Theater Reviews

'Santaland Diaries' Spirited, Campy Christmas Romp
In "Santaland Diaries," at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox through Dec. 30, the mawkish sentimentality of commercial Christmas has been replaced by the story of a Macy's elf dealing with the reality of working retail at this time of year. It's a very different kind of holiday show, with both the "feel of time gone by with
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'Asher Lev' a Heartfelt Struggle Between Faith & Art
PITTSFIELD, Mass. What an amazing amount of wisdom and insight has been packed into the 90-minute play "My Name is Asher Lev" about a young Jewish painter growing up in a very orthodox household. This play is about being an orthodox Jewish boy, but it could be about any child being talented in a non-nurturing home. Anyone can relate
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BTF Comedy 'In the Mood' Serves Up Frothy Fun
"In the Mood" had its world premiere on the Fitzpatrick Main Stage of the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge and it is a funny, winning evening of frothy comedy and farce. It also propels Kathleen Clark out of the "emerging playwright" ghetto where she has been consigned for the past 25 years. In terms of wit and
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'Sylvia,' About a Dog, Unleashes Howls of Laughter
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — Years before Edward Albee wrote a play about a man falling passionately in love with a goat named Sylvia, A.R. "Pete" Gurney wrote his comedy "Sylvia." It is the first offering of the season on the Berkshire Theatre Group's Fitzgerald Main Stage. In this 1995 comic masterpiece, Gurney wrote about
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Randy Harrison Rocks Berkshires In The Who's 'Tommy'
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Sunday night there was a miracle — in more ways than one — on South Street. The Who's "Tommy" is the first production of the newly minted Berkshire Theatre Group and it was more than good, or great. It was heart-thumpingly fantastic. By the time the classic story of Peter Townshend's deaf, dumb
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Review: 'Moonchildren' at the Berkshire Theatre Festival
STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — It seems impossible that eight college students living together could be desperately lonely and unfulfilled. Yet in 1965-66 when the play "Moonchildren" is set, Michael Weller chooses such a group of nerdy and naive students to populate the rundown communal student apartment in his first successful play.
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A Family of Strangers Rules in 'The Memory of Water'
LENOX, Mass. If it wasn't so funny, I would have cringed watching this play about three sisters preparing to attend the funeral of their recently deceased mother. "The Memory of Water" at Shakespeare & Company relates how the sisters have reunited for her service. In the play, they have taken up residence in her old bedroom,
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'Guys & Dolls' Still The Best Musical of All Time
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — This is the one, the classic that Barrington Stage Company was born to do. "Guys and Dolls" succeeds where musicals and plays about nobler characters fall short. This down-to-earth show was first penned in 1950 and took Broadway by storm. Its magical ingredients are the perfect concoction of words, music, dance
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'Zero Hour' Scores a Full 10 at Barrington Stage 2
PITTSFIELD This past weekend, with prophecies of Armageddon in the air, Saturday was a day of jokes and judgement, and the jokes won. You could say Harold Camping's prophecy that the rapture would take place was correct, sort of, only he had the location all wrong. That earthquake was one of laughter, and the only thing that got cracked up was
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