A Puppet-Play 1926 Broadway — Photo Coverage Page 3

BWW Review: CAN'T PAY? DON'T PAY! Comically Reflects the Growing Social and Economic Divide Plaguing America

by Shari Barrett • Feb 22, 2020

This wildly funny satirical farce questions why, in a world of bailed-out banks and overpriced prescription drugs, theft is only a crime when it is committed by those truly in need, centering on humble housewife Antonia (Kaili Hollister) who joins a revolt of women at the local supermarket as they are all hungry and fed up by rising prices and stagnant wages. Determined to live with dignity and rejecting an austere diet of dog food and birdseed which is about all Antonia can afford to buy on her husband Giovvanni's (Jeremie Loncka) wages working on the production line at a local factory, the women's protest escalates and looting ensues.

Photo Flash: First Look at CHICAGO At The Milburn Stone Theatre!

by Stephi Wild • Feb 16, 2020

The Milburn Stone Theatre at Cecil College is ready to present the longest running American show on Broadway, Chicago, for the first time in its twenty-eight-year history. Chicago was originally written as a play in 1926 by Chicago tribune courthouse reporter, Maurine Dallas Watkins. Chicago was famously turned into a Broadway musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb and directed and choregraphed by Bob Fosse. Chicago was the winner of the 1997 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. The 2002 film adaptation went on to win six academy awards including “Best Supporting Actress” and “Best Picture.”

Photo Flash: Maltz Jupiter Theatre Presents CHICAGO

by A.A. Cristi • Jan 16, 2020

Take a journey to Jazz-age Chicago for a little razzle dazzle with a sizzling all- new production of the revered American musical Chicago! 

Review: Put On Your LITTLE BLACK DRESS and Be Ready to Party, Hoot and Holler at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

by Shari Barrett • Dec 10, 2019

From Coco Chanel's 1926 Ford dress, Audrey's Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lady Di's revenge dress to Liz Hurley's jaw dropping, safety-pinned Versace, the little black dress' silhouette has changed over the years. And given how often and in so many difference circumstances a LITTLE BLACK DRESS can be worn, most likely there are many important life-changing moments during which the memory of wearing it at that time opened up the capacity for limitless personal reinvention. No doubt every woman, and probably a few men, have a little black dress in their closet just waiting for the next moment when the right wrap, jacket or string of white pearls to adorn it will create another life-long remembrance. That LBD is the inspiration behind LITTLE BLACK DRESS The Musical, a world premiere production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City through December 15.

BWW Review: Musical LYSON GASTER NO BOROGODO Pays Tribute to Acclaimed Revue Theater Actress

by Claudio Erlichman • Dec 4, 2019

The play portrays the career of actress Lyson Gaster, stage name of Augustine Belber Pastor, Spanish created in Piracicaba, who with his revue theater company traveled Brazil in the 1920s, 30s and 40s to great success. The show stays until December 15 at Teatro Alfredo Mesquita, then continues season from January 18 to February 15 at the Teatro Italia.

Photo Flash: First Look At Theater Latté Da's Re-Imagined CHICAGO

by A.A. Cristi • Sep 20, 2019

Theater Latté Da presents CHICAGO, Broadway's longest-running American musical. Winner of 7 Tony awards including Best Musical Revival, CHICAGO features a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The musical, based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, is directed by Theater Latté Da Artistic Director Peter Rothstein with Music Direction by Denise Prosek and choreography by Kelli Foster Warder.

Rehearsals Underway For Theater Latté Da's Reimagined CHICAGO

by A.A. Cristi • Sep 4, 2019

Rehearsals are underway for Theater Latté Da's re-imagined production of CHICAGO, Broadway's longest-running American musical. Winner of 7 Tony awards including Best Musical Revival, CHICAGO features a book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The musical, based on the play by Maurine Dallas Watkins, is directed by Theater Latté Da Artistic Director Peter Rothstein [1] with Music Direction by Denise Prosek and choreography by Kelli Foster Warder.

BWW Review: MARTHA GRAHAM'S LEGACY CONTINUES, MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER at The Soraya

by Valerie-Jean Miller • Mar 8, 2019

At the elegant Soroya Theatre in Northridge, CA, Martha Graham's Dance Company, under Artistic Director Janet Eilber's seasoned guidance, performed a most incredible group of works.  Some were originally created approximately 80 years ago, by Martha Graham, a true icon in the Dance world.  The EVE Project, as this evening, March 2nd, 2019 was entitled, gave us a wide variety of themes within a theme, that being Women and their significance, their power, their passion and their strength.  It was polished to perfection, and each piece carried many meanings and concepts and was just so beautifully performed and articulated. The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest contemporary dance company in the United States, founded in 1926.  Since it's inception it has explored and encompassed political and humanitarian issues, as well as affairs of the heart and human interactions, while creating a prolific dance technique that is unequaled in it's scope.  Graham created a total of 181 ballets during her long career, and is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century, being named in 1998 as 'Dancer of the Century' in Time magazine, and labeled one of the female 'Icons of the Century' by People Magazine.

Review: ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST Challenges Modern Sensibilities via the Mind of a Maniac

by Shari Barrett • Feb 22, 2019

The Actors' Gang is presenting ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST by Dario Fo, directed at an incredibly fast and mind-boggling pace by Will Thomas McFadden, on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, through March 9th. Fo's works are characterized by criticisms of organized crime, political corruption, political murders, Catholic Church doctrine and have employed topics from current news. In this piece of classic international theatre from 1970, Fo writes of a madman who invades a police station interrogation room where an anarchist accused of bombing a railway station has recently 'accidentally' fallen out of a window. Donning various disguises and voices, the madman manipulates policemen into a truth-inducing hysteria in his attempt to discover what really happened.

Review: THE TONY MARTINI VARIETY HOUR Takes You Hysterically Back to the Heyday of Rat-Pack Era Las Vegas Lounge Acts

by Shari Barrett • Aug 24, 2018

For those too young to remember the vaudevillian style lounge shows popular in the 50s and 60s in Las Vegas, where an iconic and often talented performer in their own right hosted other acts to keep gamblers entertained as they visited the lounge bar for a drink, looked for a companion for the night, or needed time to recover from a huge loss at the tables, you can now experience a little bit of old Vegas, right here in Hollywood. And I can tell you, I don't remember laughing as hard as I did the night I attended THE TONY MARTINI VARIETY HOUR at Three Clubs Cocktail Lounge, rumored to be the exact same place where Frank Sinatra would hang out with his assorted Rat Pack buddies, friends, and lovers during their own Las Vegas heyday. And that vibe still exists in the room where those great entertainers wowed the crowds so many years ago.

Photo Flash: First Look at THE INSPECTOR GENERAL at Throughline Theatre

by Stephi Wild • Aug 13, 2018

Throughline Theatre Company closes ninth season with The Inspector General. The show opened August 10 at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre in downtown Pittsburgh. Absurdist comedy continues season's theme, 'Make 'Em Laugh'.

Photo Flash: FEATHERS OF FIRE- A PERSIAN EPIC Comes to The Kaye Playhouse

by A.A. Cristi • Aug 7, 2018

'Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic' is a visually breathtaking cinematic shadow play for all ages, created and directed by Hamid Rahmanian, a 2014 Guggenheim fellowship-winning filmmaker/visual artist. Inspired by the tenth century Persian epic 'Shahnameh' (The Book of Kings), it dramatizes the origin story from the tale with elaborate shadow puppets, multimedia and live actors. The production, which debuted at BAM in 2016 and was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the same year, returns to New York next month for two days only.  It will be presented by Fictionville Studio September 7 and 8 at Kaye Playhouse, 695 Park Ave. (at 68th Street), for three performances only before it travels to China and Paris.

Photo Flash: Judy Gold, Robert Cuccioli, Mara Davi and More Star in Gingold Theatrical Group's CHICAGO

by A.A. Cristi • Aug 6, 2018

Gingold Theatrical Group presents Chicago, the basis of the long running Broadway musical. Written in 1926 by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Chicago is best known today as the inspiration for the 1975 stage musical Chicago.

Photo Flash: Throughline Theatre Company Closes Season with THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

by A.A. Cristi • Jul 31, 2018

Throughline Theatre Company closes ninth season with The Inspector General, opening August 10 at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre in downtown Pittsburgh. Absurdist comedy continues season's theme, 'Make 'Em Laugh'.

Review: SEX Sells the Bawdy Humor of Boundary-Breaking Blonde Bombshell Mae West

by Shari Barrett • May 22, 2018

Mae West was definitely a woman who played by her own rules in all aspects of her life. She dismissed barriers, boundaries, fears, judgements and prejudices and always believed women needed to be in charge of their own lives. Her play SEX was both outrageous and pornographic in 1926, full of playfulness and lots of camp as well as topical storytelling about the battle of the sexes. As the show's director Sirena Irwin shares, "SEX is a story of survival, imprisonment, fear, revenge, transformation, freedom, and love. It is a feminist perspective from nearly 100 years ago that invites us to reflect on where we've progressed and where we've stagnated. Mae West, in her wisdom, tried to open minds with humor and heart."

Photo Flash: Palm Beach Dramaworks Presents EQUUS

by A.A. Cristi • May 14, 2018

Why did a teenage boy who literally worships horses commit the unspeakable act of blinding six of them? That is the mystery psychiatrist Martin Dysart must unravel in order to help his disturbed young patient in Peter Shaffer's Tony Award-winning Equus . The psychological thriller opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on May 18 and continues through June 3, with specially priced previews on May 16 and 17.