Author Archives: burdreviews

Act II Playhouse has been saving its December slot on the stage in Ambler lately for original performances of lighthearted comedy and music. They are continuing that tradition with the comedy cabaret, “Most Wonderful Time,” with its most creative Artistic Director, Tony Braithwaite, leading the cast of three. It is filled with improv sketches andContinue reading “Most Wonderful Time at Act II Playhouse”

I’ve known about Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance” since high school but had never seen it. Premiering in New York City in 1879, it is a comic opera that in many ways, was the forerunner of modern musical theater. It is about a band of pirates, a young man, and a major general withContinue reading “The Pirates of Penzance at Quintessence Theatre”

Twenty-nine-year-old Nick Cristano has faithfully visited his four grandparents every Sunday in New Jersey, where he grew up, for as long as he could remember. But now, the young man, who lives and works in New York City, has been offered a significant promotion in Seattle, across the country. Since Nick’s parents are in FloridaContinue reading “Over the River and Through The Woods at Montgomery Theater”

            A Korean-born woman, Amanda, adopted in the United States by white parents, returns home to Albany to assist her mother after the death of her father.  While cleaning up the house, since the mother wants to move out, Amanda is overwhelmed by memories of her life as a child, many of which deal withContinue reading “Wishing to Grow Up Brightly at Theatre Horizon”

It begins when a young woman comes into the office of a therapist and points a gun at him. The set turns dark for a moment, and we are not sure what is going on. Is it a flashback or maybe a flash forward? We soon see that the woman is a new patient thatContinue reading “Job at Theatre Exile”

“Walden” is a book by Henry David Thoreau, published in 1854. It’s about Thoreau’s reflecting on the simple living he enjoyed for two years while he lived in a little cabin beside Walden Pond in Massachusetts. In it, he examines the things about the society in which he lived, including individualism and nature, with self-relianceContinue reading “Walden at InterAct Theatre”

“Double, double toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” That’s what I remember from when I read William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” when I was in college a million years ago. It was a prophecy by the three witches while they stirred a potion that was brewing in a cauldron. They had previously prophesied that MacbethContinue reading “Macbeth at Lantern Theater”

“Fire” was a journal developed in 1926 by Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and others to publish the works of “Younger Negro Artists” whose voices went unheard. It dared to present works dealing with homosexuality and prostitution using the more contemporary Black vernacular. It challenged an older Black generation of authors. Even theContinue reading “Fire at Quintessence Theatre”

            “Misery” is a 1987 novel by Stephen King that three years later made it to the silver screen starring Kathy Bates and James Caan, with the screenplay written by William Goldman. A few years later, Goldman and Simon Moore, separately adapted it many times for the stage for productions around the world. Act IIContinue reading “Misery at Act II Playhouse”

What can we expect if we live to the age of 78? As we reflect upon our lives as a parent, a spouse, and a friend, what lies ahead? How do we deal with or merely accept our past? In “The Unexpected 3rd,” Kathryn Grody explores this and so much more in a sincere, yetContinue reading “The Unexpected 3rd at People’s Light”