http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro RSS Feed for Inq Col Howard Shapiro en-us Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:02:13 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120216_Although_he_has_not_exactly_gone_where_no_man_has_gone_NO_HEAD_SPECIFIED.html Although he has not exactly gone where no man has gone before, William Shatner's propensity for saying "yes" takes him places other entertainers may never get to. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120216_From_pub_singer_to_student.html Into an office walks a woman, off the street, and asks a professor to make her a cultured lady. If that sounds a lot like Pgymalion, or its musical cousin My Fair Lady, by George, you've got it. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120214_A_woman_recovering_from_trauma_of_war.html The coproduction of "Time Stands Still" that has been running at Delaware Theatre Company moves Tuesday to the stage of Act II Playhouse in Ambler. The move means minor changes, mostly because Ambler's theater is about a third the size of Wilmington's. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120131_Broadway_bound__but_stopping_in_Philly_first.html Clybourne Park, a provocative and funny play about the way people discuss race - has become a magical stage property, its rapid trajectory unstoppable. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120131__Bachelorette__outskanks_those__Bridesmaids_.html The in-your-face play Bachelorette has one major element in common with the hit movie Bridesmaids - it's about nasty gals who include a bride and her maid of honor on the eve of the wedding. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120129_Black_plays__wider_stage.html Soon after Black History Month became a February fixture in the mid-1970s, professional stages in big cities around the country began to pick up on it, and for a time it seemed as though a growing canon of African American-themed plays would be available - but only in February. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120129_Spring_Arts_-_Theater__Ushering_in_promising_shows.html The lights already are up on a number of notable shows during the theater season's second half - Body Awareness at the Wilma, the Philadelphia Theatre Company's Scottsboro Boys across the street, The Mousetrap at the Walnut, Clybourne Park at the Arden and InterAct's Microcrisis are among them - and they herald a busy season's finish for the region's 51 professional theater companies. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120126_Broadway_Review__Wit.html The potent Wit is the only play Margaret Edson wrote, and you could say she quit while she was on top of her game. Her story of a callous, didactic scholar battling stage-4 ovarian cancer won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and has been produced by theaters all over the country. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120127_The_financial_failure_follies__the_mirth_of_meltdown.html Bankers are lending big money to poor folks who can never pay it back, Ivy League whiz kids are developing new ways to get interest on that cash, financial watchdogs grant high ratings to every scammer, the feds turn all their cheeks, and in the play Microcrisis - can you believe it? - it's big fun. http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120124_This_isn_t_the_great_work_on_sympathy_for_pedophile.html Isaac is a guy in his 30s who teaches art and has a burning love for a student of his - an 8-year-old boy. What we know from Beautiful Child, the play being done by Fever Dream Repertory at the Adrienne, is little more. During the course of a class, Isaac put his hand on the boy's shoulder, then his finger on the boy's lips. Anything else, we have to assume.