by Gail M. Burns, August 2007 One of the trickiest things about being a theatre critic is having to review different productions of the same play in close succession, particularly if the first one you see really moves you. I was clear in my review of the Hubbard Hall production…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2007 As I wander through the theatrical landscape, I am always on the look-out for interesting juxtapositions of plays, and I cannot believe that it is a coincidence that the Berkshire Theatre Festival is concluding its summer season with two plays that examine questions…
“And was Jerusalem builded hereamong these dark Satanic Mills?” – William Blake, “And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time” George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was greatly concerned with the dark satanic mills of Victorian Britain, and although there is nary a mill in sight in the published text his 1893 play Mrs.…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2007 Paul Osborn (1901-1988) originally set Morning’s at Seven in the year it was written – 1939 – but director Vivian Matalon asked his permission to shift it to 1922 for his Tony Award-winning 1980 Broadway production, and now that is the official setting for this…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2007 What a difference a director makes! Last summer Shakespeare & Company produced this same modern adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s 18th century comedy The Servant of Two Masters by Jeffrey Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi under Dan McCleary’s direction and I hailed it as the funniest…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2007 Some old musicals are just that – old. But The Music Man is one of that handful of shows that is always fresh and fun. Written in the 1950’s but set in an amorphous and idealized 1912 (some of the topical references in the show…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August, 2007 Only recently has there been a trend to convert movie musicals into theatrical vehicles, usually with the view of reproducing, live on stage, the moments we all treasure on celluloid. Frankly, this rarely works well. This summer the Mac-Haydn has presented three movie-to-stage…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2007 I have been sad over the past few summers that Berkshire County has been engaging in sustained cultural exchanges with other nations that theatre is the least portable of the arts due to the inevitable language barriers. Fans of the visual arts, music,…
