Pacific Overtures
Donmar Warehouse

The Donmar Warehouse is presenting its fifth Sondheim work with its current Pacific Overtures, a co-production with the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, which mounted the piece in 2001 under the direction of Gary Griffin. Using some of the same players, Griffin has redirected the piece in the intimate 250-seat house, with the audience seated on all four sides for the first time in the Donmar's history. The musical's original New York production in 1976 was a lavish spectacular that employed a huge cast of 46. The 1984 revised version in New York used a cast of 19.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 2003
Pajama Game, The
Princess Of Wales Theater

 It's unfortunate that younger generation theatregoers and theater critics never saw how the original version of The Pajama Game looked and sounded. If they did, they would never embrace Simon Callow's misguided "reinvention" of this popular work, a classic of the Broadway musical comedy. The Sleep Tight Factory's hunky plant superintendent, Sid Sorokin, falls for the brassy union rep, Babe Williams, who seeks a 7-1/2 cent raise. In love in their private lives, they are sworn enemies in their professional life.

Alan Raeburn
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Pajama Game, The
Princess Of Wales Theater

 All those proven talents reworking a likable old musical sounded pretty promising. But, though I'm turned off by S & M, there's sadistic pleasure in imagining what the New York City critics would do to this mess if, as threatened, it follows its current West End run in London (opening there October 4, 1999) by coming to Broadway. Showing not just lack of faith in the original work, but utter contempt for its words and music, the Brits played the charming old show like a fossilized music hall send-up.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Peace Of A Household, The
Athenee Theatre Louis-Jouvet, Grande Salle

 (see Criticopia International review(s) under "La Paix Du Menage")

Date Reviewed:
November 19999
Phantom of the Opera, The
Her Majesty's

 After many exhortations in the tube, on magazines and posters, and by ticket touts to "See the Legendary Original Production," I realized I never had. In a new century, would it measure up? Yes and no. On the positive side, when the Phantom rows Christine to his home beneath the steamy Paris sewers, and candles rise to illuminate both, the lavishness of the Mother Production hasn't been beat.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Pieces of Theater
PlakkaTheatre Le Proscenium

 (see Criticopia International review(s) under "Fragments de theatre")

Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Platonov
DuMaurier Theatre Centre

 Regarded an expert on Chekhov's works, the artistic director of Budapest's Vigszinhas Theatre and prominent teacher at the Czech capital's Academy of Dramatic Arts, was invited to do his stuff in both capacities to climax the second season of Toronto's acclaimed Soulpepper classical theater company.

Alan Raeburn
Date Reviewed:
September 1999
Play's The Thing, The
Premiere Dance Theatre

 The line between the make-believe world created by a playwright and that of the real world can often be fuzzy. The premise is used by Ferenc Molnar in presenting what evolves into a play within a play, with a surprise twist as the stage lights come up to reveal four men in formal wear in a very palatial room. The location, setting and their characters are soon identified for us: theatre men. As the charade of The Play's The Thing rolls along, the acting for a stylish piece becomes strident in voice and less vigorous in action.

Alan Raeburn
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Plenty
Albery Theatre

 Sir David Hare has said that Plenty, first mounted in 1978 under his own direction, "is about the cost of a life spent in dissent." What is being dissented from is the behavior of the British Establishment after World War II. The work spans the years 1943 to 1962 in twelve scenes. But Hare begins at the end before jumping backward in time -- in order to subordinate the what to the why and how.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Popeck
Theatre Rive Gauche

After a seven-year absence from the stage, comedian Popeck proves he hasn't yet "given his all." With his black derby and bow tie, long-coated tux, white gloves and spats, he pulls out of his valise strings of jokes and skits in which he mimes other characters.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
Power
National Theatre - Cottesloe

 Nick Dear's new play, Power, is a period costume drama about seven people in the French court of King Louis XIV. All but the last two of the 19 scenes take place in 1661, when the 22-year-old Louis decides to "rule personally." His domineering mother, Anne, who has enjoyed running things as Regent, objects, "Kings do not do that. We have help." But Louis takes power anyway.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
August 2003
Pride And Prejudice
Stratford Festival - Festival Theatre

 This beautifully-staged, perfectly cast and meticulously directed production receives vocally enthusiastic curtain calls at every performance. It's one of this season's biggest hits. How much has been cut from the 1813 classic novel is difficult to determine, but, aided by narrative passages spoken by different characters, Pride And Prejudice maintains a steady pace and seamless continuity, preventing a lengthy production from being laborious.

Alan Raeburn
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Private Lives
Royal National Theatre - Lyttleton Theatre

 I've never seen a more hysterically funny final exit than the one delivered here by Juliet Stevenson and Anton Lesser. He's Elyot Chase, recently married for the second time, currently sequestered in Paris where his bride can't find him, reunited with his old flame. She's Amanda Prynne, as impulsive, peevish, worldly, immature and alive as Elyot.

Perry Tannenbaum
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Producers, The
Theatre Royal - Drury Lane

 When Richard Dreyfuss was medically excused from his long-anticipated debut as Max in The Producers, Nathan Lane stepped in to save the show. Only in this real twist on another familiar Broadway musical, Lane - not an understudy but a Tony winning star - went out there in top form and became an even bigger London West-End star. Fresh, funny, fabulous! As for what Brits term "The new Mel Brooks musical" - Andrew Lloyd Webber, eat your heart out! I havent heard such applause, yelling, stomping, clamoring for more curtain calls even for the Masked Man of the Opera.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2004
Proof
Theater 199

 In a reprise from last season, Theater 199 is presenting its successful production of David Auburn's Proof. It is always interesting to see the transformations a play can undergo within another set of references. Here, an excellent cast (at least for this viewer) gives a different general impression of the relative importance of the characters. Certainly their orientation to the Russian rather than Anglo-American school of acting opens up other suggestive possibilities for the by-now-familiar plot.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
September 2002
Protection
Soho Theater

 The eminent playwright Sir David Hare has written a celebrated trilogy about three British institutions: church (Racing Demon), law (Murmuring Judges), and elective government (The Absence of War). Now comes along the 26-year-old Fin Kennedy to explore a fourth: social services. The result is Protection, which he wrote as the final project for his M.A. degree in playwriting at Goldsmiths College in London, leading to a grant as writer-in-residence at the Soho Theatre.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 2003
Questa sera si recita a soggetto
Teatro Argentina

 What is reality? What is the mask of the theater? Luigi Pirandello's theatrical philosophizing is most prominent in a trio of works, of which this is the last. In the first, the more familiar Three Characters In Search Of An Author, the characters completely commandeer a rehearsal to reenact their sordid story, over the Director's protests. With a musing on theater audiences ("To Each His Own" - 1924) intervening, Pirandello takes the opposite stance in this play, dating from 1930.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
January 1999
Qu'ran, The
Teatro Argentina

 (see Criticopia International review(s) under "Il Corano")

Date Reviewed:
November 2000
Real Thing, The
Donmar Warehouse

 Sir Tom Stoppard is accused in some quarters of writing for the head and not the heart. In the partly autobiographical The Real Thing, he undeniably appeals to both in masterly fashion. Acclaimed at its 1982 London premiere, it arrived on Broadway to similar honors, winning Tonys in 1984 for best play, director, and three cast members (Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Christine Baranski). In this tragicomedy, Stoppard is exploring love, marriage, adultery, betrayal, jealousy and pain.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Rebecca
Shaw Festival - Royal George Theatre

 This classic British thriller takes place in a classic British thriller setting, a sprawling mansion named Manderley overlooking the broody cliffs of Cornwall. It's the ancestral home of Maxim de Winter; a great looking set with solid wooden beams, giant chandeliers and sturdy furniture. We are immediately aware that tradition and stifling convention rules this place. Mrs. Danvers, longtime housekeeper, is determined Manderley stays that way. After all, the first Mrs.

Alan Raeburn
Date Reviewed:
June 1999
Rent
Princess Of Wales Theater

 I had just missed Rent in my home town where, as in and about London, it keeps coming back like -- as far as I could hear -- over-hyped songs. Oh, the set is interesting enough: like a leftover from The Living Theater and an amalgamation of many a rock concert set-up imposed on Our Town (if the town happens to be NYC). Would-be young artists are living a "La Vie Boheme" inspired by Puccini.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2003
Restes Humanes sense identificar i l'autentica naturalesa de l'amor
Mercat de les Flors - Sala Marla Aurella Capmany

 (See Criticopia review(s) under "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love")

Date Reviewed:
February 2001
Resurrection Blues
Old Vic

 Dictator General Barriaux (imposing Maximilian Schell) thinks he has the solution to his Andean country's problems: End rebellion through raising fear by crucifying an imprisoned man the peasants think is the son of God who's come to save them, and most surely, get the money to spur the economy and improve their lot. For $75,000,00, he's selling the rights to film the crucifixion to account executive Skip (chameleon Matthew Modine). Being politically correct, he won't question the customs of a different culture than his.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2006
Richard II
Shakespeare's Globe

 To kick off its season devoted to plays about "regime change," Shakespeare's Globe is offering Richard II, in which the ineffectual king is forced to surrender his crown to his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, who thus becomes King Henry IV. For this production, director Tim Carroll has tried to duplicate as closely as possible what would have taken place in the original Globe Theatre at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I in 1603.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 2003
Roberto Zucco
Chiostro di Monteoliveto

 Presented by Zero de Conduite theatrical workshop, Roberto Zucco, French Immigrant in Naples, was the only theater on tap for the July-August open-air series in the Renaissance-era Monteoliveto Cloister, sandwiched between Fascist-period buildings in central Naples. Unlike Galleria Toledo's interesting offerings for that space in past summers, this year the majority of the programs were of popular Neapolitan music.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
July 1998
Romeo and Juliet
Royal Shakespeare Theater

 One might wonder why Romeo and Juliet was chosen to inaugurate the Complete Works of Shakespeare Festival. It is not the Bard's first, chronologically or alphabetically. But it is a unique and riveting production and a stunning calling card. With a youthful cast and fluid choreography, this Romeo holds your attention despite its length: It is uncut, running almost 3 1/2 hours with only one intermission. The costuming is timeless, not of the play's period, nor is it modern-dress.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
April 2006
Rose
Royal National Theatre

 This work by the author of the rightly- acclaimed Bent (1979) takes the form of a monologue by an old Jewish woman about to turn 80. At the outset, Rose sits on the balcony bench of her Miami Beach apartment, of which we get a glimpse of an armchair, a lamp, and a telephone stand. Rose is sitting shiva for a nine-year-old girl, but we don't learn whom she is mourning until the evening's end. It becomes clear that she is also mourning the loss of the Yiddish culture that has played so important a role in her life.

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Royal Hunt of the Sun, The
Royal National Theatre - Olivier Theatre

 Intent on the conquest of Peru, the Spanish general Pizarro entices recruits with the promise of riches, while the Church tells the soldiers they must save the souls of the heathen Inca Indians and give them "the priceless mercy of heaven." Thousands of unarmed Incas are slaughtered in the name of Christianity and their sun-god, Atahuallpa, is made a prisoner. This is all true, and it's plenty dramatic. Then Shaffer invents a clash of intellect and personalities between Pizarro and the sun-god.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
April 2006
Sell Out
New Ambassadors Theatre

 This production, which last year won a Time Out Award when it appeared in a suburban fringe venue, has now made it to the West End proper -- and a welcome event it is. Frantic Assembly was founded in 1994 by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, both of whom perform in Sell Out,along with two women, Cait Davis and Anstey Thomas. (All four twentysomethings use re-spellings of their own names.) After two years, Stephen is breaking up with Kate, whom their pal Scot has bedded (Kate writes the names in her address book in pencil so she can rub them out).

Caldwell Titcomb
Date Reviewed:
July 1999
Seven Against Thebes
Teatro Nuovo

 (see Criticopia International review(s) under "I sette contro Tebe")

Date Reviewed:
December 1996
Sganarelle ou Le Cocu imaginaire
Comedie Francaise Studio Theatre

 In addition to providing the cold welcome so typical of the Comedie Francaise in recent years, its Studio-Theatre does not reserve seats but instead sells its tickets on site, first-come, first-served, one hour before each performance. Since playtime is usually Wednesday through Sunday at 6:30 PM, drinks and snacks available in the bar become a real attraction. Even nicer is a current exhibit there of action-anatomical drawings and colorful, nature-themed geometric paintings by Didier Courtial.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Sganarelle, or The Imaginary Cuckold
Comedie Francaise Studio Theatre

 (see Criticopia International review(s) under "Sganarelle ou Le Cocu imaginaire")

Date Reviewed:
November 2001
Shaw Festival
Shaw Festival

 see individual shows

Date Reviewed:
annually
Signe Dumas
Marigny-Robert Hossein, Salle Popesco

 It's February 1848. Into his country study, with bits of hay in his hair, disheveled Alexandre Dumas (for whom Francis Perrin seems a dead ringer) drags his massive presence and opens the window. Neat, rather austere Auguste Maquet, Dumas' collaborator/ghost writer, rises from the desk and gets his coat. Different in so many ways, Dumas sits by the window, takes off his jacket, opens a globe, takes out bread and pate, and eats. Quiet, retiring Maquet (played with authority by gaunt Thierry Fremont) writes plot and suggests characters.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
November 2003
Sleepwalkers, The
Edinburgh International Festival - King Theatre

 Sleepwalking in Scotland. The audience was so small it was almost lost in the grandeur of the red and gold King Theatre. But for those of us who stuck it out, Sleepwalkers, an 11-hour play adapted by the Polish director Krystian Lupa from an obscure German novel by Hermann Broch, had its rewarding moments. A trilogy written between 1930 and 1932, laden with philosophy, it covers three critical stages in four interlocking stories, presenting the historical and cultural development of Germany over a span of twenty years from 1888 through 1918.

Rosalind Friedman
Date Reviewed:
August 1999
Solo Macbeth - Ultimo Atto
Teatro Verdi

 Inviting us into the theater, a bizarre old cleaning lady describes the lone survivor of a theater company, a woman from Scotland who will entertain us with the tale of Macbeth. Angela Malfitano then transforms herself into Lady Macbeth and begins to read the letter containing the witches' predictions.

David Lipfert
Date Reviewed:
December 1998
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
Sudden Theater

 Based on the incarceration of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy in Lebanon, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me begins and ends in puzzled solitude. It's the mid-1980s in a Beirut cell where Adam, a Yank and the first hostage, does push-ups. Despite both being left only underwear and equally short-chained to the floor, he and Edward are just starting to share. Irish Edward moans that he couldn't convince the Arabs he's from a neutral country. Edgy and sooo bored, they try to keep track of time and fill it. Adam fears going mad. Music brings in Michael -- "Britboy," as Edward would have him.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
October 2003
South Pacific
Stratford Festival - Avon Theatre

 This is in every way a first-rate revival of South Pacific. Michael Lichtefeld has choreographed several shows at Stratford but here outdoes himself as choreographer and outdoes his former directors. Designs and lighting are very handsome, and Berthold Carriere's musical direction is, as always, pretty much ideal, doing full justice to Richard Rodgers' beautiful score. Carriere may be Stratford's one indispensable and irreplaceable artist.

Herbert Simpson
Date Reviewed:
June 2006
Star Quality
Apollo Theatre

 Like the short story that gave impetus to this dramatization, Noel Coward set his unproduced 1967 play, Star Quality, in the early 1950s. I couldn't help thinking, as I saw how Christopher Luscombe lovingly "finished" it, that it could be compared áwith Jane Martin's recent Anton in Show Business. Not that Coward's style isn't oceans apart from Chekhov's, but each presents old giving way to new, and oh so excruciatingly!

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2002
Starlight Express
Apollo Victoria

 From the motorcycle roaring onto the stage in Buddy to the helicopter landing in Miss Saigon to the all-roller skating extravaganza, Starlight Express, current musical theater is obsessed with wheels. This Andrew Lloyd Webber/Richard Stilgoe 1984 techno-marvel was restaged in 1992 by its original creative team and is now in its eleventh year at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. The show features skaters dressed as railroad cars, zooming around and above the audience -- up ramps and across drawbridges.

Rita Faye Smith
Date Reviewed:
November 1995

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