VANYA AND SONYA AND MASHA AND SPIKE 1/2 PlayMakers Repertory Company @ Paul Green Theatre 150 Country Club Rd., Chapel Hill 919-962-7529 www.playmakersrep.org Through Oct. 5 According to American Theatre, this is the second year running that Christopher Durang’s VANYA AND SONYA AND MASHA AND SPIKE will be the most frequently produced non-Shakespearean, non-holiday script […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
A racially charged Durham story in The Best of Enemies
THE BEST OF ENEMIES Manbites Dog Theater 703 Foster St., Durham 919-682-3343 www.manbitesdogtheater.org Through Sept. 27 What year is it on your street? We used to say of my hometown, “It’s 20 miles north of Greensboro, 20 miles south of the Virginia borderand about 20 years back in time.” That joke seems less funny in […]
Posted inTheater
A charming Oklahoma!
OKLAHOMA! Temple Theatre 120 Carthage St., Sanford 919-774-4155 www.templeshows.com Through Sept. 28 Despite the iconic status of OKLAHOMA! in musical theater, it’s been 15 years since the Triangle has seen a full production. It’s understandable. There was a time when it seemed every high school in America was required to produce Richard Rodgers and Oscar […]
Posted inArt
Theatre in the Park’s Somewhere in Between
SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN Theatre in the Park 107 Pullen Rd., Raleigh www.theatreinthepark.com 919-831-6058 Through Sept. 28 A decade after Theatre in the Park produced The Rocker, Adrienne Earle Pender’s strong debut as a regional playwright, her new work, SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN, arrives as a hard-foughtif, in places, somewhat underwrittendeclaration of independence. Central character McKenna Hahn […]
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Little Green Pig’s truncated version of Hamlet triumphs over venue travails
HMLT Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern East Chapel Hill High School& 500 Weaver Dairy Rd., Chapel Hill www.littlegreenpig.com 919-452-2304 Through Sept. 20 There’s a saying for almost everything in theater. So when an unrecoverable disaster strikes mere hours before openinga set gets smashed, the lead actually breaks a legcount on someone for this sore-arm wisecrack: […]
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The Justice Theater Project’s A Raisin in the Sun
A RAISIN IN THE SUN The Justice Theater Project Clare Hall, St. Francis of Assisi 11401 Leesville Rd., Raleigh www.thejusticetheaterproject.org 919-264-7089 Through Sept. 21 Another tight ensemble delivers a rewarding experience in the Justice Theater Project’s A RAISIN IN THE SUN. Directors Sidney Edwards and Terra Hodge bring Lorraine Hansberry’s classic 1959 drama to life […]
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North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre’s Xanadu
XANADU North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre 7713-51 Lead Mine Rd., Raleigh ww.nract.org, 919-866-0228 Through Sept. 21 As if putting on a full-scale musical theater production weren’t hard enough, playwright Douglas Carter Beane demanded the whole thing be put on roller skates in XANADU, his Broadway adaptation of Olivia Newton-John’s disastrous disco film from 1980. […]
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David Edgar’s trilogy on the Soviet Union’s fall in an ambitious local production
THE IRON CURTAIN TRILOGY: THE SHAPE OF THE TABLE; PENTECOST; THE PRISONER’S DILEMMA Burning Coal Theatre& Through Sept. 27 It makes a difference when you see them in the proper order. That’s one of my first conclusions after viewing David Edgar‘s worthwhile THE IRON CURTAIN TRILOGY, an examination of Eastern Europe after the fall of […]
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A strong season opener in A Kid Like Jake
A KID LIKE JAKE Deep Dish Theater Through Sept. 20 In a sane world, Daniel Pearle’s drama A KID LIKE JAKE, the incandescent season opener at Deep Dish Theater, would be considered an out-and-out farce. It chronicles a professional couple’s marriage as it’s stretched to the breaking point by the process of assembling their only […]
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Hairspray, a sparkling season opener at Raleigh Little Theatre
HAIRSPRAY Raleigh Little Theatre Through Sept. 7 HAIRSPRAY, that saga of a plus-sized teen’s improbable quest for love, fame and civil rights in 1962 Baltimore, boomeranged from film to stage and back in less than 10 years’ time. Given the strengths of this season opener at Raleigh Little Theatre, that trajectory makes a lot of […]
