Barbara Vitello
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Ruhl rings it upApr 02, 2008 11:00 pm - Playwright Sarah Ruhl walked into the Steppenwolf Theatre lobby recently, saw the walls filled with photos of its ensemble members and it hit her. "Steppenwolf is actual...
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Cast energizes lively 'Drowsy Chaperone'Apr 02, 2008 11:00 pm - No bouncy overture heralds the opening of "The Drowsy Chaperone." No buoyant production number sets the story in motion. Instead from a darkened stage, a disembodied voi...
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Dog gimmick wears thin, but comedy still fetchingMar 27, 2008 11:00 pm - In "Sylvia," the female around whom A. R. Gurney's frisky romantic comedy revolves, says words most men would love to hear. "I think you're God," gushes Sylvia, enthusia...
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Gift's take on Judas has hard edges, but tender heartMar 27, 2008 11:00 pm - Gift Theatre's "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" clocked in at 2 hours, 40 minutes. They were the speediest nearly 3 hours I've experienced in the theater in some time. ...
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'Sweet Charity,' sweet indeedMar 22, 2008 11:00 pm - Everyone knows the "showstopper," the number that so delights an audience, they can't stop applauding. Most musicals count themselves lucky to have one. Drury Lane Thea...
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Awakening to self-acceptanceMar 20, 2008 11:00 pm - "A Man of No Importance" put a smile on my face. It lasted the better part of Bailiwick Repertory's enthusiastic revival of the chamber musical by the "Ragtime" trio of ...
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Pared down 'Carousel' gets to the heart of the matterMar 20, 2008 11:00 pm - The scant whimsy that Court Theatre's gracefully unadorned "Carousel" evokes comes in the form of a small, gilded horse suspended above John Culbert's sparse, wood-plank...
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Intimate 'M. Butterfly' succeeds on many levelsMar 20, 2008 11:00 pm - David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly" is many things. A masterful deconstruction of Puccini's masterwork, "Madame Butterfly," Hwang's smart, multilayered play is also a cle...
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'Match' doesn't light up stageMar 20, 2008 11:00 pm - From the title of the play you expect to see something incendiary. Unfortunately, Stephen Belber's "Match" fails to fully ignite. The problem with the mystery/relationsh...
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'Carter's Way' doesn't hit all the right notesMar 17, 2008 11:00 pm - Like a composer weaving together multiple melodies to create a symphonic poem, playwright/director Eric Simonson weaves together several themes in "Carter's Way." This ...