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Get a fresh perspective of people, events and trends that shape our world. A mix of news, features, interviews and music from around the world presents an engaging portrait of the global community.

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Shapiro on Theater

 Will Dennis (left), Anne Wechsler and Tony Braithwaitein 'Making Spirits Bright' at Act II Playhouse in Ambler. (Photo courtesy ofBill D'Agostino.)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘Making Spirits Bright’ for sure

Part cabaret, part improvisation, part variety show and all smiles, “Making Spirits Bright” is appropriately named. The origi ...

8 years ago

 Steve Solomon, performing his 'My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, I'm Home for the Holidays' at Delaware Theatre Company in Wilmington.
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: Italian, Jewish and ‘Home for the Holidays,’ both of them

Steve Solomon is performing his own “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish, I’m Home for the Holidays” at ...

8 years ago

 Emilie Krause as Belle and Matteo Scammell as The Beast in Arden Children’s Theatre production of 'Beauty and the Beast.' (Photo courtesy of Arden Theatre Company)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ straight-up

In modern times, we say “don’t judge a book by its cover,” but in 1740 a French woman named Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de ...

8 years ago

 The members of Team Sunshine Performance Corporation's 'The Sincerity Project' at FringeArts: In the center is Melissa Krodman. The other cast members, who have her back, from left: Ben Camp, Jenna Horton, Mark McCloughan, Rachel Camp, Makoto Hirano and Aram Aghazarian.
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘The Sincerity Project’ is how you define it

An ambitious undertaking called “The Sincerity Project” might be the most insincere thing going on a stage these days – whi ...

8 years ago

 The cast of 1812 Productions' 'This Is the Week That Is,' cheering for their own political perspectives. From left (left position, not necessarily political perspective): Scott Greer, Tabitha Allen, Don Montrey, Dave Jadico, Susan Riley Stevens and Aimé Donna Kelly. (Photo courtesy of Mark
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: The winter return of ‘This Is the Week That Is’

Why are “The Supremes” — Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan —  boogeying like that? And wh ...

8 years ago

 David Howey and Kathleen McNenny in Philadelphia Theatre Company's production of 'Outside Mullingar.' (Photo courtesy of Mark Garvin)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘Outside Mullingar’ and thoroughly inside Ireland

For an American playwright, John Patrick Shanley writes one heck of an Irish play. “Outside Mullingar,” in a radiant producti ...

8 years ago

 The cast of 'Rodgers , Hammerstein's Cinderella,' in its national tour at the Academy of Music. (Photo courtesy of Carol Rosegg)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s different sort of ‘Cinderella’

Down Cinderella’s way, the folks are out of kilter. One of the nasty stepsisters talks back to her mom and reels in disbelief when ...

9 years ago

 Christopher Patrick Mullen and Susan McKey in the new People's Light & Theater Company panto, 'Arthur and the Tale of the Red Dragon.' (Photo courtesy of Mark Garvin)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: The goofy side of King ‘Arthur’

The once and future King Arthur has never had it as good (or as goofy) as he’s having it these days and nights at People’s Li ...

9 years ago

Listen
 Clare Mahoney  and Peter DeLaurier in Lantern Theater Company's production of 'QED.' (Photo courtesy of Mark Garvin)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘QED’ and the nature of probability

Richard Feynman lived large, and what he got in return was large indeed. Feynman, who died in 1988 at the age of 69, was that most vision ...

9 years ago

 David Nate Goldman, Kyle Klein II and Joy Franz in Bristol Riverside Theatre's production of 'Lost in Yonkers.'
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: Seriously ‘Lost in Yonkers’

And now, Neil Simon – seriously. The playwright who gave us plenty of laughs in such New York-based shows as “Barefoot in the Par ...

9 years ago

 Corinna Burns and Griffin Stanton-Ameisen in Azuka Theatre's production of 'The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence.' (Photo courtesy of AustinArt.com)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: The curious play of ‘The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence’

“The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence,” being given an able production by Azuka Theatre, is supposed to be a play ab ...

9 years ago

 J. Hernandez and Victoria Rose Bonito in Philadelphia Artists Collective's production of 'Blood Wedding,' in cooperation with Drexel University. (Photo courtesy of Plate 3 Photography)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘Blood Wedding’ with poetry and song

You’ve heard of the jilted bride. Now consider the instantly abandoned husband. In Federico García Lorca’s “Blood ...

9 years ago

 In Walnut Street Theatre's production of 'Mary Poppins,' from left: Cameron Flurry, David Elder (as Bert), Lindsey Bliven (as Mary Poppins) and Jacob Wilner. (Photo courtesy of Mark Garvin)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: A ‘Mary Poppins’ that flies high

“I’m practically perfect in every way,” Mary Poppins sings to her two young charges, but she could be describing the Wa ...

9 years ago

Listen
 Alan Holmes (left) as an abbot and Robb Hutter as the Marquis de Sade in Luna Theater Company's production of 'Quills.' (Photo courtesy of Kate Raines/Plate 3 Photography)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: Spooking the Marquis de Sade and his ‘Quills’

What has Halloween done to the play “Quills,” the fictionalized account about the chief doctor of an asylum who orders an abb ...

9 years ago

 Brian Ratcliffe (left) and Keith Conallen in Theatre Exile's production of 'Red Speedo.' (Photo courtesy of Paola Nogueras)
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment

Review: ‘Red Speedo,’ white-hot lies

The difference between right and wrong doesn’t figure into the ways the characters think in “Red Speedo.” But what& ...

9 years ago

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