Once in a while, you'll hear the Philadelphia Theatre Company criticized for "playing it safe"—choosing plays or casting actors that will fill seats, and sacrificing quality in the process. I will neither agree nor disagree with that statement, but I will pose this question: if PTC always plays it safe, how can you explain The Happiness Lecture? The show, now in its final two weeks, can only be described as performance art. It's not laughable......

Director/Theater-founder Meghann Williams...

There's something about a French farce that has real staying power - not in that the play stays with you for days after you see it, but more in that these are plays that have been around for 350 years and are still, somehow, funny. Sure, there's always the risk that farce can delve into shtick, if the running gags run on too long or if too many people get hit in the face by......

The prime rib was cold, the asparagus was undercooked, the salad was limp, the red wine was chilled, the cosmopolitans were made from what could only have been Kool-Aid... And yet nobody seemed to care for very long. It was Philadelphia theatre's biggest night, and all those in attendance were there to celebrate, not to complain. (Well, except for us. We were okay with complaining. We were also there as critics.) The actors were......

I was sitting in the audience at Mum, and I realized I've never actually seen a production of The Fantasticks. I knew most of the music, so I just kind of took for granted that I'd actually seen the show. But I was wrong, so somehow, my first-ever viewing of the longest-running musical in history was performed by puppets. And there's the fear that, when you're seeing an experimental staging of a traditional show, you're......

Roald Dahl is, hands-down, one of my favorite writers. And not just because he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, either. Dahl wrote a number of works for grown-ups, too. (His short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter," was reworked for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents... and remains one of my favorite short stories ever.) He managed to achieve something many authors aspire to but few attain: the ability to write for the ages......

Performances: Carlo vs. Carlo (Aaron Cromie) (No future performances); The Water Engine (Ankit Dogra Productions) (No future performances). After seeing four performances last Saturday, it was really nice to slow down and only see two shows yesterday. But then I looked at the schedule and saw all of the great shows that I could have fit in, but missed. And it made me a little sad. But a lot less tired than I was last......

Tuesday night, Phillyist had the great pleasure of attending the Arden Theatre Company's production of Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. It's a show that we know quite well and we felt that we were in a good position to be tough critics if that's what was required of us. But, it wasn't. The Arden's production was an immensely enjoyable one, from start to finish. The cast, led by......