Post Tagged with: "1812 Productions"

It’s that time of the year.  It’s Christmas, all the theaters have Christmas shows playing, or Christmas-like shows.   You can catch A CHRISTMAS CAROL just about everywhere of course, or the Walnut Street is offering the classic THE MUSIC MAN, or try a Christmas Panto at the People’s Light.  So [...]

1812 Productions kicked off its 16th season with their annual series, THIS IS THE WEEK THAT IS: THE ELECTION SPECIAL.  Just in time to satirize the current presidential election, the show keeps Philadelphia audiences laughing with fresh jabs (re-written nightly) swiped directly from main street media outlets that offer so [...]

I have a soft spot for the drawing room plays by Oscar Wilde, Somerset Maughan, and the like. With ready wit they provide amusing takedowns of bourgeois society, its conventions and hypocrisy. David Mamet is also a fan, as is evident in his modernized entry at the genre, BOSTON MARRIAGE, [...]

As Jennifer Childs and Tony Braithwaite entered the stage on either side of the audience in their black-tie attire, greeting unsuspecting members, I found myself settling in and expecting a fun cabaret-style evening with a few witty quips thrown in, song parodies, etc. What I got, however, was considerably more. [...]

Most of us can agree this has been a really stinky year of national political bickering and power plays amid hollow promises, high unemployment, and a recession. So, none of us are feeling any too enthusiastic as we trudge through our day like Eyeore, who has just lost his tail. [...]

1812 Productions opened their 2011 season with the Craig Wright comedy MISTAKES WERE MADE. This is the story of Broadway producer Felix Artifex (4-time Barrymore Award winner Scott Greer), who is in the midst of trying to finalize a deal to produce a play by a new playwright about the [...]

With the announcement of the 2011 Barrymore nominations slated for September 6, a review of the past season’s new works by local playwrights brought recollections of holiday cheer and thought-provoking issues. Among my top picks for Best New Play/Musical were three holiday comedies that more than delivered on brightening the [...]

Here’s my dilemma:  How can you write a balanced review when your sides and face are still hurting from laughing so much?   How can you describe an hour and a half (exactly the length of Sid Caesar’s YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, which was the inspiration for the evening) of comic [...]

Out of the memories of his time as a writer for Your Show of Shows, Neil Simon has given comedic actors a splendiferous gift in LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR.   Simon has recreated the fabled “writers’ room”  that was the creative home for, among others, Simon and his brother Danny, [...]

When you’ve seen the Capitol Steps, you’ve seen political satire.  When you experience 1812 All Comedy Theatre Company’s production of THIS IS THE WEEK THAT IS, you experienced political satire–Philadelphia style and more.  Start off with The View from Patsy’s steps (stoop), add lots of local color to warm up [...]

“Those who can’t do”, cries Jen Childs, “mock!” As a child Jen played the flute, but she always dreamed of ‘the dance’. Her female cousins were very good dancers, both being long, limber and lithe. Jen was tres short and a bit wide around the buttocks. Poor Jen’s physical characteristics [...]