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Our  FREE  weekly  curtainup  update email  just posted--  to  be added to the list  email  esommer@pipeline com  and put  ADD ME TO CU UPDATES  in subject line  and your email address in the body of the message--  a note about how you came to curtain  up would be nice. . .Elyse Sommer, editor/publisher

Worth seeing for the one & only Judi Dench

John   Logan's new play stars the actors from the Bond film, Skyfall for which he wrote the screenplay. Judi Dench who plays Alice is James Bond's 'M', and Ben Whishaw is 'Q' . . . Read More

Tracie Bennett still feasting on Judy's last days

End of the Rainbow

End of the Rainbow -London and New York were not the end of the rainbow for Tracie Bennett-- she's now Judy-ing up applause in LA .. . . Read More

The Tragedy of Arthur: great read, underwhelming play

A case  of  swell book  but   not   very stageworthy--  even when adapted  by  the  author. . .


The Tragedy of Arthur - a disappointing page to stage version of Arthur Phillip's terrific faux memoir best-selling novel The Tragedy of Arthur has gone from the page to the stage at Off Broadway's TBG Theatre

An old-fashioned play that's still in style

  It's an  old-fashioned play  that  still  lends itself  to terrific,  meaningful  theater going--like this one now on  the boards in London

The Winslow Boy -Lindsay Posner's excellent production uses as the stage curtainaa a facsimile of the first page of the Bill of Rights which signposts the audience towards the search for justice as the main theme . . . Read More

A clever update on Schnitzler for NJ theater goers

Roundelay - R. N. Sandberg's disarming roundelay of relationships clearly has its roots in Arthur Schnitzler's 19th sex-capade La Ronde. . .

The star of this new musical: A Truck!

Hands on a Hard Body - there is plenty of heart and soul being revealed in this small-scaled musical about ordinary people with big feelings.. .

A London stage comeback for BBC's sitcom

Steptoe and Son - Kneehigh's Emma Rice brings herinimitable and idiosyncratic style to the BBC situation comedy of the 1960s . . . Read More

My sideline Theater Critic 3-parter

Notes From a Sidelined Theater Critic - Part One: Katie Roche Made Me Do It . . Read More
Notes From a Sidelined Theater Critic - Part Two: Lively If Not Live Theater on my IPad — House of Cards via Netflix and Margaret at HBO . . . Read More
Notes From a Sidelined Theater Critic Part Three: Part Three: The Play Reading Experience . . . Read More

Interesting but confusing Jewish play

The (*) Inn - Target Margin's production of Peretz Hirschbein's play may leave even those familiar with Yiddish theater baffled. . . Read More

Tribes moves to LA--and still moves

Tribes- Nina Raine's moving play with most of its original cast at the Mark Taper Forum .. . . Read More

An updated Washington square/The Heiress

Rich Girl - This play makes it appear that the economic bridge that spans between 1880 and 2013 is distanced enough now so that a rich girl can make the right choices for the wrong reasons, or is it the other way around? . . Read More

popular novel now must-see London play.. .

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - I would name this as the number one must-see play on in London but research it before you go, so you know what to expect. . . .Read More

CurtainupNewLinks: Here's hoping these Paper dolls come to the US

CurtainupNewLinks: Here's hoping these Paper dolls come to the US: Paper Dolls - a most extraordinary and quirky clash of culture, religion, gender politics and nationality. Extended to April 28th. . . Rea...

Here's hoping these Paper dolls come to the US

Paper Dolls - a most extraordinary and quirky clash of culture, religion, gender politics and nationality. Extended to April 28th. . . Read More

Hail Helen Mirren's Queen

The Audience - The Queen's own PR machine could not do more for her standing than this play. . . Read More

Craig Lucas disappoints

The Lying Lesson - a rather facetious fabrication, or as Lucas call it on the first page of the script, "a damn lie." And since it's a sin to tell a lie, let me say that Craig Lucas's two-hander is not a very good play, nor is the way it is being played. . . Read More

No folly -- to see this Talley's Folley

Talley's Folly - One can not only feel the play's forever lilting tempo in Michael Wilson's vibrant new direction, but also the feel of freshness that comes from a director who reveres it but not as an embalmed classic. . . Read More

Great for movie buffs-- probably too long for the less movie obsssed

One of  the theater world's  most produced up and coming playwrights  has   tapped into her own  love of  movies  in  a  fascinating  but  exhaustingly    long  and  pause heavy new play set in  a  shabby  movie theateer. . .




The Flick - Annie Baker, whose other plays have also been lauded for their informally structured, protracted naturalistic style, may be demanding a lot, especially from one segment of the audience, with her exceedingly long and ultimately remarkable new play in which movie games replace theater games . .

2 British plays likely to become US hits

The Audience - The Queen's own PR machine could not do more for her standing than this play. . . Read More

Paper Dolls - a most extraordinary and quirky clash of culture, religion, gender politics and nationality.. . . Read More

A look back at A.R. Gurney's WASP world

The Old Boy - The Keen Company's revival is certainly an example of a sincere effort by A. R. Gurney to show the inevitable shift in the traditional WASP landscape . . Read More