Bucolic setting are wonderful . . . until it rains and everyone is wall-to-wall unpacking their baggage, airing their dirty laundry, calling each other on the carpet, and climbing the walls. At least that's what happens in THE COUNTRY HOUSE by Donald Marguiles. It's an explicit homage to Chekhov -- sort of an UNCLE VANYA and THE SEAGULL mashup. I wasn't knocked out by the script. The setup is simple, the plot predictable, the conflicts obvious. The actors have to bring a lot to this show to make is worth watching. Fortunately, Director, David Landis, had an exceptional cast.wisecracks into heated discussions simply to hear them sizzle.
In THE COUNTRY HOUSE, what The New York Times calls 'a valentine to the artists of the stage,' a group of famous and would-be-famous creative artists have come to their summer home during the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The weekend takes an unexpected turn, and everyone is forced to come to terms with the roles they play in each other's lives. Scroll down for a first look at The Circuit Playhouse's production below!
?In what The New York Times calls "a valentine to the artists of the stage," a group of famous and would-be-famous creative artists have come to their summer home during the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The weekend takes an unexpected turn, and everyone is forced to come to terms with the roles they play in each other's lives.
What happened all around our Broadway World this week? We're featuring the best stories in Raleigh, Sacramento, China, and more. Check out our top 10 list, which includes NCT's GREASE, HAIRSPRAY in Sacramento, and STUPID F***ING BIRD in Albuquerque, just to name a few.
Throughout Sunday's matinee of Sharr White's intensely watchable THE OTHER PLACE at Circuit, for some reason I kept thinking of Edgar Allan Poe's 'A Dream Within a Dream' and, particularly, of these lines: 'All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream. / I stand amid the roar / Of a surf-tormented shore, / And I hold within my hand / Grains of the golden sand -- / How few! yet how they creep / Through my fingers to the deep, / While I weep -- while I weep.' THE OTHER PLACE, ably directed by the always dependable Dave Landis, is somewhat constructed like a Chinese puzzle box. Like the main character, a drug company scientist named 'Juliana Smithton' (who, in turn, is married to 'Ian,' an oncologist), the audience is continually challenged with questions of what is real and what is not.
?Playhouse on the Square presents the regional premiere of Sharr White's haunting drama, The Other Place. Juliana Smithon, a successful drug company scientist, finds her life falling to pieces. Her husband is filing for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man, and her own health hangs in a dangerous limbo. Piece by piece, the mystery around Juliana unravels as fact blurs with fiction, and the past and the present collide with devastating results.
Interestingly, Playhouse on the Square has opted to produce Thornton Wilder's THE MATCHMAKER rather than HELLO, DOLLY, the legendary musical that it spawned - and therein lies both the blessing and the curse: There are so many lines here that served as song cues that the specter of Jerry Herman's 'ear-candied' score keeps hovering over the play. To add to the dilemma, the ever-arranging 'matchmaker' herself is none other than that talented musical performer Ann Sharp (surprisingly making her theatre debut at Playhouse): Because she doesn't have the opportunity to use that particular talent, and because those darned Herman songs keep popping up in the mind, THE MATCHMAKER might prove frustrating for those familiar with its melodic offspring. That's too bad, as Herman's score is rather like some pushy first grader who breaks in line; without it, the audience is left with . . . a fine romantic comedy, filled with mistaken identities and matches and mismatches - and more than just a touch of Wilder's warm , incisive writing.
Playhouse on the Square is proud to present the classic American comedy, TheMatchmaker. The Matchmaker follows the exploits of Dolly Levi, a widow who arranges marriages for New Yorkers at the turn of the 20th century. Hired by a local merchant to find a wife, Dolly sets her sights on the eligible bachelor herself! Slapstick, mistaken identity, and secret rendezvous ensue in this uproarious comedy from the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Thornton Wilder.
Playhouse on the Square is proud to present the classic American comedy, The Matchmaker. The Matchmaker follows the exploits of Dolly Levi, a widow who arranges marriages for New Yorkers at the turn of the 20th century. Hired by a local merchant to find a wife, Dolly sets her sights on the eligible bachelor herself! Slapstick, mistaken identity, and secret rendezvous ensue in this uproarious comedy from the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright, Thornton Wilder.
Playhouse on the Square's 38th Annual Original Art Auction will take place today, April 25. With over 150 Artists contributing one-of-a-kind pieces for a live and silent auction, the PARTY is happening at Playhouse on the Square on April 25.
I wonder if Jackie Nichols is providing on-site psychiatric help for those involved in the repertory presentations of Anton Chekhov's THE SEAGULL and Christopher Durang's VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE at Playhouse on the Square. Surely the veteran Irene Crist, performing double duty as Director of both the uber-heavy Chekhov piece and the giddy Durang parody, is on a schizoid seesaw as she veers from the serious to the silly - and the same might be said from the cast members who swap costumes and take their characterizations from one play to the next. Having just seen THE SEAGULL last week, I was eager to see how Durang's TONY-winning play would parlay all that Chekhovian talk about artists and pseudo-artists into something more laughter-inducing. However, rest assured that the talents involved in both plays rise (or fall, as it were) without any difficulty.
Playhouse on the Square's 38th Annual Original Art Auction will take place on Saturday, April 25. With over 150 Artists contributing one-of-a-kind pieces for a live and silent auction, the PARTY is happening at Playhouse on the Square on April 25.
Staging a play by Henrik Ibsen or Anton Chekhov poses certain problems for theatre groups. On the one hand, there is a commitment to 'the classics' - and there is an opportunity for actors (especially young ones) to examine their talents and extend them in directions they have not gone before. The 'downside' is the reputation such plays have as 'talkfests,' for they are often deliberate and detailed in their construction of characters and relationships. I was reminded of this during both the performance and the intermission of Playhouse on the Square's production of Chekhov's THE SEAGULL (which, literally, follows on the 'heels' of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW). During Intermission, two couples stood next to my seat and discussed the play. With a hint of apology, one lady stated, 'The actors are very good, but I really prefer the musicals.' Yet, as I watched and listened to the play, I glanced at one audience member, leaning forward and rapt in concentration; and further down my row, another could audibly be heard gasping at the insensitivity of 'Madame Arkandina' toward her son.
Humorist Christopher Durang pays homage to Chekhov's classic themes of love and loss in this 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play. Vanya and Sonia have frittered their lives away in their family's Pennsylvania farmhouse full of regret and angst. When their self-absorbed movie star sister Masha visits with her prized 20-something boy toy Spike, the stage is set for an absurd weekend of general hilarity and sibling scorekeeping.
Famous, but aging, actress Irina Arkadina is obsessed with a callous younger lover, dismissive of her son the frustrated playwright, and suspicious of an admiring ingenue. Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's 1895 play lays bare its comedy and its cruelty in a household overflowing with creativity, fantasies of fame, jealousy, and unrequited love.
Famous, but aging, actress Irina Arkadina is obsessed with a callous younger lover, dismissive of her son the frustrated playwright, and suspicious of an admiring ingenue. Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's 1895 play lays bare its comedy and its cruelty in a household overflowing with creativity, fantasies of fame, jealousy, and unrequited love.
Humorist Christopher Durang pays homage to Chekhov's classic themes of love and loss in this 2013 Tony Award winner for Best Play. Vanya and Sonia have frittered their lives away in their family's Pennsylvania farmhouse full of regret and angst. When their self-absorbed movie star sister Masha visits with her prized 20-something boy toy Spike, the stage is set for an absurd weekend of general hilarity and sibling scorekeeping.
Votes are cast; polls are closed; and results have been tabulated! This was our biggest year yet! After a record number of voters in more than 60 regions worldwide, BroadwayWorld is very excited to announce the 2014 Memphis winners! Thanks to all who voted, and huge congratulations to all the winners!
It's your last week to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 26th. Voting closes at the end of the year, in under one week!
Time is ticking on your last chance to vote for the 2014 BroadwayWorld Memphis Regional Awards! Check out the latest live stats as of December 19th. Voting closes at the end of the year!
