Roy Berko

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

On the surface, Greg Pierce’s SLOWGIRL, which is now on stage at Dobama, is the tale of a teenager who finds herself living a real-life nightmare and her confronting the issues with her reclusive uncle, who has problems of his own.

The tale begins as 17-year old Becky arrives at her Uncle Sterling’s Costa Rican isolated jungle home.  The duo has had little …more…

Roy Berko
Member, Cleveland Critics Circle, American Theatre Critics Association
 
Yes, the snow is on the ground, the weather is miserable, but soon the cold winds will subside and Clevelanders will start their flow to the land of the maple leafs and cross the many bridges in their treks to the major theatre festivals of Canada.
 
The Shaw Festival is one of two major theatre celebrations, the other being The Stratford Festival in …more…

Roy Berko

Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle

Brian Zoldessy, one of the area’s most awarded actors, seems to be making a career of bringing real people to life.  He was Ned Weeks, the AIDS activist in Ensemble’s THE NORMAL HEART, Sigmund Freud, the recognized father of Psychoanalysis in Actors’ Summit’s FREUD’S LAST SESSION, and now he’s reincarnating the renowned physicist, Albert Einstein.  He won both Cleveland Critics Circle and …more…

Roy Berko

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

Pat Ciamacco, artistic director at Blank Canvas, has a “thing” for off-beat musicals.  Sure, he produced “Hair” and “Godspell,” but it’s more likely that what you’ll see mounted on his stage are “Beach Blanket Party,” “Debbie Does Dallas,” and “Texas Chainsaw Musical.”  I’m surprised he’s missed out on “Bullshot Crummond,” “Dance of the Vampires,” “Expresso Bongo,” “Hands on a Hard Body, and, …more…

MARY POPPINS continues the happy holiday tradition at Beck

Roy Berko

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

Like retail stores, local theatres realize that they need a big December holiday season to make enough profits to sustain themselves for rest of the year.

Looking on the holiday boards, there’s Great Lakes with their umpteenth production of “A Christmas Carol,” Cleveland Play House’s “A Christmas Story,” and Cleveland Public Theatre’s “Santaland Diaries.” …more…

Roy Berko

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

The existentialists ask, “What does it mean to exist?  What is our purpose in being?”  “American Falls,” Miki Johnson’s drama which showcases eight people living in a small town—six alive, two dead—is an existentialist exercise.

The Cleveland Public Theatre production probes “the inner life of everyday people desperately seeking meaning and love on the razor’s edge of transcendence and despair.”

Much in the …more…

“A Civil War Christmas,” a massive and impressive undertaking at Dobama

Roy Berko

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

Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel is noted for crafting play scripts which impact directly on the lives of people.  A review of her works illustrates that  she writes about issues that need to be expressed (AIDS, sexual abuse, prostitution, degradation of the individual), she favors writing about emotional circumstances which she expresses …more…

Roy Berko

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

Little did I realize as I stood many years ago, as an extra, in front of Higbee’s Department Store in downtown Cleveland at 3 AM, that I was participating in the filming of what would become one of the most popular winter holiday movies of all times.

The filming was done in the middle of the night because in daytime, the Erieview Tower …more…

Roy Berko

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

The holiday season is upon us.  Many local theatres are geared to make your days merry and bright.  Curtains have or will shortly go up on the likes of “A Christmas Carol,” “A Christmas Story,” and “Santaland Diaries.”  Even The  Key Bank Broadway series is ringing in the season with a holiday musical, “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.”

The stage musical, with libretto by …more…

Roy Berko

Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle

There’s a moor, a diabolical hound, a maiden, a man who dies of a heart attack (well, maybe), a butler who carries around a tray of plastic food and wears an obvious fake beard, an attempt to perform CPR on an obvious stuffed dummy, men in a sauna wearing towels over their suits, men dressed as women, and lots of doors slamming.

Then …more…

Roy Berko

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

Suzan-Lori Parks won a Pulitzer Prize for her script “Topdog/Underdog,” now in production at none-too-fragile theatre.  She also won the MacArthur “Genius Grant” Award for the play.   The script is an existential trip asking, “What is it like to be a black male in modern America?”

Being a student of James Baldwin, African American powerhouse writer, when she was a student at …more…

Roy Berko

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

“The story is told in verse, densely packed with rhyme, which has to be spoken so that it sounds like natural language.“  “Much of the play concerns a battle between angels and demons.”  “There is little action in the play, just a series of monologues.”  The descriptions are vivid, “fingernails pierce an eyeball and drain it of fluid, a knife slices into …more…

‘A Chorus Line” is “one singular sensation” at BWU

Roy Berko

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

Baldwin Wallace is a powerhouse in providing talent to the Broadway stage.  In the past year, over a dozen of the program’s grads have listed, “a proud graduate of Baldwin Wallace” in their Great White Way “Playbill” resumes.

What’s the secret?  A selection system that picks only the best applicants, fine training in dancing, voice …more…

Roy Berko

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

F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of “The Great Gatsby,” which many consider one of the greatest American novels, is the writer who, more than any other, painted a literary vision of the American Jazz age.  It was the 1920s, the era of decadence, mob violence, prohibition, flappers, dance crazes, high fashion, loose women,  powerful men, love and lust.

Fitzgerald’s “This Side of Paradise,” “The …more…

Roy Berko

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

New York City is approximately 500 miles from Cleveland.  People from the North Coast often make the trek there to partake in the shopping, dining, but most often, the theatre.  In order to keep the locals abreast of the Great White Ways offerings, I review some of the  shows.  Here is a sampling of what’s new on Broadway.

To read the entire review …more…

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

“The Urban Dictionary,” the ultimate source for the meaning of all words modern, defines rap as a music genre in which the ability of the performer to express himself/herself  is prime.  Specifically, “it’s like poetry with attitude.”  The source goes on to say that “It is hated by many people who believe in the stereo type that only blacks make rap and …more…

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

C. Denby Swanson’s “The Norwegians,” now on stage at Dobama Theatre, centers on Tor and Gus, two Minnesota Norwegians, who are hit men who offer to “whack” individuals who have “done others wrong.”  Olive, a former Texan, has been mistreated by her boyfriend. She meets Betty, who has hired Tor and Gus in the past to rid her of an ex- boyfriend.  …more…

A haunting “Night of the Living Dead” @ Blank CanvasRoy Berko

Roy Berko

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

Pat Ciamacco, Artistic Director of Blank Canvas Theatre, is audience friendly.  He wanted to find a script for the venue’s Halloween season.  Though there are a lot of movies that fit his liking, there were few to no plays.  So, true to Ciamacco’s nature, he decided to write one.  But, then he …more…

Roy Berko

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

Families can be interesting to observe.  Take for example, the family who is the subject of Sean Grennan’s “Making God Laugh,” the 125th main stage production of Actors’ Summit.

The quintet are functional, but with some over-arching problems, mainly centering on Ruthie, an obsessive-compulsive wife and mother.  Ruthie, who believes rules are rules, traditions are traditions, and none these are up for discussion …more…

Roy Berko

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

Truth, well maybe the truth, can be stranger than fiction.  According to the show, itself, the musical “[title of show],” yes, that’s the title of the show, which is now appearing on stage at Beck Center’s Studio Theater, was conceived when one of the script’s authors received an announcement about a musical festival.  The New York Musical Festival, to be exact.  The …more…

Roy Berko

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

“Les Misérables” is a classic historical novel by Victor Hugo.  It is probably one of the most noted literary pieces of the 19th century. “Les Misérables,” Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel’s musical adaptation of the novel has become an epic of the musical theatre stage.

The script is usually performed in grand style with large sets, a huge cast, a big orchestra.  …more…

Roy Berko

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

The State Theatre in PlayhouseSquare is rocking.  Rocking with sounds of the likes of Diana Ross, The Supremes, The Jackson Five, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.  Rocking with a full orchestra, a visually stimulating electronically enhanced production, and the story of Berry Gordy.

Berry Gordy, who is the central character of “Motown The Musical parlayed a loan of $800 into a …more…

Roy Berko

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

“The Merry Wives of Windsor,” a version of which is now on stage at Great Lakes Theater, is considered by many literary critics to be one of Shakespeare’s “lesser” plays.  Not bad, just not up to the dramatic level of the great writer, though its farcical nature is often praised.

Nicholas Rowe, a Bard expert, indicates that the reason the play was …more…