REVIEW: “A Picasso” at Barrington Stage Company

by Gail M. Burns, May 2007 I cannot tell you how many times I have repeated the title of this show to people. “What is it called?” they would ask me. And no matter how carefully I enunciated the answer, the next question out of many people’s mouths was “Who’s…

REVIEW: “The Glass Menagerie” at the Berkshire Theatre Festival

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May, 2007 For deeply personal reasons, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie is a very difficult play for me to sit through. But in this line of work it is also one that I have to sit through frequently. There have been times when this play has made…

REVIEW: “Bushwa: A Modern Ubu” at Confetti Stage

by Gail M. Burns If you have studied dramatic literature, you know that Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu roi” holds a seminal place in the inexorable transition from 19th to 20th century theatre.  If you haven’t studied dramatic literature, you have probably never heard of it.  And I would guess that the…

REVIEW: “Stars in the Ocean, Sand in the Sky” Presented by Community Access to the Arts

by Gail M. Burns, May 2007 “O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beautious mankind is!O brave new worldThat has such people in’t!” – William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, scene i While “Stars in the Ocean, Sand in the Sky” was CATA’s 12th annual gala performance in celebration…

REVIEW: “Bushwa: A Modern Ubu” at Confetti Stage

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 2007 If you have studied dramatic literature, you know that Alfred Jarry’s Ubu roi holds a seminal place in the inexorable transition from 19th to 20th century theatre. If you haven’t studied dramatic literature, you have probably never heard of it. And I would guess that…

REVIEW: The Theatre Company at Hubbard Hall Presents “Uncle Vanya”

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 2007 There are three kinds of people in the world: people who love Chekhov, people who hate Chekhov, and people who are afraid of Chekhov because he’s Russian and everyone says he is a “great playwright.” I am a person who loves Chekhov. Whenever…

REVIEW: “110 in the Shade” at the Mac-Haydn Theatre

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May, 2007 110 in the Shade is a little gem of a musical written by those masters of little musical gems – Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt – whose names are forever etched in musical theatre history as the creators of The Fantasticks. Like that phenomenally popular…