Reviews

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Page 69
Jabari Banks in Bel-Air. He wears a sideways baseball cap and a maroon school uniform blazer. He smiles joyfully.

Peacock presents Bel-Air

The Fresh Prince, reinvented
Starring UArts alum Jabari Banks, Peacock’s Bel-Air is a dramatic reimagining of the popular 90s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Blair Krassen reviews.
Blair Krassen

Blair Krassen

Reviews 4 minute read
A scene from the play. Curley is seen from the back as Laurey speaks to him. Jud watches dourly in the corner, by a gun rack

The Kimmel Cultural Campus presents Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!

A whole new darkness
The promoters of this revival of Oklahoma! promise it's like nothing you've ever seen, and they're right. Gail Obenreder reviews.
Gail Obenreder

Gail Obenreder

Reviews 4 minute read
A scene from the play. 4 actors joyfully share a microphone, karaoke-style. One holds a baby. They’re behind a yellow couch

Arden Theatre Company presents R. Eric Thomas’s Backing Track

Family play
In Backing Track, a world premiere at the Arden, R. Eric Thomas offers a warm, witty portrait of a multigenerational Black queer family. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 4 minute read
A scene from Other World. 3 fantastical video-game characters face a giant puppet scorpion in dramatic blue light and mist.

Delaware Theatre Company presents Hunter Bell’s Other World

A show for all worlds
Delaware Theatre Company’s world-premiere musical spans diverse digital and real-life communities with astounding visuals and sparkling songs. Helen Walsh reviews.
Helen Walsh

Helen Walsh

Reviews 3 minute read
Scene from the play. Banks stands warily opposite Close, seated at a desk in vest & tie. She wears a camo jacket & a backpack

Theatre Horizon presents James Ijames’s TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever

Rewriting the antebellum script
TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever, a regional premiere from James Ijames at Theatre Horizon, asks its characters, and its audience, to wrestle with the complicated concept of inheritance. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 4 minute read

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A nighttime photo of characters Tess and Rach in a Walmart parking lot, next to a shopping cart. Tess holds a camera.

Azuka Theatre presents Val Dunn’s Carroll County Fix

A hometown transformed
Val Dunn’s world-premiere play reckons with changes to Carroll County, Maryland, amidst the opioid epidemic and the suburbanization of once-outlying small towns. Jill Ivey reviews.
Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey

Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey

Reviews 3 minute read
A scene from the play. Jessie holds a box in what looks like a bedroom door, facing her mom, who wears a floral house dress

Isis Productions presents Marsha Norman’s ’Night, Mother

The long goodbye
Despite strong performances, Marsha Norman’s ’Night, Mother shows its age in a staging from Isis Productions. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
Cameron Kelsall

Cameron Kelsall

Reviews 3 minute read
A scene from the play. The ornate set is crammed with Victorian details. Peakes talks and gestures to Van Horn.

Walnut Street Theatre presents Bill Van Horn's Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Whatever remains is the truth
Following protests by a cohort of Philadelphia artists taking aim at the Walnut’s leadership, the theater produces a shlocky, self-indulgent, and sometimes cringeworthy adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Jill Ivey reviews.
Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey

Jillian Ashley Blair Ivey

Reviews 4 minute read
Singers King and Shammash spotlit on a dark stage. She crosses her arms on her chest and he stands behind, touching her hands

Lyric Fest presents Yiddishe Nightingale, A Short History of the American Yiddish Theater

The stars of Yiddish song
Lyric Fest’s presentation of a musical history of American Yiddish Theater makes compelling and poignant listening, especially as all eyes are on Ukraine. Wendy Rosenfield reviews.
Wendy Rosenfield

Wendy Rosenfield

Reviews 3 minute read
The book cover. A brown-and-white illustration of a screened door and doormat, with the title written on the doormat.

Dreadful Sorry: Essays on an American Nostalgia by Jennifer Niesslein

Chasing completeness
In Pennsylvania native Jennifer Niesslein’s deeply personal new essay collection, she grapples with the personal, political, and cultural myths of America today. Grace Kennedy reviews.
Grace Kennedy

Grace Kennedy

Reviews 5 minute read