It’s interesting to view the issues presented here not through lens of the #MeToo movement or #LeanIn, but during a time when Americans had less access to information and therefore, movements were even more action-oriented.
Theater
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Review: ‘An American in Paris’ at the Auditorium Theater
Maybe it’s a side effect of watching movies for a living, but I can’t help seeing ways the Hollywood franchise mindset has wormed its way into other art forms — Broadway being no exception. The prequel, sequel, and spin-off mentality of modern entertainment has led to a compulsive need to explain everything and provide backstory […]
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RBTL announces 2018-19 season
Hundreds of attendees made their way through slushy streets and windy snow Wednesday night for the Rochester Broadway Theatre League’s 2018-19 season announcement. All seven of the shows are Broadway crowd-pleasers; the sort of shows most theater-loving folks have already seen in New York City.
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Like the corners of her mind
To dub Barbra Streisand a household name might be an understatement. She is one of the best-selling vocal artists in history, a stage and film actress, and one of few entertainers to be awarded multiple Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards (a highly coveted status referred to in show biz as an ‘EGOT’). Streisand has […]
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Theater review: ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ at Geva
There’s a great responsibility and gravity that comes along with staging (and reviewing) a show like “The Diary of Anne Frank.” The Holocaust wasn’t even a hundred years ago, but feels at once farther and closer, in many ways. While connections have been made between that era and the current political climate, many Holocaust survivors […]
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Theater review: ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ at Blackfriars
When they hear “Glengarry Glen Ross,” most people will think first of the 1992 film adaptation starring Al Pacino (who won an Academy Award for his role), Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemmon, and Alec Baldwin. But in the theatre world, David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” has serious legs — the 1984 play won the […]
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Theater review: ‘Jake’s Women’ at MuCCC
Every occupation has its hazards, but there’s something about writing that lends itself to endless scrutiny and fascination in pop culture. Is it the necessary isolation, the ensuing ego, or the vulnerability of the act, perhaps? All of the above are key catalysts in Neil Simon’s 1992 play “Jake’s Women,” which is being staged by […]
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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 […]
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Theater review: Kingfisher’s overhauled “The Devil, The Witch, and the Blacksmith”
The Kingfisher Theater’s annual holiday production of “The Devil, the Witch, and the Blacksmith” is now in its third year, and though the play has had its shortcomings, the latest iteration has considerably more charm. A decidedly bizarre Christmas tale adapted from Nikolai Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas,” Amy Canfield and Kevin Dedes’s telling […]
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North Star Players celebrates Frederick Douglass’s legacy through multimedia production
Two hundred years have passed since trailblazing abolitionist and famous Rochesterian Frederick Douglass was born. And while his bicentennial is cause for celebration, it’s also a sobering reminder: It’s 2018 and mass incarceration of African Americans and police brutality are still national maladies; civil rights advocates from Black Lives Matter to professional athletes are still […]
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Theater review: ‘Titus Andronicus’ at MuCCC
Shakespeare is challenging for most professional theater troupes to pull off; even more so for amateur performers. This holiday season, however, Screen Plays has ambitiously partnered with DVC (Dream Visualize Create) to bring one of the Bard’s bloodiest tales to life onstage — and they’re doing it with a cast that features both high school […]
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Theater review: ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’
When Screen Plays announced a production of “Meet Me in St. Louis” at the Lyric Theatre this month, it caused a quick double take. Wasn’t that last year’s show? Could this be a misprint, or a mistaken announcement? As it turns out, Geva Theatre and “A Christmas Carol” doesn’t have a corner market on holiday […]
