Little Piece of You - - West End Articles Page 3

What did our critic think of STEEL MAGNOLIAS at Arkansas Repertory Theatre?

WAM Theatre has announced its 2026 summer programming, featuring the return of the Fresh Takes Play Reading Series at Ventfort Hall and the launch of the Fertile Ground New Works Residency Program at the ’62 Center.

Brian Leonard's current show, Therapist Zero, is directed by Ken Sonkin, in a raw and deeply human production that recently completed a limited Off-Broadway run and was named a San Francisco Chronicle “Critic’s Pick.” The performance traces Brian’s two-decade journey parenting an emotionally volatile daughter through a confounding mental health system, while reflecting on his own unconventional Southside Chicago childhood.

True to the series' M.O., the day featured a nice compliment of new, contemporary works alongside older classical ones, as well as a chance to see the Festival’s Composer-in-Residence, Allison Loggins-Hull, in action today as a flutist

Contemporary circus company, Circa, has come to Charleston, South Carolina, as part of Spoleto USA’s 50th season,  with their Humans 2.0.  This is the next installment after their successful Humans production — although with their current creation and context, the “2.0” more ironically evokes a software upgrade than a performance sequel.

For the PBS culture series CANVAS, arts correspondent Jeffrey Brown caught up with Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, who have received Tony nominations for their fresh performances in Death of a Salesman. Watch the full segment, which also features footage from the production. 

There is exactly one joke in Peter Shaffer's 1965 farce: when the lights come on, the characters are in the dark. Everything else — the borrowed furniture, the hapless sculptor, the stern colonel, the ex-girlfriend arriving at the worst possible moment — is just escalation.

May 19's ESCAPE: THE MUSIC OF RUPERT HOLMES at AMT Theater was a cabaret with the songwriter himself in attendance, on-stage, and in good spirits, along with some cast members from the hosting J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company

The 33rd annual Great Blue Heron Music Festival will bring 48+ artists across four stages to the Heron Farm & Event Center in Sherman, New York, with a lineup spanning funk, groove, reggae, and old-time mountain music.

At the heart of every female friendship group, no matter the age group, is love and a joint effort to make sure you’re in each other's lives until you’re old and grey. Our Mother’s Daughters looks at the question of ‘is loving someone enough to look past their political views and belief systems?’, and wonders how complex being alive actually is. 

Told through a series of vignettes, Crossing Delancey examines Bubbie's belief in the old-world Jewish family custom of all young women needing to find a husband as soon as possible to settle down and raise a family against those of Isabel, a modern 1980s Jewish woman in New York City learning to stand on her own two feet. I spoke with Holly Sidell who is portraying Isabel in the current production at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills through June 21.

After performing as Christine Daaé in Masquerade in New York City, Anna Zavelson has begun playing the same role - this time in the London production of Phantom of the Opera! Recently, we had the chance to speak with Zavelson about her West End debut. We discussed what it has been like going from Masquerade to Phantom, how she has made the character of Christine her own and her favourite part of the show.

The separation of the Washington National Opera from the overrun-and-soon-to-close  Kennedy Center has meant next season’s eight planned productions, including five full length operas, will occur on five different stages in the D.C. area. 

TUBE : Formed by vocalist Nobuteru Maeda, guitarist and keyboardist Michiya Haruhata, bassist Hideyuki Kakuno, and drummer Ryoji Matsumoto, TUBE is a four-piece band that has long defined the sound of Japanese summer. Since their debut in 1985, the group has built an enduring legacy through sun-drenched songs. Launched in July 2025, their nationwide tour TUBE LIVE AROUND 2025-2026 Keep On Sailin’ spanned an extraordinary ten months, traveling from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south. Now that this passionate journey, befitting the band’s 40th anniversary, has reached its triumphant conclusion, this review looks back on one of its highlights: the January 11, 2026 performance at Grand Cube Osaka.

The festival's second weekend kicks off with intestinal trouble, a footloose priest, and imperialist clowns.

Activating Lower East Side community gardens on weekends this May, see first look photos  of Remote Theater Project's free interactive community play EVERYBODY HAS A STORY TO TELL, an original work by Obie Award-winning playwright Carmen Rivera.

BARTLEBY begins with a tease. The curtain only rises a little, just enough to show feet. Expressive. Unexpected and intriguing from the first second. When it finally lifts, Vincent Lemaire’s set reveals itself in clean, minimal lines, white bricks, a black table, black chairs, and a bust. It’s atemporal, and still you feel the lawyer’s office in your bones.

“Stories are stories are stories, whether it’s Wagner’s Wotan and Fricka (in the Ring), Handel’s Jupiter and Juno (in Handel’s SEMELE) or Broadway’s Tevye and Golde (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) and they repeat in different cultures and traditions,” General Manager and Artistic Director of the Atlanta Opera, Tomer Zvulun, said to me. “And whether it’s talking about siblings or spouses, or parents and children, we always end with similar concerns.” Our conversation was about his company’s new production of Wagner’s TWILIGHT OF THE GODS, better known to Wagner aficionados as GOTTERDAMMERUNG, which opens on May 30 at Atlanta’s Cobb Performing Arts Center.

6/8-9, Jenn Colella brings BIG DYKE ENERGY to NYC's Beechman Theatre. It features “music, mischief, and unapologetically queer storytelling.” Colella spoke about the show, what made her want to create it, and why Pride should be celebrated year-round.

This summer, Chicago is offering a wide variety of plays and musicals, as well as comedy, dance, music, and more. To highlight these productions, The League of Chicago Theatres is publishing its Summer Theatre Guide.

The semester ended, and I hopped on a train to New York City. With sheet music in my hands and showtunes in my earbuds, I was ready for my 54 Below debut. What is it really like to perform at one of NYC’s most iconic cabaret spaces?

Hollywood legend Judy Garland is preparing to take the stage at the infamous Talk of the Town theatre-restaurant in 1968. In her room at The Ritz Hotel, she unravels. The star’s glitz and glamour dim, and the harsh reality of what it takes to make it in Hollywood transpires. The show must go on, but Garland is fighting a whole array of demons and she would pass away the following year in London, overdosing on barbiturates. Peter Quilter’s play (with music) is genre-questioning and tonally indecisive. Former drag queen turned Broadway star  Jinkx Monsoon could have taken on the role of a lifetime, but the lack of cohesion in Rupert Hands’s direction fails her.

This Pittsburgh-centric update of the seventies cult musical bridges the gap between the old world and the new.

When HAIRSPRAY begins its run at Maine State Music Theatre on June 3, the new revival, created as a co-production with Lancaster’s Fulton Theatre, will be an evening of professional firsts for its young star, Eden Franco, who plays the demanding role of the musical’s protagonist, Tracy Turnblad. For Franco, who was graduated from college only two years ago, this production marks her first professional contract, her first experience in regional theatre, her debut in Maine, and her role debut in the Marc Shaiman-Scott Wittman musical.

The festival's first weekend closes out with grief, 'inspiration porn', and a cacophony of kazoos.