Stage

Cortland Repertory’s ‘Newsies’ brings showmanship to gritty history

Getting the flop Walt Disney film Newsies (1992) on the musical stage was a two-decade-long struggle for prolific composer Alan Menken. Although often placed in the...

3.9K

Classic work ‘Chicago’ takes Ithaca’s Hangar Theatre stage

Turning from a new tuner with the world premiere of Anne of Green Gables this week at Merry-Go-Round Playhouse to an old-school classic, director Michael Barakiva’s rowdy...

A scene from Anne of Green Gables shows red-headed Anne eagerly talking to an old man.

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‘Anne of Green Gables’ makes world premiere at Auburn theater

Matte O’Brien and Matt Vinson are two young Americans who think the most famous of all Canadian novels, Anne of Green Gables (1908), is really...

3.8K

Happy feet ignite Cortland Repertory’s funky flashback ‘Saturday Night Fever’

Disco died, but Saturday Night Fever still lives. It’s a paradox: Although a fashion moment, with bell-bottom pants and bright colors, fades away, one of...

4.1K

Stage shows swirl with twisted fairy tales and twisty romantic fare

Into the Woods After six years of turning its bustling Shoppingtown mall venue into an audience destination, artistic director Dustin Czarny’s Central New York Playhouse continues...

The cast of "Rough Crossing" stand toasting around a piano, dressed in 1930s attire.

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‘Rough Crossing’ sails onto summer stage at Cortland Repertory

At Cortland Repertory, Tom Stoppard’s uproarious comedy Rough Crossing might fairly be described as little-known, yet its setting and premise are immediately familiar. We are on...

Three young actresses stand in a group, smiling excitedly with their arms around each other, from a scene in Mamma Mia!

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‘Mamma Mia!’ kicks off summer season for Merry-Go-Round Playhouse

The biggest jukebox musical of them all has been drawing huge regional crowds for nearly two decades, but only with touring companies. That’s ABBA’s Mamma Mia!...

Two men in ancient clothing, indicative of the early AD era, present a theater play about Jesus Christ.

3.2K

A Shakespearean Summer: 12 venues for live theater in CNY

Our special Summer Times edition hit the stands in mid-June, and we stuffed it with every venue and directory we could think...

Instances of gender-bending in two Central New York plays. The left photo shows a man in makeup and a long purple dress, the right shows a woman dressed in a flannel and jeans like a young man.

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Comedic gender-bending abounds in two recent Central New York plays

Matt & Ben Presented by Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre Company Boys will be boys. Sometimes, these days, girls are also boys. So consider Mindy Kaling...

A theater set to look like a diner. To the left is a massive venus flytrap looking plant, bigger than a person. To the right, a man in a sweatervest holds his hands exasperatedly over his heads. Vines tangle across the floor.

4.7K

SU drama’s ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ brings laughs, musicality not seen in other renditions

University directors have to rely on the talent that happens to be at hand, and Director Brian Cimmet has all the right...

3.2K

More tricks than treats in Syracuse Stage’s ‘The Magic Play’

Actor Brett Schneider likes to quote the 19th-century maestro Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin as saying, “A magician is an actor playing a magician.”...

The cast of CNY Playhouse's "Chess" stand in a line across the stage as part of the performance, lit by overhead stage lights.

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Grandmaster flashiness dominates CNY Playhouse ‘Chess’ match play

We approach a cult musical differently from your garden-variety hit. With a hit like Guys and Dolls or South Pacific, we don’t expect surprises and...