'School of Rock – The Musical'
[As has occasionally happened on ROT, the coverage of the press response has swelled my report on School of Rock – The Musical beyond my customary limit. (As you’ll see, the review round-up accounts...
View ArticleNow, Live, The Non-Beatles
by Kirk Woodward[As veteran ROTters know by now, Kirk Woodward is a longtime friend and a major contributor to this blog. I can’t even begin to count the number of articles of his authorship I’ve...
View ArticleDispatches from Israel 9
by Helen Kaye[I’ve published many articles by my friend Helen Kaye, aka Helen Eleasari, including eight previous selections of her reviews from the Jerusalem Post. The last installment of “Dispatches...
View ArticleCultural Appropriation
[The concept of “cultural appropriation,” the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture, is an idea that’s gained some currency lately, causing some acrimony among some...
View ArticleVan Gogh & Miró at MOMA (2008)
[Eight years ago next month, I went to the Museum of Modern Art in mid-town Manhattan, just four years after it reopened following an extensive renovation that added nearly one third again as much...
View ArticleWoody Allen’s Recent Movies
by Kirk Woodward[Like George Bernard Shaw and the Beatles (did you ever figure those two names would appear together in the same sentence?), filmmaker Woody Allen is a subject of some interest to Kirk...
View Article'The Roads to Home'
There’s story theater and, apparently, there’s story theater. The first is the theatrical presentation of a story (or stories), usually fairytales or fables, by a group of actors often playing...
View ArticleA Tribute to Edward Albee (1928-2016)
[Edward Albee, one of America’s greatest modern playwrights, died 16 September 2016 at his home in Montauk, Long Island. The winner of numerous awards and nominations, including three Pulitzer...
View ArticleMom
My mother died at 92 about 18 months ago, almost 20 years after my father succumbed to complications from Alzheimer’s Disease (see "Dad," 20 June 2010). My Dad died almost exactly one month after my...
View ArticleOne-Act Plays Festivals
by Kirk Woodward[Now comes my friend Kirk Woodward with a new contribution to the blog he urged me to start, lo these 7½ years ago. This time, returning the broad topic of theater, Kirk’s looking at...
View ArticleDispatches From Israel 10
by Helen Kaye[Here’s the latest installment of Helen’s “Dispatches from Israel.” One review’s of a Hebrew translation of William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus; the other covers a stage adaptation of a...
View Article'The Front Page'
What could possibly live up to the descriptors “one of the lustiest productions of the Broadway market” and “one of the most madcap farces of the period”? That was John Gassner (1903-1967), drama...
View Article'"Master Harold" . . . and the boys'
I’ve written a number of times that Athol Fugard taught the world more about conditions in apartheidSouth Africa with his plays than all the essayists, news reporters, and lecturers combined (see my...
View ArticleRagamuffin Day
[At the beginning of this month, I posted a tribute to my late mother, who died in May 2015 at 92. (See “Mom,” 1 November.) I wrote about some of the things we did together for fun, from my childhood...
View Article'The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World'
[I’ve always reserved the privilege of writing my play reports in a way that spotlights an aspect of the performance that caught my attention. I don’t write reviews, in any case, so I’m not bound to a...
View ArticleA Note About 'Hamilton'
by Kirk Woodward[I’m envious that Kirk has seen Hamilton because I haven’t yet. On the other hand, though, I'm mighty glad, his having seen the hottest ticket in town, that he’s elected o share some...
View ArticleVisual & Spatial Structure In Theater And Dance
[About five years ago, I posted a two-part article called “Theatrical Structure” (15 and 18 February 2011) which was my attempt to introduce and explain the analytical system of Michael Kirby...
View ArticleBerlin Memoir, Part 1
[Back in 2005, after watching a TV broadcast of The Big Lift (Twentieth Century Fox, 1950), a movie about the Berlin Airlift (July 1948-September 1949), I started a long e-mail narrative for my friend...
View ArticleMichael Kaiser: Man of the Arts
[Michael Kaiser, director of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland, was, among other arts positions, president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in...
View Article"It's a Wonderful Life Was Based on a 'Christmas Card' Short Story by Philip...
by Daven Hiskey[A week or so ago, I watched the perennial Christmas-season feel-good movie It’s a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946), one of director Frank Capra’s best known and, arguably, most beloved films....
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