Our musical city overflows with talent, and an expanding roster of local bands and venues make it possible to enjoy happy hours in-place.
Geva Theatre
Calendar preview: Nowhere to be, but lots to see
Film, literature, and writing get the spotlight as Rochester’s arts community slates opportunities to connect and reflect.
The Monday report
A look ahead at the coming week’s news: We’ll be watching for more developments about Trevyan Rowe’s death and updates on the vacancy caused by Louise Slaughter’s death. And we’ll report on yet more arts and entertainment season announcements.
Theater review: ‘The Other Josh Cohen’ at Geva
The performance begins before patrons even sit down. The house lights are up; people are streaming down the aisles, some fidgeting with wrapped candies (which should always happen before, not during, a show), and others balancing their plastic tumblers of wine as they check and double check their seat numbers. It isn’t until most of […]
Theater review: ‘Other Than Honorable’ at Geva
Every 98 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. In addition to that statistic, the Department of Justice estimates that there are more than 320,000 victims of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States. In 2015, only 32 percent of sexual assault cases were reported, which means the already staggering numbers are actually […]
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 […]
Still odd after all these years
Higher-brow critics may beg to differ, but if any play deserves to be called a classic American comedy, it’s “The Odd Couple.” Neil Simon’s study of the epic battle between Oscar Madison, slob, and Felix Ungar, fussbudget, is almost 50 years old now, and has been in the public consciousness rather consistently since its Broadway […]
Geva announces 2014-15 season
Geva Theatre Center Artistic Director Mark Cuddy unveiled the theater’s 2014-2015 season Monday night, referencing the tagline, “Your theatre, home grown.” That approach can be seen in both the Fielding Mainstage shows and the performances slated for the Nextstage, as many of next year’s plays are newer, critically lauded works never before seen in Rochester, […]
“Sister Strikes Again! Late Nite Catechism 2”
The character of the funny nun has been around at least since Chaucer, and is here to stay as a staple of pop culture. You’ve seen her in “The Sound of Music,” “The Flying Nun,” numerous variations on “Nunsense”, etc., etc. My own upbringing was about as un-Roman Catholic as can be imagined, so I […]
“Pump Boys and Dinettes”
Lightweight musical revues generally have short lives, but “Pump Boys and Dinettes” has proved surprisingly hardy. First produced in the early 1980’s as the off-est of Off Broadway shows, it eventually moved to the Big Street and ran for a year and a half. Thirty years later it is still going strong. Geva put on […]
Feedback – 04-10-13
Austerity or jobs? The national mythology about the economy given by the mainstream media can be summarized as a discussion whose terms are “austerity” and … “austerity.” Not “versus full employment” or “jobs” but how much austerity, when, and for whom. We all need to share in the sacrifice… Riiight! The media choose to forget […]
“The Whipping Man”
“The Whipping Man” by Matthew Lopez begins in desolation and ends with not much more than a speck of hope — a meager sense of opportunity if the characters can somehow overcome years (even centuries) of experience (and history).






