Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 1999 “Once on this Island” is probably the perfect family musical. It is brief (85 minutes), uplifting, and tuneful. And Weston Playhouse is giving it a nifty production that is simultaneously simple and full of surprises. Since its off-Broadway debut in 1990 “Once on…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 1999 Mac-Haydn is off to a good start this season with a second fine musical production – this time Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1950 opus “South Pacific”. Based on a group of shorth stories by James Michener, “South Pacific” was a tremendous hit for Rodgers…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 1999 It is very important to note that “My Fair Lady” is a “musical play”. It is not a musical comedy – that uniquely American art form. Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe took the play “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw, added some songs…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 1999 For those of you who haven’t already been to see for yourself – Mass MoCA lives!!! There is really a Museum there folks, and it is a sight to see. Just walking in the gates was an opening night for me – one…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 1999 I officially declare the 1999 Berkshire Theatre Season open with the Town Players production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge”. I declare this so that I can add this production to my list of potential “best shows of the season” when…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, May 1999 I was pleased to learn that D.J. McDonald was bring an updated version of his “Oppenheimer Project” to the Manic Stage. I had enjoyed the version presented there briefly in October, and was interested to see what changes had been wrought over the…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, April 1999 Oliver Wendell Holmes was a doctor of medicine, a popular humor writer, a founder of “The Atlantic” magazine, the owner of a home on Holmes Road in Pittsfield, and the father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Born in 1809, the…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, January 1999 At one point in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” author Steve Martin,(yes, that Steve Martin) has a minor character admonish Picasso and Einstein saying something to the effect of, “You must watch your words very carefully, or they will turn on you like…
