Results tagged “scottgreer”

It's an interesting idea, casting some of Philadelphia's most recognizable musical and comedic actors in a play that's certainly neither of those things. But perhaps so dramatically recasting Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, as director Malcolm Black has done at the Walnut Street Theatre, is a smart idea: it distances us from the Marlon Brando/Vivien Leigh/Kim Hunter/Karl Malden casting we all know and allows us to take a fresh look at the show.

Cherry Bomb, the title of 1812 Productions' current production is intentionally self-descriptive: the show chronicles the very real Vaudeville career of the Cherry sisters—who, in every performance, bombed. And yet for a while, these teetotaling, uppity Midwesterners sold out some of America's largest theatres. People came from miles away to see just how bad the Cherry Sisters could be. And the answer was: pretty damned bad. Clearly, this story had great potential for the kind of comic fodder that 1812 thrives on—potential that Jennifer Childs (book and lyrics) and James Sugg (music) were well aware of.

Leonard Bernstein's Candide isn't performed often, and whenever it is, it's usually been given a completely new book. The songs remain the same, as they say, but the script is ever-changing. The version of the show running at the Arden through this Sunday features a new book by John Caird that seems, finally, to have captured the feel of the original Voltaire work from which it was adapted.

I have to be honest here for a minute: I was pretty pessimistic about The Walnut's production of Les Miserables, more or less from the second it was announced as the season closer. It wasn't lack of faith in The Walnut that led to my lack of optimism. Rather, it was a familiarity: nothing about Les Mis—not the music, not the costumes, not the set*—is easy, and bad productions are far too common. Not only that, the better known a musical is, the greater the chance that the audience, used to hearing the original Broadway soundtrack, or having seen the production in London or New York, will be tough to please. Perhaps I should re-phrase my initial statement. It's not that I was pessimistic about The Walnut's production—it's just that I entered the theatre with a healthy sense of reality.

Two literary characters and a historical figure walk into a bar...

The Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia's December On Stage listings make note of four productions of A Christmas Carol (one of which, admittedly, I loved), plus productions of A Christmas Story, Christmas City Follies, Comet, the Fifth Reindeer, The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, The Holiday Goose - A Musical, Holiday Show at the Swing Club, The Nutcracker, O'Henry Christmas, The Santaland Diaries, Tiny Tim's Christmas, and Winter Musicale 2007. In short, the season is saturated...

One of the most common, and legitimate, criticisms of the music of Stephen Sondheim by performers and critics alike is that he's not tuneful enough. "Hummable," I think is the word most often used by these critics.

What are you doing this afternoon? Working, you say? Why would you want to go and do a thing like that when you could take off early and go catch a reading of Roy Smiles' cast members Scott Greer, Scott Barrow, and Ross Manson." Anything that has to do with Peter Sellers sounds absolutely great to us, so you'd best believe that the reading appeals to the Phillyist staff.