68 stories by "STEVE COHEN"
Arrigo Boito was the musician and playwright famed for turning Shakespeare plays into operas, such as Otello and Falstaff, where he collaborated with Verdi. Now another of his Shakespeare ad…
Opera Philadelphia's production of 'The Elixir of Love' is funny and beautifully sung. What more do you want? Well, how about faithfulness to the composer's intentions?
Objectivity goes out the window in John LaChiusa's fascinating musical exploration of opposing beliefs. The music is complex and well worth our attention.
Let's consider the work of the eclectic Broadway composer and lyricist who chooses unusual subjects, and sets them to music that's intricate and intellectual, yet catchy. Surprise: I'm not t…
Aging is tough, but it beats the alternative. So goes the old joke. Jennifer Childs's latest play and Ellensue Gross's paintings provide fresher responses.
Puccini's neglected Il Tabarro usually gets no respect. But it shines in an innovative new production by the Academy of Vocal Arts.
When Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball in 1947, he confronted mindless bigotry, especially in Philadelphia. But some white Philadelphian rejoiced, as I can personally attest.
Ghost-Writer concerns the mysterious process of literary creation. That’s quite a monumental task, but Michael Hollinger handles it so well that the drama flows with energy and wit.
Lantern Theater’s production of Uncle Vanya is unusually intimate, shining more focus than usual on the unheralded characters in Chekhov’s tragicomedy of dissolute gentry. The ca…
The Wilma Theater’s new Macbeth is concerned more with the struggle of an oppressed people fighting to overthrow tyranny than it is with the title character and his wife. Shakespeare w…
David Schulner's An Infinite Ache speeds us through the lives of a man and woman from their first date to their old age in 90 minutes.
Working for a tyrannical boss is no fun. Neither is Leslye Headland's tired attempt to wring comedy from the situation.
When the Christian polemicist C.S. Lewis meets Sigmund Freud" who considered God an illusion" whom do you root for? Mark St. Germain's imagined meeting between two brilliant men crackles wit…
Having grown up ambivalently Jewish, Abigail Pogrebin embarked on an intriguing project: to interview famous Jews about their Jewishness. The new musical based on her book is equally intrigu…
John Logan's Red dramatizes the ageless tension between art and commerce. Yet not every artist was as angry and even paranoiac as Mark Rothko.
This adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank is different from" and better than" the 1955 version you grew up with. Among other things, it's less squeamish about Anne's adolescent awkwardness …
Unlike its earlier productions, here the harsh words of August: Osage County derive less from anger than desperation; the worst of the characters come across as victims, not monsters. The Ar…
The Walnut's new production of Miss Saigon reaffirms the quality of its authors' work when they were at their short-lived peak. This play is more compact and focused than Les Miz, and more n…
