Best of 2021: Greater Nippertown Area Theater
We drove to Stamford, CT in February to see a play but it was late April before there were productions in the Capital Region. Much of the theater we saw this year was…
Author
153 posts 0 comments
Playhouse Stage’s “A Year with Frog & Toad” Could Not Be More Charming
Playhouse Stage opens its 34th season with “A Year with Frog & Toad” for a brief run at the Cohoes Music Hall. Act fast because this show could not be more charming or in…
“The Christians” Opens at Albany Barn Thursday
As with many performers from large families, the dining room table was my first stage. It’s where you could try out new material, mimic funny voices, and compete with…
Grab Your Seat at the Table for “The Thanksgiving Play”
Circle Theatre Players, in their 42nd Season, has scored the coup of presenting the Capital Region premiere of Larissa FastHorse’s “The Thanksgiving Play.” In reading up on…
Bridge Street Ascends the Summit of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”
“It’s the Mount Everest of American drama. Arguably the greatest play written by a native dramatist in the 20th Century.” So begins Bridge Street Theatre’s press release for…
“Over the River” Serves Plentiful Laughs Family Style
Much like the lead character of Nick Cristano in Curtain Call Theatre’s production of Joe DiPietro’s 1994 very successful family comedy, the audience is welcomed into the…
ConfettiFest XVII Puts Women Center Stage!
Last night ConfettiFest came roaring back to the stage with a celebration of women that had some of the finest actors in the Capital Region doing great work in five original…
Happy Back at School with Union College’s “Sex Habits!”
There’s a giddy house of mirrors kick to ”The Sex Habits of American Women” at Union College’s Yulman Theatre. The play opens in the 1950’s living room with Haoyu (John)…
LIVE: Michael Buble @ Times Union Center, 10/19/2021
After four cancellations and eighteen months of waiting Michael Buble magically appeared by hidden elevator at the very top of his enormous bandshell which held his 34-piece…
Bridge Street Theatre’s “Lewiston” is a Rewarding American Journey
Have you ever driven by a roadside attraction and played with the idea of who and what must be by the side of the road for the next few miles? “Lewiston” is a highly…
“The Diary of Anne Frank” is Always Relevant at Fort Salem Theatre
“The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank is 74 years old this year. It has sold over 30 million copies, been translated into 70 languages, been adapted into two plays, a…
“Shirley Valentine” Lives It Up!
“Shirley Valentine” is another one person show, this one about a dissatisfied, middle-aged, Liverpudlian housewife but this 1986 comedy by Willy Russell (“Blood Brothers,”…
“A Crossing” at BSC Promises and Delivers a Most Exciting Journey
“A Crossing-A Dance Musical” is being given a World Premiere at Barrington Stage Company through 10/16 and it is unlike any musical you have ever seen. It is described as a…
Casey Polomaine Talks Fusion Fundraiser 10/15 at Albany and Electric City Barns
Albany Barn and Electric City Barn in Schenectady are vital, generous, and accommodating spaces for artists to create and thrive. They are holding their fundraiser, Fusion an…
“Miss Gulch Returns!” is a Dream They Dared to Dream at Bridge Street
I think it’s a great idea to imagine a drag performer taking on the character of Almira Gulch, the single woman of a certain age who gave us all a fright as children when she…
“Weekend Comedy”… Maybe, For Some
It’s a great marker in the return to normalcy after a cataclysmic event to be confronted with the average or indifferent, it truly lets you know that life goes on. It is…
A Great View of Class Conflict with Theater Barn’s “Good People”
Actors need challenging scripts to do great work. There is proof being offered at The Theater Barn where the cast and the director of David Lindsay-Abaire’s brilliant,…
“The Turn of the Screw” Works Its Haunting Wiles in Oldcastle’s Exquisite…
There is a crispness in the air, the leaves are on the edge of turning and there are cider donuts for sale on the beautiful drive up to Bennington putting one in the perfect…
LAGS’ “The Guys” Commemorates 9/11 at Schenectady Civic Playhouse
This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11. Anne Nelson's play "The Guys" is being given three performances…
“Buyer & Cellar” Demands a Lot From Actor And Supplies Huge Laughs
I don’t know if there’s a more profound satisfaction than watching an actor you’ve known for years take on an enormously challenging role and just kill it. Shayne David…
All Eyes Are On the Divine Jannie Jones in “Ethel Waters” at Capital Repertory…
There was great anticipation outside what used to be an old Nabisco bakery building on Tuesday night. There was a band playing on the sidewalk and politicians cutting the…
Jake & Brandon Offer FREE Concert at Cohoes Music Hall, August 25th
There’s a special end of summer concert being thrown at The Cohoes Music Hall Wednesday night, 8/25 at 8 pm featuring Jake Goodman and Brandon Jones on piano and Dan Galliher…
Auditions are back! Get your drama onstage
The greatest thing Capital Region theater has to offer is opportunity. There are dozens of groups that are producing all sorts of performing arts with opportunities for…
“Sister Sorry” at BSC Is an Intense Whodunwhat
After the last six years in this country, are you interested enough to spend an evening’s entertainment watching how and why a person lies? If a confession is untethered from…
Chester’s “Tiny Beautiful Things” Has Radical Sincerity To Move and Inspire
There is a story to be told in Chester Theatre Company’s season of three plays staged under a tent at the Shaker Hancock Village in this summer of re-emergence. “Title and…
Felicia Curry is Transcendent in “Nina Simone: Four Women”!
There is an extraordinary performance by Felicia Curry playing the title character of “Nina Simone: Four Women” currently being produced by the Berkshire Theatre Group on the…
Actress Monet Thompson Cooks Up a “Barbecue” This Weekend and Next
A Quick Take with Monet ThompsonMonet Thompson is readying her second performance of the summer when she steps onstage Friday for Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY,…
“Nietzsche! The Musical” Receives FREE Reading This Saturday 8/21 at Fort Salem Theater
Hebron residents Kimerer LaMothe and Geoffrey Gee will present a developmental reading of their brand new musical – Nietzsche! – on the MainStage of the Fort…
“Queen of the Night” Sings Out in the Dark Woods
There are many things to be afraid of in the woods even if you love the outdoors as Ty, irresistibly played by Leland Fowler, proclaims in his opening monologue. They have to…
HVSF Offers A Soul Stirring “Tempest” For Our Times
Unforgettable nights of theater are created out of a confluence of many elements; the play, setting, company, themes and timing. All of these contributions and more work…
Love Expressed “Night and Day” at The Theater Barn
“Night and Day: Love Lost and Found Through the Eyes of Cole Porter” is a revue at The Theater Barn of over two dozen Porter classics and a story about two couples spending a…
Barrington Stage’s “Boca” Offers World Premiere Laughs All Night Long
Barrington Stage Company is producing the show for all the people who say what they want when they go to the theater is “they just want to laugh.” “Boca,” a World Premiere by…
Playhouse Fills The Park With Revolting Children in Winning “Matilda”
Imagine there’s a small group of extraordinarily talented children and they’ve been promised a showcase to their talents over a year and a half ago but a worldwide cataclysm…
Ellen Cribbs Brings The Funny Directing “A Servant of Two Masters”
There is a not-so-secret weapon in Capital Region theater and she goes by the name of Ellen Cribbs. Since moving here from Chicago in 2017, I have been keenly watching her…
Mac Haydn Discovers the Extraordinary in Their First Staging of “Pippin”
It’s been nearly two years since there’s been a production on Mac Haydn’s stage and the opening moment of “Pippin” has their title character played by Kylan Ross enter the…
Stellar East Coast Premiere of New Mamet Play at Great Barrington Public Theatre
Summer 2021 has brought forth many reasons for celebration and here’s another, David Mamet’s new short play “The Christopher Boys Communion” is receiving its East Coast…
“Laughing Wild” Touches Nerves in DTF’s Outdoor Return
It is easy to see why Dina Janis chose “Laughing Wild” to open Dorset Theatre Festival’s first outdoor season at the Southern Vermont Arts Center starting with the title of…
All Hail Harriet Harris, First Lady of BSC’s “Eleanor”
It is surprisingly rare that theater asserts its usefulness as it did for me Tuesday night with Barrington Stage’s production of Mark St. Germain’s “Eleanor” starring the…
Circle Theatre Players Present a Thrilling “Pipeline” with New Talent
Circle Theatre Players in Averill Park are presenting an urgent look at young Black men caught in what the play “Pipeline” by Dominique Morisseau asserts is an all too…
Fort Salem Surprises with a Rare, Loving and Vital “Next to Normal”
There is a family falling apart in a fabulous fashion on the Fort Salem Theatre these days. In “Next to Normal” by composer Tom Kitt and writer Brian Yorkey, the audience is…
Chester’s “The Niceties” is Essential Viewing This Summer
There are some plays that are so trenchantly prescient, so eerily accurate and convincing they seem to have called forth changes in society, years after they were written and…
Actor Bill Shein Plays God in Capital Region Theatre Debut
I have been very lucky to keep busy with all the theater opportunities the Capital Region offers throughout the pandemic and I am very pleased to be directing "An Act of God"…
Playhouse Stage Celebrates a Return to the Park with “Ain’t Misbehavin'”
ALBANY — It was nearly miraculous how Playhouse Stage was able to squeeze in a terrifically energetic performance of “Ain’t Misbehavin’” between raindrops on Friday night.…
Hysterical “Miz Martha” on Historical Site with Hudson Valley Shakespeare…
GARRISON — Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has stepped up to the moment and answered our times with the frequently hilarious, challenging and important “The Most…
Ryan Palmer Thrillingly Lives up to the Title in “Fully Committed” at The Theater Barn
NEW LEBANON — “Fully Committed” by Becky Mode is a bravura showcase for an actor to play over 30 parts while manning the reservation phone at an exclusive Manhattan…
“The Importance of Being Earnest” Dazzles with Verbal and Visual Brilliance at BTG
“The Importance of Being Earnest” may be the funniest play in the English language and beyond Shakespeare there can be no more quotable playwright than Oscar Wilde but if…
“Chester Bailey” Lures You Back to The Theater with Stellar Production
There are many points of entrance to the Boyd/Quinson Mainstage at Barrington Stage to take your seats for the first performance in the theater since the fall of 2019. The…
Chester Theatre Company Absorbs Your Attention with Engaging “Title and Deed”
CHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS — It’s a quintessential theatrical set-up. A wanderer enters stage left and surveys his surroundings and who he’s talking to. He’s got a tale to tell…
REVIEW: Revived Fort Salem Theater Moves Strongly Forward with “Marvelous Wonderettes” Look Back
SALEM — There is a party atmosphere as soon as you turn down East Broadway in Salem where women in pretty dresses are congregated in front of the columned theater which we…
Barrington Stage Scores with a Lovely, Loving Evening of Gershwin
Barrington Stage Company has done it again, conjuring theatrical magic to turn a concert in a parking lot into a swinging, top-tier, cabaret of one’s dreams. Like last year’s…
Like My Birthday, Christmas Eve & A Calamity All Rolled Into One!
Opening Nights have a mystical power in the world of theater. Participants have rituals they go through; favorite foods, lucky pieces of clothing, music that we have to…
Theatre is back and I’ve Got Goosebumps… “Death Tax” at the Albany Barn
“’Death Tax!’ What an awful title! After 14 months of grief and isolation, who wants to see that? I just want to laugh and be entertained. Why would you want to do that your…
Playhouse Stage Welcomes You Back With The Perfectly Named “I Love You, You’re Perfect,…
413 days.That’s how many days it’s been since I’ve been inside a Capital Region theater to see a show. The last one was “The Irish and How They Got That Way” at theREP…
SLOC Announces a Reimagined Season
It’s been just over a year since the Schenectady Light Opera Company stage promised “Something familiar, Something peculiar, Something for everyone: A Comedy Tonight!” Of…
“Something Spectacular” is happening at theREP
There was a ray of sunshine on this gray, drizzly, pandemic day on North Pearl Street this morning. There was talk of fairy tales, dreams come true and happily ever after at…
Best of 2020: Celebrating Greatness in Capital Region Theater
The title of this article may strike you as a misnomer but there was great theater before the lockdown on March 12th and extraordinary measures were taken all year long by…
Berkshire Theatre Group Gives A Gift of “Holiday Memories”
After their enormously successful and justly lauded miracle of a production, “Godspell” this summer, BTG is back with a gift of “Holiday Memories” to close out the year. It…
ConfettiFest 16 Opens Thursday On a Screen Near You
Confetti Stage has been staging a one-act play festival at the Albany Masonic Lodge for many years and it is always a big, bright kick-off to the theater season involving…
In the Berkshires, “The Hills Are Alive with Rodgers & Hammerstein”
Rodgers & Hammerstein were referred to as the “comfort food” of popular musicals a couple of times during “The Hills Are Alive with Rodgers & Hammerstein,” the meat…
“Godspell” Beseeches Urgently Under a Tent in Pittsfield
“Godspell,” the 1971 Stephen Schwartz musical with book by Michael-John Tebelak using Christian parables to enlighten and entertain is inordinately popular with community,…
“Harry Clarke” Is the Mask That Brings Life to the Stage
Your temperature is taken at the entrance to the tent, your seats are 6 feet apart from your neighbors and you must wear a mask throughout the performance. You are warned in…
Inclusive Zoom Auditions 8/3 & 8/4 For HMT’s Socially Distant “Cry It Out”
Jessie is a corporate lawyer in a Manhattan firm. Lina is a community-college dropout and born-and-bred Long Islander. They don't seem to have anything in common but marooned…
Owen Smith Talks Cohoes Music Hall and Playhouse Stage
There is much to miss this summer without theater, we live so close to the world-class organizations of Glimmerglass, Williamstown, Barrington Stage, and Powerhouse but…
The 518 Theater Kids Are All Grown Up and Giving Back
The kids are alright. Dozens of area students who are caught in a performing limbo, some between high school and college and some starting out their careers but all are…
Josh Romeo Introduces “Buzz Off,” A Fanciful Play About a Band of Insects
Join the insect band, Buzz Off, as they compete in a local upstate New York Battle of the Bands. The goal: win back the rights to their song after it was stolen by a…
Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY Leads Capital Region Theater Response With “8:46”
Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY (BTTUNY) is honored to announce the collective group of Capital Region Theatrical organizations involved in "8:46," a theatrical response…
World Premiere of “Cell Play,” Written in Quarantine, Features Actors From Across the…
There will be an online reading of Josh Romeo’s original show CELL PLAY. The performance of CELL PLAY will be presented for free via Facebook live on Thursday 6/11 at 8 pm…
Quarantine e-Theatre Engages a Diverse Community
A great and annoying feature of life during lockdown has been our reliance and enjoyment of our electronic devices. Our world has become smaller and our teachers have been…
Creating Theater in the Time of Quarantine
When the pandemic struck America, it forced us all inside and deprived us of many activities and contacts that we had grown accustomed to and maybe even taken for granted.…
The Play That Changed My Life, Part Two
I am a firm believer that every night that you enter a theater you are putting yourself in a position to transform your life as with no other art form. At its best the…
That Time Dr. Fauci Was a Character in an Obie Award Winning Play
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 and one of the lead members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force…
“Capital Drama Club” Reaches Out To High School Students Looking to Keep Theater Alive
Where were you when the world came to a grinding halt and we all headed indoors? Imagine you’re in high school. You’re the lead in the school’s musical, “High School Musical”…
Reading “The True” in Anticipation of the Fall Theater Season
“The True” by Sharr White is his imagined story of the 1977 Democratic Primary race for Mayor featuring historical figures Erastus Corning II and his longtime aide and…
The Path To City Hall Was Child’s Play
Author’s note: The pandemic has caused many dislocations and missed opportunities. The story below was based on an interview conducted 2/26/2020 so does not reflect the…
An Actor Doing Nothing
I took an acting workshop with Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill a number of years ago and one of the first things she did was went around the room and asked us all to think of a…
“The Pitch” Paints the Corners in World Premiere at Majestic Theatre in West Springfield
The Majestic Theatre is producing a world premiere of Pioneer Valley newspaperman Stan Freeman’s first play “The Pitch” and there is much for the hometown crowd to cheer…
“All My Sons” Howls with a Renewed Fervor at SLCA
Circle Theatre Players are doing a bang-up job on “All My Sons,” the Arthur Miller perennial which speaks with renewed urgency to an America that has seemed to have lost its…
SLCA and NoPiates Committee Team Up To Combat Drug Addiction in Rensselaer County
“(In)Dependent” was created in April 2017 after months of primary and secondary research, consisting of 50 interviews of Northeastern Ohio doctors, nurses, paramedics,…
“The Glass Menagerie” Shines in a New Light at Brouwer House
NorthEast Theatre Ensemble continues with its invaluable project of reviving modern classics by placing them in Capital Region historic sites and encouraging the setting and…
“The Mountaintop” Offers a View of Shared Purpose and Unity
Confetti Stage has invited the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY and its founder and Artistic Director, Jean-Remy Monnay to choose any play to present at The Linda this…
Playhouse Stage Company’s “Lady Day” Flies High on the Wings of Song
“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” with a book by Lainie Robinson has picked up quite a bit of acclaim on its own, if not nearly much as the legendary singer upon whom…
World Premiere of “Jerry Lee Lewis Versus Jerry Lee Lewis” by Playhouse Stage Company, What a…
Playhouse Stage Company is taking an audacious gamble, presenting a World Premiere musical of a rock ’n’ roll legend written by an actor who played Jerry Lee Lewis in last…
“Crimes of the Heart” Works Its Cracked Charm in CTG’s Production
The Magrath sisters of Hazelhurst, Mississippi are having a really bad day. Many years after Mama hung herself in the basement…with the family cat, the family is in crisis…
A Fresh Touring “Fiddler” Dances Thrillingly on the Edge at Proctors
There is always a time for “Fiddler on the Roof” which has not gone out of fashion since its record breaking 1964 debut on Broadway when it was the first musical to run for…
5 Shows This Weekend and Not a Single Stage Set in Sight
I had another jam-packed weekend of theater in the Capital Region but much of it wasn’t spent in traditional theatres, most of the shows weren't memorized, the production…
“Anne Frank” Continues to Break Our Hearts 75 Years after Her Death at Theatre Institute at Sage
“The Diary of Anne Frank” is one of the most famous books in the world. Anne had received a red and white checked autograph book for her thirteenth birthday in June of 1942.…
“The Chalk Garden” at The Ghent Playhouse is a Satisfying Story of a Woman with a Past
The Ghent Playhouse is presenting “The Chalk Garden,” a play by Enid Bagnold which had many Tony nominations when it bowed on Broadway in 1955 and a starry movie adaptation…
Confetti Stage’s “Eurydice” Calls Out From Beyond To Be Remembered
Sarah Ruhl’s very popular 2003 play “Eurydice” is currently working its charms on the fourth floor of the Albany Masonic Lodge. It is a favorite of colleges across the…
“American Soldiers” at Albany Civic Theater Asks, What Are We Fighting For?
It’s a late night in the Hicksville, Long Island house of Carlo Coletti (Joseph Bruton) as he pads around the kitchen sneaking shots of Maker’s Mark and glimpses out the…
“Bo-nita” Astounds in Denizen’s East Coast Premiere
There’s a strange young girl waiting on the bench and to bide her time, she makes faces, beats out a rhythm on her body to an unheard song, turns to us and tells an…
“Frost/Nixon” Echoes with Galvanizing Force at Schenectady Civic Players
“Well, when the president does it, that means that it’s not illegal.” “If the president does something that he thinks will help him get elected, in the public interest, that…
“Your Best One” is Perfectly Alright at Capital Repertory Theatre
Capital Repertory Theatre is presenting the East Coast Premiere of “Your Best One” selected from its Next Act new play festival which happens every June. The playwright…
World Premiere of “The Man in the Brown Suit” Receives Vigorous Performance
How is it possible that there is an Agatha Christie story that has not been done on stage yet? Dozens and dozens of playgoers packed Saratoga Arts Sunday where seats had to…
“Ben Butler” Commands the Stage at Curtain Call Theatre January 24th to February 8th
"Ben Butler" by Richard Strand is making its Capital Region premiere at Curtain Call Theatre in Latham opening this Friday 1/24 and playing weekends through 2/8. This…
SLOC Gets the Job Done Working “9 to 5”
The bitter cold Friday night was no match for the overwhelming, sunny warmth of the revenge of the sexes musical “9 to 5” that opened at Schenectady Light Opera Company and…
Majestic’s “Deathtrap” Springs to Life in West Springfield
The Majestic Theater in West Springfield, Massachusetts is my “go-to” for the first theater production of the first week of the new year and their production of “Deathtrap”…
TFT’s “Shadow” Haunts Your Holiday Cheer with an Outstanding Performance
“A Shadow That Broke the Light," a performance installation in response to the opioid crisis written and performed by Charlie DelMarcelle and directed by David Girard, played…
Best of 2019: Top 10 Theatrical Discoveries
There is nothing like the thrilling shock of encountering something brand new in the theater. The hair on the back of your neck stands up, your breathing quickens and you…
“Kris Kringle” Drops Into Proctors
Proctors hosted “Kris Kringle: The Musical” this past weekend, and while the musical tried to create a new holiday favorite, it had disappointing results. There were many…
Confetti Stage Has More Fun in “Christmastown” Than an Elf in Toyland
Confetti Stage Inc. returned to its December home, The Linda WAMC's Performing Arts Studio, for its annual Christmas show on Friday night. Playing only two performances on…