CLEVELAND THEATER REVIEWS

Every once in a while a theater-goer is privileged to participate in a staged production that aesthetically enfolds them. Under the creative direction of Victoria Bussert, Great Lakes Theater's THE SECRET GARDEN, is such a creation....

In her directorial notes for the Beck Center's production of Terrance McNally's MOTHERS AND SONS, Sarah May states, 'I was so struck by this play when I saw it on Broadway. Here was an unwritten chapter of the terrible AIDS Crisis!'...

Edward Albee, author of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF, now in production at The Lakeland Civic Theatre, is one of the best known Theatre of the Absurd American writers. This form of theatre, which was at its apex shortly following World War II is based, in part on existentialism, and asks 'what is ...

Arthur Miller's DEATH OF A SALESMAN, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning drama, now on stage at Ensemble Theatre, is universally recognized as one of, if not the greatest modern American play. Others that are recognized as top classic plays are LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (Eugene O'Neil), ST...

Opening night of THE SPITFIRE GRILL was a special evening for the Beck Center for the Arts. It was the start of the organization's 82nd season and Scott Spence's 25th anniversary as Artistic Director....

The Cleveland Play House opened its 100th season in a lavish and theatrically exciting way. An invitation only group of CPH financial supporters, politicians, and theatre enthusiasts, draped in tuxedos and high fashioned gowns, entered the beautiful Allen theatre lobby to have their pictures taken w...

...

Dobama Theatre's mission statement indicates that it is its purpose to 'premiere the best contemporary plays by established or emerging playwrights.' Why, then, are they opening their 2015-16 season with a play set in 1666-1670?...

What could be more appropriate in this year, which leads up to a presidential election, than to examine the political hacks who run the campaigns. Voila, for the start of its 36th season, Ensemble Theatre has chosen Beau Willimon's 2008 drama, FARRAGUT NORTH, which examines the lust for power among ...

Book buyers spend an estimated $1.08 billion dollars each year purchasing romance novels. Since 1972 when Avon printed Kathleen Woodiwiss's 'The Flame And The Flower,' supposedly the first U.S. published book of that genre, almost 55% of all paperbacks sold in the U.S. have centered on romantic rela...

I consider OUR TOWN, which is now being performed at Blank Canvas, to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. It not only won the Pulitzer Prize in 1938, it has become one of the most performed and studied plays in the English language. It, along with Arthur Miller's DEATH OF A SALESMAN, E...

The farcical yet message-loaded 'Hairspray' is the type of musical that in a bad production falls flat, but in a good production leaves the audience energized and dancing in the aisles. Fortunately the must see production at Porthouse Theatre is dynamic, creative, full of joy!...

Jackie Maxwell, the Shaw Festival's Artistic Director, states, 'I have always found that theatre is at its best when the audience spans several generations - a guarantee that the story being told on stage is being taken in and reacted to in a variety of ways, enriching the experience for all.'...

...

As the capacity audience was settling in on opening night of Groundworks Dance Theatre's summer concert in Cain Park's Alma Theatre, there was a loud electronic sound stage right. As the eyes shifted in its direction, a lawn mower was pushed on stage. This was followed by a series of other sounds an...

Local theatres each tend to have a niche audience based on the venue's play selection. Dobama leans toward intellectual contemporary which are having their local premiers. convergence-continuum tilts toward off-beat writers and plots, many with homosexual themes. Cleveland Public Theatre thrives on ...

...

Liz Duffy Adams, whose play, 'The Reckless Ruthless Brutal Charge Of It, or The Train Play' is now on stage at convergence continuum is noted for being an American abstract writer. The word 'abstract' may be the key to confronting 'The Train Play.'...

As I sat shaking my head in disbelief of what I was seeing and hearing on the Blank Canvas Theatre stage, those around me were howling with uncontrollable laughter. What I was seeing was ridiculous, unbelievable, and basically poorly performed. I'm not sure what was making my audience-mates laugh so...

The story goes that in 1970, while attending college in Pittsburgh, John-Michael Tebelak went to church on Easter Sunday. A theology student before he decided he wanted to be a theatrical director, he found the service to be devoid of feeling....

What do 'West Side Story,' 'Gypsy,' 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,' 'Company,' 'Follies,' 'Sweeney Todd' 'Sunday in the Park with George,' and 'Into the Woods,' all have in common? Yes, they are shows which have music written by Steven Sondheim....

In her book, 'Dress Codes: of three girlhoods-my mother's, my father's and mine,' Noelle Howey writes, 'I have a dad who is a woman much like me, but with better legs. And when he was still male, I had a dad possibly like yours: sullen, sporadically hostile, frequently vacant. I had a dad who became...

ALWAYS...PATSY CLINE, now on stage at Actors' Summit, is a well formed musical review in which a Patsy Cline-imitator wails away Cline's signature songs, including 'Walkin' After Midnight,' 'I Fall to Pieces,' 'She's Got You,' 'Anytime,' 'Stupid Cupid,' 'Lovesick Blues, 'Faded Love,' and 'Crazy.' Th...

On the surface, Horton Foote's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, THE YOUNG MAN FROM ATLANTA, now in production at Beck Center, tells the tale of the Kidders (Will and Lily Dale), a Houston, Texas couple who, in 1950, take different paths in coping with the death of Bill, their only son....

About fifteen years ago, an African American student on a Semester at Sea around the world educational cruise jumped overboard. The ship was sailing toward the Suez Canal, with Africa on the port side. The ship turned in the Gulf of Suez, and miraculously found the college student. The young man, af...