Aisle Say is prescient. He can determine where SANCTIONS, the terse and taut production now at DE Theatre Company, will NOT be staged: U of Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan State and Penn State, to name a few. There are hundreds more.... (more...)
I'm a bit surprised that the News Journal did not report a run on Scottish plaid leading up to Candlelight's opening of BRIGADOON. The tartans from the various clans made for a colorful array by Costumer Tara Bowers and surely enriched the production.... (more...)
The Walnut Theater opens its 210th season with HOLIDAY INN with music by America's songwriter, Irving Berlin. One is invariably impressed by the institution's lavish sets (Robert Andrew Kovach) and the quality and attention to detail of their entire Creative Crew.... (more...)
Let's start with a basic misconception - FUN HOME is not a comedy. The word 'fun' is an abbreviation for funeral. FUN HOME is the shortened, more enjoyable characterization of the Bechdel Funeral Home. Even though the young Bechdel children play inside caskets, and make-up silly commercials for the ... (more...)
Candlelight's DO BLACK PATENT LEATHER SHOES REALLY REFLECT UP was a revelation to me. I am serious! I began my public-school education in the mid-fifties. Some of my friends went to Catholic school. Now I know why some of them are screwed up.... (more...)
One wonders what Director Rosanne DellAversano and Music Director James Fuerst talk about at home. Is dinner conversation taken up with zombies, flesh eaters, how to maximize blood flow on the brave guests who sit in the "Splatter Zone" of their present production of EVIL DEAD, THE MUSICAL?... (more...)
Shakespearean stars were aligned this season with not one but two TWELFTH NIGHTS, staged earlier in the year at UD Rep Ensemble and presently in the sylvan fields of Arden.... (more...)
In this #METOO world of Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer and Donald Trump, one might look a bit circumspect at the staging of a 'bedroom' farce. As explained in the program notes, flight attendants in the '60's has to be single, between the ages of 21 and 27 and have a 'neatly proportioned figure' and '... (more...)
This year, Bootless Stageworks is using its new home at St. Stephen's Church on Broom Street to re-present shows they had performed in earlier venues. In case you are unfamiliar with it, 'next to normal' is about a suburban family dealing with the effects of mental illness, told through a largely ro... (more...)
I always felt that the Beatles' songS of peace and love had as much to do with the fall of communism as much as Pres. Reagan's 1987 Berlin prouncement, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall".... (more...)
Nine years running, excellence in all aspects of theatre - cast and creative crew - continue to substantiate UD Rep Ensemble as the most professional troupe in Delaware.... (more...)
Tapper/Singer/Director Maurice Hines and brother Gregory first performed with Ella Fitzgerald at The Flamingo in Vegas. He knew he was in the presence of greatness. Maurice called her 'the greatest singer I have ever heard'.... (more...)
If memory serves, way back in 1987 the movie DIRTY DANCING sizzled with sexual energy, engendered by the super charged chemistry between the poster boy of charisma, Patrick Swayze and the naive Baby, who liquifies under his charms as quickly as a Rita's water ice in July.... (more...)
Like DROWSY CHAPERONE, now playing at Candlelight, DIRTY DANCING's origins were counter to novels than generally are the genesis for Broadway productions. It is based in large part on screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein's own childhood, a daughter of a Jewish doctor from New York.... (more...)
Lerner and Loewe created MY FAIR LADY from Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted the 1909 Ferenc Molnar play "Liliom" and transplanted the setting from Budapest to the coast of Maine in CAROUSEL. That's generally how musicals are birthed. Not so with THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, which... (more...)
There is ofttimes a quality difference from non-equity versus equity tours. The former is comprised of young actors earning their stripes. For many it is their first tour. Any deviation from a highly professional, class A production was not evident with CABARET, at The Playhouse through March 18. Th... (more...)
Artistic Director Sandy Robbins comments in the Program Notes that any director would prefer staging KING LEAR rather than A FLEA IN HER EAR.... (more...)
May December relationships are fraught with peril. We are now informed they function in theoretical physics and the space between notes of music.... (more...)
DISASTER! THE MUSICAL is a new, straight from Broadway, jukebox musical featuring some unforgettable songs of the '70s that grooves all night long with hokey fun.... (more...)
Final bows. Standing O from a boomer ++ crowd on a Sunday matinee opening weekend. I thought to myself how privileged I am to be able to attend and write about DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (DRS) and the hundreds of shows prior over 30 + years.... (more...)
DIAL M FOR MURDER. Dial M for Magnificent regarding UD REP ENSEMBLE. Since 2008's THE HOSTAGE, Rep Ensemble has been unequivocally THE professional theatre in the state and equal to any in the region, if not Broadway.... (more...)
Madcap. Zany. Sophisticated Marx Brothers. Come one, come all to a Shakespearean jihad at DE Theatre Company with THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WM. SHAKESPEARE (abridged and revised). Cliff Notes on speed (even though the opening scene introduced Bob Cratchit. Wrong playwright, fellows. HA.)... (more...)
In the late 1800's George Seurat developed pointillism, a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.... (more...)
BWW Review: SANCTIONS at Delaware Theatre Co.
BWW Review: BRIGADOON at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: HOLIDAY INN at The Walnut Theatre
BWW Review: FUN HOME at Wilmington Drama League - Welcome to the house on Maple Avenue
BWW Review: DO BLACK PATENT LEATHER SHOES REFLECT UP at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: EVIL DEAD, THE MUSICAL at Bootless Stage Works
BWW Review: TWELFE NIGHT at Arden Shakespeare Gild
BWW Review: BOEING BOEING at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: NEXT TO NORMAL at Bootless Stageworks
BWW Review: MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL at The Playhouse
BWW Review: TWELFTH NIGHT at Rep Ensemble
BWW Review: ELLA: FIRST LADY OF SONG at DE Theatre Company
BWW Review: DIRTY DANCING at The Playhouse
BWW Preview: DIRTY DANCING at The Playhouse
BWW Review: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: CABARET at The Playhouse
BWW Review: A FLEA IN HER EAR at UD Rep Ensemble
BWW Review: HEISENBERG at DE Theatre Company
BWW Review: THE EXPLORERS CLUB at Everett Theatre
BWW Review: DISASTER! THE MUSICAL Cruises into the Wilmington Drama League for its Not-So-Disastrous Delaware Premiere
BWW Review: DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS at Candlelight Music Theatre
BWW Review: DIAL 'M' FOR MURDER at UD Rep Ensemble
BWW Review: COMPLETE WORKS OF WM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED)(REVISED) at DE Theatre Company
BWW Review: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE at City-Theater
