CurtainUp

The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings --On Line Since 1996
Sontag: Reborn. . . The Tutors The Hampton Years-DC. . .Good Television. . .Somewhere Fun. . . Tea for Three. . .The Little Mermaid. . . Far From Heaven. . .The Playboy of the Western World. . . Chimerica . . . The Caucasian Chalk Circle. . .
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News: 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. . . Village Voice Obie and Drama Desk Winners now added toCurtainup's Omnibus Award list . . . Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike gets another extension, to 7/28/13. . . 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
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Latest Reviews & Features New York Off-Broadway

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
Somewhere Fun
Somewhere Fun - a terrific cast, smart production, lots of word play but ultimately disappointing . . . Read More
 Tea for Three
Tea for Three - Given all that has been written about these presidents and their wives, there probably is not a great deal that is new here, but Bronka's delightful and insightful portrayal of these woman makes them come to life in a particularly theatrical way. . . 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
 The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle -This production's new translation, songs and merger of the ancient and Kremlin revolutions have not prevented director BrianKulick and his actors from clearly taking us into Brecht's world of Epic Theater with its typical introduction of music and audience interaction. . . Read More
 The Weir
The Weir - The Irish Repertory Theatre ensemble has brought out the best in Conor McPherson's stories. . . Read More
 Basilica
Basilica - Mando Alvarado's new play issometimes frustrating, occasionally brilliant and deeply compelling. . . Read More

Murder Ballad
Murder Ballad - Word of mouth has helped to give a new life to this pop-opera . . Read More
New York-Broadway
 Pippin
Pippin - It's a circus! It's a Dance Feast! It's Fun . . Read More
The Trip to Bountiful
The Trip to Bountiful - Extended for an additional 8 weeks, to Sept.1st!. . . Read More
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 7/07. . 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 - Cindy Lauper and Harvey Fierstein have proven themselves fortuitously formidable partners who have found a formula that has transformed a so-what film into a so-fine musical. . . 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

 Midsummer Night's Drea
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
Race
Race - An enjoyable English production of David Mamet's 2009 play. Set in a New York lawyer's office it's is a fascinating study of the American legal process, when a white defendant seeks to hire this firm to get him off the hook in a rape case brought by an African American woman. . . 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
To Kill A Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird -In a stylish and animated production, Robert Sean Leonard graces the London stage at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park to play Atticus Finch, the hero of Harper Lee's famous novel . . . Read More
Relatively Speaking
Relatively Speaking - Alan Ayckbourn's 1967 comedy gets a magnificent revival from Lindsay Posner, in a production from the Theatre Royal Bath . . . Read More
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More Review Links: New & Noteworthy . . . London Theaters. . . Fringe Theaters



Berkshires News . . For details about shows at all major area venues see our Berkshires News Page .
Bashir Lazhar
Bashir Lazhar - The utter purity and poetry of this play that was the basis for an 84th Academy Award-nominated movie, Monsieur Lazhar. will linger long after the performance. . . Read More


New Jersey
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
 Into the Woods
Into the Woods - The Fiasco troupe's concept certainly casts it own unique spell on Sondheim's Grimmsian musical. . . Read More



New & Noteworthy
NJ Theaters


California
Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Joe Turner's Come and Gone- Phyllis Rashad's production will make you a believer in August Wilson and the power of theater to shake you up and set you back down with a soul that feels a bit bigger. .. . . Read More

The Royale- Center Theatre Group has given Marco Ramirez' play the royal treatment. It may be a brief text for a small cast and a spare unit set, but the bold production reigns supreme. . . . Read More

Miss Julie
Miss Julie- Neil LaBute's take on Strindberg is alas more of a muddle, with fascinating elements that refuse to mesh. . . Read More

New & Noteworthy


Connecticut/Hudson Valley
New & Noteworthy



Washington - DC
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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