CLEVELAND THEATER REVIEWS

The subject of David Adjmi's play, MARIE ANTOINETTE, was a delicate beauty, with gray-blue eyes and ash-blond hair, who following the Seven Years War, was used by her scheming mother, Empress Maria Theresa, to cement an alliance between Austria and France by arranging a marriage to Louis-Auguste....

Theatre, as do all of the arts, represents the era from which it comes or is written about. For example, Lanford Wilson's TALLEY'S FOLLY places the spotlight on Missouri in 1944, the border state that, until this day, is noted for its laws and customs regarding prejudice against Jews, Catholics and ...

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, a production of which is now on stage at Great Lakes Theater, is one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. As such, some critics believe that it is the 'work of a playwright just learning his art.' Though many of Shakespeare's plays are brilliant and have effected the course of West...

What happens when you bring together the music of composer Bela Bartok, noted for developing new sounds for a new century, The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Most, and The Joffrey Ballet, under the creative vision of Ashley Wheater, and the sounds of two well-trained opera s...

Over the last several years much attention has been drawn to the abduction of children and, in rare cases, their return. A short time ago, the Cleveland area had the spotlight placed on it when three young ladies, Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, were freed after their many years of c...

King is being portrayed by the very talented Abby Mueller. Mueller. Sound familiar? Her sister, Jessie Mueller, won the Tony Award for her portrayal of Carol in the original Broadway production of the show....

SHINING CITY, Conor McPherson's script now on stage at Beck Center, is a play about people who are in a search for 'self.' Each of the four characters has an unclear image of who they are, and are in a quest for clarity, love, and the need to emotionally and physically touch someone....

Both Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) and convergence-continuum (con-con) are noted for producing 'on the edge' theatre. Ironically, both are now featuring plays that examine the human experience from the viewpoint of sexual orientation and race/ethnicity....

The reconfigured Groundworks Dance Theater, with two new dancers this season, again proved that they are one of the area's premiere dance companies in their presentation of 'Falling Awake,' in its world premiere, and Artistic Director David Shimotakahara's spellbinding, 'Ghost Opera.'...

Native Clevelander Darren Katz and Israeli born, Yuval Boim, have many things in common. The duo are gay, Jewish, have an intense interest in probing into the psyche of self-identity, security of identification, and victimhood. As revealed in a face-to-face interview, they both seem to thrive on p...

In their catalog, Dramatists Play Service, which owns the production rights to Daniel Pearle's A KID LIKE JAKE, states, 'On the eve of the admissions cycle for Manhattan's most exclusive private schools, Alex and Greg have high hopes for their son Jake, a precocious four-year old who happens to pref...

What do you do if you are bored? If you are Richard Hannay, the major character in Patrick Barlow's THE 39 STEPS, now on stage at Blank Canvas, you go to the theater to see 'something mindless and trivial.' If you, personally are bored and looking for something to fill your time, THE 39 STEPS should...

As revealed in the CPH program: 43 percent of children placed in the child welfare system in Ohio are eventually returned to their families, 24 percent are taken in by relatives ('kinship care'), 15 percent are adopted and 14 percent stay in the system until they become adults....

Social anthropologists offer that humans have four basic needs-survival, pleasure, security and territoriality. They also propose that we need to belong to some group or groups. Most commonly that of a family. Jesse Eisenberg in his play THE REVISIONIST hits on the needs and the desire for connected...

Agatha Christie is one of the world's best-selling authors. Her 66 detective novellas and fourteen short story collections have sold over a billion copies. She is also credited with writing the play and movie scripts for some of her works....

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen Anne Washburn's MR. BURNS A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY, now in production at Cleveland Public Theatre, that when the show opened in Washington, DC in 2012 and then in New York in 2013, it received mixed reviews that ranged from 'passionate dissent' to rav...

At the start of IN THE HEIGHTS, now in its locally produced premiere at Beck Center, Usnavi chases away Graffiti Pete, a graffiti artist, from in front of his Washington Heights 'bodega' (Spanish for a small neighbor grocery store). As the young owner raps, the lyrics and music set the mood for what...

Director Ian Wolfgang Hinz's program notes state, 'GOLDEN LEAF RAG TIME BLUES is an exploration of prejudice and humanism.' He continues, 'Their prejudice blinds them to the humanity in each other and the potential shared love of music, comedy and the need to have someone listen.' He further states,...

I happened to be in D.C. on November 5, 2013 when IF/THEN opened its preview run. I was fortunate enough to get tickets to opening night....

February 1, 1960--North Carolina State University students protested when the administration wouldn't let a black male's name appear on the ballot for student body president. May 15, 1962-Students at the University of Mississippi rioted over the lack of equal rights for black students. April 13, 196...

Most fairy tales start with 'Once upon a time,' and end with 'And they lived happily ever after.' Ever wonder if 'happily ever after' is really true?...

Sean Derry and Alanna Romansky, Co-Artistic Directors of none too fragile have, since its founding in 2010, established the venue as a major theater in the Akron-Cleveland area. Dedicated to being an 'adventurously-bold theatrical voice,' they choose 'modern and relevant' scripts, that are 'thought-...

Katori Hall, who wrote the award winning play THE MOUNTAINTOP, which is in production at Cleveland Play House, in her script attempts to answer such questions as: What was Martin Luther King, Jr. like as a person? With all the death threats that King received, what was his last night alive like? Wha...

Bernard Slade. Name sound familiar? Probably not. How about 'Bewitched,' 'The Flying Nun,' 'The Partridge Family,' 'Bridget Loves Bernie?' Slade and all of those mid-1900 television shows do have a connection. He developed, authored or worked on all of them!...

What do Tracy Letts (SUPERIOR DONUTS), Yasmina Reza (GOD OF CARNAGE), Amy Herzog (4000 MILES), and David Adjmi (MARIE ANTOINETTE) have in common. Their names all appear on the best new contemporary playwrights' lists. Many also are names which, if you have been to Dobama during the past couple of ye...