Martin Friedman News

Voting has now opened for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Cleveland Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of November 25th.

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.

'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.

Madison Square Park Conservancy's Mad. Sq. Art presents a new sculptural installation for summer 2014: Folly by New York sculptor Rachel Feinstein. Marking Feinstein's first public art exhibition in the U.S. and comprising her largest sculptural works to date, the installation consists of three follies—structures that were popular in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture, built with decorative rather than functional purpose. Feinstein's sculptures are executed in graphically printed and detailed panels of thin metal, ranging from seven and a half to 26 feet tall. The three structures include a house perched on a towering cliff, a Rococo-style hut, and a flying ship moored high in a tree, supported by a mast extending to the ground. The installation is on view daily now through Sunday, September 7, 2014, in Madison Square Park at 23rd Street and Broadway.

Madison Square Park Conservancy's Mad. Sq. Art presents a new sculptural installation for late winter 2014: This Land Is Your Land by Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Iva?n Navarro. The site-specific installation presents three water towers inside of which neon reflections repeat infinitely. The sculptures merge a staple of the New York skyline with the street-level landscape of the Park. The artist takes the exhibition's title from the beloved 1940 Woody Guthrie folk song, which is both an American anthem and a vocal pull to the freedoms offered in this country for an immigrant population. The towers are elevated to a height above visitors' heads, allowing them to walk underneath and look up into each sculpture to view the content within. Originally scheduled to close April 13 following its February 20 premiere earlier this year, the popular work will now remain on view daily through April 20 in Madison Square Park.

Lakeland Civic Theatre's THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is a special night of musical theatre. To appreciate the show, the viewer must put aside any attitude of what a musical should look and sound like and embrace this creatively 'different' approach. I, for one, loved the story, the music and the production, and would declare it a MUST SEE!

It is the purpose of THE CLEVELAND CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS to recognize outstanding Cleveland area productions, performers, directors and designers who contributed to the professional theatre scene during the 2013 season. For a listing of the theatres considered for 'Best of' and 'Superior Achievement' awards, go to: clevelandtheaterreviews.com

Voting is now underway for Cleveland! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Greater Cleveland is blessed with a vital theatre scene. It is the purpose of the TIMES THEATRE TRIBUTES to recognize theatrical experiences that, in the view of this reviewer, were excellent and deserve recognition.

Voting is now underway for Cleveland! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Voting is now underway for Cleveland! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Voting is now underway for Cleveland! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Voting is now underway for Cleveland! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

'If you hear a song in blue Like a flower crying for the dew That was my heart serenading you My prelude to a kiss'

Voting is now underway for Cleveland! We have a record number of votes in already, but if you haven't voted yet, click here to vote! If you have voted already, tell your friends.

Farce is light comedy which contains exaggerated, extravagant and improbable situations. It often contains slapstick incidents and lots of people ducking in and out of slamming doors. Though farce was supposedly started in the 13th century, the modern tone for this format, which is highlighted by the works of the likes of The Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers, The Keystone Cops, Lucille Ball, Tim Conway and Carol Burnett, was etched by Moliere, a Frenchman, and is best represented by his TARTUFFE.

Ensemble Theatre announces it's 34th consecutive season. "ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE". This season's selection of plays are all in one way or another, some kind of love story.

If you were an investor in Broadway shows and someone came to you proposing a rock musical about a mother with worsening bipolar disorder, that was going to be performed as an operetta (all singing, few spoken sentences), with no show stoppers, no dancing, no chorus numbers, few laughs, and an unnerving ending, written by an author who has never had a big hit, would you invest? Well, a group did, and the result was NEXT TO NORMAL which won three 2009 Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and had a smash 733 performance-run on Broadway, and is now touring to sold out audiences.

It is the purpose of THE CLEVELAND CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS to recognize outstanding Cleveland area productions, performers, directors and others who were involved in those offerings during the 2012 year. Awards are considered for those theatres which the members review and the categories agreed upon by the members of the organization. (For a listing of these theatres go to: clevelandtheaterawards.com)

What happens when you combine a perfectly perceived script, which tells a meaningful story, and a gets masterfully staged show? You get Lakeland Theatre's PROOF. This is a production everyone interested in a good story and a great production must see!