At the end of the nineteenth century, Sarah Bernhardt was the grande dame of French theater and Eleonora Duse her Italian counterpart. The two actresses had contrasting strengths. Bernhardt’s acting was glamorous and stylized; she posed prettily and had a self-consciously beautiful voice. Duse’s approach was more realistic; she believed…
“Poor Wandering One” is among the loveliest of Gilbert and Sullivan’s many lovely melodies, but you haven’t really lived until you’ve heard Johnette Toye singing it — as she does in Phantom of the Music Hall. Toye preens and staggers and makes her mouth into a dark, wide-open square from…
Impulse Theater. Basements and comedy go together like beer and nuts or toddlers and sandboxes. The basement of the Wynkoop Brewing Co., where Impulse Theater performs, is crowded, loud and energetic. Impulse does no prepared skits, nothing but pure improv — which means that what you see changes every night,…
Watching television with Isabelle, my crinkly-haired, adventurous, lemon-curd-loving Belgian anthropologist friend, was always a hoot. I’d explain to her the inexorable rules of U.S. television drama: No, House hasn’t arrived at the correct diagnosis because it’s 8:30 p.m., and that only happens at seven minutes to 9. She delighted in…
Although Man of La Mancha first opened in New York in 1965, I’d somehow managed to go all these years without seeing it. I had heard the songs, of course — who hasn’t? — but I thought of the musical as soggy and dated and had no intention of attending…
The Last Five Years. A bittersweet account of the breakup of a five-year marriage, a specifically New York love story, The Last Five Years is told with the kind of warm, neurotic, clever-rueful Jewish humor we expect from such stories. Catherine is a young actress looking for her big break;…
There has been a great deal of excitement around The War Anthology, which began when Curious Theatre Company artistic director Chip Walton and assistant director Bonnie Metzgar commissioned several writers to create stage pieces based on war photographs. Anticipation grew when the theater announced the participation of Pulitzer winners Paula…
There’s nothing more romantic than being young and in love in New York City, walking together along the worn, sooty streets touched by that filtered city sunlight, oblivious to the sound of traffic and the rush and impatience of the anonymous crowd. The Last Five Years has been widely described…
Amy’s View. The protagonist of David Hare’s Amy’s View is a London stage actress, Esme Allen. By the play’s opening, her star has dimmed and she hasn’t worked in a few years. Still, she’s stylish and witty, accustomed to sweeping into rooms and commanding attention. She believes in the theater…
Imagine you’re at an unnamed beach, surrounded by sand, salt-laden air and the sound of the sea rolling endlessly in and out, everything around you in muted shades of beige, silver and blue. By the weathered boardwalk, you meet two enchanting sisters. Lucy, a banker, is balanced, grounded, logical and…
Some time ago, I met Kathleen Widdoes at a writers’ conference in Prague. Most people who recognize the name at all know Widdoes from her role on As the World Turns, but she is a classically trained stage actress; I remembered her as a vital, witty and beautiful Beatrice in…
Impulse Theater. Basements and comedy go together like beer and nuts or toddlers and sandboxes. The basement of the Wynkoop Brewing Co., where Impulse Theater performs, is crowded, loud and energetic. Impulse does no prepared skits, nothing but pure improv — which means that what you see changes every night,…
As the Bush administration moves America toward a permanent state of war against an undefined and therefore unconquerable enemy — war that is leaching the country’s coffers, grinding up young soldiers, causing suffering overseas and enriching the president’s cronies — it’s good to hear the cynical, angry voice of Bertolt…
A Delicate Balance. The setting is the living room of Tobias and Agnes, a wealthy East Coast couple, and the play is a twisted descendant of the classic drawing-room comedy, although no one is likely to enter from the garden holding a racket and crying, “Tennis, anyone?” Edward Albee uses…
The setting is the living room of Tobias and Agnes, a wealthy East Coast couple, and the play is a twisted descendent of the classic drawing-room comedy, complete with elegant furniture and a much-frequented drinks table. There’s even a properly rebellious daughter. But no servants enter the picture, and no…
There’s not much depth to The Smell of the Kill, but it’s wonderfully malicious and a lot funnier than any of the sketch comedy I’ve seen lately. Nicky, Molly and Debra are thrown together once a month by their husbands’ friendship; on this particular occasion, they cluster in the shining…
Frozen. It’s hard to deal with murder — particularly the rape, murder and dismemberment of a child — without being exploitative. It’s hard to explore the issue of forgiveness without sentimentality. But Bryony Lavery’s Frozen succeeds on both counts. The title of the three-character play — involving the child murderer,…
The rift between those who believe in a punitive God — a God who insists on absolute obedience and condemns sensual delight — and those who see God as the apotheosis of love, joy and freedom runs through hundreds of years of history. It also shapes the politics of contemporary…
In some of the skits, the material is funnier than the execution; in others, the execution is better than the material. Overall, Red Scare is a hit-and-miss proposition — with mildly amusing moments alternating with laugh-yourself-silly scenes and a few out-and-out clunkers. Red Scare is a production of Chicago’s famed…
Frozen. It’s hard to deal with murder — particularly the rape, murder and dismemberment of a child — without being exploitative. It’s hard to explore the issue of forgiveness without sentimentality. But Bryony Lavery’s Frozen succeeds on both counts. The title of the three-character play — involving the child murderer,…
When critics review the work of August Wilson, the same words tend to recur. Rich. Musical. Textured. Multi-layered. And here are a few phrases that apply both to his entire output and specifically to Gem of the Ocean, now playing at the Denver Center: a titanic work; a grand vision,…
Okay, it’s a world premiere of a play by a local writer, but the question remains: Why is a company like Modern Muse, which in the past has demonstrated a certain level of integrity and artistic ambition, presenting a work as weak as The Raft? There’s one slightly original element:…
