CLEVELAND THEATER REVIEWS

THE BOOK OF MORMON is an absolute go see production for anyone who is not a language prude or a religious fanatic. It is filled with total delight, magical showmanship, a marvelous score, creative dancing and fine staging. It's everything a modern musical that is meant for pure entertainment, with a...

Under the directing abilities of Terri Kent, the Porthouse production of SOUTH PACIFIC makes for a fine evening of summer entertainment....

MEDEA, a masterpiece example of classical tragedy, is one of the Western world's greatest plays. It is a daunting undertaking. Some directorial decisions and story interpretation in this staging seem questionable, but the production is blessed with a brilliant performance by Tracee Patterson. It's w...

CROWNS tells an important story of perseverance and faith among the women of the Southern African American community, as represented by their 'hatitude.' The Karamu production, which has some strong performances, is somewhat tarnished by some directorial decisions, but is worth seeing....

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Musicals have come from various sources. There has been the tale of an illiterate flower girl who was transformed into a proper woman (MY FAIR LADY), a Biblical Jewish youth who became a leader in Egypt (JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT), a prince who kept searching for his corner of the...

Philip Ridley, the author of TENDER NAPALM, now being staged at Cleveland Public Theatre, was trained as an artist. His paintings, like his plays, are characterized by using a palate of colors, splashed all over. There is also a bizarre quality to his writing which is fairly typical of 1990s British...

If you went to college, and took a course in poetry, you'll find yourself morphing back and wishing that your professors had had a romp in the grass, and expressed themselves with such absurd hysterical language, as the duo in THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS, which is getting a fine production ...

Cleveland Play House's The 2013 New Ground Theatre Festival lit up the three stages in the Allen Theatre complex starting on May 2nd with parts running through the 19th....

Fanatics of chick flicks virtually swoon when they hear the words, 'Love means you never have to say you're sorry,' or someone hums a bar or two of 'Where Do I Begin?' Ah, yes, Andy Williams crooning the theme song from the 1970 film, LOVE STORY, which starred Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw and holds t...

Probing into the lives of real people often yields fascinating theatre. The classical musical CHORUS LINE was based on interviews that Elyrian, James Kirkwood, wove into a fascinating tale of the true life and theatrical experiences of Broadway singers and dancers....

Nicky Silver's absurdist play, THE LYONS, gets an excellent production at Dobama. The balance between comedy and tragedy should get positive audience response and inspire some personal awareness....

The plot: self-made vindictive wealthy person, inhibited daughter, handsome suitor who may be after her money, parent attempts to torpedo the relationship. Sound familiar? It should. That's basically the storyline of the Henry James novella WASHINGTON SQUARE and the play and film, THE HEIRESS. It's ...

Eugene O'Neill, along with such writers as Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, transformed western theatre. They transitioned the stage from a place for escapist ideas into a mecca for the examination of real life problems. The quartet laid the foundation for what is now known as 'the...

WHITE PEOPLE is very well worthwhile for anyone who thinks that gaining insight into personal ideas and values is a mission of theatre. You won't leave this production the same person as when you entered. This is compelling theater!...

One of the fears of seeing a show which I regarded as one of the most mesmerizing that I've ever seen, was that the touring company of WARHORSE would fade by comparison. It did, somewhat, but still came out an exciting winner in the derby called theatre....

The great fear of realizing that MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD is a series of vignettes which look at varying phases of motherhood, is that it will turn out to be a Hallmark sentimental mindless experience. Fear not. The eighteen authors of the vignettes avoid making the experience sappy and purely entertaini...

For those who are interested in seeing a version of what may be the very little performed PERHAPS PERICLES, the Cesear's Forum's showing is a good opportunity....

At the conclusion of FELA!, the Afrobeat political awareness musical, now on stage at the Palace Theatre, caskets are carried onto center stage and piled up. On top of the stack of caskets, emblazed with names such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and words such as 'freedom,' 'bullying' and 'oppr...

STRUCK, now on stage as Cleveland Public Theatre is an interesting piece, much in the vein of Arthur Kopit's WINGS, which had a startling production at Beck Center starring Dorothy Silver, in which the ramifications of a person having a stroke is investigated....

Boy hates girl. Girl hates boy. Boy overhears that girl is secretly in love with boy; girl hears vice versa. Other boy and girl love each other, but something gets in the way of their happiness. That's the basic premise of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, which is now on stage at Great Lakes Theatre. Throw i...

The con-con production of SORDID LIVES is a hoot. Simon has pulled out all the farcical stops. His cast has fun, the audience has even more fun. If you want an evening of outlandish theatre, this is it!...

NICK AND JEREMY is an electric, kool-aid acid trip, minus the drugs, which would make Timothy Leary, the proponent of the use of psychedelic substances and believer in' tune on, tune in, drop out,' very happy. It should be of great interest to deep or pseudo-deep thinkers....

CPH's GOOD PEOPLE is one of those special evenings of theatre that combines a well-written script, excellent direction, and fine acting into an evening of humor and pathos to create a must-see production....

'A man's home is his castle, unless it's a zoo' is the banner used to describe author John Guare's THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, which is now confounding audiences at Beck Center for the Arts....