This past season, NBC aired 'Rise.' The television show spotlighted a high school in a conservative working class neighborhood. The school's new drama teacher, portrayed by Josh Rado, decided rather than staging a traditional, escapist musical, that the students and community would grow from doing '... (more...)
The Shaw Festival, located in Niagara-on-the Lake, is often like being in downtown Cleveland on game day. Lots of 216/440 residents migrate North for a day, days or a week to visit 'the most beautiful little city in Canada,' as Niagara-on-the Lake is often called. They purchase peaches, cherries, an... (more...)
Before the opening night performance a representative of Actors' Equity presented the theatre with a proclamation in honor of their 50thanniversary which included praise for not only Porthouse and Kent State University, but for Terri Kent, who has been leading the endeavor for 18 successful years. T... (more...)
The story goes that while on vacation from performing in his hit Broadway show 'In the Heights,' Lin-Manuel Miranda read a copy of the biography, 'Alexander Hamilton' by Ron Chernow.... (more...)
On April 15, 2009, 'Next to Normal' opened on Broadway. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony for Best Musical and to become part of a small group of musicals including 'Rent,' 'Spring Awakening,' 'Dear Evan Hansen,' 'Come From Away,' 'The Band's Visit' and 'Hamilton' which would change the... (more...)
In September of 2015, when Tony F. Sias was appointed as President and CEO of Karamu, the country's oldest African-American theatre, the organization was at its lowest point. In financial trouble, having slipped in the quality of its arts programs and seemingly rudderless, the future looked bleak.... (more...)
The 1950s was a period of racial stress in much of the south. Lynchings, school segregation, separate lunch counters and drinking fountains, blacks to the back of the bus, laws against black and white mixing. Even separate black and white radio stations was the custom, as were black and white musica... (more...)
The mission of Playwrights Local is to support dramatists of Northeast Ohio by presenting locally written works, with the vision of increasing original theater and raising the profile of area playwrights.... (more...)
Backstage.com's recent listing of the top Musical Theater Programs in the U.S. included such schools as Carnegie Mellon University, Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati, University of Michigan, Penn State University and Syracuse University.... (more...)
Mark Stewart, better known as 'Stew,' is noted for being a member of the band, The Negro Problem. He is also the author of the book and lyrics for 'Passing Strange,' a semi-autobiographical musical, co-written with Heidi Rodewald in collaboration with Annie Dorsen. The script is presently rocking Ka... (more...)
Jukebox musicals contain a story, wrapped around a series of pre-written songs. Think 'Mama Mia,' 'Jersey Boys,' 'Buddy-The Buddy Holly Story,' 'On Your Feet,' and the present Broadway hit, 'Escape to Margaritaville.'... (more...)
The story of Jonathan Larson's death before the first scheduled preview of the off-Broadway performance of his 'Rent' has become theater history.... (more...)
Tony Kushner, the award winning author of 'Angels In America Parts One and Two,' says of his work, 'The question I am trying to ask is how broad is a community's embrace? How wide does it reach?'... (more...)
Several times a year I go to review some of what's on stage on Broadway. This year, I expanded the experience by accompanying the Baldwin Wallace University Musical Theatre program's fifteen seniors.... (more...)
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, author of 'Appropriate,' which is now getting a compelling staging at Dobama, Cleveland's 'off-Broadway theatre,' is noted for writing plays that shimmer in spectacle, theatricality, and melodramatic substance. The African American centers his themes on race in America, white... (more...)
George Bernard Shaw's views on religion may be summarized by his statement, 'People believe anything that amuses them, gratifies them, or promises some sort of profit.'... (more...)
Theater people are superstitious! The practices that relate to the fears have various origins. For example, 'the ghost of Thespis (the first known actor in ancient Greece) is said to wreak havoc upon theaters all over the world. The ghost light tradition-leaving a single lit bulb upstage center when... (more...)
Sam Shepard, the author of 'The Late Henry Moss,' which is now in production at none too fragile, once wrote, 'I believe in my mask-- The man I made up is me. I believe in my dance--And my destiny.'... (more...)
BWW Review: Topically Important SPRING AWAKENING Impressively Staged at Near West Theatre
BWW Review: Clevelanders Invade Canada for the Shaw Festival 2018
BWW Review: AUDRA MCDONALD delights and captivates Blossom audience
BWW Review: History Changing OKLAHOMA Charmingly Ends Porthouse's 50th season
BWW Review: Creative HAMILTON is a Master Class In Contemporary Musical Theater
BWW Review: Beck's “Gypsy” not everything it should or could be
BWW Review: Pulitzer Prize and Tony-Winning Musical NEXT TO NORMAL, Compelling at Porthouse
BWW Review: Hyper-realistic must see “On the Grill” compels at Dobama
BWW Review: Homecoming, Renovations and LETTERS FROM ZORA at Karamu
BWW Review: Hockadoo! MEMPHIS Enjoyably Rocks Cain Park With Its Music And Poignant Message
BWW Review: ANYTHING GOES Delightfully Sails at Porthouse
BWW Review: Playwrights Local Presents THE PANTHER DANCER, a Bio-Play About Michael Jackson
BWW Review: Baldwin Wallace Musical Theatre Class of '18 Showcases Their Talents in NY
BWW Review: PASSING STRANGE, A Black Youth's Search for Self-Identity, Rocks Karamu
BWW Review: THE ROYALE at Cleveland Play House
BWW Review: BEEHIVE Rocks Great Lakes Stage as it Tells a Tale of Change
BWW Review: BWU/Square's “Tick, Tick…Boom!' rocks and delights at The Helen
BWW Review: ANGELS IN AMERICA, PART TWO Continues Tony Kushner's Saga at Ensemble
BWW Feature: Cleveland Broadway Connections: BWU MUSICAL THEATRE SHOWCASES, ARACA, and More!
BWW Review: Dobama's Compelling “Appropriate” expands the definition of dysfunctional family
BWW Review: CPH's THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE is F-U-N!
BWW Review: THE ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK GIRL IN HER SEARCH FOR GOD is Less Than it Could be at Karamu
BWW Review: Compelling “The Scottish Play” (“Mac**th”) at Great Lakes Theater
BWW Review: Humorous 'The Oldest Profession” at convergence continuum
BWW Review: Acting Soars in LATE HENRY MOSS at None Too Fragile
