“Kill Shakespeare” pits Shakespearean good guys (and a gal) — Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, Romeo, and Puck — against a formidable trio of Shakespearean bad guys — Richard III, Lady Macbeth, and Iago — in the search for a reclusive wizard named William Shakespeare. The original 2010 graphic novel has been adapted into a stage […]
David Raymond
Posted inMusic
“Carmen” of the Finger Lakes
In recent years opera companies, symphony orchestras, and other arts groups have made headlines with their financial difficulties, and some have folded or reorganized — for example, Rochester’s Mercury Opera is no longer a presenting company, but as the Opera Guild of Rochester, the organization supports other operatic events. And Rochester Lyric Opera, formerly Empire […]
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Theater Review: “The Kingdom Next To Fid” at MuCCC
The poster for “The Kingdom Next to Fid” promises, “There may be unicorns.” You’ll have to find that out for yourself, but if you see the new play at MuCCC, I can guarantee you will see all the other classic adventure-fantasy ingredients: good and evil fairies, chambermaids who are truly princesses, handsome princes, spells and […]
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THEATER | “Tick, Tick … BOOM!”
Before Jonathan Larson wrote “Rent,” he wrote and performed a “rock monologue” called “Tick, Tick … BOOM!” first presented Off-Off Broadway in 1990. The huge success of “Rent” came soon afterward, but Larson never lived to see it. Ironically, “Tick, Tick … BOOM!” dramatizes Larson’s own apprehensions about turning 30 with little to show for […]
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Skaneateles Festival
The combination of a relaxed, summery atmosphere and lofty musical artistry is a potent one. As western New York’s summer chamber music festivals attest, it is also a popular one. One summer music festival preceded the others: The Skaneateles Festival, which held its first program in 1980, is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2014, and […]
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This is our youth
If the theater lacks a young audience, it may be in part because young people don’t often see themselves portrayed realistically on stage. Spencer Christiano’s “Cow Town,” a new play opening this weekend at MuCCC, addresses that situation, holding a mirror up to modern behavior, good and bad. “Cow Town” is about … a lot […]
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THEATER | “Witness of Kitty Genovese”
For Americans over 50, the name Kitty Genovese still conjures up uncomfortable memories. On March 13, 1964, this young woman was stabbed to death outside her Queens apartment; neighbors heard her screams but did nothing to help her. Her case, and her name, quickly became a byword for urban loneliness, fear, and lack of caring. […]
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CLASSICAL | Finger Lakes Choral Festival
2015 is the 330th anniversary of the birth of J.S. Bach, so we’ll be hearing a lot of his music in the coming months. This is a good thing, of course. You can get a head start on the Bachanalia this weekend with the Finger Lakes Choral Festival, whose annual summer concert this year is […]
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CLASSICAL | Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival
This weekend, Canandaigua’s LakeMusic Festival ends its 10th anniversary season with two imaginatively programmed concerts. For Friday’s “Chopin Meets Hedgehog,” pianist Audrey Andrist plays several Chopin works and Beethoven’s Sonata in C Major, Op. 2, No. 3. Following, the spiny hedgehog’s intimacy issues are the inspiration for Adam Silverman’s new trio piece (piano, violin, and […]
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Theater Review: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at Geva
There’s an unofficial theatrical genre that’s called “The Little Show That Could” — a play or musical with modest requirements that started life in the hinterlands, finally made it to hit status in New York, and now has a lively afterlife in community theaters. A recent example — and a very appealing one — “The […]
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“Coming Out at Caffé Cino”
When Joe Cino introduced performances at his Caffé Cino, he called out to the audience, “It’s magic time!” And the 1960’s at Caffé Cino were a magical time and place for experimental, politically radical theater. This tiny Greenwich Village venue was the birthplace of the Off-Off-Broadway movement, and the plays that Joe Cino produced there […]
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“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
When Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” first printed in 1600, it was already a hit; the title page noted that it had been “sundry times publickely acted” before then. After a 1662 performance, Samuel Pepys described it in his diary as “the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw.” But that’s a minority opinion: […]
