302 stories by "Tim Dunleavy"
White is pure gold. James Ijames' audacious and hilarious new play takes on racism, sexism, and a handful of other isms. It’s a comedy, but its message is serious. It's bold, outlandis…
A sensitive young man struggles with his heritage as he tries to make his own mark on the world. A predictable story, you might say? Well, My Name is Asher Lev is anything but predictable…
How do you turn one of literature's greatest tragedies into a raucous comedy? Very carefully. I read Madame Bovary in high school, and while it's been (ahem) a few decades since I've thought…
The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most controversial plays, one that has spurred argument and discord for over 400 years. Is the play as misogynistic as it often appears, or is…
Nothing can keep Hetty Feather down. An orphan's life is a hard one, especially in Victorian England " and Hetty has it harder than most orphans, spending years enduring cruel treatment in L…
"I did tell you" "You didn't" "I did I said Wednesday we're going to dinner with" "But you didn't" "Yes because I remember because you said" "All right I must have forgotten I'm sorry" "Yes …
There’s just no tune As exciting As a showtune In two-four… For Jerry Herman, the lyrics of this early composition, "Showtune," represent a kind of mission statement. In song aft…
There are few adventure stories as durable as The Prisoner of Zenda. Anthony Hope's 1894 novel " the story of a well-meaning Englishman who looks exactly like a European king, and who poses …
Is there any place on Earth more mysterious than North Korea? Aside from the grand ambitions of the brutal dictator (known to his subjects as "Our Dear Leader") who runs the country without …
More than sixty years after its debut, The King and IÂ remains one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most popular and enduring musicals. The handsome national touring company of the recent Broa…
The Walnut Street Theatre is doing The Importance of Being Earnest in high style. The Victorian era was noted for its excesses in decoration and costume, and Robert Koharchik's set design…
One afternoon in 1979 or 1980, I saw Orson Welles on The Merv Griffin Show discussing his love of mystery stories. One of his favorites, he said, was Murder on the Orient Express. I was youn…
Coriolanus is one of Shakespeare's least-performed plays " probably because it doesn't fit easily into any of the standard Shakespearean categories. It's a tragedy, but one without the epic …
Welcome to the world It's such a funny place The people who you love the most Are also the ones Who make you cry I'm not sure why A girl sings these lines to her newborn brother in the openi…
Beth Henley stocks her plays with characters that are distinctive and outlandish, right down to their names. The Miss Firecracker Contest, her wily and witty comedy now being revived at Sout…
In 1998, Arden Theatre Company opened their F. Otto Haas Stage with a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Widely considered one of William Shakespeare's lightest and most accessible pla…
The characters in Sh*theads don't mind being called shitheads. True, that may not be a word you'd use in polite company… but these people aren't polite company. They're the employees of…
For Maggie, life has been, ever since childhood, one crisis after another. Now, as a winter storm is blanketing her New Hampshire hometown, several more crises have struck at once: her car h…
I've seen Mary Martello onstage more times than I can count. The 5-time Barrymore Award winner has played everyone from Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd to Queen Gertrude in Hamlet, from Abby Bre…
Last Chance, Philadelphia's much-talked-about musical duo of singer-songwriter Jack Scott (vocals, banjo, and guitar) and Ingrid Rosenback (vocals, fiddle, and harmonica), has been performin…
Waiting for Godot is generally considered a comedy. Samuel Beckett himself called this, his most famous play, a "tragicomedy." But its reputation as an important, monumental piece of art can…
Heidi Schreck's fascinating play Grand Concourse is set in a church soup kitchen, among people who need a hand and those who help them. The play deals with poverty, but its biggest concern i…
Anton Chekhov's The Seagull is one of the most durable of all 19th century plays. But it's a play that producers, directors, and playwrights love to tinker with. In the last few years, au…
Sadie and Bessie Delany were one of a kind. Well, two of a kind. When we meet these two sisters, it's 1993; Sadie is 103 years old, and Bessie is 101. (They both lived a few more years, with…
"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh. Otherwise they'll kill you." That quote, usually attributed to George Bernard Shaw, aptly describes Any Given Monday, a play by Philad…
