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…
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…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 2007 If you take Reunion at face value as staged musical chronicle of the years Abraham Lincoln was president, it works very well. The production currently on the boards at NYSTI looks and sounds great. I found it moving and entertaining, and so did my eleven-year-old…
by Gail M. Burns, May 2007 Saturday Night Liv is a charming homespun vaudeville, assembled by the Columbia Arts Team, aka Liv Cummins, Sandy McKnight, and Christina Dellea. After a nomadic existence for the past few years, they have settled for their sixth season at the Spencertown Academy. Taking as their model the now…
Visiting Mr. Green has come home to the Berkshires.Jeff Baron’s two-man play received its world premiere at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in the summer of 1996 with Eli Wallach in the title role. Since then it has literally been around the world, having been translated in 23 languages. Now Town Players has brought…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, April 2007 You would never, ever know that this production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum was a last-minute effort, but it was. When problems arose with the rights to Chicago, which was supposed to close Cohoes’ 2006-2007 season, …Forum was hastily announced, cast, and…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, April 2007 If you like your end-of-life stories filtered through a homey Hallmark haze, then you will love Tom Ziegler’s Grace and Glorie now being given a charmingly honest production at the Copake Theatre Company. It is not surprising to learn that Hallmark developed Grace and Glorie as a…
by Gail M. Burns, April 2007 Many, many years ago, I purchased tickets to a rare U.S. performance by a British youth theatre troupe. I was very excited to see this group perform. The audience was seated on bleachers on either side of the basketball court where the action took…
