by Barbara Waldinger Is it possible to have too much of a good thing? Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of Rock and Roll Man: The Alan Freed Story is an enormous undertaking, featuring nineteen cast members, forty-five songs, a revolving stage and multiple projections. Trotting out dozens of 1950s classics and…
by Barbara Waldinger What is the purpose of producing a classic play that has already been revived many times onstage and on film? Some people say that it’s to give a new generation of theatregoers the opportunity to see an important work. Others insist that it’s to give a director…
by Barbara Waldinger What a pleasure to attend the appealing and comfortable McConnell Theatre at Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, where Barrington Public Theater makes its debut—Breakwater by Jim Frangione.  Facing the audience is a deep, wide proscenium stage, depicting beige sand dunes in Hyannis circa 1990,…
by Barbara Waldinger The Berkshires as a summer destination attracts visitors who want to escape the heat, seek cultural enrichment, and bask in outdoor activities in beautiful surroundings. One might assume that theatrical offerings would cater to the wishes and expectations of this part-time audience. But Artistic Director Julianne Boyd,…
by Barbara Waldinger It has been said that a play is merely a blueprint until it receives a full production. Lady Randy, by Anne Undeland, is a perfect example of how a biographical play about Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill, becomes an extraordinary theatrical event. Undeland’s witty and…
by Barbara Waldinger Casse Noisette, French for Nutcracker and subtitled A Fairy Ballet, is Bridge Street Theatre’s current World Premiere offering. Given these clues, audience members may be excused for expecting Balanchine’s ubiquitous holiday ballet, set to the familiar score of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, based on Hoffmann’s famous fairy tale. …
by Barbara Waldinger Wendy Wasserstein, who passed away in 2006 at the age of 55, wrote several plays about college-educated women of her generation who struggled to find their own identity in a male-dominated world. One would imagine, given the current socio-political atmosphere, that these works would be ripe for…
by Barbara Waldinger Many twenty-first century theatre audiences, who expect real life behavior onstage, much like reality TV, may not know how to react to the work of Luigi Pirandello, whose play Naked is currently on the boards at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre. Pirandello, writing just after the devastation…
