466 stories by "Michael Sommers"
The intimacy of Luna Stage amplifies the penetrating examination of hatred in Athol Fugard's 1982 play, set in 1950 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Paper Mill Playhouse stages a cheery and lively rendition of the lighthearted musical "Oliver!" based on a bleak tale of workhouses and thieves.
The artful simplicity of "Our Town," at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, is enhanced by staging both beautiful and thoughtful.
In "The High Water Mark," a new play by Ben Clawson that Luna Stage is presenting in West Orange, childhood chums reconnect in the middle of the night to hash out their midlife crises. …
"A Most Dangerous Woman," Cathy Tempelsman's play about George Eliot now at the F. M. Kirby Shakespeare Theater, depicts a novelist whose private life scandalized the hypocritical Victorian …
In "On Borrowed Time," death comes to visit an old man who tricks it into climbing an apple tree from which it cannot escape.
"Proof," at the McCarter Theater Center, is more concerned with the value of trust in relationships than with proving some mind-boggling equation that changes the world's understanding of th…
More than a dozen fresh plays and musicals, either brand-new works or those being seen for the first time in New Jersey, are expected to be among the productions at the state's theaters.&nbs…
In the romantic comedy "Saving Kitty," at the New Jersey Repertory Company, a daffy, well-off Manhattan woman with a liberal bent hosts her daughter's beau, an evangelical Christian educator…
The roots of "Clybourne Park," a Pulitzer Prize winner, lie in "A Raisin in the Sun."
Robert Caisley's play revels in the awkwardness that results when a friend's new girlfriend brings aggression and harsh truths to the dinner table.
"Venus in Fur" is a serio-comic depiction of an increasingly heated encounter between a theater director and an unknown actress that delves into aspects of power, both sexual and psychologic…
Less a lyrical study of an artist's life, "Himself and Nora" skims through the biographical details to leave ample room for the couple's love story.
The characters in "The Electric Baby," a drama by Stefanie Zadravec, discover the power of myth in assuaging sorrow.
Composed in nearly 40 fleeting scenes set across the globe, "Roundelay" presents characters who speak longingly about achieving meaningful relationships.
"Lend Me a Tenor," written in 1986 by Ken Ludwig, is a 1930s-style comedy that uses traditional elements from farces of centuries past.
"Good People," by David Lindsay-Abaire, who grew up in South Boston, is a study in character and class, and the mouthing-off sounds authentic.
Dozens of plays will be staged in New Jersey in coming months, and sometimes cooperation between theater companies helps to transform an idea into a reality.
In "Esther's Moustache," a comedy by Laurel Ollstein playing at the New Jersey Repertory Company, a cartoonist is haunted by her past and her most popular creation, a sexpot goddess.
In "Trelawny of the Wells," in Madison, a popular actress retires from the stage to get married, only to return when faced with the reality of her fiancé's stuffy relatives.
A revival of "The Sound of Music" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn features all of the original songs written by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more.
The 1965 musical "Man of La Mancha" is performed without amplification in a 308-seat theater.
In "Blessed Are," a play by Jessica Bedford, a melancholy man returns to his hometown after 17 years in prison for a drunken-driving accident that killed several people.
The revival of "A Chorus Line" at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn is dedicated to the composer Marvin Hamlisch, and remains faithful to the original staging and choreography.
Ten Chimneys is the name of the country place in Wisconsin where the legendary acting team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne usually spent their summers. "Ten Chimneys" is the appropriate tit…
