by Paula Kaplan-Reiss The late great William Finn wrote the music and lyrics for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, originally workshopped at Barrington Stage Company in 2004 and premiered on Broadway in 2005. A winner of two Tony awards, this sweet, endearing and hilarious musical depicts the competitors…
by Dan Mayer Not everyone is destined to defeat the dark lord and save the world. Puffs takes us back to a familiar school of magic to follow the stories of characters usually relegated to the background. SLCA‘s production casts quite a spell, delivering both hilarity and heart. Audience members…
by Jess Hoffman Harbinger Theater has made a splash in the area by producing Capital Region premiers of fresh, new, unexplored plays. Their latest production, Maggie May (currently playing at Albany Civic Theater) is no exception; it is the United States premier of a play about aging and dementia originally…
by Jess Hoffman I’ve spoken to some theatergoers who tell me how tired they are of Boeing Boeing. It’s not that it isn’t a good play, they say, just that it is so overdone. To be sure, Boeing Boeing is a community theater favorite, but before you decide that we…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss EDITOR’S NOTE: An unfortunate error was made in the editing of this review when it was first posted. That error has been corrected to the satisfaction of the editor and the critic. Berkshire on Stage apologizes for the distress that the original post caused. When Sylvia St.…
by Emily Edelman The musical “Fun Home,” now on stage at the Ghent Playhouse, is based on the graphic memoir of the same title by cartoonist Alison Bechdel and describes her youth growing up in a funeral home; coming out as a lesbian at college; and grappling as an adult…
