![The folks at Playhouse Square snuck a play into the 2023-2024 KeyBank Broadway Series. Almost always consisting strictly of musicals that have been at least relative successes on the Great White Way, the season does occasionally make room for an acclaimed drama, such as the Pulitizer Prize-winning “August: Osage County” or last year’s production of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” And, sure, “Girl From the North County” — which has just begun a run at the Connor Palace that runs through Nov. 19 — is technically a musical. One may even call it a jukebox musical, the […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/TNH-L-PHS-NorthCountry-review-WBOX-110623-02.jpg?w=132 "The folks at Playhouse Square snuck a play into the 2023-2024 KeyBank Broadway Series. Almost always consisting strictly of musicals that have been at least relative successes on the Great White Way, the season does occasionally make room for an acclaimed drama, such as the Pulitizer Prize-winning “August: Osage County” or last year’s production of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” And, sure, “Girl From the North County” — which has just begun a run at the Connor Palace that runs through Nov. 19 — is technically a musical. One may even call it a jukebox musical, the […]")
‘Girl From the North Country’ review: Playhouse Square hosts drama disguised as musical
The folks at Playhouse Square snuck a play into the 2023-2024 KeyBank Broadway Series. Almost...
Theater
![Conor McPherson assumes he wasn’t the only one. “I was approached by representatives of Bob Dylan’s record company who were looking, I think, to try to generate a theater show using Bob Dylan’s music,” says McPherson, the writer and director of “Girl From the North Country,” during a recent phone interview. A native of Dublin, McPherson is a prolific playwright and screenwriter. Many of his works are Irish dramas, but his extensive list of credits also includes the 2020 adaptation of “Artemis Fowl” for Walt Disney Pictures. Still, something’s missing from that resume. “I’d never done a musical,” McPherson says. […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TNH-L-PHS-NorthCountry-McPherson-WBOX-102923-01.jpg?w=132 "Conor McPherson assumes he wasn’t the only one. “I was approached by representatives of Bob Dylan’s record company who were looking, I think, to try to generate a theater show using Bob Dylan’s music,” says McPherson, the writer and director of “Girl From the North Country,” during a recent phone interview. A native of Dublin, McPherson is a prolific playwright and screenwriter. Many of his works are Irish dramas, but his extensive list of credits also includes the 2020 adaptation of “Artemis Fowl” for Walt Disney Pictures. Still, something’s missing from that resume. “I’d never done a musical,” McPherson says. […]")
Conor McPherson talks crafting Cleveland-bound ‘Girl From the North Country’
Conor McPherson assumes he wasn’t the only one. “I was approached by representatives of Bob...
‘To My White Friends Who Know Me’ to be performed at French Creek Theater
In 2019, Northeast Ohio author Deborah Plummer wrote "Some of My Friends Are ... The...
![Picture this: It’s the late 1970s, and you and your friends are in your basement, wearing out the linoleum, as you continue practicing the “Ease on Down the Road” choreography from the film “The Wiz.” You have seen it four times already, and you are determined to get it right. You also take turns standing in front of the full-length mirror, practicing emoting while singing a heart-swelling rendition of “Home.” And through it all, you cannot possibly comprehend at 10 years old that the Broadway musical that inspired the movie was anything more than just a really cool version of […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TNH-L-PHS-TheWiz-wigs-WBOX-100123-04.jpg?w=140 "Picture this: It’s the late 1970s, and you and your friends are in your basement, wearing out the linoleum, as you continue practicing the “Ease on Down the Road” choreography from the film “The Wiz.” You have seen it four times already, and you are determined to get it right. You also take turns standing in front of the full-length mirror, practicing emoting while singing a heart-swelling rendition of “Home.” And through it all, you cannot possibly comprehend at 10 years old that the Broadway musical that inspired the movie was anything more than just a really cool version of […]")
‘The Wiz’ at Playhouse Square review: A joyous re-imagining of musical favorite
Picture this: It’s the late 1970s, and you and your friends are in your basement,...
Oberlin High School to participate in 2024 Playhouse Square Dazzle Awards
The Oberlin High School Drama Club will participate in the Playhouse Square Dazzle Awards program,...
![I had no idea Dave Malloy was capable of THIS. I knew Malloy — the Lakewood native who penned the wildly creative and entertaining musical “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet,” which, after its move to Broadway in 2016, was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, along with myriad others — while we were students at Ohio University in Athens in the mid-1990s. We weren’t close, but we had mutual friends, Malloy becoming tight with good pals of mine from Lakeview High School in Cortland after they arrived as freshmen when I was a sophomore. We all hung […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TNH-L-GLT-Malloy-commentary-01.jpg?w=132 "I had no idea Dave Malloy was capable of THIS. I knew Malloy — the Lakewood native who penned the wildly creative and entertaining musical “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet,” which, after its move to Broadway in 2016, was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Musical, along with myriad others — while we were students at Ohio University in Athens in the mid-1990s. We weren’t close, but we had mutual friends, Malloy becoming tight with good pals of mine from Lakeview High School in Cortland after they arrived as freshmen when I was a sophomore. We all hung […]")
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‘Natasha, Pierre’ and underestimating the great Dave Malloy | Theater commentary
I had no idea Dave Malloy was capable of THIS. I knew Malloy — the...
![Richard M. Parison Jr. grew up in Leroy, tucked away in the southeast part of Lake County, and recalls an area theater group performing at his elementary school’s cafetorium. “I raised my hand at the end of it,” he says, “and I said, ‘How do I do that?’” And although there would be some acting in his future, that was never the goal for the man who recently began his new gig as the executive director of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater, a professional company that produces a whole lotta Shakespeare but at the moment is finishing a run of contemporary […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TNH-L-GLT-Parison-100623-03.jpg?w=66 "Richard M. Parison Jr. grew up in Leroy, tucked away in the southeast part of Lake County, and recalls an area theater group performing at his elementary school’s cafetorium. “I raised my hand at the end of it,” he says, “and I said, ‘How do I do that?’” And although there would be some acting in his future, that was never the goal for the man who recently began his new gig as the executive director of Cleveland’s Great Lakes Theater, a professional company that produces a whole lotta Shakespeare but at the moment is finishing a run of contemporary […]")
Richard M. Parison Jr. is back at home with Great Lakes Theater
Richard M. Parison Jr. grew up in Leroy, tucked away in the southeast part of...
![Charles LaPointe has been a hard man to get a hold of, and when we do finally — after a couple of interview reschedulings — it sounds like the tide has turned for the in-demand wig designer of a new Broadway-bound North American tour of the musical “The Wiz.” “Because I came into the project so late and was traveling basically through the entire build section of this, we were a little bit behind when we got in,” LaPointe says recently from Baltimore, as the show is approaching its start date. “We ended up with an amazing crew and pumped […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/TNH-L-PHS-TheWiz-wigs-WBOX-100123-04.jpg?w=140 "Charles LaPointe has been a hard man to get a hold of, and when we do finally — after a couple of interview reschedulings — it sounds like the tide has turned for the in-demand wig designer of a new Broadway-bound North American tour of the musical “The Wiz.” “Because I came into the project so late and was traveling basically through the entire build section of this, we were a little bit behind when we got in,” LaPointe says recently from Baltimore, as the show is approaching its start date. “We ended up with an amazing crew and pumped […]")
Charles LaPointe, wig designer for Playhouse Square-bound ‘The Wiz,’ talks shop
Charles LaPointe has been a hard man to get a hold of, and when we...
![There is no dazzling set. There are no props. There are no costume changes. There is no intermission. There is no transition time between scenes. There is no break between dialogue. There is no time to breathe! And it is exactly as this play is meant to be. The play is “Lungs” by Duncan Macmillan, and it is a bold choice to kick off Ensemble Theater’s 44th season, the company now setting up shop at the Notre Dame College Performing Arts Center in South Euclid. And it literally takes your breath away, as the actors grapple with real-life inner conflicts […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/TNH-L-Ensemble-Lungs-review-WBOX-091523-01.jpg?w=132 "There is no dazzling set. There are no props. There are no costume changes. There is no intermission. There is no transition time between scenes. There is no break between dialogue. There is no time to breathe! And it is exactly as this play is meant to be. The play is “Lungs” by Duncan Macmillan, and it is a bold choice to kick off Ensemble Theater’s 44th season, the company now setting up shop at the Notre Dame College Performing Arts Center in South Euclid. And it literally takes your breath away, as the actors grapple with real-life inner conflicts […]")
‘Lungs’ review: Ensemble’s production will leave you breathless in South Euclid
There is no dazzling set. There are no props. There are no costume changes. There...
![Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Sara Gammage was no stranger to the stage but didn’t carry the dream of many a young actor. “It was a hobby, and I enjoyed it,” she says, “but I didn’t really think it would be my career as an adult.” Instead, thoughts of a life in the theatrical world started after she tried her hand at working backstage for a community theater production. She enjoyed it, and chose to pursue it as a career at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. (Fun fact: Gammage later earned a master of library and information science from […]](https://www.morningjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/TNH-L-PHS-Six-preview-WBOX-080623-01.jpg?w=135 "Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Sara Gammage was no stranger to the stage but didn’t carry the dream of many a young actor. “It was a hobby, and I enjoyed it,” she says, “but I didn’t really think it would be my career as an adult.” Instead, thoughts of a life in the theatrical world started after she tried her hand at working backstage for a community theater production. She enjoyed it, and chose to pursue it as a career at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. (Fun fact: Gammage later earned a master of library and information science from […]")
Stage manager of Playhouse Square-bound ‘SIX’: ‘It’s like going to a concert’
Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Sara Gammage was no stranger to the stage but...