Theater

The 63rd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards were presented on Thursday, May 23 at famed theater district eatery Sardi's. Former winners including Judy Kaye, Michael McGrath, and Donna Murphy were on

“There is a way to be good again" The final moments of this rendering of Khaled Hosseini’s epic 2003 novel The Kite Runner are really something special indeed, capturing the quiet ecstasy of redemptive hope with the subtlest of performances and a theatrical elegance that is gently breath-taking. But Giles Croft’s production, first seen in Nottingham and making its way next to Liverpool, takes a long time to get there, hobbled by a pedestrian adaptation by Matthew Spangler which exploits little of the storytelling possibilities within and lacks the excitement to really make it soar into the sky alongside the multi-coloured kites that play such a vital role in this tale of two young Afghan boys, Amir and Hassan, and their unlikely friendship. It’s improbable because Hassan is the son of Amir’s father’s servant and belongs to a different ethnic group yet despite their differences, a strong bond exists between the pair, typified by the way they work together in the kite flying competitions that enliven their Kabul childhood. A brutal incident involving Hassan sets in chain a tragic turn of events though and as the heavy tide of history starts to turn, forcing Amir and his father to flee the war that erupts as the incoming Taliban take over Afghanistan, not even decades and continents can prevent the need for Amir to seek redemption. The sweep of the story is certainly grand but Spangler’s script is mired in the prosaic and banal, overly focused on the descriptive and rarely delving into the rich emotion beneath the surface. Ben Turner’s Amir perfectly epitomises this dilemma, only intermittently able to bring the necessary depth of character to this conflicted young man as he constantly has to duck in and out of scenes to give us the next segment of narration, but he is good at showing us the boyish cowardice that Amir struggles to grow out of. For those able to stay in the scenes though, there’s much more compelling work, especially from Farshid Rokey as the fiercely loyal Hassan and latterly as Hassan’s son, he of the enigmatic smile, Nicholas Karimi as the sociopathic Assef who finds his spiritual home in the harsh regime of the invaders and from Emilio Doorgasingh as Amir’s father, who never loses his pride even as he is forced into menial work when they start their new, very different life on the west coast of the USA. But though the cast are effective, the sense of unused potential pervades this production, exacerbated by the moments that do flare into gorgeous life. The kite flying scenes are mesmerising in their simplicity, the moonlit escape across the mountains most effective, the first meeting with the attractive daughter of a fellow ex-pat. Hanif Khan’s onstage table-playing adds an authentic rhythm to many of the scenes, but Barney George’s design is largely too polite to ever suggest heat and dirt and real life, whether in Kabul’s back streets or San Francisco’s flea markets. What it does provide is cool elegance and a chimerical ability to quickly shift, aided by William Simpson’s projections, ensuring a fluid journey throughout. Whilst the story will move you - surely only the hardest of hearts could remain unaffected - this production rarely transports you. It is undoubtedly somewhat entertaining and the near-complete standing ovation is testament to that, but The Kite Runner is seldom exciting enough to fully exploit its theatrical potential and really involve us with the grandly epic emotion of its storytelling in a presentation that invents and inspires such as in that glorious final scene. Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes (with interval) Booking until 25th May, then playing Liverpool Originally written for The Public Reviews

LCT3 is the best ticket deal in NYC. And tickets for their next production, A Kid Like Jake are now in sale! Here is the description:Alex (Carla Gugino) and her husband, Greg (Peter Grosz), want only the best for their precocious four-year-old, Jake. When they apply to New York City private schools, part of what makes Jake special - his passion for Cinderella and dress-up - starts to cause concern. The story of a husband and wife trying to do right by their son.LCT3 presents A KID LIKE JAKE A New Play by Daniel Pearle Directed by Evan Cabnet with Caroline Aaron, Michelle Beck, Peter Grosz, Carla Gugino June 2 - July 14 at the Claire Tow Theater For Tickets: Click Here

I was going to write a snappy little intro to the blog and talk about the crazy number of entries we got, and how much fun my entire staff and I have reading all these playlets . . . but you don’t want to hear that.  You just want to know which 10 Ten Minute Plays made it to the finals. So, without any further  bugaboo, here are your Ten Minute Play finalists, in alpha order (so don’t try to read anything into it): 1.  Bayonets of Angst: The Story of Lincoln and McClellan by Rick Kunzi and Justin Zeppa 2.  Gifted by Chris Nelson 3.  Gun Play by Chris Friden 4.  Happy Trails! by James Pravasilis 5.  Jake & Lindsay by Garrit Guadan and Justin Anthony Long 6.  Landscape With the Fall of Icarus by Simon de Carvalho 7.  Meeting Mr. Right by Stephan de Ghelder 8.  MTA: The Musical by Peter Saxe 9.  Pointlessness by Marissa Lee Kohn 10.  Taking the Plunge by Greg Edwards and Amanda Louise Miller Congratulations to all of you!  You’re all guaranteed to walk home with $50, just for being a finalist, and one of you is adding another zero to that prize and getting a sweet $500. How will we decide which one will win?  Well, plays, 10 minutes or not, were not made to be read, they were made to be seen.  So we’re putting up all 10 of them! On Thursday June 20th at 7 PM at our studios, we’re presenting a 10 minute Play Festival featuring the 10 plays above, and you’ll help choose the winner!  Get your tickets here and we’ll see you there. And congrats again, finalists! (Got a comment? I love ‘em, so comment below! Email Subscribers, click here then scroll down to say what’s on your mind!) _ _ FUN STUFF: - Play our Tony Pool and you can win an iPad.  Click here to enter and win! - Win 2 Tickets to Murder Ballad!  Click here to enter. - Only 44 performances of Macbeth remain!  Get tix.

In 2006, Once was a small budget film. Its success escalated quickly, and not only won a Grammy for its soundtrack, but an Academy award too. Six years later the story made its way to Broadway, where it won a total of eight Tony Awards. So it was only a matter of time before London got a taste of Once, too and I am so glad that it did. Set in Dublin, it tells the story of a man busking with his folk-rock songs and is befriended by a quirky Czech woman whilst playing. It seems as if he is ready to give up on his music and his former love that inspired the songs, but ‘Girl’ questions him, and when she finds out that he also fixes hoovers for a living, she asks him to repair her broken one; but says she can only repay him in music. They soon set off on a whirlwind week, recording the songs so that ‘Guy’ can make money and get his former girlfriend back, who now lives in New York. Once is a musical unlike any other I’ve ever seen with it’s strongest point being its utter simplicity in every form and proves immediately that you don’t need a revolving stage or extravagant costumes to make a show that will remain with its audiences forever. It is still very true to the film too. Playwright Enda Walsh has done a magnificent job of adapting the script to still include all the best parts of the movie, and also added in some new quirks – my favourite being the Character Billy, the music shop owner who barely has a presence in the film. Aidan Kelly does a sterling job of playing the old, disillusioned rocker with a heart of gold. The Czech flatmates and mother also provide another level of depth and comedy to the story too, mostly while discussing their love for Irish soap opera Fair City and perfecting their Dublin accents. The set, a rustic Irish pub, designed by Bob Crowley, (which you are invited to inspect closer whilst visiting the on-stage bar before the show and in the interval) provides us with a base for the story to take place, and the mirrors that hang on every square inch of wall allow us a reflection of the musical action on stage, in the audience. Add to this the genius use of lighting by Natasha Katz, which turns the pub into a hoover shop, a bedroom, a bank and a recording studio and you feel absolutely no need for any other form of scenery. My personal favourite highlight of both Crowley and Katz’ work is seen in the cliff-top scene – while the lead characters stand above the set, a whole town can be seen twinkling below. The award winning songs by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová are by far the best part of the show. Thanks to the complete naturalism of ‘Guy’ (Declan Bennett) and ‘Girl’ (Zrinka Cviteši?) you find yourself completely immersed in the music and lyrics and your heart swells as you take in the breathtaking beauty of the melodies– particularly in the song ‘Gold’ which marks the end of Act One. What I love so much about this show is that it is completely unlike anything else in the West End at the moment; there’s no massive set or even a particularly elaborate storyline but its naturalism, its heart and music are entirely worth the visit alone. I think its something that the West End needs and hope to see it run for a long time. Once is playing The Phoenix Theatre until 30 November 2013. For more information and tickets, see the Official Once, The Musical website. Photography by Richard Lakos. The post Review: Once, The Musical appeared first on A Younger Theatre.

The Pulse Festival is full of goodies in Ipswich, Nicholas Wright's Vincent in Brixton begins the summer season in Keswick, and Chris Goode is in Bristol and PlymouthScotland and Northern IrelandCaryl Churchill's remarkable play Far Away, set in a world constantly at war, is revived by Dominic Hill at the Citizens in Glasgow, alongside a much lesser-known work, Seagulls. Fox Attack, a new play from China, is at Oran Mor. Head to the Tron for The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, which then heads to Eden Court in Inverness. Worth seeing at the Traverse in Edinburgh over the next week: the early Beckett novella, First Love, Flann O'Brien's The Poor Mouth and Peter Arnott's Why Do You Stand There in the Rain? which had too short a run at Edinburgh last year and which deals with the 1932 march on Washington by second world war veterans. Calum's Road is back out on tour and this week can be the Theatre Royal in Dumfries, and Perth and Brunton Theatres. Full details here. Ellie Harrison's solo show, Etiquette of Grief, is at the Nairn Theatre near Inverness on Saturday.David Ireland's comedy about love and loss, Can't Forget About You, joins Graham Reid's Love, Billy which is in its final couple of days at the Lyric in Belfast.NorthThe world's greatest detective returns in Sherlock Holmes – The Best Kept Secret which is at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. Alan Bennett's The History Boys is revived at the Sheffield Crucible. In the Crucible studio the myths that it's grim up north are dispelled in A Wondrous Place, four new plays from Luke Barnes, Alison Carr, Matt Hartley and Sarah McDonald Hughes. Philip Meeks's Murder, Marple and Me about Margaret Rutherford is at Harrogate Theatre. Daniel Bye's The Price of Everything and The News at 9.15 are at Hull Truck. The Misanthrope at York Theatre Royal until Saturday is followed by Rutherford and Son. Both worth your time. Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory's Two Gentlemen of Verona breezes into the Stephen Joseph in Scarborough. Mikron Theatre's Beyond the Veil, a comedy musical about murder and bees goes out on tour this weekend from Marsden Mechanics Hall and plays allotments all week. Check out the website here.Theatre by the Lake begins its summer season with Nicholas Wright's excellent Vincent in Brixton, about Van Gogh's 1872 stay in SW2, and Philip King's second world war farce, See How they Run. Alistair McDowall's Brilliant Adventures moves to Live Theatre in Newcastle. Liverpool Playhouse gets a first glimpse of Nikolai Foster's fine revival of Jonathan Harvey's still important and necessary, Beautiful Thing. Michael Pinchbeck's The Middle and Shelia Ghelani's Rat, Rose, Bird should make a terrific double bill at Z Arts in Manchester as part of Word of Warning. Ockham's Razor's Thoreau inspired Not Until We Are Lost is very lovely at the Lowry. Pam Gems's Piaf is at the Octagon in Bolton. Central and EastThe Theatre Royal in Nottingham hosts Propeller's Twelfth Night and The Taming of the Shrew from Wednesday. Meanwhile at Lakeside the Wheee! festival caters for young audiences with shows including Frozen Charlotte's Paperbelle and Puppet State's modern classic, The Man Who Planted Trees. There's a fantastic programme for children in Leicester too where the Curve and other venues play host to the Spark Festival. Lee Hall's funny and moving The Pitman Painters goes into Derby Theatre. Hairspray will put a smile on your face at Birmingham Hippodrome. Victoria Melody goes barking mad in Major Tom at the Parabola in Cheltenham tomorrow night. Pirates of the Carabina's circus show, Flown, brings chaos and acrobatics to Warwick Arts Centre. Brian Friel's beautiful Dancing at Lughnasa begins at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton.Next Thursday, the Pulse festival begins in Ipswich and gives a good indication of the health of British theatre. There's some terrific work on offer including pieces from Kindle, Hannah Nicklin, Annie Siddons and more. Check out the programme

Ticket prices are rising and household budgets are squeezed. If you could get a refund if you hated the show, would you be inclined to go more often?A night at the theatre can feel like a big investment. If, halfway through, you realise you loathe the show and walk out, then you've wasted both money and time. But what if your ticket came with a money-back guarantee, enabling you to book in the knowledge that, if you feel compelled to leave at the interval, you'll be able to recoup the ticket price? That's the offer from one Vancouver-based company, who will refund the ticket cost for anyone who buys a ticket for their revival of David Auburn's Proof and decides it's not their cup of tea.It's not a new idea: as we reported back in 2007, a number of UK theatres and companies have tried such initiatives, including the touring company Cheek by Jowl and Northern Stage in Newcastle (who went one step further and offered refunds, even if you stayed to the very end). In both instances, uptake was low to non-existent. But it may be an idea worthy of further investigation by theatres offering riskier or more ambitious work. It could give audiences the psychological cushion some may need to tempt them to take a chance on a show they might not otherwise have considered. Offering a money-back guarantee isn't the same as a theatre apologising for a show, and it may well help to build audiences and encourage a taste for more ambitious productions. What do you think?TheatreLyn Gardnerguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

He's never won a Tony Award, but that's no matter. Alvin Epstein, one of the truly great stage actors, has played his share of roles that are better than any award could top. Who else can say that th

Rum Tum Tugger is a curious cat: He has a curiously large blowout. He has curiously superhuman (cat?) strength. And he's curiously sexy…for a cat. For all of the afore mentioned reasons, we would

Theatergoers who live alone — or are easily frightened — are advised to attend a matinee of Conor McPherson's powerful 1997 drama The Weir, which is receiving a highly accomplished revival at Iri