On the Blog
Playwright Katie Hae Leo presents us with a pleasantly breezy and vivacious narrator in her lovely Four Destinies (Mu Performing Arts at Mixed Blood Theatre, through Oct 30). The narrator is named Katie Leo. This Katie is a playwright and her aim is modesty itself: to answer once and for all the vexing question,...
Read more »
Perhaps I’m beginning my review on an unacceptably mercantile note, but I believe that the under-sung heroes of the thrilling Come Fly Away (at the Ordway, through Oct 16) are the producers, and their agents and attorneys, who worked the phones, did the lunches, flew to L.A. on the private jets – and secured...
Read more »
Looking for some undemanding entertainment? Something that provides talented actor/singers with a vehicle for goofy characterization, plus a slew of tuneful songs? Minus the distraction of a real story? Of course you are! Theater Latté Da has the show for you: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Latté Da performing on the Ordway’s...
Read more »
Laura Schellhardt’s slice of American Gothic mines the enigmatic Midwest by weaving spooky rural tall tales in her supernatural-themed play The K of D: An Urban Legend (Illusion Theater, through October 22). This eerie coming-of-age tale features a tour-de-force performance by Renata Friedman who brings the entire town of St. Marys, Ohio to life...
Read more »
August Wilson’s probing and evocative portrait of Black America and the African-American experience can be seen in this searing and inspired production of Two Trains Running (Penumbra Theatre, through October 30). It is the seventh play of Mr. Wilson’s 20thCentury Cycle that traces black American life decade by decade. Mr. Wilson’s play pulls into...
Read more »
First you see Monica Frawley‘s astonishing set: raw crumbling concrete walls, soaring, high and deep, inset with urn and coffin-holding cubicles, incense smoke rising up. The set is simultaneously ancient and modern, late 21st century catacombs – and very creepy, an effect reinforced by Christopher Akerlind‘s powerful lighting. When the cast processes in, accompanied...
Read more »
The Children’s Theatre Company’s fall offering for the grade-school set is a staging of the popular Madeleine L’Engle’s science fiction fantasy, A Wrinkle in Time. This production plays on a relatively simple unit set with well-placed levels, saving the wizardry for lights and sound and choosing instead to rely on good old-fashioned, well-executed creative...
Read more »
