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The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings --On Line Since 1996
Latest Postings: On the Town and Heroes-Berkshires. . .Hard Feelings-London 3 Kinds of Exile. . . Anything Goes- DC. . .Venice. . . The Silver Cord. . . Reasons to Be Happy. . .Cornelius. . .
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News:A no-Tony cuts extended run for Ann to a 6/30 closing. . . And the Tony for Best Play goes to Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (now extended to 8/25! & Best Musical to Kinky Boots . For all awards details see Curtainup's Omnibus Award list . . . Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff returns to the scene of its 2012 success, see details in our Off-Broadway Listings. . . Watch for return engagement of the solo hit Buyer & Cellar . . . Williamstown Theatre Festival's summer season includes a world premiere musical, for details see our Berkshires News Page . . Curtainup at Facebook & at Twitter. . . Visit CurtainUp's Friends . . .Your Ad Here& other advertising options
Broadway Tickets

Latest Reviews & Features

New York Off-Broadway

You Are Dead. You Are Here A super timely play at HERE- Read More
 3 Kinds of Exile
3 Kinds of Exile - The monologue which raises the curtain on John Guare's exploration of three Eastern Europeans' immigrant experiences is less a play than an anecdote. Martin Moran is a fine anecdotist. The same is true for the John Guare and Omar Sangare in the dualogue that follows. Though Mr. Guare does tie each piece to his title, the pleasures and effectiveness of its parts don't really add up to a truly satisfying whole . . Read More
Venice
Venice - I've seen my share of Shakespeare plays at the Public Theater. But but never as a rap and hip hop driven musical. This very loose take on Othello now at the Public's Anspacher is a far cry from Liev Schreiber's riveting Iago also seen at the Public's Anspacher, though a dozen years ago. Like that production, this one will rank high on my list of most memorable shows. Eric Rosen's book locates his Othello-inspired characters in a war-torn Venice some time in the near future. Composer Matt Sax has managed to marry the pulsating beat of hip-hop, rock and quieter more traditional musical theater melodies plus his and Rosen's rap-infused lyrics had me rethink my lack of enthusiasm for hip-hop. . . . Read More
Gibraltar
Gibraltar - Given up on reading James Joyce's Ulysses? Well, take heart. Patrick Fitzgerald has taken on the formidable task of adapting this literary juggernaut into a two-character play that scratches beneath the surface of Leopold and Molly Bloom's inglorious marriage and turns it into a life-affirming theater portrait. Read More
Marathon of One Act Plays (Series C) - another Marathon series to conclude this year's offerings Read More

 The Silver cord
The Silver Cord - Mrs. Phelps in Sidney Howard's 1926 play is far from a stereotypical cartoon. This mother is pathologically possessive, taking mother love for her two sons dangerously over the top. . .Read More
 Reasons to Be Happy
Reasons to Be Happy - Neil LaBute devotees will find plenty of reasons to be happy that he's re-visiting the messy lives of two working class couples in an anywhere USA suburb. . .Read More
Cornelius
Cornelius - J.B. Priestley's play about a British import company's obsolescence in the face of a changing business practices and the Great Depression, is a highlight of this year's Brits Off-Broadway Festival. Like An Inspector Calls, it was written for Sir Ralph Richardson but the play does not need a world renowned star to bring fresh life to the play's title character, one of the partners of the firm in its death throes. . Read More
 A Picture of Autumn
A Picture of Autumn - The Denham family of Winton Manor in N.C. Hunter's play might bring to mind the Crawleys of Downton Abbey three decades later and considerably poorer. England has struggled through industrialization, growing cities, and the rising labor class. . . Read More
Sontag: Reborn
Sontag: Reborn - Not having any preconceived ideas regarding Susan Sontag's literary prominence, either as a novelist, theorist, essayist et al, or more specifically the mystique that presumably surrounded her, this presentation affected me as a rather presumptuous assumption that her journal jottings have the stuff/heft of dramatic literature. . . Read More
 The Tutors
The Tutors - Erica Lipez's new play gets an "A" for its smart dialogue and acting and "C" for its somewhat fuzzy plot. It's a fine ice-breaker for the Second Stage Theatre Uptown Festival 2013. . . Read More
 Good Television
Good Television - Rob MacLachlan's script is compelling, fast and humorous. But at times motives and decisions are opaque, and MacLchlan doesn't venture all the way into the depths of reality's morality . . . Read More
 Far From Heaven
Far From Heaven - The changes between the show's trial run at Williamstown and its arrival at Playwrights Horizon while not enormous, are substantial enough to make my second viewing a more emotionally compelling and generally engaging experience. . . Read More

New York-Broadway
 Pippin
Pippin - The Big Tony Winner, with Best Musical Revivial just one of its awards . . Read More
The Trip to Bountiful
The Trip to Bountiful -. Cicely Tyson nabbed a Best Actress TonyExtended for an additional 8 weeks, to Sept.1st!. . . Read More
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The Assembled Parties
The Assembled Parties - Two parties, two decades apart, at which those assembled in a spacious Central Park West apartment to rejoice in the Amen moment when life's complicated times can be forgotten long enough for all to enjoy a dinner in a mood of joyous togetherness Extended yet again to 7/28. . Read More
 The Nance
The Nance -Nathan Lane allows us to see into the heart-breaking core of a disconsolate man who is compelled to endure the slings and arrows of an unforgiving society, . . Read More
 Matilda
Matilda: The Musical - The very, very British musical has landed on Broadway with all its deliciously scary snap, crackle and pop in place. . Read More
Kinky Boots
Kinky Boots - Best New Musical Tony winner. . . Read More
Links to reviews of all currently running shows. . . features archive. . .review archive. . .news. . . Broadway Listings. . . Off-Broadway Listings. . . film & tv . . . June Cabaret Nights column
London

 Hard Feelings
Hard Feelings - It is remarkable how untouched this group of English graduates from Oxford are by the riots happening on their doorstep in Brixton, London, in Doug Lucie's 1981 play. . . Read More
 Rutherford and Son
Rutherford and SonNorthern Broadsides' production stars its Artistic Director Barrie Rutted as the brutal patriarch of the glassworks now set in Halifax, Yorkshire. This has been translated for this production from playwright Githa Sowerby's home in the north east but the family set up is recognisable everywhere. Read More
Midsummer Night's Dream
Midsummer Night's Dream - Dominic Dromgoole directs a new production at Shakespeare's Globe on the South Bank starring Michelle Terry in the dual roles of Hippolyta and Titania and John Light as her consort, Theseus and Oberon. . Read More
 Chimerica
Chimerica - Lucy Kirkwood's play satisfies at many levels. Political ideas are discussed, facts given about business and pollution, Chinese population policy and the crackdown by the Chinese police against information supplied to Western journalists shown, while never letting go of the search for the man with the shopping bags who stopped the tanks. It's also very exciting visually. . . Read More
Disgraced
Disgraced - Ayab Akhtar's Pulitzer winner comes to London -. . . Read More
More Review Links: New & Noteworthy . . . London Theaters. . . Fringe Theaters



Berkshires
 On the Town
On the Town - Barrington Stage Company's salute to the great American Broadway musical tradition is a stunning production. Its soaring and, at times, almost operatic score by Leonard Bernstein with book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, beats its way onto the stage in a lusty, good natured throb of acrobatic dancing, double entendres and romantic longing played against the backdrop of the always wakeful and pulsating New York City . . . Read More
Heroes - This is a sweet and sadly funny observation of what we all must come to if we live long enough. With a nod to the existential absurdist view of human haplessness, the play is not an intellectual incursion into the deepest psychic motivation but, rather, a celebration of the human spirit. . . Read More

For details about all the season's shows at all major area venues see our Berkshires Main Page .

New Jersey
Happy - an unsettling but absorbing play. . . Read More
Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid - Whatever were the major issues that plagued the stage version of the popular 1989 cartoon feature when it first opened on Broadway in 2008 seem to have been mainly and commendably resolved in this newly conceived staging at the Paper Mill Playhouse. . . Read More
 The Playboy of the Western World
The Playboy of the Western World -It's roundup time for all the playboys and playgirls to attend the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's splendid production of John Millington Synge's rollicking and rueful play . . Read More


New & Noteworthy
NJ Theaters


California
scottsborola
The Scottsoboro Boys - Kander and Ebb's last musical collaboration comes to Los Angeles Read More
New & Noteworthy


Connecticut/Hudson Valley
New & Noteworthy



Washington - DC
The Hampton Years
Anything Goes- The national tour of the Roundabout's Tony-winning and audience-pleasing production is docked at Washington's Kennedy Center until July 7 th. . .
- Read More
The Hampton Years
The Hampton Years - Theater J is to be commended for its Locally Grown program that nurtures plays by Washington playwrights who deal with issues that go beyond the Jewish experience. . . Read More
Company
Company - Matthew Scott, a very fine actor, glorious singer and good dancer is perfectly cast as Bobby in this uneven revival. . Read More
 The Guardsman
The Guardsman -Ferenc Molnar's play still maintains much of its mittel European charm in its current translation by Richard'Nelson, but the exposition and running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes tests one's patience. . . Read More
New & Noteworthy- updated 5/16/13
Top of List

Philadelphia
 Heroes
Heroes Tom Stoppard's charming adaptation of Gerald Sibleyras' play at the Lantern . . Read More
New and Noteworthy in PhiladelphiaPhilly Theater List/Visitorss Guide links


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