“Summer, 1976.” With a title like that, anyone over 65 today immediately tries to recall what he or she was doing then. I don’t even think that the theme of the Bicentennial enters one’s thoughts at first. The play by David Auburn presents us with two women who meet because their young daughters are in the same babysitting co-op. They couldn’t be more different.

            Diane (McKenna Kerrigan) is a meticulous, opinionated, rigid artist who teaches art at Ohio State in Columbus. Alice (Grace Gonglewski) is the pot smoking, hippy wife of a man teaching math at the school. In one summer, they connect. And they talk about their lives as their differences erode and they become friends.

            We learn about their relationships with men. We learn how they got pregnant. We learn of the cooperative system of childcare established by Alice’s husband, Doug and see its advantages and flaws. And we see the maladies of each- Alice’s allergies and Diane’s migraines. We hear about Merle, the grad student under Doug who is painting his house and learn of his interactions with the women. And we watch as Alice and Diane squabble and the friendship cools.

It is the life story of two women in the summer of 1976. But this can take place any time in the past 50 years, though I expect it would have greater appeal to boomers like me. These are two tales of two women who in their own way are a bit lost and seeking something they cannot define. And while they seem to come together during that summer, the question we ask of ourselves is- do they really?

In fact, of the 90-minute play, they don’t spend 1/3 of it talking to each other. Rather, it is a series of reflections upon their lives and dreams. But they tell it to us, the audience. The play is a series of long monologues. They talk and talk, but they don’t show us what they feel- they tell us, while standing in front of a collection of Artist Paul Klee’s painting on glass. While every word was meaningful, I had to work to stay focused and I noticed a few in the audience with their eyes closed.

The costumes worn by each didn’t reflect the era. The set, with nothing more than chairs, a bench, and a small table in front of the Klee backdrop, didn’t provide me with anything to look at. McKenna Kerrigan and Grace Gonglewski are superb actors, but this play by David Auburn didn’t provide opportunities for Director Kate Galvin to do a lot with the telling of the stories. On the other hand, it is powerfully strong to listen to and would make a great podcast. “Summer, 1976” by David Auburn at Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephen’s Theater, 923 Ludlow St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. 215-829-0399   lanterntheater.org   thru October 11, 2026

1812 Productions is kicking off its 30^th anniversary season with a world premiere production of a show that will change every night. Yes, it’s improv which they bill as a new musical adventure. These are the Final 4.

Each night, they ask the audience for bad musical titles, a strong emotion, and a one-syllable word, and then, the cast of five and a pianist/music director improvise songs and scenes. The audience votes on the best, which the cast then creates a 30- minute version of,  for the second act.

            I am not usually a fan of improv, but in the past, 1812 has blown me away with so many creative and hilarious shows that I was curious on how they would handle a piece like this, with no script. And I discovered when I saw no asterisks next to the names in the program, I realized that none of the actors were equity. Well, that didn’t make a difference. They were all great and clearly knew how to respond to prompts from the audience and from each other.

            It is about a contest where four different plays are vying for top spot and a performance. We watch as the actors act out the “scripts” that the audience recommended and the actors created. Four teams perform based upon the cues from the audience. The music shifts . It’s unbelievable! How can they be SO good. Then we vote as the group of four plays finally dwindles to a winner.

            The host of the contest is Kristin Finger. That’s her real name as the actors in this production are only called Performer. She moderates and every night there will be different pieces and different prompts and different winners.

            In the second act, they act out the winning piece in a half hour. It is more linear, though the amazing lines they come up with are as good as any prescript. Finger joins the other four (David Dritas, Kelsey Hebert, Eliana Fabiyi, and Mykey Carpenter) in the play. And then there is Jay Rosen, the Music Director and pianist. He is improvising as well. He must figure out when to come in to support the actors in song.

            I’m not going to tell you which piece they selected and performed in the second act. There’s no purpose to that since what you will see will be completely different from what I saw. I will say this- I liked the first act but loved the second act. In the opening act, they went for the silly comedy often. There was a lot of laughter from the younger people in the audience. The older crowd was laughing more in the second, more poignant act.

            This is a most unique piece of theater. It’s about memory. It’s about love. It’s about feelings. Mary Carpenter and Jennifer Childs, who created it, also directed it. I would have loved to watch the rehearsals. How can they prepare? So much brilliance on so many levels!

“This Should Never Be A Musical: An Improvised Reality Show” Co-Created by Mary Carpenter and Jennifer Childs at 1812 Productions, at ArdenTheatre Company’s Arcadia Stage, 40 N. 2^nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, 215-592-9560, info@1812 productions.org   Thru September 27, 2026

After his sold-out engagement of “Monsieur Chopin” at People’s Light last year, Hershey Felder is returning this year with a new piece about another legendary pianist/composer, Sergei Rachmaninoff. I knew little about Chopin’s life before seeing the musical drama and I knew less about Rachmaninoff’s. So naturally, I Googled him. “Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music.” I also read that he fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, when Tsar Nicholas II was killed. I wondered what Felder had created.

            “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” is a memory play of the great Russian composer. But it is not real memory since he is on the edge of death in 1943 and is on heavy drugs. But neither would I call it merely hallucinatory. Felder has created a piece that tries to express Rachmaninoff’s dreams, his thoughts, his regrets, and his life as he tries to come to grips with his life as a composer and his life as a Russian. Though he is in California and has been in the U.S. for 25 years ago, he wrestles with his thoughts with Tsar Nicholas II, assassinated during the Russian Revolution, who he confronts as the reason his life evolved the way it did.

            We learn a little of his life. Born in 1873, he was playing the piano by the age of 4. His two older sisters died when he was a child- one from diphtheria, the other from anemia. His father was a gambler and a skirt chaser who deserted the family. Sergei studied music at various institutes. He was a masterful pianist but loved composing even more and at 19 years of age, his works began appearing on many great stages.

            We learn all of this because he is telling it to the tsar, on stage with him throughout the play. And then, he lashes out at Nicholas for screwing up Russia so badly that a revolution changed the country and altered Rachmaninoff’s life.

            We get a brief history of the Russian Revolution and the tales surrounding Nicholas’s daughter, Anastasia, who turns up a few years after she supposedly died with her father. Is it real? Is any of it real? There is a lot of history. There is also a lot of what Felder thinks Rachmaninoff was feeling when he was unable to compose and he was seriously depressed. It is most creative!

Nicholas is just a foil for Sergei, who blames his lack of productivity on the tsar after fleeing Russia. There is lots of story in this hour and forty-five-minute narration- so much story that I wish there was an act break, so I could digest it all. I felt the same way about his Chopin story. That was a solo show and to be frank, this play didn’t need the presence of another character on stage to tell the story. Nicholas (Jonathan Silvestri) just sat there for so much of the play, listening to Rachmaninoff go on and on.

            And lest I forget, this is a musical play. Felder is a fine storyteller, who not only wrote the play and portrayed Sergei Rachmaninoff, but also performed the man’s music. Though I didn’t know the pieces, it was exciting to watch him perform. And my friend Pamela, who accompanied me to the show, told me she was blown away by the music (she knew his music).

            Felder is a master storyteller. He is an extraordinary pianist. “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” will entertain you and educate you at the same time.

“Rachmaninoff and the Tsar” by Hershey Felder at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org  Thru September 20, 2026

Although I was a young child when Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States, I remember him rather well. I can visualize him. And I have seen the fine actor, Tony Lawton in at least a dozen plays over the years. Could he portray the 34^th president and make me believe him? Yes, and yes again!

It is 1962, two years after Eisenhower has departed from the oval office. When he left the presidency at the age of 70, he had been the oldest president in the 170 years of that office. He read an article in the New York Times where 25 historians ranked the presidents and called him mediocre, placing many insignificant presidents above him. He is furious as he talks to the editor of the memoir he is working on. What follows is 90 plus minutes of recollections of his life as he records them on tape.

We get to know so much about the man, from his childhood to his years at West Point, to his marriage and the death of his little son, to his promotions and the D-Day invasion. We see how he made the decision to run for President as a Republican to stop isolationist Robert Taft, even though Eisenhower was courted by the Democrats four years earlier. We watch as he relates what he did or tried to do when he was President, his views on race, his dealing with Joe McCarthy.

As much substance as there is in this piece, it’s more about the feelings he experienced rather than just the political or military acts themselves. After all, he feels rejected. And he reflects on what his accomplishments were and even what he did NOT do though pushed by other Republicans. He believed in social security and a minimum wage. He sent Federal troops to Little Rock to escort a Black girl into school. He is responsible for the construction of the interstate highway system. It’s mind boggling how much is packed into this one man show, written by Richard Hellesen!

Lawton is outstanding in relating what were probably the feelings of this 72-year-old icon. I say probably since the play was constructed with the information garnered from Eisenhower’s memoirs, speeches, and letters. But it is a fictional portrait of a man. How did he feel about sending soldiers off to their deaths? From this narrative, very much.

How great was he? That is for posterity to decide. It is most interesting to see how Eisenhower rose in greatness in the eyes of historians over the next decades after he died. There is much to learn from this most informative show which is accompanied by projected photos on the back wall of the people and times he is talking about. I learned a lot of history as well as a lot about Eisenhower’s personal life. He wanted to be a baseball player. He wanted to go to the Naval Academy. So much fascinating stuff! A learning experience for the young who did not know “Ike,” it is certain to absorb anyone who did.

“Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground,”  by Richard Hellesen at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue., Ambler, PA 19002, 215-654-0200,  act2.org   thru September 13, 2026

For the first time since I have been reviewing theater, there were two productions of the same show that I saw in the same season- the second of which was 11 weeks after the first. The show is “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” a spirited musical review based on the music of the legendary Fats Waller. Theatre Horizon performed it in May, and it was outstanding. The production mounted on the stage at People’s Light was just as great!

            This is not a traditional musical. Created by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Murray Horwitz, it is a collection of more than two dozen songs that were created during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance. Black people were limited in what they could and could not do, even in the North. They couldn’t even play the sports they were so good at. What resulted was an outpouring in the arts, created by and for the people they lived near. And the music they created was so extraordinary that whites often went to Harlem to hear it.

            There were many musicians in Harlem and Fats Waller was one of the best. The show, “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” was named after one of his more famous songs.  There are many songs created by this composer as well as other composers in the show, that was produced in 1978, thirty-five years after his death,

            It is not a musical story in the traditional sense. The show, which has been playing around the world for almost 50 years, is a musical review. We don’t meet Waller. What we see are five incredible singers singing powerful songs about love, about challenges, about different relationships. On stage is a pianist accompanying them in a beautifully understated performance. And then, after four or five songs, the curtain opens to reveal the 6-piece band that was also accompanying the singers.

            The first time I saw the show, I was taken with the grandeur of the costumes, the lighting, and the dances, but what impressed me most were the singers. The ensemble of five is just as powerful in the People’s Light production. In fact, local singer, Chabrelle D. Williams was in both productions! She joins a cast that has performed around the country. This is a co-production with Arkansas Repertory Theatre. I found out that the connection was Artistic Director Steve H. Broadnax III, who wrote and directed many plays for People’s Light before he took the reins at Arkansas Rep. What he put together for “Ain’t Misbehavin’” is nothing short of perfection.

            Besides Williams, I feel I must name the others in this great ensemble- Tawanna Campbell, Candace Thomas, Dorse Brown (who also choregraphed), and Marcus Allen Jordan (who was the associate director). What talent!

            I think the reason I loved it so much is that I got so much pleasure watching the ensemble beautifully singing so many great songs that I knew, while listening to the lyrics so exquisitely expressed- it was sheer poetry at its finest!

The music, the singers, the lyrics, the staging- I’m sure you will have your favorites too, but I guarantee you will love them all.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show” A musical revue with a book by Richard Maltby Jr. and Murray Horwitz with music by Fats Waller and others at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org  Thru August 16, 2026

It’s the third play I’ve seen about Benjamin Franklin in a year, but what can I expect in a city where he was the most famous resident. This one, “The Sound of America,” recognizes in an off-handed manner his great achievements, but the focus of it is Franklin as a struggling musician whose music is radically affected by the famous lightning strike, hitting the key as it hung from the kite. From there, this unusual piece (which takes place in the 18^th century) links music and history in a most unusual, fascinating, and uproarious way. Created by Randall Lane and Todd Schwartz, FringeArts is producing this world premiere.

            How much do you know about Ben Franklin?  I know he was one of a few men who signed both The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.  I know he helped create volunteer fire departments, free libraries, and the University of Pennsylvania. I know he was a printer and an inventor. In Philadelphia, there’s a bridge and a boulevard named after him. And I think I know what he looked like from artists’ renditions of him and from the hundred-dollar bill. Kohl Pilgrim, who portrays Franklin, doesn’t resemble the great man at all and only the tricornered hat reminds us that it is the 18^th century. But Pilgrim is fantastic as he relates tales of the man and sings and plays the guitars with his musical friends as they get bookings and as they sing songs that this Franklin has written.

            And what songs they are! As he creates a band and performs basic Rock’n’Roll, he achieves a level of notoriety. Mostly, he was writing songs for others, but then, he made money by performing with his own band.

            After arriving in Philadelphia, walking the 99 miles from New York where he’d first gone when he left Boston, at 17, then “discovering” much about what lightning could do, he used it in creating an electric rock music and becomes America’s Rock star. Move over Elvis Presley.

            We learn about his illegitimate child, William. We watch as he gets involved with Deborah Read, still technically married in the eyes of the church, and they enter a common law marriage that will last until her death over 40 years later.

            He uses Poor Richard as his alter ego and the composer of his songs. His band is often called The Junto (a name of a club created by Franklin in 1727 for self-improvement), and they perform at The Leather Apron Club (paying homage to the band members who worked in trades requiring leather aprons.)

            They play with the events of history in these 23 most creative songs by Lane and Schwartz. The lyrics by Randall Lane could easily be worthy a major prize like the Pulitzer or Nobel, as won by Bob Dylan.

            In the second act, the competition between American and British Rock takes center stage. It is another British Invasion. There is music. There is history. There are characters. There is an exceptional ensemble of singers and instrumentalists. At the start, of the play, I thought it might only appeal to a younger audience. (75% of the crowd was younger than I see at most other plays). Even the short playbill is worth looking at before the show commences, lest you miss a line or two. But this is a great show that is sure to grab everyone’s attention. It’s got a bright future! Ben Franklin was human, but he was also a Rock Star- America’s first!!   And he really did create, in a metaphoric sense, the sound of America.

“The Sound of America”by Randall Lane and Todd Schwartz at FringeArts, 140 N Christopher Columbus Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19106) 215-413-1318, July 1 to August 1, 2026

It is 1974. Steven Spielberg is in the process of directing the film based on the novel by Peter Benchley, “Jaws.” It stars Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfus, and Roy Scheider. “The Shark is Broken” is a comedic look at what happened during the filming when the mechanical shark used for the film broke down and the three actors had to wait for its repair. This is that story, written for the stage in 2019, and is now playing at Montgomery Theater in Souderton.

            Let me begin by saying that I am probably one of the few people who never saw the movie, “Jaws.” If I did see it when it came out 50 years ago, I don’t remember it. But I knew about it. Everyone knew about it. I decided to watch it the day before seeing “The Shark is Broken,” which was co-written by Joseph Nixon and Ian Shaw, the son of Robert Shaw. I truly enjoyed the movie. I loved the play.

            There is a lot of down time when a movie is being made. Actors must stay close to the set for days and even weeks at a time.  They have time to share stories, but they also have time to argue, to drink, to bitch about life. They have time to reflect on their careers. They commiserate about the possible failure of the very film they are making as they sit in the cabin of the boat used for the film.

            Robert Shaw has difficulty learning the lines about how he was almost killed by sharks during World War II when the S.S. Indianapolis went down under Japanese fire. Dreyfuss is an insecure young man with a big ego, hoping to become a famous actor. There is strong drama in these scenes. But there is also much comedy.

            There are a ton of edgy, smart jokes. Referring to the president, who has just resigned- “there will never be an immoral president like Nixon.” Another- “Jews should stay out of the water. Nothing good ever happens… Didn’t Jesus walk on water?… Yeah, and look what happened to him.”

            Mostly, though it is the story of three men, who like the characters they portray in the film, come from very different backgrounds and argue with each other as their egos collide, particularly those of Shaw and Dreyfuss. Scheider does his best to cool the guys down and they do play some gambling games to pass the time.

            There is so much in this finely written piece. Though we can’t assume any of the conversations between the actors were not fictionalized, we do know that there was a lot of hostility between Shaw and Dreyfuss.

            Damon Bonetti (Scheider), Jared Michael Delaney (Shaw), and Adam Howard (Dreyfuss) delivered such powerful performances, it’s hard not to believe that they were just the characters they portrayed. Director Matt Pfeiffer, who has directed tons of theater throughout the Philadelphia region, will find it hard to top this production.

            Rush out to Montgomery Theater to see this brilliant show superbly performed. Anyone who has ever seen “Jaws,” even if it is 50 years ago, will love “The Shark is Broken.”.

“The Shark is Broken” by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon at Montgomery Theater, 124 Main Street, Souderton, PA 18964. 215-723-9984   montgomerytheater.org   thru June 28, 2026

How does a trio become a duo? It happens when one of the three leaves the threesome for a variety of reasons. In the case of a family, it often occurs when the couple’s child goes off to college. If the parents only have one kid, they are suddenly confronted with what we call, the empty nest syndrome. That’s what Jen Childs and Scott Greer had to face a few years ago. They created af comedy cabaret piece about once again becoming a twosome which is now on the stage at People’s Light.

            Jen and Scott are Philadelphia’s premier theater couple, the likes of Mike Nichols and Elaine May or Burns and Allen. But they are not a standup comedy team. He has performed to perfection in every major Philadelphia theater She has brought comedy to incredible heights in creating 1812 Productions, an all-comedy theater venue. And when she performs, she knocks your socks off.

            “Two Outta Three” traces a couple’s dealing with their show business future following the departure of their daughter, a part of their act, as they delve into their past routines and work to reinvent themselves.  They try to remember what they had done 17 years ago, before the daughter was born. And they have very different memories, from who played the straight man to the very lines themselves.

            They quarrel at first, but it is very clear that they love each other. And the little quarrels are so funny, they begin us on a road to laughter that will fill the 75 minutes of their show. They sing famous songs with altered lyrics. (Scott is an accomplished player of the ukelele and the guitar.) They dance about. They try out different personalities. They try Bogart and Bacall, Nichols and Elaine May, and Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Nothing fits.  Mostly, they tell jokes, all kids of jokes, to each other and to us. They are clever jokes and they are deliberate groaners.

            Their bedtime story to their daughter was from “Romeo and Juliet” where they occasionally inject lines from “West Side Story.” So many things. So much craziness, Yet so real! I often don’t connect to things that others find funny. Jen Childs and Scott Greer have created a mini masterwork of comedy. “Two Outta Three” was my kind of humor. I loved it! I think you will too.

“Two Outta Three” Created by Jennifer Childs and Scott Greer at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org  Thru June 21, 2026

Theatre Exile is concluding its 29^th season with a most unusual play. It’s the story of a Black mother and daughter guarding the grave site on the grounds of a Philadelphia/African Church where Moses Freeman has just been buried. He was the husband and father of Missy and Charity Freeman before he died. They are guarding the grave lest a grave robber, not uncommon in 1832 when the scene takes place, digs up the body. But that is only half the story.

            Fast forward to scene two, two centuries after the opening. On the same grounds of the church, there is now a day camp, and we meet another mother and daughter, Minnie and once again, Charity. They bicker like any mother and daughter, but the real issue is Minnie’s trying to keep her daughter from being expelled from camp because she destroyed a water fountain.

            In six scenes, the play jumps back and forth between these two scenes with Reyne portraying the mother and Samaja Murphy portraying and daughter in both. There is much talk about the racism they face in their daily lives, from education to their upbringing (Missy was sold into slavery when she was nine years old by her own mother because she needed money). The present-day Charity stands up and fights against racism.

            It’s a story about the powerful bonds between mother and daughter. But it is also a story about searching- what to do next in their lives.

            The concept of creating two roughly parallel stories is a good one. But I was more interested in the older story. I saw the grieving but also learned about how newly buried bodies were often dug up to be sold to medical institutions for dissection to learn about the body, especially during the cholera epidemic. And poorer families, particularly Black families, were targeted, though the benefits were for white people.  It was a most heartfelt tale.

            Though the dancing and much of the dialogue seemed to resonate well among many in the audience, I didn’t enjoy the modern story as much. Though the two actors played both roles, the only way I saw different women in the two tales was in the spitfire reciting of their lines, which I often couldn’t follow, in the second story. The attempts at a broader comedy just weren’t my style as it resembled some silly television sitcoms, and I tuned out.  Yet I noticed the audience laughing often.

            As I stated at the start, it’s a most unusual story. Even the subtitle is unique- “How to flip ten cents into a dollar.” See if you can.

“The Great Privation” by Nia Akilah Robinson at Theatre Exile, 1340 S. 13^th St., Philadelphia, PA 19147, 215-218-4022,  boxoffice@theatreexile.org   Thru June 14,, 2026

Five women who meet on a community center soccer team in Scotland are now on the same soccer team and about to compete for the Homeless World Cup. Coming from widely different backgrounds, this a story of friendship- female friendship, amidst troubling times in each one’s life. That is the background behind “Same Team” by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse, the play making its American debut, on the stage at Inis Nua Theatre.

            The subtitle of the play is “A Street Soccer Story.” But this play is less about the sport than it is about the five women from these different backgrounds who come together to try to win for Scotland.

            One woman, Jo, is struggling with drug addiction. She is the captain of this ragtag team. Another, The B, is an angry woman, just released from prison. Then there is Sammy, a single mother dealing with a most challenging relationship with her own mother. She is also facing a possible eviction from her home. Noor is the young one. She is caring for her grandfather, who suffers from dementia. Finally, there is Lorraine.  Her husband has left her. She is lost as she tries to find a new identity.

            As they practice on their local field in Dundee, Scotland, then travel on the train to the competition, and finally arrive at the site of the tournament in Milan, Italy, they bond in a most special way that goes far beyond their play on the soccer field.

            We see that they are lonely. They are scared, though they express it in different ways. Some are homeless. They have nothing… except they discover, each other. Sounds like a powerful play? Mayber it is. But I had one major difficulty sitting in the audience of the production of “Same Team” on opening night. I couldn’t easily follow the story lines because I didn’t understand what they were saying much of the time. When I got home, I read about the play to fill in the gaps.

            I am sure that the actors were speaking with an effective Scottish accent since dialect coach, Leonard Kelly has worked with many theaters in the Philadelphia area. But I have to say that I missed close to half of what they were saying. The friend I was with had the same problem. And at the act break, I found that others were having the same problem. I wish that the women just had the lilt of the accent instead of the full one. I often felt as though they were speaking in a forein language.  Hey, even when I watch a British film on tv, I have to turn on the subtitles.

            If you do go, be sure to read a summary of the play before to make it easier to follow the stories of each of the women as the come together on the same team.

“Same Team” by Robbie Gordon & Jack Nurse at Inis Nua Theatre Company at The Proscenium Stage at the Drake, 302 S. Hicks St., Phila., PA 19102, 215-454-9776, inisnuatheatre.org,  thru June 14,, 2026