Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

A New York reviewer once wrote, “If I have to see one more play about a dysfunctional family, I’m going to commit suicide.”  Broadway and local audiences may be thinking the same thing after being exposed to the likes of two productions of NEXT TO NORMAL, RICH GIRL, SORDID LIVES, SPANK, and SONS OF THE PROPHET, within a short period of time.

Ah, …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

The plot:  self-made vindictive wealthy person, inhibited daughter, handsome suitor who may be after her money, parent attempts to torpedo the relationship.  Sound familiar?  It should.  That’s basically the storyline of the Henry James novella WASHINGTON SQUARE and the play and film, THE HEIRESS.  It’s also the basic description of Victoria Stewart’s RICH GIRL which takes from the past, but the play …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

Eugene O’Neill, along with such writers as Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, transformed western theatre.  They transitioned the stage from a place for escapist ideas into a mecca for the examination of real life problems.  The quartet laid the foundation for what is now known as “the modern theatre” and laid the groundwork for such luminaries as Arthur Miller, Tennessee …more…

Roy Berko
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)

What does is feel like to be uncomfortable in your own skin, even when you think you know, understand, and act like a moral and good person?  What happens when a playwright forces the viewer to have an unsettling, sobering experience by forcing him or her to challenge assumptions about race, what it means to be an American, and be brutally …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association and Cleveland Critics Circle)

Want to get away this spring, summer or fall?  Drive to Canada for great theatre, good food, and nice scenery.  This year marks the 61st anniversary of the Stratford Festival of Canada.

This season’s 12 productions in the Festival’s four theatres are:

ROMEO AND JULIET—Shakespeare’s tale of youthful passion which dares to challenge generations of enmity in the most famous love story ever …more…

Roy Berko

Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle

One of the fears of seeing a show which I regarded as one of the most mesmerizing that I’ve ever seen, was that the touring company of WARHORSE would fade by comparison.  It did, somewhat, but still came out an exciting winner in the derby called theatre.

WARHORSE, which was originally staged in the US at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in New York’s …more…

Roy Berko

Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle

The great fear of realizing that MOTHERHOOD OUT LOUD is a series of vignettes which look at varying phases of motherhood, is that it will turn out to be a Hallmark sentimental mindless experience.  Fear not.  The eighteen authors of the vignettes avoid making the experience sappy and purely entertaining.  Instead, there is a balance of humor, pathos, and social commentary.

Four actors, …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

It’s the responsibility of the director of a theatrical production to set the ideas, tone and movement of the actors on stage.  Sometimes, the director collaborates with the actors by allowing them input on textual decisions as well as line interpretation.  Imagine what would happen when a director allows such input on a production of William Shakespeare’s PERICLES.  This is the premise …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

At the conclusion of FELA!, the Afrobeat political awareness musical, now on stage at the Palace Theatre, caskets are carried onto center stage and piled up.  On top of the stack of caskets, emblazed with names such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and words such as “freedom,” “bullying” and “oppression,” was a vertical box of death entitled, “Chardon High School.”  …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)

STRUCK, now on stage as Cleveland Public Theatre is an interesting piece, much in the vein of Arthur Kopit’s WINGS, which had a startling production at Beck Center starring Dorothy Silver, in which the ramifications of a person having a stroke is investigated.

As I tell my psychology students, the brain is a marvelous, but fragile thing.  It is the intellectual center …more…

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association and Cleveland Critics Circle)

Boy hates girl. Girl hates boy. Boy overhears that girl is secretly in love with boy; girl hears vice versa.  Other boy and girl love each other, but something gets in the way of their happiness.  That’s the basic premise of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, which is now on stage at Great Lakes Theatre.  Throw in a couple of interesting subplots, …more…