Results tagged “theatre”

If anybody but Nice People Theatre Company told me that they were doing a show that would be, at least in part, about rock climbing, I'd be a little skeptical. But because I've never had a bad experience with Nice People, I was willing to go with the flow, sit on the floor, and watch an activity that never especially interested me.

You have to really love Shakespeare to be familiar with Love's Labour's Lost. Although it's one of the Bard's earlier comedies, it's not performed often... probably because it doesn't really end. A man ahead of his time, Billy Shakes ended the play in true cliffhanger fashion, setting things up for a sequel. A sequel that was, legend tells us, allegedly written and performed, but whose script does not survive. (Probably for the best—sequels are never as good anyway. Right, Mannequin: On the Move?)

When I was thirteen, my friends and I went to a haunted maze at the mall. I was so annoyed by the end, with the predictable gimmicks and cheap thrills, that when Freddy Kreuger jumped out at me a few feet from the exit I may or may not have punched him in the face. (The statute of limitations on assault has passed by now, right?) That wasn't the only time time I'd found myself decidedly unimpressed, or even annoyed, by a haunted maze, so I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical about Brat Productions' Haunted Poe, a sort of theatrical house of horrors, all centered on the life and work of a little-known writer by the name of Edgar Allan Poe.

Bad theatre enrages me. I don't get angry for myself; I imagine the rest of the audience, or at least a portion of it, people who don't usually go to the theatre, people who came on a whim, or a first date, who are now thinking, "Plays. What's the point?" I imagine these people heading home to their televisions, Playstations and email, never again returning to the theatre, and I want to scream at the play's director and producers: "Well done. Well done: you've just hastened the apocalypse."

In October, many local theatre companies try to put on a Halloween-related production. Brat Productions' Haunted Poe is the one we're most excited for this season.

Performances: small metal objects (Back to Back Theatre) (No Future Performances)

These week we venture up to Mount Airy to Allens Lane, which is part of the Fairmount Park system. Allens Lane has some sentimental value to me, as I've worked on some shows at the theater there. "What? There's a theater in the park?" you ask. Yes, there is, which is one thing I love about writing this column and exploring the parks in this city: I never knew Allens Lane "counted" as a park until I started poking around. Also, I love the fact that our parks are multi-faceted, not just places for running around outdoors and picnicking, but also for getting a nice dose of arts and culture.

Performance: (Martina Plag/Laureen Griffin/Leah Walton) (Future Performances—Post-Fringe)

Phillyist's quick-picks for your evening agenda.

Wednesday's opening performance of Chicago: The Musical at the Academy of Music had it all: Signature Fosse moves, an infectious soundtrack, a little razzle, a little dazzle, and of course... Springer.

Phillyist's quick-picks for your evening agenda.

Performances: The Brothers Flanagan (The Flanagan Project) (Future Performances); barFlies (Vagabond Acting Troupe) (Future Performances); Welcome to Yuba City (Pig Iron Theatre Company) (Future Performances)

Performance: The Ibsen Project (MasterBuilder Productions) (No Future Performances)

Phillyist's quick-picks for your evening agenda.

Get ready to paint the town, Philly! Tonight is the opening night of Chicago: The Musical at the Academy of Music. As the show's beginning warns: "You are about to see a story of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery. All the things we hold near and dear to our hearts."

Performances: The Last Cargo Cult (Mike Daisey) (no future performances); daDAda (Anthology Project) (Future Performances); MICROWORLD(s) Part #1 (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/Thaddeus Phillips) (Future Performances)

Performances: Chlamydia dell'Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque (Gigi Naglak and Meghann Williams) (Future performances sold out); Urban Scuba (Brian Sanders/JUNK) (Future performances sold out)

Performances: The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco (The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium) (Future Performances)

Phillyist's quick-picks for your evening agenda.

Performances: Missed Connections, A Craigslist Fantasia (Curio Theatre Company) (Future Performances); Store (Kate Watson-Wallace/Anonymous Bodies) (Future Performances); A Singer's Circus (Jen Fellman) (Future Performances); Kill Me Now (Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre) (No Future Performances); Inside Julia Child (Rebecca Wright and John Jarboe) (No Future Performances)

You didn't think we'd forgotten about the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, did you?

Bummed because you didn't win last week's Never the Sinner giveaway? Never fear! We have two more pairs of tickets and two more signed posters to give away. Just fill out the form below by Wednesday, August 19, and we'll let you know if you won. Full details about the show are in last week's post.

Mauckingbird Theatre Company, Philadelphia's premiere gay-themed theatre company, is about to launch a new production called Never the Sinner, and Phillyist is giving you a chance to catch it yourself. Both this week and next, we'll be awarding two pairs of tickets and two posters signed by the cast to two lucky readers (that's four winning readers, four posters, and four pairs of tickets total).

Love musical theatre? Want an hour and a half's worth of laughs? Has the Walnut got a treat for you!

Despite a record-setting twelve Tony Awards, is really a star vehicle. And by that, we don't mean that it's not an exceptional show; but, it's a deceptively difficult show to pull off, at least in terms of the delivery of its humor. If the actors aren't top-notch, the slapstick can overwhelm the show if not well-executed. So we were a bit skeptical when we learned that the Walnut Street Theatre was doing the show. Without the right balance of indulgence and restraint, the show can go awry—it's a tough balance, even for seasoned performers. So it wasn't really surprising that, after stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick departed from the original New York production, audience numbers dwindled; and although the show managed to remain open on Broadway for six years, it ceased being New York's "must see" ticket without its original stars.

Perhaps the thing with which I've struggled most, when it comes to Terry Johnson's Hysteria, onstage through this weekend at the Wilma Theater, is how to describe it. What starts off as a traditional door-slamming farce—albeit one tinged with Freudian overtones—that presents the unlikely pairing of Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dalí eventually vacillates between absurdism and the completely surreal, the farce all but forgotten by the show's close. Taken in parts, these elements work, but combined, it becomes difficult to determine whether the play is clever or disjointed, let alone to determine whether I actually enjoyed it.

We miss Mum Puppettheatre terribly, so we're thrilled that puppetry is still alive and well in Philadelphia.

But 11th Hour Theatre Company has sure got a great spokesperson.

Poor Hamlet (the play, not the character). It's one of those plays that just can't catch a break. Hell, there's even a play called I Hate Hamlet. And yet, it manages to be one of the most quoted plays in the canon, one of the most frequently taught plays from its time, and (one could argue), one of Shakespeare's most analyzed (and over analyzed!) works.

Nichole Canuso Dance Company's Wandering Alice was, far and away, one of the best pieces of the 2008 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. And when we see performances we like, we want to support the organizations that produce them—so take this post as Phillyist's official endorsement of NCDC, which will be having what sounds like a pretty kick-ass fundraiser.