Robert McNamara News

DC's Scene Theatre presents the US premiere adaption of French author Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel 'Submission'. Through the lens of middle-aged academic, Francois, Houellebecq masterfully interweaves real-life and fantasy, imagining a political showdown between far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen and the fictitious Mohammad Ben Abbes, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Seattle Repertory Theatre today announced complete ensemble casting for its production of renowned Seattle playwright Steven Dietz's Last of the Boys, an emotional story of the Vietnam War's complex legacy. We meet Ben - he lives off-the-grid in his trailer in the California Central Valley, haunted by the memories of his service during the Vietnam War. His self-imposed exile is disrupted by the arrival of Ben's old war buddy, Jeeter, with his new girlfriend and her volatile mother in tow. Intimate, funny, and fierce, Last of the Boys delves into a veteran's struggle to understand his troubled past, which threatens to swallow him whole. Last of the Boys will be directed by Seattle Rep Artistic Director Braden Abraham and runs January 18 - February 10, 2019 (opening night is January 23) on the Bagley Wright stage. Single tickets are on sale now (starting at $17) and are available through the Seattle Rep Box Office at 206.443.2222 or online at SeattleRep.org.

If you go expecting, as it were, wild Wilde, you won't be disappointed.

Now playing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center is an all-female, 1930s Tinseltown take on Oscar Wilde's WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, directed by Robert McNamara. It's an undeniably creative angle to approach Wilde, in the vein of Scena's previous gender-bending production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, and it has its share of funny and dramatic moments. However, its busy design and occasionally manic delivery miss the mark at times.

Judd Lormand has been upped to series regular on SEAL TEAM, the Network's #1 new drama in viewers last season. Lormand portrays Lieutenant Commander Eric Blackburn, the SEAL Team troop commander who coordinates operations whenever Bravo team is on mission and serves as the team's leader and confidant, both on and off the battlefield. Lormand recurred during the series' first season.

If you've never read George Orwell's 1984, the seminal classic examining a world that's fallen under the rule of the nameless Party and their omnipotent leader Big Brother, stop what you're doing and read it now. Or you can just see Scena Theatre's new production playing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. The show takes a while to amp up but the thrilling climax is performed with such vigor and authenticity that the true dangers of Orwell's devised society come to fruition.

I often state that a solo show is the hardest kind of theater performance to put together because it's just the performer and the audience. In most cases, the show would be an actor telling his/her story or portraying multiple characters. Most of these are easy to follow because there is a clear story line. Now, consider Scena Theatre's latest offering featuring the dynamic actress Nanna Ingvarsson performing three short pieces by the master of easy to follow, minimalist, avant garde material...Samuel Beckett. Yes, you read that right. If you go in thinking of the three pieces as acting exercises rather than full pieces of complete theatrical storytelling, you are sure to have a good experience.

2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award Recipient Dallas Theater Center (DTC) presents The Great Society at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. A co-production with the Alley Theatre and directed by DTC Enloe/Rose Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty, The Great Society begins on March 9 and runs through April 1. A Pay-What-You-Can performance will be Sunday, March 11 at 7:30 p.m., and Press Night will be Tuesday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to The Great Society are on sale now at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org and by phone at (214) 880-0202.

On Tuesday, February 27 at 8:00 p.m., the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra makes its Carnegie Hall debut in a performance led by Music Director and Conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. The exciting program-part of a season-long celebration of the music of composer Philip Glass-features works inspired by a variety of Latin American locations, including Glass' Days and Nights in Rocinha-the composer's colorfully scored, evocative tribute to a Rio de Janeiro favela, known for its samba school, and La noche de los Mayas-a suite drawn from a now-lost 1939 film score by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. The evening will conclude with Glass' Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, a virtuosic showcase for the evening's two soloists-Jim Atwood and Paul Yancich--who play nine timpani between them.

THE GREAT SOCIETY does not match the power of its predecessor. But ALL THE WAY is hard to match. And THE GREAT SOCIETY is a fine play in its own right.

It will take biographer Robert Caro five volumes to complete his portrait of Lyndon B. Johnson, so it's no surprise that there's a second LBJ play from Robert Schenkkan.

Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, the second half of the epic drama about President Lyndon Baines Johnson, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, following the theater's critically acclaimed 2016 run of All the Way.

In The Great Society, we follow Johnson as he seeks to pass his landmark legislative anti-poverty programs, the Great Society, while struggling to deal with a military quagmire in Vietnam and domestic strife over ongoing civil rights issues.

Review Roundup: Critics Weigh In On THE POST

Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, the second half of the epic drama about President Lyndon Baines Johnson, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, following the theater's critically acclaimed 2016 run of All the Way. Kyle Donnelly returns to Arena Stage to helm this political thrill ride that shines a bright, clear light on a pivotal moment in American history (New York Times).

Robert Schenkkan's The Great Society, the second half of the epic drama about President Lyndon Baines Johnson, makes its Washington, D.C. debut at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, following the theater's critically acclaimed 2016 run of All the Way. Kyle Donnelly returns to Arena Stage to helm this political thrill ride that shines a bright, clear light on a pivotal moment in American history (New York Times). Chronicling LBJ's second term as he seeks to maintain his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and complete a raft of impossibly ambitious social policy projects, The Great Society runs February 2-March 11, 2018 on the Fichandler Stage.

This Friday, December 8, world-renowned composer Philip Glass begins his season-long Carnegie Hall residency as holder of the 2017-2018 Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair with a concert by the American Composers Orchestra in Zankel Hall.

The Philharmonic Society of Orange County and Segerstrom Center for the Arts will co-present Tod Browning's 1931 film classic DRACULA starring Bela Lugosi with original music by Philip Glass performed live by the legendary composer at the piano, the Grammy Award-winning Kronos Quartet, with Michael Riesman directing from the keyboard.