Category Archives: Mini-Review

A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol: Burlesque is Back and the Audience Loves It!

Charles Dickens was an enthusiastic patron of burlesque; he noted, “the sacred lamp of burlesque” is “always crammed”. No, the author of A Christmas Carol wasn’t a fancier of striptease clubs. The term burlesque originally denoted a form of theatre, now almost extinct. Shadows of this, the greatest popular entertainment, may be seen in reruns […]

December 5, 2013 – 5:00 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Mini-Review, Poetry, Theater | Comments Off on A Q Brothers’ Christmas Carol: Burlesque is Back and the Audience Loves It!

The Hypocrites’ Mikado: A Masterpiece Restored

When Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado opened in New York in 1886 Harper’s Magazine called it “pure rollicking fun. It is capital nonsense.” Since that time few productions of the great operetta have been worthy of those words. Time had accumulated layers of dust on the great and wild operetta.  Now a band of wise, […]

November 29, 2013 – 12:08 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, Mini-Review, Music, Theater | Comments Off on The Hypocrites’ Mikado: A Masterpiece Restored

Hamlet in Jack Bauer-land

We returned to the Music Box Theater to see an encore of Nicholas Hynter’s 2010 Hamlet at the National Theatre. First of all, Rory Kinnear may be the finest Hamlet I have ever seen. His clear love of the language and linguistic devices arises from his clear conception of the character and the situation. “I […]

November 21, 2013 – 6:29 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Mini-Review, Movies, Theater | Comments Off on Hamlet in Jack Bauer-land

Smokefall by Noah Haidle: An American Classic

Smokefall by Noah Haidle, which I saw yesterday, is a great and important play, given a definitive, defining, and dazzling production by the Goodman Theatre. The occasion should be marked in theater history along with the Miller, Kazan, Mielziner collaboration on the birth of Death of a Salesman,Mr. Haidle’s play and the Goodman production are […]

November 3, 2013 – 5:34 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, Mini-Review, Theater | Comments (2)

MAESTRO. Leonard Bernstein. A Play with Music – A Mini Review

MAESTRO: Leonard Bernstein is the most surprising theatrical event I have experienced in a long time. I’ve seem Emily Dickenson, Clarence Darrow, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and others take the stage as one person shows and have found them entertaining. But Hershey Felder, the author and actor and musical director of this extraordinary theatrical event, […]

August 1, 2013 – 6:58 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Mini-Review, Music, Theater | Comments Off on MAESTRO. Leonard Bernstein. A Play with Music – A Mini Review