Expressing exuberance when quoted in a 1982 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article as his new play Angels Fall worked its way towards Broadway, playwright Lanford Wilson exclaimed, “The writing is as good as anything I’ve ever done. I don’t think I’ve ever had a show that audiences liked so much, except maybe Talley’s Folly.” Even as nominated … Continue reading »
Tagged with Rene Moreno …
Get Ye Olde Laugh-In On: Echo Theatre’s “The Lucky Chance”
And you thought Beyonce was the Queen of Lip-Sync? She has nothing on the cast of “The Lucky Chance, or The Alderman’s Bargain”, playing through February 23rd at The Bath House Cultural Center, courtesy of Echo Theatre. Get your laugh-in on. Echo’s production consists of a longish farce, employing lip “synchage” by all involved of … Continue reading »
The 47% Solution: “November” @ Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre
And now for more political news, Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre wades into the fray with a timely, hilarious production of “November”, running through September 23 in its intimate downstairs CitySpace Theatre. Imagine combining the most controversial aspects of Herman Cain, Donald Trump and Teddy Kennedy into one relentlessly swashbuckling “flimflammer-in chief”. President Charles Smith dominates … Continue reading »
2012 DFW Theatre Critics Forum Awardees
Nobody got tossed through any windows. The crockery remains intact. No hit men have been surreptitiously slipped piles of unmarked bills and notes containing home addresses, to my knowledge. The DFW Theatre Critics Forum met for a few intense hours and came up with a list. I’m mostly pleased. As voted on: Direction: Bruce R. … Continue reading »
An August, Osage State of Mind: Letts Ride at WaterTower
The Big Apple’s critical embrace: Charles Isherwood from his 12/5/2007 Broadway review in the NY Times: “A fraught, densely plotted saga of an Oklahoma clan in a state of near-apocalyptic meltdown, “August” is probably the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years. Oh, forget probably: It is, flat-out, no asterisks and without … Continue reading »
Lizard Love Lite: Iguana Nights at Contemporary Theatre
Gender power games, obsession, self-delusion, manic addiction and self-destructive compulsion, the wilds of nature v. the wilderness of civilization, all taking place in a shaken up world where the Germans have just invaded London. Scholars and critics consider Tennessee Williams’1961 drama The Night of the Iguanaone of his greatest works. Unfolding on the verandah of … Continue reading »
Fortinbras,Fortinbras—wherefore art thou, soldier dude?
Hullo, Hamlet: you dashing, dizzy, doomed Dane. Wherefore did your intrepid Shakespeare Dallas director Rene Moreno deign to dilute your dimensional drama by employing a stuffy, flat version of your life’s demise? Whitewashed by conventionally prudish Victorian actor/ adaptor Edwin Booth, this version eliminates the politics and most of the conflict and passion in the … Continue reading »
Broken Gears’ CREDITORS: Debt Paid in Full
Snuggle up tight, lover, and pay your debt. When Alan Rickman directed the 1888 play Creditors in London and New York in 2008, he described it as “three characters dragged through a hedge backwards in 90 minutes,” Make that a humongous holly hedge with sharp barbs. Creditors is a rank, double-dip dose of double cross … Continue reading »
Join me at the theater? Schedule Updates
Come with me to the theater? Play productions are beginning to sprout like colorful weeds all over the region. Here’s what’s opening soon or playing now: THE EXECUTIONER’S SONS by Catherine Bush Directed by Terri Ferguson Runs February 5-19, 2011 Echo Theatre Bath House Cultural Center Dallas TX http://www.echotheatre.org http://www.bathhousecultural.org The Executioner’s Sons, Photo by … Continue reading »
Letts’ Play, Oklahoma City: October
August: Osage County. “It can be argued that this is the most significant theatrical work to come out of Oklahoma since a little musical you might have heard of, “mused Oklahoma City Repertory Theatre’s artistic director Don Jordan in an October 6 interview with ‘Oklahoma Gazette’ writer Eric Webb. Playwright Tracy Letts may have written, … Continue reading »
