“Newton’s Cradle” is an earnest attempt to create a serious musical that sheds some light on the subject of Autism by revealing some significant situations experienced by Evan Newton, who is living with this disorder. It joins the ranks alongside the Broadway play “Curious Incident” in trying to bring to the forefront the consequences associated with this condition and how…
“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…
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…
Since its first production in 2013, Aaron Posner’s “Stupid Fu**ing Bird” – “sort of” adapted from Chekhov’s alluded to classic – cannot begin until a willing audience member takes Con’s (Christopher Sears) challenge and yells out, “Start the fu**ing play.” One wonders what would happen if the playwright had summoned enough courage to allow the audience – purportedly an essential…
There is a great deal of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan in his rollickingly funny “The Rivals” the comedy of manners he wrote for Covent Garden and where it first appeared in 1775. Riffing the sham chivalry and sham romance of his day, Sheridan drew from his life experiences to develop a roster of comedic characters with absurd conflicts that spin…
“Hope comes in the doing, not in the waiting.” – Jean-Paul Sartre Cradeau, Inez, and Estelle – three war-weary Parisian compatriots – bear transgressions that serve as tropes for the horrors of the events surrounding World War II. Critics often have claimed that Sartre’s “No Exit” is not a war play; however, given the date of authorship and the autobiographical…
Terrence McNally’s “And Away We Go,” currently running at The Pearl Theatre Company, has the capacity to shake even the most torpid theatre-goers to tears. In fact, it literally shakes the theatre! The Pearl’s 30th Season world premiere celebrates the endurance of the theatre throughout the ages and consecrates the “spirit” of the theatre that transcends time and space. That…