CLEVELAND THEATER REVIEWS

The Westons of Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, gives new meaning to the phrase dysfunctional family....

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Lillian Hellman, author of 'The Little Foxes,' which is now in production at the Cleveland Playhouse, was a rebel with many causes. An independent woman in an era before the women's rights and liberation movements, she had strong political and societal opinions. Because of her liberal affiliations s...

Cormac McCarthy, the author of 'The Sunset Limited,' which is now on stage at none too fragile theatre, probes, in his script, the topics: Why would someone want to commit suicide? Why does one person turn to religion when angst-filled, while another rejects the concept of a deity? Is traditional ed...

Do you like close-harmonic singing? Are you harking back to experience the 'good' old days? Do you like to escape from the stressful world and just 'yak' at comedy shticks and revel in the ridiculous? Then the place for you to be is Beck Center where Cleveland's multi-award winning choreographer, Ma...

Dobama may be entering its 55th year (I was present the moment founding artistic director Don Bianchi declared its existence), but it is actually in its first season. What? Late last season, the Dobama board voted to change the status of venue to that of a full professional theatre. This makes Dobam...

Theatre is representative of the era from which it comes. Seeing a play that reflects a specific time period can reveal the cultural attitudes of the people and society of that period....

Eric Lane is a prolific and prize winning playwright. His plays include 'Times of War,' 'Filming O'Keefe,' 'Floating,' and 'Dancing on Checkers' Grave.' Never heard of them? You are not alone. In spite of his recognition for writing some episodes for TV's 'Ryan's Hope,' his scripts are not on the li...

In 1932, Leni Riefenstahl attended a rally where Adolf Hitler spoke. She was so mesmerized by his public speaking ability that she reported that she had an apocalyptic vision that included a stream of water touching the sky and shaking the earth....

'By the time the show is over, you will have been taken on a journey more compelling and magical than you could have imagined. For this, I think, is our principal function-as we delight, provoke and entertain, we must always surprise.' These are Jackie Maxwell, the Shaw Festival's Artistic Director,...

'The Frogs,' Stephen Sondheim and Burt Shevelove's musical adaptation of Aristophanes' ancient Greek comedy, had a novel introduction to the stage. In 1974 it was produced in Yale University's Swimming Pool by the Yale Repertory Theatre....

I had one of my greatest experiences in the theatre when, on June 30, 1960, I attended the opening of 'Oliver!' at the New Theatre in London, England. I was seated 3rd row center!...

The Stratford Festival of Canada, whose present artistic director is Atoni Cimolino, started on July 13, 1953, when Sir Alec Guiness walked onto a stage located in a large tent and spoke the first lines of what has become the internationally-recognized celebration of theatre. Now housed in five thea...

It probably will come as shock to many to know that when the play, 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' a script by Dale Wasserman, based on Kent Kesey's novel of the same name, opened on Broadway in 1963, in spite of a cast that included Kirk Douglas, Gene Wilder, William Daniels, Ed Ames and Joan Te...

Czech born Thomas Stoppard is a Jewish British playwright who escaped from his birth country in 1939, just before the Nazi occupation. Living, in England, he has gained a reputation as one of modern English language's greatest playwrights. The recipient of an Academy Award and four Tony Awards, it i...

On a November Saturday afternoon in 2007, I anxiously entered the Hilton Theatre in New York. I love exaggerated, well-conceived and performed farce. I was going to see 'Young Frankenstein' by the king of farce and parody, Mel Brooks. Yes, 'Young Frankenstein,' officially known as 'The New Mel Brook...

Part concert, part history lesson, and a lot of rock 'n roll-- that's 'Million Dollar Quartet', now on stage at the Ohio Theatre in PlayhouseSquare....

There was 'Star Trek.' Then 'Star Wars.' Then there were the werewolves and vampires. Then 'Hunger Games.' Now there is 'Starmites.'...

Last year's Porthouse production of 'South Pacific' joined the beautiful and gifted Kayce Cummings (Green) as Nellie Forbush with suave and talented Greg Violand as Emile DeBecque, with Terri Kent, the theatre's artistic director. The result was 'an evening of fine entertainment.' This year the trio...

Every once in a while a theatrical production results in a 'what is going on?' and 'why is time and energy being wasted on this?' reaction. Such is the case with 'A Map of Virtue' now on stage at convergence continuum....

The Rabbit Run production of the farce, 'Noises Off,' was well directed, well acted, well technically presented and turned out to be a laugh riot! I saw this show in London was convulsed with laughter. The PP show had much the same effect on me. For anyone wanting a fun summer experience, the trip t...

George Bernard Shaw, considered by many to be the premiere English playwright of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, had very set opinions, which he expressed in his writing. A member of the Fabian Society, which was an utopian movement dedicated to establishing a socialist society, h...

In the last century, the Cleveland Foundation, the first community foundation in the world, has given $1.78 billion dollars in grants to enrich the lives of young and old through working for sustaining a vibrant local economy, developing human potential, reimagining Cleveland, pioneering housing opt...

Ed Falco, who teaches writing and literature in Virginia Tech's MFA program, may best be known for his being the uncle of Edie Falco, who played the role of Carmela Soprano on the Sopranos. He is also noted for his work with artists and actors through exploring the healing power of drama....

Roy Berko (Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle) Eric Coble, a Cleveland Heights-based writer, is the author of the Alexandra Trilogy. Each play showcases Alex/Alexa/Alexandra at different ages and stages of her life....