Fifty-eight years ago, having already achieved success in Hollywood and on Broadway, composer-lyricist Frank Loesser immersed himself in a passion project, a quasi-operatic musical about an unlikely romance between an aged, immigrant grape farmer and a lovelorn young waitress. Its heart-on-its-sleeve emotionality and soaring arias were hardly what “the tired businessman” — the … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: Two by Tracy Letts
In order to maximize the chances of being produced in these precarious economic times, most writers now limit themselves in their plays’ cast size and physical requirements. But every now and again comes an Angels in America or a Coast of Utopia, from playwrights who dare to think on a grand scale, resulting in works resulting in peak experiences for their audiences. Just … [Read more...]