There has always been a curiosity and appreciation for bold attempts at new interpretations or the reimagining of the classics and it seems there have been endless attempts on putting a new spin on more than one of these masterworks. There appears to be one more paradigm of this artistic endeavor in the Classic Stage Company’s new production of “Macbeth”…
There are two major elements that undeniably contribute to the success of the entrancing new Broadway Show “Tina – The Tina Turner Musical” now playing at the Lunt- Fontanne Theatre. The first is the captivating life journey of the musical icon and the second is the truly remarkable performance of Adrienne Warren that solidifies her star status on the Great…
Following in the footsteps of Maureen Stapleton in the original and first revival and Mercedes Ruehl featured in the second revival on Broadway comes Marisa Tomei as Serafina Delle Rose in the current production of “The Rose Tattoo” at Roundabout American Airlines Theatre. This rare tragic comedy by Tennessee Williams about a heartbroken, widowed, Italian American who shuts herself off…
Since its premiere at The Public in 1976 and its subsequent transfer to Broadway later that year, much has happened to continue to impact the lives of the women of color celebrated by Ntozake Shange in her choreopoem “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf” currently running at The Public Theater’s Martinson Hall. In this incarnation,…
“Soft Power” – the culture-bending, plot-twisting musical within a play currently running at The Public’s Newman Theater – challenges the notion that the only effective parameters of power are money, race, and sex. These constructs of “hard” power are the hallmarks of greed, systemic racism, and misogyny and, from Xue Xing’s (a sensitive and alluring Conrad Ricamora) point of view,…
Over the past several weeks, The Circle Series has brought the theatre community together on Monday evenings to explore developing works and celebrate the classics in a new way. Concluding their first slate of staged readings, producers Circle in the Square Theatre School (Paul Libin, President; Susan Frankel, COO), Pigasus Institute, and Rachel Shuey will present three readings of developing…
“The Great Society,” the second installment of playwright Robert Schenkkan’s biographical account of the years Lyndon B. Johnson spent as president in the White House, is less a drama and more a chronological list of the destructive events the plagued his second term in office. To the playwright’s credit, it is extensively detailed and factual; however, to his discredit, it…
Three Gen Y Conservative Christians gather at Justin’s (a thoughtful and broken Jeb Kraeger) backyard in Lander, Wyoming to celebrate Generation X Gina’s (a confident and willful Michelle Pawk) inauguration as president of Transfiguration College of Wyoming. These “heroes” are preparing for a battle of Armageddon-like proportions. They do not simply disagree with those infidels on the left: they despise…
Bloody, gory, horror films certainly have been around for quite a while and have been successful in creating a cult audience that supports the genre. Transforming one of these for the stage would certainly be an audacious task. To go one step further, choose the horrific tale of Macbeth penned by William Shakespeare and take some extreme liberties to create…
The sharp and witty dialogue of the latest dramedy penned by playwright Tracy Letts is foreshadowed by the title “Linda Vista” which means “pretty view” in Spanish. The midlife crisis of a bitter fifty-year-old, divorced, white male, who seems to have an insatiable libido and absolutely no respect for women – preferring to exhibit his unbridled male testosterone – is…