670 stories by "Andrea Simakis"
In four weeks at the State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare, Disney's "The Lion King" grossed more than $6.5 million in 32 sold out performances.
Cleveland Public Theatre's Student Theatre Enrichment Program (STEP), the city's longest-running arts and job training program for urban teens launched in 1995, presents free work in area pa…
The Who's original "Tommy" album that inspired the Ken Russell film and Broadway show. How would you imagine the average high school grad uses those precious summer month…
Artist Kent Twitchell installs a mural of actress Ruby Dee at the Karamu House Theatre. Scott Shaw/Plain Dealer Ruby Dee made her first Cleveland stage appearance at Playhouse Squa…
Passersby in cars slowed and gaped at the image taking shape on the side of the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre building in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood -- a 40-foot-tall mural of Ruby De…
"Boston Marriage," a turn-of-the-century euphemism for women living together who may or may not have been getting it on, is a comedy of manners the likes of which you have never se…
All hail the scatting, belting, eat-your-heart-out-Mariah-Carey stylings of Jessica L. Cope as the Lady of the Lake, a shimmering prima donna who is King Arthur's muse and protector. She's a…
In his debut as Mufasa's loyal servant Zazu, a nervous Nellie of an African red-billed hornbill, Andrew Gorell, a 2012 graduate of the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House MF…
Peruse Cleveland Public Theatre's 2013-14 season and you'll notice an unusual pattern: Eight of its 10 announced main-stage productions are written exclusively by women or are collaborations…
"It's the most complicated puppet in the show, and there are a lotta puppets in that show," says Andrew Gorell, a 2012 graduate of the Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Pla…
"Africa is NOTHING like 'The Lion King!' " Elder Price shouts. Neither, thank God, is "The Book of Mormon," possibly the most foulmouthed, funny -- and yes, bighearted --…
With "Medea," the Mama Theatre Company, much like the titular sorceress and priestess of Hecate, has made a howling entrance onto the city's artistic scene. The cast is tight, the …
For Broadway vet Robert Lopez, there is nothing more important than the emotional arc of the story, though "emotional arc" is not the first thing that pops to mind when describing …
"Telephone" is a frustrating and fascinating mind game of a play by poet Ariana Reines that explores technology as both boon and bane, arguing that the more plugged in we are, the …
So how did a skinny kid from middle-of-nowhere Michigan wind up in the most Tony-nominated musical on Broadway? The training Kyle Post received at Baldwin Wallace University sure helped. So …
There are four nominees vying for best musical at the 67th Annual Tony Awards tonight -- including the kinetic "Bring It On" and hometown favorite "A Christmas Story," co…
The post-apocalyptic tale, devised by CPT's executive artistic director Raymond Bobgan and his cast, is a mash-up of hero mythology a la Joseph Campbell -- remember your VHS tapes of him? --…
"The Pitmen Painters" is a cerebral thrill that deconstructs the notion of art and who makes it.
Like a wide-brimmed hat with too many embellishments -- feathers and sequins and fruit, oh my -- "Crown's" slender narrative, at least as it plays out in the Karamu Theatre product…
Tonight and Saturday, Blank Canvas Theatre will present a concert version of "Merrily We Roll Along," the dark musical comedy featuring Stephen Sondheim's Tony-nominated music and …
Michael Bloom said he couldn't be making his exit as artistic director of the nation's first regional theater at a better moment. "I'm very pleased to be leaving on a high note. I'm rea…
After nine seasons and one historic move, Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Michael Bloom is moving on himself. In a statement released today, the board bid Bloom adieu and welcomed Ass…
Though nearly 90 years have passed since poor Bobby's disfigured body was found in a culvert, along with Leopold's pair of horn-rimmed glasses, everything about the "thrill killers"…
Written by Dustin Lance Black -- who penned the Oscar-winning screenplay "Milk" about slain gay-rights activist and California politico Harvey Milk -- "8" chronicles the …
"There are dozens of us who Vincent brought to Cleveland -- actors of every level and stripe -- who had the most fervent of times in the theater and in the city of Cleveland," Tom …
