Author Archives: burdreviews

Tony Braithwaite is one of my favorite Philadelphia actors because he can play so many different types of characters without absurdly stretching the limit. So I was most intrigued when I learned he be would portraying God in Act II Playhouse’s comedy, “An Act of God.” Written by Emmy Award Winner comedy writer for hisContinue reading “An Act of God at Act II Playhouse”

With a title like “Somewhere Over the Border,” you can’t help but wonder if it is about immigration or is it a take on the song, “Somewhere, Over the Rainbow.” It turns out that this musical is about both. Reina is a 17-year-old girl in El Salvador in 1978 who has just given birth andContinue reading “Somewhere Over the Border at People’s Light”

Myra is trying to deal with the death of Douglas, a poet she met many years ago and she is struggling as she tries to send texts to the man’s son. But she has inadvertently sent the texts to a young woman, Fran, who she doesn’t even know, because she sent the messages to theContinue reading “off by one at People’s Light”

Marge is a successful photographer and professor of photography.  Tiffany is a former student of Marge’s who has become the subject of all Marge’s photographs since they met. They fall in love and are married. But now, six years later, Tiffany is questioning her whole relationship and takes off on a month-long backpacking hike byContinue reading “The Climb at InterAct Theatre Company”

            It is the summer of 1862 in West Texas as the U.S. is in the midst of the Civil War. Hero is a slave on a plantation when he is told by the owner, his master, The Colonel, that if he joins him and the Confederate Army, he will be given his freedom. ItContinue reading “Father Comes Home from the Wars at Quintessence Theatre”

Though the show, “Forever Plaid” was created 35 years ago and has been performed around the world, it is a musical that I’d never seen. I only knew it was something about the “boy bands” of the 1950’s and a kind of musical review. It is so much more than that as presented at ActContinue reading “Forever Plaid at Act II Playhouse”

Dionysus was the Greek god of vegetation and fertility. In her Obie winning play, “Hurricane Diane,” Madeleine George has the god look down upon the modern world and, seeing it about to be destroyed by man’s poor treatment of the planet, decides to come to Earth to save it. Able to inhabit different bodies, heContinue reading “Hurricane Diane at People’s Light”

“Torch Song Trilogy” by Harvey Fierstein premiered in New York in 1982. It consisted of three shorter plays performed in three acts. It revolved around Arnold Beckoff, a Jewish drag queen and torch singer in New York City.  It was four hours long. In 2018, Fierstein revised the play, cutting it to 2:45. 1812 ProductionsContinue reading “Torch Song at 1812 Productions”

This is a copy of the review that first appeared in Broad Street Review after opening night. After the first weekend, it was sold out for the entire run. Terence McNally was one of America’s greatest playwrights whose career spanned some six decades and who received Tony awards for “Master Class, Love, Valour, Compassion, KissContinue reading “It’s Only a Play at Act II Playhouse”

“The Good Person of Setzuan” is a drama written by German playwright Bertolt Brecht about a poor but kind prostitute in China in the 1940’s. Brecht was living in exile in the U.S. at the time, having fled from Nazi Germany, when he completed the play. It was first presented on the stage in SwitzerlandContinue reading “The Good Person of Setzuan at The Wilma Theater”