Curtainup Founder & Editor Elyse Sommer's Epilogue -- I've passed the torch for reviewing and editing new theater productions on and off-Broadway and elsewhere. However, I'll continue to sound off here with my take on Live and Onscreen Entertainment. As for Curtainup's extensive content since 1996-- it's all sill available at www.curtainup.com

Monday, August 29, 2011

Another hit for the invaluable Mint Theater


Temporal Powers - The Mint's production of Teresa Deevy's long ignored play is certainly a cure for those in search of a good yarn . . .

Sunday, August 28, 2011

south pacific not quite the big thrill in London


South Pacific- a largely British cast needs extra concentration to maintain the American accents, in song as well as voice. . .

Tuesday, August 23, 2011


Bluebird - Simon Stephen's beautifully written, tenderly sad play has finally crossed the Atlantic. Too bad that audiences here have been given such a short time to see it, especially since it stars the lauded actor Simon Russell Beale . . .


It's sold out  but there's a standby line 

Friday, August 19, 2011

Book of Mormon tix = hot auction item

Tickets  for  The Book of  Mormon  are fetching astronomical    prices  and  savvy fundraisers  have  not overlooked  the  hotter than hot  show's  potential  for  raising  big bucks.  
 www.curtainup.com/bookofmormon.html


Debrorah  Graussman,     recently put together one  of  the  best    fund raising  galas  I've  ever  attended  to  raise  money  for   the Lenox, Mass  based   Shakespeare & Company's    widely  respected  education  program.    The enterprising  and talented Graussman   arranged  to  bus  a  bunch  of   Broadway  babies   to  spend  their   "off"  Monday  night  performing  (pro bono)   at  the  company's  filled to the brim   Founders Theater. 

To  add  to the $50,000  already  collected  from  ticket  sales,  Graussman   joined  host  Chip Zien  on  stage and  launched an auction  for 2  prime   Book  of  Mormon  tickets  for a  Saturday  matinee.  The   bidding was  brisk  and   the  winner  ended up shelling out $1900.  

Broadway in the Berkshires was so smartly organized, deliciously entertaining and indeed as close to a night on the Great White Way as you could get. Chip Zien was a delightful host who not only delivered lots of laughs  and  also performed, as did Graussman.

 It was an evening of non-stop highlights such as Brian Charles Rooney's hilarious multi-persona (female as well as male) medley of Broadway hits, and a thrilling dance solo by young Peter Mazurowski, one of the three young actors currently starring as Billy in Billy Elliot.

The  way  this evening was  organized could serve as a master class in ow to run a benefit that truly delivers  what it promised. With a trio of musicians that included the Boston Symphony Orchestra's chef cellist, Owen Young, who could ask for anything more? 

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Bio of the Wendy Wasserstein we THINK we knew--


Wendy and the Lost Boys- Julie Salamon's "can't put it down" biography of Wendy Wasserstein. . .

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Charles Bush's zinger-filled serio-comedy


Olive and the Bitter Herbs - A superb cast has been entrusted with the difficult burden of speaking a lot of funny lines while also behaving either irresponsibly or reprehensibly in Charles Bush's new play

Monday, August 15, 2011

A bad day for pit musicians in this new musical. . .

Ten Cents a Dance
Jessica Tyler Wright, Malcolm Gets, Lauren Molina in Ten Cents A Dance

Ten Cents a Dance— John Doyle's actor-musician take on Rodger and Hart's songbook in its American premiere at Williamstown

Friday, August 12, 2011

Ret is back


Rent- the iconic musical's original director Michael Greif has attended to the show's needs with marked discipline as well as with some newly motivated impressions. . . .

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Beautiful Cate Blanchett in beautiful Uncle Vanya

Uncle Vanya
Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in Uncle Vanya
Uncle Vanya- the Sydney Theatre Company's very special production of Chekhov's play at the Kennedy Center

an ultra-intimate theater experience

HotelMotel
Sarah Lemp in HotelMotel
HotelMotel-two plays in site specific setting for 20 viewers at a time only . . .

Wednesday, August 3, 2011