82 stories by "J. Cooper Robb"
Race isn’t Mamet’s finest play, but at PTC it is certainly interesting, and offers a compelling look at America’s racial divide.
The Arden Theatre Company opens the season on its F. Otto Haas Stage with a disappointing production of Bertolt Brecht’s and Kurt Weill’s play with music The Threepenny Opera.
Arden Theatre production tackles a tough topic with great dialogue, acting.
A lot happens in the four-act play, but little changes—but under Kathryn MacMillan’s direction in a powerfully affecting production by Lantern Theater Company, inertia has never …
For all the emotional angst conjured by Gonglewski and Hissom, the best moments in the production involve the quiet passage of time.
Jorge Cousineau has never appeared onstage or uttered a single word in front of an audience. But that doesn’t stop him from being our runaway choice for PW ’s 2010 Philadelphia T…
Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher is responsible for a wealth of entertaining plays: the theatrical Compleat Female Stage Beauty, the amusing story of homicide among the elderly Murderers, and Thre…
McDonagh’s dark comedy may not be the funniest play ever written but it’s not far behind.
Carrie is fun, but Brat Productions lacks its usual fire.
Theater is one of the live arts, but you would barely know it from Amaryllis Theatre Company’s sobering production of celebrated Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol.
Lantern Theater Company contributes to the Philadelphia Irish Theatre Festival with its entertaining production of Martin McDonagh’s darkly funny and slightly gruesome...
Broadway smash The 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee is something less than smashing in a new co-production between New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse and Philadelphia Theatre Company on …
Let's look back at the top shows, performances and designs from a year in local theater that, by almost any measure, was a smashing success.
The Arden Theatre concludes its season with Stephen Sondheim's timeless A Little Night Music, one of the finest shows in the company's 25-year history.
Ten years after its debut, Seth Rozin's staging of InterAct Theater Company's marvelous drama still hits home.
The Philadelphia Theatre Company is back on sure footing with Seminar, a splendid production of Theresa Rebeck's accomplished drama about love and literature.
Mary Martello began acting at seven. Fifty years later, she's just completed what may have been the finest performance of her career: playing the cruel, desperate Mag in Lantern Theater's sc…
By far the most interesting scenes in Assassin are when Robson examines the limited shelf life of professional athletes and the toll football takes on its players' bodies. Despite walking wi…
In a work not for the faint of heart, Simpatico Theatre Project and the Renegade Company are presenting an affecting co-production of The Amish Project, playwright Jessica Dickey's powerful …
Not only is this one of the busiest times on area stages, but history has shown that January and February typically spawn many of the season's best productions. With that in mind, we've asse…
Leslye Headland's comedy Assistance, currently on stage at the Wilma Theater, is not a great play. It is, however, one that will inspire much discussion about the nature of theater and how t…
Film and theater are entirely different mediums, and comparing Les Mis's current incarnations is difficult"and perhaps unfair. That said, with the possible exception of Hugh Jackman's perfor…
