When he wrote the 1913 stage play “Pygmalion,” George Bernard Shaw named it for a Greek mythological character that carves a girl from ivory. The plot follows a phonetics professor who is challenged to reinvent a London flower girl with a Cockney drawl into a lady with a high society lilt. The play inspired Lerner […]
Leah Stacy
Leah Stacy is CITY's editor-in-chief.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Theater review: Screen Plays’ “Holiday”
It’s an often overlooked fact that playwright Philip Barry (best known for “The Philadelphia Story”) was a Rochester native. But this weekend and next, Screen Plays — a local group that specializes in stage versions of Hollywood’s Golden Age films — brings to life one of Barry’s more popular works, “Holiday.” The plot follows Johnny […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Theater review: “White Christmas” at RBTL
It’s been an unseasonably warm December in Rochester, and at this point there’s a very small chance of snow for Christmas. In other words, it’s a welcome time for Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” to open at the Auditorium Theatre for a pre-holiday run. The musical was adapted for the stage in 2004, exactly 50 years […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
THEATER | “White Christmas”
For all those dreaming of a white Christmas this year, there’s a little inspiration coming to the Auditorium Theatre: the stage adaptation of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” the 1954 film starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, and Rosemary Clooney. It’s the iconic story of a hit song-and-dance duo that travels to Vermont to mount a fundraising […]
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Theater review: “Coney Island Christmas” at JCC
The JCC’s CenterStage has a track record of presenting surprising, quality holiday productions. “Coney Island Christmas” is just the latest.
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Theater Review: “The Lion” at Geva
There’s a performance term called the “first three seconds,” which refers to those hushed moments when the lights go down and a show begins. An expert artist knows how to capture the attention of the audience in those moments. During the first three seconds of “The Lion,” part of Geva’s Fielding Studio Series, performer Benjamin […]
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Theater Review: “A Twist of Lemmon” at Downstairs Cabaret
“A Twist of Lemmon” offers a rare glimpse into the creative process and personal life of actor Jack Lemmon.
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Theater Review: “Annapurna” at Blackfriars
“Annapurna” is the kind of theater this city needs more often.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Theater Review: “The Duchess of Malfi” at MuCCC
WallByrd Theatre Company, a new Rochester group, stages an updated version of the little-known Jacobean tragedy.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Theater Review: RBTL presents “Newsies”
Every once in a while, a musical comes along with subjects so innately human — an underdog, young love, a band of brothers, a villain — that it easily becomes a classic. For those who were children in the 90’s, that musical is Disney’s “Newsies,” a 1992 film starring an adolescent, heroic Christian Bale. The […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Leah reviews The 24 Hour Plays
In our culture of reality TV shows and instant gratification, we’ve grown accustomed to the novelty of becoming a fly on the wall in someone’s life anytime we flip to the right channel. Though we know by now reality TV isn’t raw and unrehearsed, it still feels that way — and humans can’t resist the […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Leah reviews “Nothing is Written” and “The Rainbow Fish”
There are many beautiful things that happen during the Rochester Fringe Festival, but one of my favorite parts is the heightened vulnerability that emerges in the theater community. Theater is already a vulnerable art form, but with every show there are budgets to consider, boards who must approve show runs, and difficult casting decisions to […]
