“Yeah, it’s always summer somewhere.” – Smelly, Act II, “Camp Rolling Hills” The sixth musical number in “Camp Rolling Hills” is “A Reason to Smile” in which Slimey (camper Stephanie Gregson’s nickname) tries to convince new camper Smelly (camper Robert Benjamin’s nickname) that although “divorce isn’t easy soon you’ll see it’s not so bad.” This advice comes from a girl…
It is with sadness that Signature Theatre announces its Founder James Houghton passed away at his home in Manhattan on August 2, 2016 after a two year battle with stomach cancer. He was 57 years old. Under James Houghton’s leadership as Founding Artistic Director, Signature Theatre became one of the country’s preeminent theatre companies. Signature was the first company to…
“On the 24th of May, 1869, we started down the Green River with provisions for eight or ten months, according to Major Powell. Our provisions got wet and were lost in different ways, and finally the largest boatload was lost in Diamond Falls on the Green River. All this reduced our rations. Though we had plenty of fish on Green…
Brett Sullivan’s “The Last Word” is a delightful new musical with a great deal to offer. Mr. Sullivan and his creative team have carefully thought through a musical that features an outstanding cast, a fully developed story with a clear dramatic arc, and an engaging theme that readily connects to the audience. “The Last Word” is one of the few…
The most significant accomplishment of the new musical “Tink!” is that it will send you flying back to the J.M. Barrie classic, yearning to reclaim the magic and fantasy created by the adventures of Peter Pan, which is sorely missing in this current production, examining the backstory of the infamous fairy Tinkerbell. The book by Anthony Marino strips this lovable…
Never has a musical been so at war with itself than is “Lisa and Leonardo,” the new musical that finished its run at the New York Musical Festival on Thursday July 28, 2016. It is difficult to know how a talented and experienced creative team could create a musical that in almost two and a half hours’ time fails to…
“A bit of shouting – everyone shouts here – it’s the national sport.” – Robert to Jimmy in “Quietly” Fifty-two-year-old Ian (Declan Conlon) appeals to his teen years’ nemesis Jimmy (Patrick O’Kane) to meet in the neighborhood Belfast pub where they first became aware of one another thirty-six years ago when they were both only sixteen. It is not the…
“General Butler, you are fighting a war because some men saw things differently from some other men.” – Shepard Mallory Based on true events, Richard Strand’s scintillating “Butler,” currently playing at 59E59 Theaters as part of the successful 5A Series, addresses issues of systemic racism extant in the Civil War Era and in the present – racism that threatens the…
“Do I dare/Disturb the universe?/In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” After a successful run at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, “A Confederacy of Dunces” is possibly heading to Broadway. John Kennedy Toole’s picaresque novel was published in 1980 eleven years after his…
Creating a musical based on two Edgar Allen Poe short stories, “How to Write a Blackwood Article” and “A Predicament”, is no easy task given the subject matter and the genre. In this day and age competing with horror films, given the amazing special effects available, trying to frighten, shock or terrify an audience with a stage play, let alone…