Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The new-ness of new plays must be factored into their evaluations. Often over-long and repetitious and occasionally derivative of other, established works, new plays profit from “tryout”…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:25PMSunday, June 14, 2015
The 13 plays in the Stratford (Shakespeare) Festival’s 2015 season, its 63rd, include four that represent the breadth of Shakespeare’s output. His (anyone’s) greatest play “Hamlet”…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:27PMTuesday, June 2, 2015
Plays about Theatre and Theatre People start out with a big advantage. They are written, directed and acted by people who usually know what the heck they’re talking about. No play fits thi…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:48PMFriday, May 29, 2015
[This memory was triggered by a recent New York Times obituary. Renowned jazz pianist Marty Napoleon died on April 27 at age 93. Marty broke in at age 20 with the Chico Marx Orchestra (feat…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:51PMTuesday, May 12, 2015
The roster of the 870-or-so Tony Award voters (the number varies) includes the boards of Actors Equity, the Directors and Choreographers Society, and the Association of Theatrical Press Agen…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:28PMMonday, April 27, 2015
Would you rather see a celebrated play, even a classic (think Shakespeare), ineptly performed, or a pretty good play, short of a masterpiece, elevated by sterling acting? Me too. Well, that�…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 09:29PMTuesday, April 21, 2015
It’s hard to believe that “Your Blues Ain’t Sweet like Mine” is Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s first full length multi-character play. (The Obie-winning “Lackawanna Blues” was…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:40AMTuesday, April 14, 2015
Holmdel Theatre Company’s performance space is the quintessential “black box”. For the uninitiated, the reference is not to flight recorders so much in the recent news. Theatrical blac…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:52PMMonday, March 30, 2015
“On the 20th Century” isn’t exactly an old dog, but fitted out with some new tricks, one in particular, the current Broadway revival is a snazzy affair. That one indispensable element …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 10:28PMTuesday, March 10, 2015
David Ives is a word-wizard. More sublime playlets than several of the ones from “All in the Timing” have yet to be written. The only ones that even come close are Ives’s own, like tho…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:48PMTuesday, March 3, 2015
It’s not a contest. Neither play is perfect (few are); both treat personal issues with compassion and humor (too few do); and both are given first-class productions (common at both venues)…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:38PMTuesday, February 17, 2015
(In somewhat of a departure, this piece is more local bio than review. It also appears in the Red Bank, NJ weekly Two River Times and is shared here because…well, why not?) Red Bank NJ…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 01:02PMTuesday, February 10, 2015
There’s an acting-class exercise where someone suggests a line and others improvise a conversation that ends with that line. One I recall: “So it’s settled; we’ll call the band Three…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:41PMMonday, January 26, 2015
Over the last few years, stage musicals that happen in New Jersey don’t necessarily stay in New Jersey. At least not if they’ve happened at Paper Mill Playhouse, where the Broadway re-re…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 08:52PMMonday, January 19, 2015
There’s a lot more to “Absurd Person Singular” than just the comedy. In what qualifies as sub-text, Alan Ayckbourn’s play explores different social-class relationships, intra-marriag…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:56PMTuesday, January 13, 2015
“Swimming at the Ritz,” the play having its U. S. premiere at New Jersey Repertory Company, is about Pamela Churchill Hayward Harriman, of whom you might have heard (if you’re older th…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:07AMSaturday, January 10, 2015
Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” recalls the playwright’s earlier (by four years) “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Both plays center on a couple’s love-hate marriage in a…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:33PMFriday, January 2, 2015
Four different productions of “King Lear” were among 113 plays seen in 2014. The first, and longest at three hours-plus, was the Royal …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:20PMMonday, December 22, 2014
As a young New York actor, I found employment driving a cab, tending bar…the usual. Every December I’d get out my trusty red costume, fluffy white wig and beard, and make a decent month�…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:24AMTuesday, December 9, 2014
“Much Ado About Nothing” revolves around young lovers Claudio and Hero’s rocky path to happily-ever-after, but the play is generally a showcase for the roles of Beatrice and B…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 11:38PMTuesday, November 25, 2014
Last year Two River Theater Company presented a semi-staged version of “The Music Man” with a cast of eleven and seven musicians. Now they’re doing a scaled-down “Camelot” with eig…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 12:51PMMonday, November 17, 2014
In order to pull off “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” you need a dozen uninhibited character actors, that many ensemble singers and dancers, some leggy chorus cuties who can change costumes …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 04:39PMFriday, November 7, 2014
JUST OFF TIMES SQUARE… The Playbill bios for the two “On the Town” leads cou…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:21PMTuesday, October 28, 2014
Don’t you just hate it when a good play – a classic, even – is spoiled by inferior acting? (Kelsey Grammer’s Scottish Play comes to mind.) I’ll take the converse anytime, like “A…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:47PMThursday, October 16, 2014
The Goodspeed Opera House production of Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, which officially opened Oct. 15 following previews that began Sept. 19, has again extended its run.
SOURCE: Playbill at 10:00AMWednesday, October 15, 2014
Fragrance and famed French fashion house Chanel has tapped director Baz Luhrmann ("Romeo + Juliet," "The Great Gatsby") to direct a short film featuring supermodel Gisele…
SOURCE: Playbill at 07:05PMThe Goodspeed Opera House production of Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, which is based on the Academy Award-winning film, officially opens Oct. 15 following previews that began Sept. 19.
SOURCE: Playbill at 11:39AMMonday, October 13, 2014
“I LOVED, LOVED it,” a friend e-mailed after we saw “You Can’t Take It With You.” Me too. Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s 1936 Pulitzer-winning play is a thorough delight. The …
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 02:54PMMonday, September 22, 2014
French dramatist Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (better-known as Moliere)’s plays marked the beginning of modern French comedy. Moliere went beyond Commedia dell’ Arte stereotypes, creating char…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 05:04PMFriday, September 19, 2014
The Goodspeed Opera House production of Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn, which is based on the Academy Award-winning film, begins performances Sept. 19.
SOURCE: Playbill at 12:00AMThursday, September 18, 2014
Fortunately for the production budget of “The Wayside Inn,” all the rooms in the play’s eponymous motel are laid out the same, which allows several character studies to play out on the…
SOURCE: sceneonstage.com at 03:47PM 
