by Paula Kaplan-Reiss I love the work of Neil Simon. In the 1970s and 1980s, his plays were ubiquitous on Broadway. 1983 saw the beginning of his semi-autobiographical Eugene trilogy with Brighton Beach Memoirs, followed by Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound. The first of this trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs, is…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss The beauty of ten ten-minute plays is the variety of stories and genres capturing the audience’s attention, the chance to see the work of diverse playwrights, and the quick resolution of conflicts and dramas. The challenge is one cast portraying wildly different characters in limited time with…
When I think back to the stand-out theater of this year, three shows come to mind. Two plays are familiar; one is brand new. Centuries, a theatrical concert developed by Kate Douglas, Matthew Dean Marsh and Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez at the Summer Play Lab at Ancram Center for the Arts, brings…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss As a child, Sunday mornings meant rushing to the Sunday newspaper to read the brightly colored, always amusing comics, highlighted by the first comic on the page, Peanuts. All my friends loved the holiday animated specials on TV featuring Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and the gang, to…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss “Who’s crazy, the husband or wife…the one who can’t cope, or maybe the one who’ll still hope?” sings Dan in Next to Normal at Barrington Stage Company (in a co-production with Round House Theatre) about his struggling wife, Diana, and his suffering family. A Tony Award and…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss As a theater critic I am aware that an entire audience watching the same show can result in an audience-size number of opinions. What a clever idea Mark St. Germain put into action writing Forgiveness, performed at Barrington Stage Company. Reading about the Board of Pardons, a…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss I have never been inspired by Elvis Presley nor attracted to his music. However, the outstanding cast of the Mac-Haydn Theatre shakes their hips, sings their hearts out and absolutely dazzles in All Shook Up. Opening on Broadway in 2005 and loosely based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night,…
by Paula Kaplan-Reiss We are all familiar with the iconic musicals of Rodgers & Hammerstein. We have seen them on the stage and screen, and many of us saw them performed at our high schools. Likely, we have never heard of Pipe Dream, originally performed on Broadway in 1955 and…
