Strong, Weiner, Sarnak’s New Musical Faces Mighty Challenges by Mary Lou Herlihy & Barry David Horwitz “Galileo” bursts onto the stage like a grand gold-wrapped gift with a big expensive bow, promising a spectacle of cosmic proportions. This production—BIG, LOUD, COLORFUL—sparkles with glittering maps of the universe, raucous songs and dances, stunning projected images,…
Amy Freed Adapts Shakespeare for Modern Times by Robert M. Gardner At the opening of African American Shakespeare Company’s “Taming of the Shrew,” I expected a retelling of Shakespeare’s famous battle of the sexes comedy. But I got a blast from the past, based in San Francisco’s 1967 Summer of Love. Shakespeare’s words still…
Michael R. Jackson Creates Bold, Black, Queer Meta-Musical by Kim Waldron “A Strange Loop” is a musical about a Black queer writer writing a musical about a Black queer writer, who happens to be writing a musical about a Black queer writer. Why does a “meta” musical about a young, self-described “fat,” queer Black…
John O’Hara’s Stories of Strippers & Hustlers Spring to Life by Lynne Stevens “Pal Joey” opens with an enthusiastic overture from a live band of syncopated seniors. We all breathe a collective swoon when the band plays the familiar juke box numbers “I Could Write a Book” and “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.” These lush,…