Post Tagged with: "Philadelphia Theatre Company"

Artistic egos and sexual politics collide in Philadelphia Theatre Company’s highly entertaining production of SEMINAR. Filled with hilarious dialogue and biting observations, playwright Theresa Rebeck’s spoof on the traumas and travails of being a writer provides comic insight into her chosen profession and the social dynamics of student/teacher relationships. When [...]

Forrest McClendon is truly a man who needs no introduction. Since completing his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Connecticut, he has appeared in a wide range of works, from Shakespeare to Fugard to Kander and Ebb. He is a 2011 Tony Award nominee and 2012 [...]

I read Abigail Pogrebin’s book STARS OF DAVID a while ago, and couldn’t help wondering how Aaron Harnick, who conceived the idea, was going to make this series of short biographical chapters into a musical. He enlisted some pretty powerful talents to mold the show into a respectable evening’s entertainment. [...]

An expletive-rich tirade begins the battle of the sexes that is at the core of Philadelphia Theatre Company’s REASONS TO BE PRETTY. Funny, fiery, at times vicious, but ultimately revealing and surprisingly sensitive, the final installment in Neil LaBute’s trilogy on our obsession with physical appearance considers the issue through [...]

Dealing with illness and loss is never easy, but Philadelphia Theatre Company’s soul-stirring production of Bruce Graham’s latest award-winning work, THE OUTGOING TIDE, tackles the profound issue of quality of life versus delaying the inevitable with both laughter and insight. Inspired in part by Graham’s experience with the devastating effects [...]

THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, the final collaboration between the blockbuster Broadway songwriting team of Kander and Ebb, addresses one of the most abhorrent episodes in American history (The Scottsboro Trials) in the format of one of the most offensive genres of American musical theater (the minstrel show). But this profoundly affecting [...]

The myth of the artist–the temperamental iconoclast and social outsider for whom standard rules of behavior do not apply—finds some basis in reality with the Latvian-born American painter Mark Rothko (1903-70). Yet the Abstract Expressionist–who railed against being categorized as such–was much more than a bohemian stereotype; he was, in [...]

Lynn Nottage’s play, RUINED, about the lives of women attempting to survive in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo is profoundly moving in its portrayal of the twisted remains of humanity in this African nation that Time magazine referred to as “among the worst places on earth.”  Three years ago, [...]

There are many voices in this nation’s health care debate, and Anna Deveare Smith could probably act out them all. In LET ME DOWN EASY, now onstage at Philadelphia Theatre Company’s Suzanne Roberts Theatre, she portrays twenty eclectic individuals, from sportspeople to supermodels, politicians to doctors, as they share their [...]

The latest production at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, RACE by David Mamet, is one that many theaters will shy away from. The storyline is very controversial, as are the ideas expressed by the characters throughout the production. Still, the skill of the playwright makes this piece engrossing. The plot is [...]

The Philadelphia Theatre Company’s latest offering is the upbeat musical comedy, THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin. If you’ve not seen this show before, the title is about all you need to know about the plot. There is a group of “children” who [...]