In 2016, Red Ladder Theatre Company brought to life a story that took the West Yorkshire Playhouse’s Courtyard Theatre, and subsequently stages around the country, by storm. That story, the story of the notoriously outspoken football manager Brian Clough, came in the form of their adaptation of David Peace’s acclaimed novel The Damned United. Now, almost two years later, and after achieving widespread success with their adaptation, Red Ladder have brought the production back to Leeds with a new cast and refreshed staging.

I’m certainly starting to see an increase in the number of ‘pay what you can’ style shows popping up over the Yorkshire region. The term has a much more accessible ring to it than ‘pay what you think’ which forces audiences to quickly formulate a critical opinion with a subsequent monetary value after a show. Yet the ‘pay what you can’ model encourages more of a less critical, community feel amongst an audience, and perhaps places a higher experiential value on the show itself and provides a greater sense of accessibility to audiences. On this note, Common Chorus and Little Mighty’s latest offering, If I Say Jump, uses the latter payment method, and on its current regional tour, offers audiences with an evening of refreshingly simplistic storytelling.

Grab your false eyelashes, size 12 pumps, and Judy Garland quips, and go see Theaterworks’ latest offering, The Legend of Georgia McBride. Written by Matthew Lopez (The Whipping Man, Reverberation), it relays the journey of a young man finding his place in the world in the last place he probably ever thought of: in a drag show. I will tell you how much I liked this show: After curtain call, a woman behind me in the audience commented that I appeared to be enjoying myself; apparently, I couldn’t hide my enthusiasm. It’s hysterical and heartfelt, provided you have no problem with men dressing up as women and lip-syncing. Obviously, I don’t.

Politics. Yes I know! We are all fed up with politics right now. However, the national theatre is currently on tour with a political play based on the rise and fall of labour during the hung parliament in the 1970s. This House, written by James Graham, premiered at the national theatre in 2012 and weirdly enough, this play seems so much more relevant now than 6 years ago.

From gospel music to sweet potato pie, Marcus Gardley’s play Dance of the Holy Ghosts follows the life of Oscar Clifton through rose-colored glasses. However, the ghosts of his past and present tell the audience a much different story than the life Oscar remembers. 

Playwright Julia Cho challenges a pressing issue in our country right now, gun violence, in her new play Office Hour at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Cho’s approach to this topic is one that adds new layers to the conversation, which is fresh in all of our minds.

Suzan-Lori Parks’ first triptych in her 12-part epic journey, Father Comes Home from the Wars, a co-production with the American Conservatory Theater, explores the journey of a slave during the Civil War. It’s part ode to Greek theater, and part racial commentary that leaves you wondering if we’ll ever cure ourselves of the scourge of racial injustice, given our sordid history with slavery.

The Dog Beneath The Skin, originally written by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood and now playing at London's Jermyn Street Theatre, is scattered with enjoyable moments but, overall, misses the mark. The play does sometimes fall into good a rhythm, but it's never long before something jars.

When one thinks of the Jerry Springer Show (past and present), one might not think of ‘opera.’ However, in 2000, the seeds of that exact concept were planted by Richard Thomas at London’s Battersea Arts Centre with his “Tourette's Diva” and in 2001 with his “How to Write an Opera About Jerry Springer” at the same venue. The success of those productions, and teaming up with Stewart Lee, culminated in “Jerry Springer – The Opera” which has found its way to the New Group at The Pershing Square Signature Center’s Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre.

As we grapple with a 21st Century where our country is still at a significant divide and has allowed fear to take hold, experiencing an important piece like “ALLEGIANCE”—a commanding retelling of a moment when another “other” is forced into a shameful condition that is essentially a sanctioned, lawful way to discriminate solely on the basis of one’s specific ethnicity—is almost required viewing for all to see, if only to be reminded that one should not rush to judgment or make sweeping generalizations about an entire group of people, especially when such actions can significantly affect many lives and families in a terrible, inhumane way.

Is the price of security (for some) the robbing of others of their freedom? No. No it shouldn’t be. After you see “ALLEGIANCE” you’ll likely feel the same, too.

I’ve reviewed a wide and diverse range of shows for OnStage Blog, including on a few rare occasions, staged readings. However, I’m quite positive that I have never reviewed a reader’s theatre podcast, prior to being invited to review the latest live recorded show of Fireside Mystery Theatre, one of the most popular theatre podcasts out there today. Their latest production – a variety show entitled The Secret Files of Nellie Bly about the late-19th-century writer – proved to be quite an introduction to what I found to be a very intriguing project.

I will be honest with you: Reviewing Shakespeare adaptations, as a critic, usually isn’t that exciting for me. That’s not to say that I think they’re bad, but usually, if and when I’m asked to go review one, I tend to focus more on the production and performance aspects, and how that particular production of the same story might be particularly enjoyable to OnStage Blog readers. Very rarely do I find a show adapted from a Shakespearean play that truly blows my mind, and screams “originality”. Yet The Dream Project proved to be a rare example of such a show when I saw it performed at the Gelsey Kirkland Arts Center in Brooklyn this past Friday.

Love has often been the primary thematic centrepiece in Kneehigh Theatre’s work. It is a stimulus that provokes and inspires beautiful conjurations from the whole of their creative team, whether they’re adapting an existing narrative or crafting something new entirely, and when under the masterful direction of Kneehigh’s former Artistic Director Emma Rice, these pieces have always been nothing short of incredible. Rice has always had a gift when it comes to harnessing the vast facets of human experience that stem from love, whether that be with Kneehigh or in her recent creative ventures at Shakespeare’s Globe. On that note, I was very much looking forward to seeing Rice back to directing under Kneehigh’s banner in her latest piece of work.

Telling unique stories and creating great art is the primary goal of nearly every playwright. However, it’s not always as easy of a goal when two playwrights are collaborating together, as they’re writing the same story that they both hope will resonate with audiences. That’s exactly what was on display during the premiere of Distant Observer: Tokyo/New York Correspondence – a collaboration between Japanese playwright Takeishi Kawamura and American playwright John Jesurun – at the LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club.

What are two aging ex-hippies supposed to do when the socio-political environment around them escalates its full-frontal assault on the values they espoused and fought so passionately for in the sixties and seventies? Not only do they continue to feel “stalked” by “corporate bastards” like the cable company, but they are about to be evicted from their rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so the owner of their building can realize its intention “to restructure a number of rental units to better reflect the market opportunities in [the] neighborhood.” The heated “discussions” around these external topics counterpoint the internal animus between Bee (a supercharged and rascally Candy Buckley) and her longtime husband Hal (a malcontented and “tuned-out” Jeff Hayenga).

“Hey, I got news for you, as they say. I'm on your precious bench, and you're never going to have it for yourself again.” – Jerry to Peter

Was anyone putting the disparity between “the one percent” and the remaining “ninety-nine percent” under the cultural microscope in the late 1950s? The Baby Boomers were booming and most believed the middle-class was firmly entrenched in an ever-expanding story of financial success. Unfortunately, not enough attention was being paid to the underbelly of this post-war ebullience nor to those clinging to that nether portion of the socio-economic divide. 

Straight from the San Francisco Fringe Festival, Weightless is an innovative new musical playing in one of San Francisco’s newest and most innovative theaters spaces, Z Space.  A performance combining indie-rock music, technology, and mythology; Weightless redefines what the modern musical can do by reexamining stories from the past.

So…I saw a cabaret show this past weekend. The interesting thing about this one, though, is that I was invited to (and allowed to go to) a cabaret show that wasn’t necessarily musical theatre oriented. (At least, not beyond the pre-show music, anyway.) Rather, this was a show that felt like much more of a straight-up, old-school blues jam, as theatrical as it may have still been. I’m talking, of course, about Rev. Mary’s Blues Jam, Mary Micari’s acclaimed, constantly running blues-cabaret show here in NYC.

The world, unfortunately, is rife with truly horrific examples of inhuman atrocities throughout its recorded history—from the subjugating of entire races into slavery to the mass executions of entire populations for the sake of complete and unchallenged control. In all instances, the human pain and suffering are long-lasting and far-reaching to say the least.

Such was the case in the Southeast Asian country of Cambodia, a region that, for much of its history, has experienced a great deal of hardships and challenges, some of which even continue through today.

I thought  I had my fill of LES MISERABLES, but Theatre Smith Gilmour’s production left me with a fresh appreciation for this timeless tale of redemption, forgiveness, compassion and love. A truly remarkable evening nicely spent at the theatre. Don’t ‘mis’ out on this LES MISERABLES.