293 stories by "Jayne Blanchard"
The government's shut down. But the Health Care Insurance Exchanges are open and that means all you uninsured theater artists and professionals can sign up for health insurance. And we'r…
Put Lulu on the list of indelible child characters who are loud, proud and unbowed. Lulu joins grumpy and much put-upon Alexander in author Judith Viorst's pantheon of kids who act like stin…
Dismay for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer. The show he's in's a snorer. Dismay, dismay, dismay! Poor Captain Spaulding (Bruce Randolph Nelson)"a role immortalized by the original ru…
The street names in Lisa D'Amour's play Detroit sound sunny and full of promise, but the reality is dark and scary for the inhabitants of this first-ring Motor City suburb. The once house-pr…
Just when you think you don't have it in you to see a classic play for the bazillionth time and you clump to your seat thinking that it is too dang nice out to sit in the dark for nearly thr…
Rorschach Theatre's production of Neverwhere illustrates what it is like to be a middle-aged woman"completely invisible. We should all be so lucky that crone-dom were as creative, atmospheri…
Terrorism. Not typically the topic that makes you want to have a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants. However, terrorists are the subject of Jon Kern's horribly fun…
Heartless, in many ways, is vintage Sam Shepard"a surreal, cubist kind of family drama with enigmatic characters, nods to iconic imagery and dialogue studded with non sequiturs that take the…
Restoration comedy or a leg of lamb jammed up my nose? Tough choice. With that personal disclosure out of the way, in spite of my bias, Everyman's production of The Beaux’ Stratagem is…
It's been a while since we've seen a bonafide femme fatale onstage"the hard-boiled yet pliable dames who dupe guys and dolls alike without messing up their manicures. That's why Gina Gionfri…
Normally, you're drawn to Company, Stephen Sondheim's 1970 Broadway musical about the ecstasies and aggravations of marriage, because of its cynical tang. From the bar fly bravado of "The La…
Never thought I could welcome or anticipate meeting a character more than Aunt Ester Tyler, the 285-year-old matriarch and soul-cleanser of 1839 Wiley Avenue whose touchstone presence filled…
More than 30 years after Sid Vicious snarled "My Way," punk is busting out all over once again. There is a punk couture show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, spikes adorn clothes and bags …
Michael Hollinger's Ghost-Writer may have been inspired by the relationship between Henry James and his secretary Theodora Bosanquet, but there is something delectably Jane Austen-y about th…
The relationship between home, history and hatred is potently explored in Bruce Norris' edgy living room comedy Clybourne Park, the 2011 Pulitzer Prize winning play now housed at CenterStage…
"What ever happened to class?" laments lethal flapper Velma Kelly and prison matron Mama Morton in the song "Class" from the Kander and Ebb musical Chicago. You won't find evidence of anythi…
Whoever said that travel is broadening never met a modern-day flight attendant. The three women of Marisa Wegrzyn's world premiere, world-wearily funny play Mud Blue Sky, are drudges at 50,0…
It's hard to watch something you love suffer. In this case, it is the 2006 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening, featuring a sumptuous indie-rock score from Duncan Sheik and …
A gorgeous new space deserves an equally stunning production. Everyman Theatre has pulled off this challenging feat with its sparkling renovation of the old Town Theater movie palace and…
As any fan of Fifty Shades of Grey will tell you, chicks dig guys in black masks. Before Christian Grey, the Dark Knight and other masked morsels, there was Zorro, who also had a way with a …
 Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, the accursed rage that brought great suffering to the Achaeans. These cold winter nights are made for storytelling, for gatherin…
Even my culture-savvy bestie from Albuquerque was a little dim on The Pajama Men, the New Mexico improvisational duo of Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez currently showing off their sleepwear"an…
Some seasons back, CenterStage did a delightful job with William Inge's Picnic, directed with poignancy and joy by then-artistic director Irene Lewis, so a new production of his 1955 play Bu…
The current Broadway play Peter and the Starcatcher is a captivating prequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan that speaks of the effect of lost mothers on little boys and even unloved, scalawag pi…
Once upon a Sunday dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Will this latest Poe play rate high or very poor? Will I nod, nearly napping, or will my synapses be a-snapping As I watch Poe's t…
