Roy Berko

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

CROWNS, now in production at Karamu Theatre, is a musical which not only features gospel music, but takes a short meander into hip hop, while featuring storytelling, dance and cultural history.  All of this centers on the black female Southern community’s pride in their crowns, hats that have been “bought and paid for and all they have to do is wear them.”  …more…

Roy Berko
Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle

Until the late 1960s and 70s, the age of women’s liberation, the writings and speeches of Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Bella Abzug, MS magazine, and the National Women’s Caucus, men knew what it was like to be a man.   They were the center of the patriarchal family.  They were the bread winners, the disciplinarians, role models, because father knew best.  The …more…

Roy Berko

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

Musicals have come from various sources.  There has been the tale of an illiterate flower girl who was transformed into a proper woman (MY FAIR LADY), a Biblical Jewish youth who became a leader in Egypt (JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT), a prince who kept searching for his corner of the sky until he realized that it was right where he …more…

Roy Berko

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

Philip Ridley, the author of TENDER NAPALM, now being staged at Cleveland Public Theatre, was trained as an artist.  His paintings, like his plays, are characterized by using a palate of colors, splashed all over.  There is also a bizarre quality to his writing which is fairly typical of 1990s British “In-Yer-Face” theatre.  Theatre that is filled with fantasy, dark surrealism, …more…

THERE IS A HAPPINESS (and absurdity) at Cleveland Public Theatre

Roy Berko

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

Poet, painter and printmaker William Blake was considered to be mad by many of his contemporaries due to his out-of-the-time attitudes.  The mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth century writer is also considered to be one of the leaders of the Romantic Age, but his work was mainly unappreciated until after his death.  Part …more…

Roy Berko

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

Cleveland Play House’s The 2013 New Ground Theatre Festival lit up the three stages in the Allen Theatre complex starting on May 2nd with parts running through the 19th.

The annual event showcased cutting-edge productions and readings from nationally-recognized artists.  This year’s offerings included a well written and performed world-premiere comedy, a delightful off-the-wall dance-theatre piece, play readings, new scripts and general excitement …more…

Roy Berko

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

Fanatics of chick flicks virtually swoon when they hear the words, “Love means you never have to say you’re sorry,” or someone hums a bar or two of “Where Do I Begin?” Ah, yes, Andy Williams crooning the theme song from the 1970 film, LOVE STORY, which starred Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw and holds the #9 place on the American Film …more…

Roy Berko

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

Probing into the lives of real people often yields fascinating theatre.  The classical musical CHORUS LINE was based on interviews that Elyrian, James Kirkwood, wove into a fascinating tale of the true life and theatrical experiences of Broadway singers and dancers.

Cleveland writer Faye Sholiton used her experiences in interviewing Holocaust survivors to develop her heart wrenching THE INTERVIEW.

Studs Terkel, noted as the …more…