http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro RSS Feed for Inq Col Howard Shapiro en-us Tue, 29 May 2012 18:38:26 GMT 2012-05-29T18:38:26Z en-us http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120527_A_C__rsquo_s_Revel_resort__Exciting__creamy__plenty_to_like__mdash__and_not_quite_ready_yet.html It’s not cheap. But then, that’s the idea. When I told a colleague I was heading off to the spanking new, high-style Revel resort and casino in Atlantic City to check out the stayover experience, she looked at me with skeptical disdain."For $400 a night," she shot back, "I pretty much expect to have my feet kissed." Tue, 29 May 2012 18:38:26 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120527_A_C__rsquo_s_Revel_resort__Exciting__creamy__plenty_to_like__mdash__and_not_quite_ready_yet.html 2012-05-29T18:38:26Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120529_New_production_of__Topdog_Underdog__satisfies.html It’s such a pleasure to watch a production make something more of a play than seems possible. Two actors — Kash Goins and Roderick Slocum — are doing just that in Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks’ 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning play about two African American brothers living on life’s underside.I’ve never been much for the play, which is too long in the first act at four substantial but realistic scenes, and becomes less believable in the two-scene second act, when family revelations — and hints at family revelations — seem to come pretty late in the game. But under Malika Oyetimein’s precise and thoughtful direction, this Topdog/Underdog, on Walnut Street Theatre’s fifth-floor stage, is both fluid and fluent. Tue, 29 May 2012 17:37:43 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120529_New_production_of__Topdog_Underdog__satisfies.html 2012-05-29T17:37:43Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120525__Buddy__is_a_fine_portrayal_of_Holly_and_his_music.html If you don't come out of the Walnut Street Theatre humming these days, then you just don't hum at all. For me it was "That'll Be the Day," but then I turned to "Peggy Sue," which will still be in my head next week this time, the way these things go. Fri, 25 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120525__Buddy__is_a_fine_portrayal_of_Holly_and_his_music.html 2012-05-25T07:01:00Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120515_John_Guare_rsquo_s__lsquo_Are_You_There__McPhee__at_the_McCarter_in_Princeton.html PRINCETON — From the get-go, you know you’re into a bizarre tale with John Guare’s Are You There, McPhee?, a world premiere that opened Friday at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre. Its narrator, a playwright, tells acquaintances he has a story to tell, about an inexplicable event in his life involving abandoned children, a porn ring, a sea monster, and Walt Disney. And so he begins the narrative, which sounds compelling enough at its start. But the tiresome Are You There, McPhee? turns out to be a saga without substance, a piece that combines elements of the real and unreal with little effect. Tue, 15 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120515_John_Guare_rsquo_s__lsquo_Are_You_There__McPhee__at_the_McCarter_in_Princeton.html 2012-05-15T07:00:00Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120512_Review__A_life_in_tap_at_Freedom_Theatre.html The thought, sound, and rhythm of Khalil Munir’s hour-long theatrical memoir, 1 pound 4 ounces, are delivered not just in well-considered words but in the taps on his shoes. Munir, a Philadelphian in his late 20s, uses those taps to accentuate his story. You can hear them running, or making a heartbeat, or shooting a gun. His show through Sunday at New Freedom Theatre is an evolving version of the one he takes to schools and community groups, directed here by veteran theater artist Johnnie Hobbs Jr. and beautifully complemented by the cello work and side-stage dialogue of musician Monica McIntyre. Sat, 12 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120512_Review__A_life_in_tap_at_Freedom_Theatre.html 2012-05-12T07:00:00Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120511_A_merry__Robin_Hood__from_the_Arden_Theatre_Company.html Robin Hood stands at the edge of Sherwood Forest, strumming what looks like a lute gone angular, and lamenting "Marian, I love you, girl!" For a second, he's a lounge lizard in the present while his 12th-century honey languishes in a tower run by the Sheriff of Nottingham, who has a modern flair for corruption and an old-fashioned snarl. Fri, 11 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120511_A_merry__Robin_Hood__from_the_Arden_Theatre_Company.html 2012-05-11T07:01:00Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120504__Miss_Julie___A_Strindberg_classic_in_a_Philly_townhouse.html Into the mansion's kitchen the young servant barges, wearing a half-disgusted, half-bemused look and blurting out his take on his boss' dangerously flirty daughter, Miss Julie. "Tonight, she is wild again!" he declares in the first line of August Strindberg's classic, a line that defines her character throughout. But in this case, the servant is in the kitchen of a real Philadelphia townhouse that can hold about 40 audience members. Fri, 04 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120504__Miss_Julie___A_Strindberg_classic_in_a_Philly_townhouse.html 2012-05-04T07:01:00Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120503_Acting_for_a_cause__Play_reading_opposes_Calif__amendment_banning_same-sex_marriage.html It’s not uncommon for theater companies to try out plays in readings — generally single-night affairs with invited audiences and a cast of actors who sit on the stage without props, costumes, lighting or set design, accompanied only by scripts. The reading of a new play called 8 at the Wilma Theater on Monday evening will be a little different. It will still be theater without the trimmings, but open to the public at $20 a ticket. The play has become a theatrical event in cities across the nation in the last few months, with 140 future bookings on professional, community, and college stages that stretch into 2013 and as far away as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe. It was written to be produced in a reading, and for a specific cause. Thu, 03 May 2012 13:25:27 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120503_Acting_for_a_cause__Play_reading_opposes_Calif__amendment_banning_same-sex_marriage.html 2012-05-03T13:25:27Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120501_Review_of__ldquo_My_Fair_Lady_rdquo__at_Act_II_Playhouse_in_Ambler.html ‘And oh, that towering feeling! … that overpowering feeling,” sings the character Freddy in My Fair Lady, in one of the greatest songs of the American theater, “On the Street Where You Live.” He’s been hopelessly smitten by the transformed flower girl, Eliza Doolittle. Oh, that towering feeling — it’s what’s missing from the Act II Playhouse production of the classic musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Overpowering? I’m afraid not. Tue, 01 May 2012 07:00:00 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120501_Review_of__ldquo_My_Fair_Lady_rdquo__at_Act_II_Playhouse_in_Ambler.html 2012-05-01T07:00:00Z http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120429_Breadwinner_is_just_one_of_versatile_Grace_Gonglewski_rsquo_s_many_roles.html Grace Gonglewski, the tall, velvet-voiced actor Philadelphia theatergoers have been seeing on professional stages for two decades, was standing in front of a microphone the other day. At this moment, she was not being Hedda Gabler, or Shakespeare’s shrewish Kate, or a crackhead or a lesbian schoolteacher or George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara. A few hours later in rehearsal, she would become Claire, her current role in the 1812 Productions version of David Mamet’s comedy Boston Marriage. Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:09:29 GMT http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/howard_shapiro/20120429_Breadwinner_is_just_one_of_versatile_Grace_Gonglewski_rsquo_s_many_roles.html 2012-04-29T11:09:29Z