Howard Shapiro joined The Inquirer in 1970 and has held many writing and editing positions, including cultural arts editor and travel editor. He now writes for The Inquirer’s features section.
His “On Travel” column appears occasionally on Sundays in Travel, and his theater reviews appear in the Daily Magazine and Weekend.
Find his podcasts with theater artists at http://go.philly.com/theater
Not even the sudden, magical, unscripted appearance of Godot himself - or maybe the Messiah, his possible alter ago - could save the lame production of Waiting for Godot that Amaryllis Theatre Company opened at the Adrienne Wednesday.
Bertolt Brecht's play about a young Chinese harlot who decides to be the best person she can possibly be - only to learn that best person is a tough phrase to qualify - has had many titles since the German master wrote it in the '40s.
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On tonight's wrestling card, we have the American who stands for everything good we learned in civics, or from Mom or by eating apple pie - Chad Deity. He's pure of thought, black and beautiful, resplendent in ringside bling and a shining gold jockstrap. He's built like your proverbial brick facility.
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The four young men who inhabit Shakespeare's comedy Love's Labour's Lost try hard to be serious. Too hard. They forswear entertainment and the pursuit of women. When they turn their plan around to include four particular women as a part of their education, they continue trying too hard. The women are on to them. Mockery ensues.
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So these four major dudes, obviously worried about their grades, pledge to focus on studying by giving up womanizing. And who should breeze into town? Hot babes - four of them, exactly.
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The new play that opened Wednesday at the Wilma Theater seems to have been written by two completely different playwrights.
- "Fire on the Bayou" is too sentimental, but the vignettes ring true - and are presented with brio.What saves Fire on the Bayou, a musical revue that celebrates New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, from being a shameless marketing message is a good old standby: the truth.
- "Absence" is about a spy and his wife and the things they can't talk about.First, there was that day on the grass, when young Peter said such beautiful things to young Mary. (We never find out what they were.) Later, there was his job, given him by the totally offstage but highly important Mr. H., in which Peter travels the world to make it, he says, happier. (The play never explicitly tells us he works for the CIA. You have to read the promotional materials.)
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Twenty years ago, Canadian Brad Fraser wrote a play about sexual complications and serial murder. Its current production by New City Stage, at the Adrienne Theatre, shows just how much has happened in two decades - in the sexual complications department, if not the serial murder part.
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Two world premieres - People's Light & Theatre's musical rethinking of Cinderella and the Arden Theatre's Something Intangible, about two stressed-out Hollywood brothers - were named outstanding musical and play last night at the 15th annual Barrymore Awards, the region's professional theater honors.
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That Ol' Man River, he still keeps rolling along. And in fine style - that's the first thing to say about Media Theatre's new production of Show Boat, which opened Friday.
- For theater artists, it comes down to one big idea: Uniform high quality across the cast.The moment when Kim Carson realized the power of the ensemble came during a late rehearsal. She was playing the title role in People's Light & Theatre Company's 2008 Christmas panto, Cinderella. Two characters were fighting over Cinderella at the palace ball - a funny scene they'd rehearsed repeatedly.
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