“Andy” and this Orphan
Early in their first scene together which reunites them at LaGuardia Airport, the estranged siblings, Jacob and Maggie, who are the lead characters of the family comedy I’m…
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Five Questions with Gary Hoffman
Gary Hoffman is one of the giants of Capital Region theater and he is opening a production of The Sunshine Boys by Neil Simon at Schenectady Civic Players this Friday,…
ACT’s “How I Learned to Drive” Kicks the Season into High Gear
Albany Civic Theater’s season-opening production of How I Learned to Drive is a dark, challenging, uncompromising, bitter, and mournful work…and an essential piece of theater…
“Shelley’s Shadow” Shines in World Premiere at BST
Shelley’s Shadow, by Brad Fraser is a play commissioned by Bridge Street Theatre making its World Premiere, and it just might be the first in a new genre in theater known as…
“The Lyons” Roar Their Truth Hilariously at SLCA
If, as Tolstoy put it, “All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” The Lyons' unhappiness has the ability to make you roar with…
Ancram Opera House to Become Ancram Center for the Arts
Ancram Opera House introduces The Ancram Center for the Arts as they expand their campus to include a community meeting room, outdoor areas for audience gatherings pre- and…
Bent Broadway is Back at The Wood
The Charles R. Wood Theater will host Bent Broadway on Friday 9/16 and Saturday 9/17: a cabaret featuring 15 local vocalists living out their dream roles! Now an annual…
The 2022-2023 Capital Region Theater Season
We just finished the Summer season with the fantastic productions of Thirst at Dorset and Waiting for Godot at Barrington Stage closing this weekend, when the new calendar…
Creative License Announces “The Flick” Cast
Following the lives of a trio of movie theater employees, Annie Baker’s Pulitzer Prize winning play The Flick makes its Capital Region premiere in November at the historic…
“Xanadu” and “Forever Plaid” Bring Summer to September at the Mac-Haydn…
The electrifying roller-skating tale Xanadu and the deliciously fun 1950s Barbershop revue Forever Plaid will play the Mac-Haydn Theatre in a repertory schedule, running…
BSC’s “Waiting for Godot” Delights and Disturbs
Written shortly after World War II, Samuel Beckett’s towering masterpiece of 20th-century drama “Waiting for Godot” is being given a sterling production by Barrington Stage…
OTC’s “Sheepdog” Powerfully Investigates Love and Fear
Oldcastle Theatre Company opens the most urgent play of the summer just in the nick of time with “Sheepdog” by Kevin Artigue superbly directed by Kirk Jackson with phenomenal…
6 Questions with Rob Weber, Founder of the Arbor Hill Community Chorus
What's the idea behind, and mission of, the Arbor Hill Community Chorus?I decided to form the chorus last year, after being tasked to create a temporary choir for a…
DTF’s World Premiere of “Thirst” Satisfies Your Love of Theater
Dorset Theatre Festival has a fantastic, hard fought celebration of life, love and theater in it’s World Premiere of Ronán Noone’s “Thirst” directed by their resident…
CTC’s World Premiere “To the Moon and Back” is a Trippy Healing
Chester Theatre Company is presenting the World Premiere of a play it commissioned “To the Moon and Back” by Darcy Parker Bruce and it is curious and enlightening at the same…
Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star at Fort Salem Theater Announces Full Casting
Bluegrass and the Blue Ridge mountains soon take the Fort Salem Theater mainstage in Bright Star, the hit Grammy Award–and Tony Award–nominated Broadway musical written by…
AOH’s “INVASION!” Will Make You Laugh Until It Hurts
INVASION! at Ancram Opera House is a head-spinning lark about ethnic identity that will have you sifting its meaning long after you’ve laughed your face off.The play…
GBPT’s “Things I Know to Be True” is Exceptional Storytelling
Great Barrington Public Theater’s regional premiere of Things I Know To Be True is an excellent epic family drama not often found in the theater lately. Although there are…
WTF’s “we are continuous” Celebrates Love as Salvation
Williamstown Theatre Festival has hit another home run with their world premiere WTF commission of the semi-autobiographical we are continuous by Harrison David Rivers.…
HVSF’s “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” is a Sensational Guide to Surviving the…
“Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play”, at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, is a 2012 black comedy by Anne Washburn with music by Michael Friedman which finds us huddled…
S&Co’s “A Walk in the Woods” Builds a Friendship to Save the World
Shakespeare & Co’s current production of Lee Blessing’s 1987 A Walk in the Woods is being given an excellent production through 9/4 at the company’s outdoor Roman Garden…
Where is the Love? DTF Has Got a Ton with “Back Together Again”
Dorset Theatre Festival has got a throwback vibe going on with Back Together Again: The Music of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, a new concert featuring Christina Acosta…
“Pass Over” and “Hymn” Complement and Echo Each Other Across the Berkshires
There are two new plays about pairs of Black men playing at two theaters 20 miles away from each other in the Berkshires this week. One is about middle-class homeowners and…
5 Questions with Josh Romeo
I first met Josh Romeo when I was lucky enough to play one of my non-singing Irish cops in a C-R Productions West Side Story that he was in. He was an immensely talented,…
See “Constellations” in a New and Amazing Way
“In the quantum multiverse, every choice, every decision you’ve ever and never made exists in an unimaginably vast ensemble of parallel universes.”Living Room Theatre has…
Tom Hanks’ “Safe Home” Receives a Great Production at Shadowland Stages
Shadowland Stages' pursuit of regional and world premieres has served it exceptionally well, especially with its recent coup of scoring the honor of being the first stage in…
Glimmerglass’s “Carmen” Loves Out Loud
The Glimmerglass Festival is presenting a sharp new staging of Georges Bizet’s Carmen, which still has the power, passion and audacity to confound and inspire nearly 150…
HVSF’s “Romeo & Juliet” Are Star-Crossed Seniors
The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival has opened up their new home with a rejuvenated, fresh, coursing take on Romeo & Juliet, with a simple change in casting the two…
BSC’s “Anna in the Tropics” Inspires Passion
I must express my deep appreciation to Barrington Stage for producing the sumptuous Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, the 2003 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama on their…
GBPT’s World Premiere of “Public Speaking 101” Plays it Safe
Great Barrington Public Theatre’s world premiere of Public Speaking 101 is an example of a master craftsman working in a minor key. Mark St. Germain is the playwright of many…
DTF’s World Premiere of “Scarecrow” Stands Tall
“Scarecrow,” the World Premiere one-woman play written and performed by Heidi Armbruster and directed by Dorset Theatre Festival Artistic Director Dina Janis is a comedy…
Shakespeare & Company’s “Much Ado” Sparkles and Shines in the Sun
Director Kelly Galvin with “Much Ado About Nothing” at Shakespeare & Co. has concocted a sparkling summer cocktail of Shakespeare’s spikiest comedies full of warmth,…
ATF’s “The Hobbit” Has the Thrill of Invention
What a great idea for Adirondack Theatre Festival to schedule a new stage adaptation by Greg Banks of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” as their second production of their 2022…
There’s a World of Life to Observe at Chester’s “Birds of North America”
For its return to Town Hall after a three-year absence Chester Theatre Company’s second play of this season, Anna Ouyang Moench’s “Birds of North America,” combines one of…
WTF’s “Man of God” is the Comedy of the Summer!
Williamstown Theatre Festival has come roaring back to life with the horrified scream of four Asian American teenage girls in the opening moments of Anna Ouyang Moench’s “Man…
“ABCD” at Barrington Stage is a Class Above
Maribel Martinez, Brandon St. Clair, Melvin Abston, Toree Alexandre/Daniel Rader
Tales From The Barn
As if this Independence Day weren’t hampered enough with conflicted feelings comes the sad news from New Lebanon, NY that The Theatre Barn is halting its season two shows in,…
Dorset’s “Wait Until Dark” Shines a Light
There are a few visceral audience responses that you can only get in the theater; the immediate leap to your feet for a standing ovation when the play has concluded, the…
“B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching” Bears Investigation
There are at least three strong stories running through “B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching” which could easily support their own play. They are about a mixed-race couple…
The Theater Barn Suspends Operations Mid-Season
The Theater Barn, a family-owned summer theater in New Lebanon, New York has announced that it will suspend operations mid-season following the closing performance of the…
ATF Compels Viewing ‘The Chinese Lady’
In 1834, the Carne Brothers bought 14-year-old Afong Moy from her father in Canton, China for the purpose of displaying her as the first Chinese woman seen in America. It was…
“Airness” Wants To Rock!
Chelsea Marcantel's play "Airness" at Shadowland Stages is about a national air guitar competition, it's participants and a young newbie named Nina who wants desperately to…
Happy to Pay My Respects to “Fourteen Funerals”
Thank God for the restorative powers of comedy. After the grief stricken month of May personally and nationally there is some kind of alchemical magic working in…
Art and Politics Share a Bedroom in “Andy Warhol in Iran”
In 1976, Andy Warhol flew to Tehran to take Polaroids of Empress Farah Pahlavi, whom he had met with her husband, the Shah of Iran, at the White House the previous year…
Five Questions with Rose Biggerstaff
Capital Region theater offers myriad opportunities to perform and collaborate. This weekend, I grabbed the chance to appear in "An Evening of Performances" directed and…
“Deathtrap” Gets All the Laughs and a Fright or Two
“Deathtrap” by Ira Levin is the perennial comedy thriller that opened on Broadway 44 years ago and earned the distinction of being the longest-running comedy-thriller when it…
Take “The Approach” to a Most Promising New Berkshire Season of Theater
I’ve always felt that the theatrical experience begins the moment you enter the building and the theater-makers have many opportunities to start weaving their spell before a…
CTG Offers a Rare and Wounding Arthur Miller Play with “Broken Glass”
Classic Theater Guild is producing a rarely done Arthur Miller play "Broken Glass" and should be congratulated and supported for offering a thoughtful, cogent telling of such…
SLOC Faces the Moment and Produces an Evening of Hope
Composer and lyricist Jason Robert Brown have said about his 1995 collection "Songs for a New World": "It's about one moment. It's about hitting the wall and having to make a…
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…
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…