Congratulations on your first Tony nomination. Had you ever written incidental music for a play before?I helped out with a National Theatre production of The Crucible, and we adapted for the girls onstage, but I didn't write anything new. And then I wrote music for an onstage pianist to perform in a production of Hedda Gabler at the Old Globe in San Diego. But Salesman is very different.
Set on a major motion picture set, in which the chaotic soundstage mimics the real-world climate crisis, the director, Maria, tries to keep her production on track in this sharp-witted, energetic comedy. Egos clash, secrets spill and hard truths are faced as the crew responds to an existential predicament with movie magic.
asks its audience to do something a lot of us are bad at: Listen. The Pacific Northwest premiere of Carissa Atallah's play at Milagro Theatre gives a platform to angry and anguished young Latinos who live in fear of the U.S. government's war on immigrants.
"Hopefully, it feels boundless in a good way. One of the things we've tried to do is make the experience intense and hard to describe, which is the point."
The musical itself is raucous and exceedingly silly - not generally my sweet spot. But Portland Playhouse has earned my trust in its programming, so I know to expect a wonderful quality of intention behind even a production like this one.
Playwright James Ijames has transplanted the story to a backyard family barbecue in North Carolina, and placed a Black gay man at the center of his play, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2022.
Moby Dick, which Wilson envisioned for the stage along with the British art rocker Anna Calvi and the adapter-dramaturg Robert Koall, would be his last finished work. Great artists rarely trust that word, and Wilson was one of the greatest we had.
The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low. This quip, known as Sayre's law, applies equally to co-op boards and homeowners associations, revealing how minor issues can lead to bitter divisions.
Aftermath Liturgy is a staged reading that features live music and audience participation, exploring the complex themes of sexual identity and evangelical Christianity.
Tim, a veteran lensman, is hunkered down in a wildlife hide, where he meets Marcus, his new apprentice. Their early interactions are filled with friction, as they clash over everything from making tea to the creative process.
"He talked about his therapy, he apologized, he owned what he said, he reflected on it. He was in the process of rehabilitation. So I just think that, unless we think there is no possibility of real rehabilitation, then we shouldn't ask people to try and do it."
The prospect of an all-female cast version of David Mamet's seminal drama of doomed masculinity and rampant capitalism Glengarry Glen Ross has been kicking around for a while now.
Reviving it in a venue so steeped in sex, spectacle, and decadence feels less like a bold idea than an obvious one. Produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company and directed by Sam Pinkleton, this revival leans fully into the material's identity as an event.
Choy-Ping Ní Chléirigh-Ng expresses that growing up in Wicklow as a mixed-race individual often felt isolating, as they navigated their identity in a small town.
"We are the eyes and ears, the business side of theater. Anything not on stage goes through us. Justin likes to say we're the octopus of the show."
There is a kind of role that I've always wanted to play that I feel like I'm getting to play for the first time, which is kind of a cocky, quick *sshole. I watched Chris Pine do a role when I was a teenager in this play Fat Pig that's that. This Is Our Youth has that. Glengarry Glen Ross has Ricky Roma, especially, has that.
The Glass Menagerie at Shaking the Tree Theatre is a graceful gift of a show that's so quietly beautiful, watching it is like sitting in a rose garden where the individual blossoms slowly unfold as you breathe in their subtle scent.
Half Man begins in the present, with two men circling each other in a dark barn. One, Niall, is in full Scottish wedding fig. The other, Ruben, is stripped to the waist and has his hands wrapped like a sparring boxer.
"We have other options, and other people do want us, but we have to find the right space, because we've been very lucky with this space. But the most important part is to find a place where we can continue all week long, where the school buses can come in and not disturb the neighbors, and be safe. So that is the biggest challenge."
Auburn carefully calibrates the funny with the sad, balances credible realism with fugues of understated poetry. It was once described to me as a perfect play, in the formal sense, a template from which any budding playwright could draw inspiration.
