http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman RSS Feed for Inq Col Toby Zinman en-us Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:01:15 GMT http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091120_Lovely_musical_on_love_and_risk.html 'Reader, I married him." Is there a fantasy dearer to the female heart than Charlotte Brontë's long-suffering governess finally marrying the lord of the manor? http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091109_Ghost_tales_at_an_Irish_pub.html There's no pub like a Conor McPherson pub. The Irish playwright's award-winner, The Weir, is being given a superb production by Curio Theatre under Gay Carducci's direction. If you have a taste for ghost stories and great gabbers, pull up a chair and listen. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091106__Hunter_Gatherers__is_farcical_frolic_with_friends.html Wife enters, carrying flowers and vegetables in a Trader Joe's bag. She asks, "How fresh does the lamb have to be?" http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091105_Do_you_really_want_to_take_a_chance_on_this__Mamma_Mia___.html What's left to say? Unless you've been hermiting on Mars, chances are you've seen Mamma Mia! on stage, or heard the score, or seen the movie. Or all of the above. Multiple times. The cheesy touring production at the Academy of Music was my third MM, not counting the delish movie. As my date for the evening said, when he heard my teeth grinding: "It is what it is." He's deep, this guy. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091102_Austerity__grandeur_absent.html "Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished." This odd first line of Endgame seems to end the play just as it begins. But then it undoes itself, getting less finished as the sentence goes on. So it goes: Just when you're really fed up, just when it seems things couldn't get worse and might actually, finally end, you find you're only in the middle. Again. Endgames - in chess, politics, or life - can be very long. Onstage, too. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091030_A_formulaic_family_tragedy_that_soothes.html Sometimes it's obvious why a play wins the Pulitzer Prize. Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire, currently at the Arden Theatre and directed by James J. Christy, is a cathartic crowd-pleaser: Waves of compassion flow toward the stage, nods of understanding in the dark. I was waving and nodding too, in Act One. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091026_The_funny_side_of_horror.html Screaming. Blood. Impalements. Meat hooks. Electric drills. Objectified sexy women. Crazy mother in wheelchair. Whaddya expect? It's a slasher movie. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091021_An_old_comedy_delights.html Under Nicholas Martin's clever direction, the McCarter Theater's production of She Stoops to Conquer: Or, The Mistakes of a Night is, simply, delectable. The 18th-century comedy by Oliver Goldsmith is entertaining and spirit-lifting and altogether a pleasure. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091016_Macbeth_meets_Simpson_in_a_one-man_show.html The wildly talented Rick Miller, the man of a million voices, wrote my review for me. Near the end of his 70-minute show MacHomer, his bizarre take on Shakespeare's Macbeth combined with The Simpsons, Homer, also known as the bloodthirsty, doughnut-hungry MacHomer, pretends to read a review about himself from a newspaper: " 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' The Inquirer. Stupid rag." http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/toby_zinman/20091015_A_tired__shopworn_Cirque.html Cirque du Soleil is back in town, although not under its usual blue-and-yellow big top on South Broad Street. Its new, temporary venue is the cavernous Liacouras Center, Temple's basketball arena, with too many unfilled seats and an atmosphere entirely lacking in festivity and whimsy.