Author Archives

University administrator and teacher by day, theater and arts critic by night.

REVIEW: A Divided Duty: Rossini’s Otello at O22 (for Parterre Box)

In bel canto opera, virtuosic singing IS the drama. Accept that, and O22’s OTELLO pays off thrillingly.

In THE RAVEN, Festival O’s characteristic imagination and audacity remain front and center.

This superb production of a Tennessee Williams’ rarity illuminates by lightening the playwright’s life and work.

No roller coaster has generated more stomach-churning highs and lows than the musical Dear Evan Hansen.

A lovingly restored version of Strauss’s opera reveals that sometimes cuts are for the best.

Two celebrated 1950s musicals get strikingly dissimilar festival productions this summer.

An elegantly streamlined makes the best case for the show I’ve yet seen.

Sarah Silverman’s memoir-musical takes on a traumatic subject with an uneasy mix of crude comedy and serious themes.

Can we start by not using Barbra Streisand as a polestar here?

The collective audience sigh of joy that greeted the opening chords signaled success from the start.