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s p…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 05:40PMSunday, February 11, 2024
Towards the end of “A Prayer for The French Republic,” the latest play by Josh Harmon, Grandpa Pierre (played by Richard Masur) asks his family “Why do they hate us?” Then follows a …
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 11:36AMThursday, February 1, 2024
Every family has its baggage but the Layayette family seems to have more than most. Secrets, resentment, and anger all surface with the death of the patriarch of the family as the three sibl…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 01:36PMSaturday, January 27, 2024
It’s the 1950’s, and the Cuban revolution is heating up outside, but the music inside the Buena Vista Social Club is even hotter. While the social club is defunct, the Cuban music remain…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 02:50PMSunday, January 21, 2024
I saw three shows during my busman’s holiday in London over Martin Luther King weekend. Of the three, the most ‘English’ was Operation Mincemeat, an uproarious musical satire based upo…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 10:38AMFriday, January 19, 2024
How does a musical that is quintessentially New York distinguish itself in London? Especially when it is a classic show that premiered in 1950. How can it be mounted to make it unique and ap…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 05:28PMThursday, January 18, 2024
On the recent three day MLK weekend, I took a busman’s holiday, flew to London and attended several shows. The first one I saw was The Motive and the Cue, presented by the National Theatre…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 08:20AMThursday, December 21, 2023
Should you talk to your plants? Science shows that the sound of a human voice helps them grow. It’s also therapeutic for the gardener. In “The Gardens of Anuncia” at Lincoln Center The…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 09:53AMTuesday, December 19, 2023
Who was Johannes Gutenberg? We all know him as the inventor of the printing press which enabled more people to learn how to read.In the musical “Gutenberg,” playwrights Doug (Andrew Rann…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 05:55PMMonday, December 18, 2023
When we become part of an audience, we bring more than our physical selves to the theater. We bring our experiences, our attitudes and even our prejudices. When I attended the matinee of “…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 04:40PMThursday, December 7, 2023
On the surface, Ali, the main character in the new show “Hell’s Kitchen” at The Public Theater directed by Michael Greif, is a typical 17 year old girl with an easily relatable problem…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 02:54PMThursday, November 30, 2023
At the “Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion,” I hoped to be amused as well as amazed. After all, the show at New World Stages is a Mischief Production, the group that produced “Th…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 03:05PMFriday, November 24, 2023
Even before we found our seats at the St James Theater, it was easy to gauge the emotions of the audience. Its mood was downright giddy. With so much tension and anger in the world today, ev…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 08:40AMWednesday, November 15, 2023
It ‘s hard to enjoy a musical when you can’t root for the main character. Although he is attractive and good to his mother, Harry Bogen (well-played by Santino Fonana,) is an opportunist…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 07:50PMSaturday, November 11, 2023
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and that adage has never proven as true as in Theresa Rebeck’s new play “I Need That” in Roundabout Theatre Company’s production at Amer…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 09:25AMFriday, November 3, 2023
Photo by Billy Bustamante, Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman When I first saw “Here Lies Love” in 2013 at the Public Theater, I was one of several people who stood on the theater floor a…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 12:59PMFriday, October 27, 2023
photo by Liz Lauren The title of Rebeca Gilman’s latest play, “Swing State,” suggests that it deals with politics. Although it is set in Wisconsin, which is a swing state, the differen…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 04:30PMThursday, October 19, 2023
So much has been written about Shakespeare over the years that it’s a challenge to find a novel approach to discuss his work. Yet actor Patrick Page (“Hadestown,” “Spider-man Turn Of…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 10:37AMSunday, October 15, 2023
photo by Matthew Murphy Getting married and becoming an American citizen are two events in Jaja’s life. However, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” by Jocelyn Bion is more universal than…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 05:15PMWednesday, October 4, 2023
It’s been over 60 years since “Purlie Victorious” played on Broadway. Written by actor Ossie Davis and premiering in 1961, sadly the play feels as relevant as when it first opened. Def…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 10:17AMThursday, September 28, 2023
The name Dracula always evokes iconic images of the fang-baring scary creature dressed in black. Think Bela Lugosi. Or the Count. Or even the incredibly sensual heartthrob portrayal by Frank…
SOURCE: stagebuddy.com at 03:34PM 
