Author Archives
-
Review: ‘Fat Ham’ Turns ‘Hamlet’ on Its Head at City Theatre
By BOB HOOVER “They staged a play, and a party broke out,” said a patron at City Theatre on March 8 at the Pittsburgh premiere of Fat Ham, the boisterous, in-your-face version of Hamlet – without the handwringing. In front of a packed… Read More ›
-
Review: Productions of Works by Two of America’s Best Black Playwrights are Bringing Light and Warmth to a Dismal Pittsburgh Winter
Dominique Morisseau‘s prize-winning Skeleton Crew and Intimate Apparel, an early work by Lynn Nottage, opened this past week at barebones productions and the Pittsburgh Playhouse, respectively. By BOB HOOVER It’s tough to find a better location for Skeleton Crew than across the street from the Edgar… Read More ›
-
Review: ‘Assassins’ at Riverfront Theater
By BOB HOOVER The murderers in Assassins seem pretty commonplace in these days of constant reports of violence as they point their guns at the audience. But these killers and would-be assassins share the same desire – self-importance. In John Weidman’s clunky script, these… Read More ›
-
Review: Quantum’s ‘The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (The Chagall Musical)’
By BOB HOOVER In this unusual, smartly mounted musical production about the lives of Expressionist painter Marc Chagall and his writer wife, Bella, a knowledge of Yiddish would help a lot. Lyrics and dialog in the language bring a sense… Read More ›
-
Another Look at Quantum’s Production of ‘Hamlet’
By BOB HOOVER How many versions of Hamlet have we seen? In my life, at least a dozen. (I was an English major). My previous was at the Globe Theatre in London, a fast-paced, almost breathless production that seldom paused to let… Read More ›
-
REVIEW: Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Presents August Wilson’s ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’
By BOB HOOVER Defeated, angry Black men are at the center of numerous August Wilson plays. Still, none is angrier and more dangerous than Herald Loomis in Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, now playing at the August Wilson House, 1727 Bedford Ave.,… Read More ›
-
Review: ‘These Shining Lives’ at South Park Theatre
By BOB HOOVER Plaudits go to the South Park Theatre for taking on this difficult play about American history by playwright and screenwriter Melanie Marnich. Known for her work on the HBO series Big Love, Marnich has also written plays produced at leading… Read More ›
-
An Offbeat, Yet Entertaining Version of Checkov’s ‘Uncle Vanya’ at Carnegie Stage
By Bob Hoover Somewhere in the Russian countryside, a family has gathered at its estate to figure out its future. Its most esteemed member, Serebryakov, has lost his professorship while his young and attractive wife, Yelena, bored by the country,… Read More ›
-
Review: Clever ‘Native Gardens’ Seeded With Laughs and Hot Topics
By BOB HOOVER City Theatre continues its run of topical dramas with a spirited, smart production of Karen Zacarias’s Native Gardens, a play that has the elements of a TV sitcom, but turns those elements on their heads. Imagine two… Read More ›
-
Review: ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ by Lorraine Hansberry at the Pittsburgh Public Theater
By Bob Hoover Lorraine Hansberry’s legendary play about segregation in Chicago reached Broadway in 1959. Sixty-three years later, a Bloomberg News report concludes: “About 400,000 Black Chicagoans have left the city since 1980, including many middle-class families driven away by… Read More ›
