“Kiss Me Kate” a terrific feminist take on “Taming of the Shrew”

“Kiss Me Kate” a terrific feminist take on “Taming of the Shrew”

How do you take a 40s musical built around a sexist Shakespeare play and make it delight today‘s audiences? With pizazz and charm, if you are Roundabout Theatre director Scott Ellis. In this version of Cole Porter‘s and the Spewacks‘ “Kiss Me Kate,” the feisty heroine gives as good as she gets, and she and her erstwhile spouse playing Katherine and Petruchio land some good kicks to the others‘ derrieres.

“The Mother” a fascinating surreal take on smothering motherhood

“The Mother” a fascinating surreal take on smothering motherhood

The story is contemporary, subtle and surreal. Anne (a brilliant Isabelle Huppert), who has done nothing in life except be a mother, plays out scenarios about her husband, her son and his girlfriend. The very inventive Florian Zeller writes this not as a narrative that moves smoothly through time, but as a time-shifting, repeating replay of the same events. Under Trip Cullman‘s smart, austere direction, it vividly becomes apparent.

“True West” by Sam Shepard is a 1980 too over-the-top satire of movies

“True West” by Sam Shepard is a 1980 too over-the-top satire of movies

A satire about media ought always to be in fashion. The current revival of the film “Network” as a play works brilliantly to skewer corrupt television.

This revival of Sam Shepard‘s satire about the Hollywood movie business doesn‘t hit that mark. Maybe it worked in 1980 when it premiered, but nearly 40 years later, it‘s too over-the-top. Interesting as a piece of the times. The centerpiece is a faceoff between two brothers, one clean-cut Austin (Paul Dano) a screen writer with a mild, almost milquetoast demeanor. The other is scruffy bearded Lee (Ethan Hawke), who once made money with a pit bull in dog fights and talks in either a threat or a sneer.

“Network” a stunning commentary on the corrupt American system

“Network” a stunning commentary on the corrupt American system

It‘s astonishing how the politics of Network and the reason for its success have not changed since the Paddy Chayevsky film was screened in 1976. Nearly fifty years, and the story is still based on the reality that a corrupt upper class screws the middle class and the poor to take for itself the wealth everyone else produces and give others the dregs and the shaft. While the “media” glorifies neoliberalism, theatrical “fiction” is the only mainstream place such ideas are permitted.

“The Lifespan of a Fact” dramatizes reality of journalists making things up

“The Lifespan of a Fact” dramatizes reality of journalists making things up

This is a play about an important problem for journalism that begins with a trivial arguments over whether the bricks in a building were red or brown. Or maybe what seems like minutae are the building blocks that lead to more serious inventions. As the play by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, Gordon Farrell is based on a nonfiction work about a real fact-checker, Jim D‘Agata, I assume it followed its trajectory.

Fine Raúl Esparza as gangster/Nazi in Brecht‘s powerful allegory “Arturo Ui”

Fine Raúl Esparza as gangster/Nazi in Brecht‘s powerful allegory “Arturo Ui”

Bertolt Brecht‘s brilliant 1941 allegory of fascism and the rise of Hitler, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is set in a Chicago that appears helpless to ward off gangsters. A good choice since Al Capone ran the mob for so long there in part by paying off police and politicians. In this satire, the gang is taking over the city‘s cauliflower business, strong-arming merchants into making them “partners.”

Edinburgh Fringe: “Bride of the Gulf” striking view of what West did to Iraq

Edinburgh Fringe: “Bride of the Gulf” striking view of what West did to Iraq

This stunning play, sometimes surreal, tells the story of Basra, Iraq, in 2007, from the point of view of the people who lived there, the residents and the militias. The main character, Hero (Karen Alvarado, who also directs), is a woman in search of her disappeared husband, Aqeel (Sufi Malhotra), who was a translator for the British. As counterpoint are militiamen who comment on events in an almost comic fashion.

Edinburgh Fringe: “Ladykiller” is the revenge of the working class

Edinburgh Fringe: “Ladykiller” is the revenge of the working class

A woman‘s body stained with blood is on the ground. The maid (a terrific Hannah McClean) in white cap, black dress and stockings, arrives with bloodied hands and apron and holding a knife. Backtrack to see how this scene developed. Author Madeline Gould and director Madelaine Moore keep you on the edge of your seat.

Glenn Close is spell-binding in hokey recast of life of Joan of Arc

Glenn Close is spell-binding in hokey recast of life of Joan of Arc

Glen Close is a terrific actress. Too bad she is starring in such a bad play. She makes it worth watching, even if you cringe at Jane Anderson‘s hokey script that walks straight out of television, dumbing down events of the 15th century so viewers can connect as they do to their favorite sit-com. Anderson has done a lot of TV, and we see the result.

Janet McTeer is brilliant as the great Sarah in “Bernhardt/Hamlet”

Janet McTeer is brilliant as the great Sarah in “Bernhardt/Hamlet”

Janet McTeer is a charmer with ego as Sarah Bernhardt the greatest actress of the 19th century who performed on the Euro-American stage. And to bring the story up to date, her artistic challenge is a feminist one. We see it as a play within a play, and Theresa Rebeck‘s script sticks closely to reality, except for an affair with French playwright Edmond Rostand, who was a friend but not necessarily a lover.

“Smokey Joe‘s Café: the Songs of Leiber and Stoller” most terrific, some clunkers

“Smokey Joe‘s Café: the Songs of Leiber and Stoller” most terrific, some clunkers

It‘s a working-class crowd and the talk is of neighborhood, the boundary of their lives. The scene is a bar and music place, the sounds are of the 50s and 60s, the voices are rich and jazzy. I never realized Leiber and Stoller created so many of rock classics, jazzy torch and doo-wap. I didn‘t like this music then: “Gonna Find Her,” “Jailhouse Rock,” the hokey “Poison Ivy.” I like it now. Most of it.

“Pretty Woman” morality story pits prostitution v predatory capitalism

“Pretty Woman” morality story pits prostitution v predatory capitalism

Here‘s a Cinderella story which would not quite make it today. Because it‘s about a prostitute who reforms her John. It was a movie hit 20 years ago, but that was an epoch away. So, suspend belief and politics. A story for our times about a billionaire Edward Lewis (Andy Karl) without morals, who would destroy a shipbuilding company and fire its workers, but learns something from a hooker.

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” a stunner for set & magic

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” a stunner for set & magic

I‘m not too sure who the cursed child is. Albus (Sam Clemmett), the son of the grown-up hero Harry Potter (Jamie Parker), or Scorpius (Anthony Boyle), the son of his nemesis, Draco Malfoy (Alex Price). But mixed in with the magic and terrific scenery, there‘s a lot of stuff about fathers and sons, which is really the theme of the play, or the two plays which you can see on succeeding nights or a one-day marathon.

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