REVIEW: “The Half Life of Marie Curie” at Albany Civic Theater

by Jess Hoffman Far too many theaters for my taste tend to offer feel-good, holiday-themed, peppermint and sugar-cookie flavored entertainment this time of year. So I am very pleased to announce that Albany Civic Theater, at least, has opted to instead present for their December show a play about hardy…

REVIEW: Creative License Theater Collective Presents “The Sound Inside”

by Jess Hoffman It’s hard to know what to make of The Sound Inside. The two-person show, currently playing at Cohoes Music Hall, is a bold and questionable choice for Creative License Theater Collective. The Sound Inside is a simple story about a lonely professor with cancer who forms a…

REVIEW: “Sympathetic Magic” at Bridge Street Theatre

by Jessica Hoffman Bridge Street Theater takes audiences to 1990s San Francisco with its production ofSympathetic Magic: a play about very smart people making very questionable decisions. Twoastrophysicists, a university chair, a sculptor, a choirmaster, an elderly anthropologist, herassistant, and a gay priest make up the cast of enigmatic characters…

REVIEW: “Chapter Two” at Schenectady Civic Players

by Jessica Hoffman I must admit I’m a sucker for a comedy–a Neil Simon comedy all the moreso. Schenectady Civic Players’ current production, Chapter Two, is neither Neil Simon’s funniest comedy nor his most profound drama, but it is nevertheless chock full of Simon’s witty repartee and true-to-life, laugh-out-loud humor.…

REVIEW: Harbinger Theatre’s “Custom Cuts” at The Albany Barn

by Jess Hoffman Harbinger Theatre has brought many regional premiers to the Albany Capital District, 10 in arow, to be precise. But right now, Harbinger is showing a world premier of a play written bySchenectady local and regional theater personality Brian Sheldon. Staged at The Albany Barn,Custom Cuts is an…

REVIEW: “The Secret Garden” at Playhouse Stage Company

by Jess Hoffman Playhouse Stage Company has chosen a play with local roots for its second summer production. Based on a 1911 novel of the same name, The Secret Garden first premiered in 1989 in New York’s Capital District in a collaboration between Skidmore College and Capital Rep, according to…