by Clark Groome Gentle. Moving. Funny. Musically rich. Appealing. These are some of the descriptions applicable to “Once,” the multi-layered love story that is currently being given an impressive production at the Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. 2nd St. in Old City. Based on John Carney’s 2007 movie, “Once” tells the story of Guy (Ken […]
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by Clark Groome To an old musical comedy lover who grew up in what is now known as “The Golden Age of the American Musical” (roughly 1943 to 1970), the Walnut Street Theatre Company’s energetic, entertaining and impressive production of “Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn” is a joy to behold. It’s not just nostalgia that makes […]
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by Clark Groome How appropriate it is that Ambler’s Act II Playhouse’s production of a Neil Simon play opened just a week after Simon, America’s most prolific and produced playwright, died Aug. 26 at age 91. It’s also appropriate that this is not just any Neil Simon play but “Biloxi Blues,” the second of his […]
Read More > By Clark Groome When “Gypsy” first appeared on the scene in 1959, it was widely acclaimed as an almost perfect musical. Subsequent Broadway productions — featuring Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bernadette Peters and Patti Lupone in the monster role of Mama Rose originally performed by Ethel Merman — confirmed that initial reaction. The Arden Theatre […]
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by Clark Groome Neil Simon has written some of the English-speaking theater’s most popular plays. The prolific author of “Come Blow Your Horn,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Odd Couple,” “Plaza Suite.” “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” “Lost in Yonkers,” “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” and so many other plays and musicals has quite possibly […]
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by Hugh Hunter If Leo Durocher had not come up with “Nice guys finish last,” Philly playwright Bruce Graham would have had to invent it. A master of the one-liner himself, the aphorism sums up Graham’s point of view in the offbeat comedy, “Any Given Monday” (2010), now running at Stagecrafters. Directed by Barbara D. […]
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by Clark Groome “Stupid F&*king Bird,” Aaron Posner’s play with the media-unfriendly title, has been described as a “deconstruction” of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull.” Should, therefore, the theatergoer have a familiarity with the original Chekhov piece? Ideally no. But on opening night I felt as though there might be references in Posner’s piece that would […]
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by Clark Groome Back in 1949 when Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” opened on Broadway, musicals were almost always called “musical comedies.” While much of this magnificent show is very funny, it is anything but a traditional musical comedy. “South Pacific” is set during World War II on a remote island. Its plot involves war […]
Read More > by Clark Groome While there were always some of Johnny Cash’s songs that I really liked — most notably “A Boy Named Sue,” “I Walked the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues” — I was never a great fan. At least not until I saw “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash” at People’s Light and […]
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by Clark Groome At the beginning of Lucas Hnath’s sharp and incisive “Hillary and Clinton,” now at the Suzanne Roberts Theater, 480 S. Broad St., until June 26, Alice M. Gatling walks onto the stage and tells the audience that it’s possible, maybe even likely, that in all the billions of solar systems there are […]
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