Roy Berko

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

Did you know that Shakespeare was an arrogant fop?  That he stole the ideas, as well as much of the text from his plays from others?  Are you aware that some of those who worked with Will actually hated him?  What about the fact that even he spouted about  how hard it was to be the Bard.  Did you know that …more…

Roy Berko

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

Tyrone is evil.  Tyrone, he of big, vacant eyes is both disturbing and funny.  Tyrone is vile, violent and demonic.  Tyrone is raunchy.   Tyrone is foul-mouthed.

Tyrone is a sock puppet who is the anti-hero of Robert Askins’ HAND TO GOD, a Broadway play that causes convulsive laughter while terrifying.

HAND TO GOD centers on Jason, who lives with his mother in Cypress, …more…

Roy Berko

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

Tyrone is evil.  Tyrone, he of big, vacant eyes is both disturbing and funny.  Tyrone is vile, violent and demonic.  Tyrone is raunchy.   Tyrone is foul-mouthed.

Tyrone is a sock puppet who is the anti-hero of Robert Askins’ HAND TO GOD, a Broadway play that causes convulsive laughter while terrifying.

HAND TO GOD centers on Jason, who lives with his mother in Cypress, …more…

Roy Berko

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

The 1951 film AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, is considered by many to be one of the  most successful movie musicals ever made.  It starred Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron and Oscar Levant.  The winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it was designated in 1993 for presentation in the United States National …more…

Roy Berko

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

Christopher, age 15, the character at the center of “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time,” has Asperger’s Syndrome.  AS is one of the five classifications of the Autism Spectrum Disorders, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual” (DSM).

Asperger’s is characterized by “severe deficits in social interaction and communication.”  It is fairly common for those with …more…

Roy Berko

(Member Cleveland Critics Circle, America Theatre Critics Association)

What do you do if you lived an unhappy childhood in a forlorn town in England’s industrial north?  If you are Sting, you leave, become a famous musician, win 16 Grammy awards, write a memoir (“Broken Music”) and then create a moving theatrical musical.  A musical which was inspired by the haunting landscape from which Sting fled, and inspired him to “try …more…

Roy  Berko

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

Donald Margulies’ “The Country House” is a play of warmth, compassion and wit.  It is also a script of angst and frustrations.  Capping off the tale with a surprise ending, Margulies has created an old-fashioned drawing room play which tells a tale with humor and pathos.

Margulies, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his “Dinner With Friends,” has a way with …more…

Roy Berko

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

As the final curtain fell on “Disgraced,” the audience sat transfixed.  At the start of the curtain call, there was light applause.  People seemed unable to transition from the play’s emotional ending to reality.  But then the audience, almost as a unit, jumped up, clapping and orally shouting praise for the presentation.

What had just been experienced was a mind-boggling, frightening, upsetting, enlightening, depressing, …more…

Roy Berko

Some musicals are filled with flash, glitter, large production numbers and massive choruses.  “The Bridges of Madison County” is not one of these.  It is a well-conceived, tender, and low-keyed experience.  It is a “little” musical, much in the realm of “She Loves Me.

Adapted from the novel “The Bridges of Madison County,” by Robert James Waller, is a story  based on the author’s desire to expand on his belief …more…

What could be better than having Audra McDonald singing for an hour and-a-half?  How about McDonald channeling the singing style and interpretative abilities of the late, great Billie Holiday?  McDonald doesn’t portray Holiday, she slips into Holiday’s persona and becomes the jazz singer, with a blues soul.
Holiday, the granddaughter of a slave, endured much success in her life, but also was the victim of overt racism, poor choice in mates, …more…

Roy Berko

(American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)

What do you do when your life doesn’t live up to your dreams?  If you are Walter Mitty or Hans Christian Anderson or Edward Bloom, you invent a fantasy life.  Mitty, of film fame, was a daydreamer who escaped his anonymous life by disappearing into a world of heroism, romance and action.  Anderson imagined fairy tales with lessons of virtue and resilience in …more…

NEWSIES THE MUSICAL delights with impressive dancing and a melodic score

Roy Berko

(American Theatre Critics Association; Cleveland Critics Circle)

Have you every wondered if the second time you see a production of a Broadway show it can live up to the first viewing?   Or, whether, after a show runs for a while, does it get stale, loses its spontaneity?

Having seen NEWSIES just before it officially opened, I followed the “rules of the …more…

Roy Berko

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

Lincoln Center is the largest contiguous performing arts center in the United States.  Included in the complex are concert, dance, education, commercial and theatre spaces.  The newest venue is the Claire Tow Theatre, a two-story, 23,000 square-foot space built on the roof of the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.  The space includes the theatre, rehearsal and office space, and a lobby that opens onto …more…

Delightful, well-staged, cast-right FIRST DATE on Broadway

Roy Berko

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

How do singles meet, find that perfect “forever,” or at least, their “right” now?  In this age of electronics, Craigslist, J-date, and E-Harmony, dot com offer a wide avenue to traverse.

Of course, who can tell if any of the on-line information is accurate?   As “The One,” the opening song in FIRST DATE, Broadway’s small cast …more…

Roy Berko

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

Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the fathers of the modern American musical, were advocates of social responsibility.  In OKLAHOMA, they stressed the building of community, in SOUTH PACIFIC they pegged prejudice, and in THE KING AND I, the duo examined intercultural understandings.

They would be pleased to know that Douglas Carter Beane, who wrote the new book for their 1957 for-television musical, …more…

Roy Berko

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

Playwright Christopher Durang, who is noted for his absurdist ideas, has incorporated “pieces-parts” of three Chekov plays (THE CHERRY ORCHARD, UNCLE VANYA and THE WILD DUCK) and lots of Greek tragedy references into his hysterically funny VANYA AND SONYA AND MASHA AND SPIKE.

Does it help to know the sources of the bizarre plot takeoffs?   It might, but it could even get in …more…