Peter Hall

Playwright Gary Earl Ross,  winner of the Emanuel Fried Outstanding New Play Award for THE GUNS OF CHRISTMAS, whose plays about race relations and legal proceedings THE MARK OF CAIN and MATTER OF INTENT were well received, has a new play produced by Subversive Theatre -  THE TRIAL OF TRAYVON MARTIN.

While old Hollywood movies might have us believe that all you need is a stage to "put on a show," in fact there are weeks of behind the scenes preparation, including developing "back stories" for all the characters, as explained by Marissa Biondolillo, currently in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play PROOF.

PROOF, a drama by David Auburn, stands up well to repeated viewings, and if you've only seen the movie, well, you haven't seen the drama. Presented by Buffalo Laboratory Theatre, with Marissa Biondolillo in the role of Catherine, the mathematician, it's at Shea's 710 Main Theatre but only tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2. 

Acting coach Constantin Stanislavski (whose name is associated with Marlon Brando's "method acting") once said, famously, "Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors." But what if the actors are, well, actually kind of small? Two Buffalo favorites who fit that category show their huge talents in two ongoing productions.

The BPO serves thousands of school-age children with free concerts, but what about adults? For many years, the "BPOvations" have served as popular "music appreciation" courses.

Shea's Performing Arts Center and Albert Nocciolino just announced their 30th Anniversary Broadway Season (2017-2018) and went on to reveal that the long-awaited musical HAMILTON will be part of the 2018-2019 season. Next season special engagements include THE LION KING and THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA while the season opens with Emilio and Gloria Estefan's ON YOUR FEET. This weekend's highly recommended plays are THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT at Road Less Traveled with very tight direction and stellar performances, STOP KISS which builds all evening towards "the kiss" (but with only two more performances at the Manny Fried Theatre), THE SEEDBED which is a family drama at the Irish Classical Theatre, A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE at the Kavinoky, and THE UNDERPANTS which is a modern adaptation by Steve Martin of a 1910 German play about sexual attraction, among other themes. And, opening tonight, it's the fabulous Jimmy Janowski as Cleo herself in CLEOPATRA, a BUA production at the Alleyway Theatre.

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In a telephone conversation earlier this week, Irish born playwright Bryan Delaney explained to WBFO Theater Talk co-host how he conceived of, nurtured, and ultimately crafted his latest "Irish" play, THE SEEDBED, which opens tonight at the Andrews Theatre on Main Street in Buffalo, the home of the Irish Classical Theatre Company.

This week Theater Talk recommends STOP, KISS (Subversive Theatre at the Manny Fried Playhouse); A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE at the Kavinoky Theatre with powerful performances by John Fredo, Debbie Pappas Sham, Renee Landrigan and others; and looks forward to a new play by Bryan Delaney, THE SEEDBED, which opens tonight at the Irish Classical Theatre.

It takes two trucks to transport the International Touring Organ which will grace the stage of Kleinhans Music Hall when the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta welcome organist Cameron Carpenter to perform some rather loud music Friday morning and Saturday night. The all-digital organ's sounds were "sampled" from some of Carpenter's favorite organs.

"It's one of the most satisfying moments in all of music" says Dover Quartet cellist Camden Shaw about the music of Beethoven which was to be played tonight, March 8, at 7:30 p.m. at UB. UPDATE: CONCERT POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER (HIGH WINDS). NEW DATE T.B.A.

Eighteen-year-old African American violinist Maria Sanderson is the latest Sphinx Competition Winner and she's coming to Buffalo.

There's a lot to celebrate this week on Theater Talk. First off, WNED/WBFO will be the new presenter of the Annual Artie Awards which since 1991 have recognized excellence in Buffalo theater.

Two excellent offerings this week include AFTER THE REVOLUTION, the second of the three Amy Herzog plays presented this season at by the Jewish Repertory Theatre at the JCC in Getzville and THE COLLECTION by Harold Pinter at Torn Space Theater on Fillmore near Paderewski. Both feature strong emotions, deal with secrets and felt betrayals, although the threats in the Herzog play are not as palpable as they are in the Pinter, where they hang like a miasma, affecting everyone.

This week Theater Talk mentions one of the few plays up in a week of musicals.  Torn Space Theater presents THE COLLECTION by Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter about two couples whose dwellings are separated by an on-stage wall, with, however, telephone connection.

On this week's Theater Talk, Anthony discusses the difficulties with mounting a review such as SOPHISTICATED LADIES now at MusicalFare, Peter shares a moment while watching Eric Rawski and Caitlin Coleman in STEVE, and both agree on Theater of Youth's THE SHAKESPEARE STEALER.

This week on Theater Talk, Peter and Anthony talk about the fast-paced swordplay (choreographed by Steve Vaughan) at Theatre of Youth's THE SHAKESPEARE STEALER which is good for anyone 8 to 80 years old. STEVE continues at Buffalo United Artists at the Alleyway Theatre complex, described as "middle aged gay men behaving badly." And in a Buffalo coup, Rajiv Joseph had his play ARCHDUKE read by Buffalo actors over at Buffalo State before he takes it to California. IT SHOULDA BEEN YOU "shoulda been" a little tighter, but both Peter and Anthony had a good time at this O'Connell and Company production, and were very pleased to see Sara Kovasci move into the lead role so seamlessly.

Anthony reports that despite stunning production elements, the plot of FRANKENSTEIN dragged a little (often a problem when the playwright and the director are the same person), but there is one gotcha! moment you won't want to miss and everyone agrees that Steve Copps as "the monster" is definitely worth seeing. Theatre of Youth opens THE SHAKESPEARE STEALER at the Allentown tomorrow at 2 pm. and it's up through March 5. STEVE, all about middle aged gay men, features a number of Buffalo's middle aged gay actors and there are many funny moments. And MARIELA IN THE DESERT delivers on many levels, with a well crafted play, clever staging, an ending that is a surprise, starring the talented Victoria Perez in the title role and great scene stealing moments from Melinda Capeles Rowe as Mariela's maiden sister-in-law.

After the holidays, the theater scene takes a moment to get back in gear, but this weekend, BANG!, we're back and running with seven, count 'em, seven openings. We have a play with incidental music (AMADEUS), an operetta ("PIRATES"), and an actual modern musical (42nd STREET). We have a scary play, familiar because of the Hitchcock movie, (DIAL M FOR MURDER) and scary play familiar because of many, many movies (FRANKENSTEIN), as well as a not-so-familiar drama about a family's coming apart (MARIELA IN THE DESERT). And we have a play about something that scares us all.... getting older, less vital, and more marginalized, with STEVE, presented as part of the Buffalo United Artist's 25th anniversary year. For a conversation between Theater Talk's Peter Hall and Irish Classical's Vincent O'Neill and Fortunato Pezzimenti, click here.

In FRANKENSTEIN, on stage from January 20th through February 12th Director David Oliver has adapted Mary Shelley's classic gothic novel to the turn of the twentieth century, where the conflicts of "child vs. parent", "God vs Man", and "man vs. machine" take on new meaning. Meanwhile, over at the Kavinoky the unnamed "Pilot" in GROUNDED, staring at a computer screen, starts to blur the boundaries of "woman vs. machine" as modern drone warfare has its affect on her psyche.

The Kavinoky Theatre is the first out of the gate for 2017 with an opening tonight, an intense 90-minute one woman play written by George Brant, GROUNDED, directed by Kristen Tripp Kelley, starring Aleks Malejs [say "malaise"] as an Air Force jet fighter pilot who is grounded due to pregnancy and spends her days in a windowless trailer piloting drones. And the Kavinoky has announced the opening of their 2017-2018 season with THE PRODUCERS starring Brian Myslivy and Norm Sham (as Leo Bloom and Max Bialystock, characters brought to the big screen by Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane).

GROUNDED, a one-woman play by George Brant

African American playwright August Wilson wrote a series of 10 plays, one for each decade of the 20th century, and finally one of them has become a major motion picture, schedule for wide release on December 25.

If it's on stage this week, it's a holiday show, for sure, but some are better than others.

Moving from the East Side (the African American Cultural Center) to the West Side of Main Street (at Shea's 710 Main Theatre) the Paul Robeson Theatre opened CHRISTMAS IS COMIN' UPTOWN, a musical based on "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Scrooge is now a Harlem slumlord about to foreclose an apartment house, a recreation center and a church when his late partner and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future take him on their rounds. There's one addition to the classic tale-- a rousing gospel number in a baptist church.

It turns out that magic and the supernatural, not to mention dark themes, often the basis for children's stories, inform a number of holiday offerings on our stages.

This week Peter and Anthony discuss a recent social media flap over HAMILTON, the uses of theater as a political weapon, the opening of BUFFALO PINOCCHIO set in a dystopian Buffalo of the future at the New Phoenix Theatre, two runs of the ballet THE NUTCRACKER, this weekend at Shea's Performing Arts Center (Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.) and next weekend at UB Center for the Arts, and, for Shakespeare fans (sort of) A MIDSUMMER DYKE'S CHRISTMAS (in celebration of the 400 years since Shakespeare and the 10th anniversary of the lesbian troupe Brazen-Faced Varlets) has all sorts of funny references.

Superb performances make for a "must see" at MusicalFare (TENDERLY up through December 4), HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND THEN KILL THEM at ART, 330 Amherst Street, closing this Saturday night, and TRUE WEST with  outstanding performances by David Mitchell and Matt Witten (at Road Less Traveled, 500 Pearl, but only thorough Sunday at 2 p.m.).

Kelly Meg Brennan holds the eerily lit venue at 44 17th Street in Buffalo for 80 ripping minutes as she portrays over 20 characters in a one-woman monologue portraying the last night of Jack the Ripper's final victim, Mary Jane Kelly. Speaking to an unseen person (Jack, himself?) she describes her life and the circumstances that brought her to her present situation, an "unfortunate" as the Victoria press called sex workers. It's not about Jack, though. It's about Mary and Ms. Brennan has the audience wrapped around her little finger in wrapt attention. If they don't extend the run, it will close on Saturday.  Meanwhile, on Main Street three first rate productions keep audiences in their seats.  MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION takes on the topic of sex workers and presents various ethical points of view at Shea's 710 Theatre,  EQUUS presents repressed sexuality at Irish Classical, and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS beautifully weaves the music of George Gershwin through the Broadway musical with stunning sets at Shea's. And, for an evening of nostalgia with a few surprises, treat yourself to Debbie Pappas's beautiful voice in TENDERLY: THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY MUSICAL.

This last week 4000 MILES opened at Jewish Rep, the first of three Amy Herzog plays, in a delightful production, but strong productions abound at WNY theaters, including EQUUS at Irish Classical with a very, very strong supporting cast (e.g. Vincent O'Neill, Greg Gjurich, Wendy Hall) surrounding PJ Tighe as the troubled young man Alan Strang, and TRUE WEST at Road Less Traveled pits David Mitchell and Matt Witten as two brothers in a love/hate relationship. All the above deal with adult subjects, but even darker, perhaps, are THE UNFORTUNATES about Jack the Ripper's victims at Red Thread Theatre (on 17th Street) and HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND THEN KILL THEM  which is, actually, a comedy presented by ART of WNY at 330 Amherst Street.

It's another big week for openings in Western New York. The Jewish Repertory Theatre opened 4,000 MILES by Amy Herzog (whose plays will be featured all this season). Tonight's openings include TRUE WEST by Sam Shepard at Road Less Traveled Productions (500 Pearl Street) and EQUUS by Peter Shaffer at the Irish Classical Theatre. Next week, the Shaw sends down MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION for a run at Shea's 710 Main Theatre. Anthony recalls speaking with Nicole Underhay who plays Mrs. Kitty Warren.