PLEASE DON’T ASK ABOUT BECKET at Sacred Fools Theatre

Terry Morgan  –  Stage Raw What is to be done with the prodigals and the fuckups, those we love in spite of logic, those who will likely never change but instead haunt us for the rest of our lives? Everybody knows someone like this, and it’s heartbreaking not knowing what to do. Wendy Graf’s Please Don’t … Read more

MAESTRO: HERSHEY FELDER AS LEONARD BERNSTEIN at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw In the last few years, musician Hershey Felder has used his multiple talents — as writer, actor, singer, virtuoso pianist and general raconteur — to create a memorable series of portraits of major figures in the music world, including George Gershwin, Fredric Chopin, Ludwig Beethoven, Franz Liszt and Irving Berlin. Read … Read more

THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE at the Sierra Madre Playhouse

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw This cheery, lightweight musical — conceived by Rebecca Feldman, with a book by Rachel Scheinkin, and music and lyrics by William Finn (Falsettos, Falsettoland) — has a proven track-record as a crowd pleaser. Read more… Now running through August 21

BABY DOLL at the Fountain Theatre

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw As a film, Baby Doll was a little too racy for segments of America when it premiered in 1956. Its poster featured a scantily clad (by that era’s standards) young woman in a slip, curled up in a crib, sucking her thumb. Directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Tennessee Williams … Read more

A RAISIN IN THE SUN at Ruskin Group Theatre

Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Lorraine Hansberry is securely enshrined as an important black playwright, but what few people remember nowadays is that she was also a lovely young woman, with gamin charm and an impish sense of humor. Read more… Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze “What happens to a dream deferred?” asked Langston Hughes … Read more

BLUEPRINT FOR PARADISE at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre

Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw There was a time when gas was eleven cents a gallon, a new car might run you a thousand dollars, average wages were under two thousand dollars a year, and thousands of unsuspecting American citizens deemed unfit and undesirable were forcibly sterilized by the government, with the full aid … Read more

I LOVE YOU BECAUSE at the Hudson Backstage Theatre

Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw With book and lyrics by Ryan Cunningham and music by Joshua Saltzman, this schmaltzy romantic musical treads familiar predictable terrain in a pleasantly unfamiliar manner. Loosely based on Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, it’s an opposites-attract tale of four young New Yorkers who find true love after tripping over a … Read more

OBAMA-OLOGY at the Skylight Theatre

Deborah Klugman – Capital & Main Obama-ology, written by Aurin Squire, takes place in 2008 and revolves around a youthful volunteer for the Obama campaign and the life education he receives from his senior colleagues and the folks in the community where he’s working. Read more… Neal Weaver  – Stage Raw Despite the title, Aurin Squire’s … Read more