Barbara Cook celebrates Sondheim and others
The happy inspiration for Barbara Cook: Mostly Sondheim is to combine a representative selection from the Sondheim canon with songs that the master composer-lyricist wishes he had written.
( By Desmond Ryan, INQUIRER THEATER CRITIC, 10/03/2002 10:28 AM EDT)

Theater Review | Wrong times for 'Same Time'
In the quarter-century span covered by Bernard Slade's Same Time, Next Year, two lovers grow old before our eyes. So, unfortunately, does the play.
( By Desmond Ryan, Inquirer Theater Critic, 10/02/2002 12:51 PM EDT)

Putting words to songs instead of lawsuits
Most lawyers couldn't come up with a rhyme if you spotted them "moon" and "June." So when young and aspiring songwriter David Zippel decided to go to Harvard Law School, it seemed like a bizarre choice.
( By Desmond Ryan, Inquirer Theater Critic, 09/18/2002 03:19 PM EDT)

'Loot' gets a lively revival
If there were such a thing as a moral bankruptcy court, its judge would throw the book at every character in Joe Orton's Loot. Indeed - as befits a piece in which a corpse occupies a prominent part of the proceedings - the protagonists in this corrosive black comedy are ethically embalmed. If they seem heartlessly cruel and sometimes utterly mad, they are in perfect tune with Orton's unsparing vision of a cruel, mad world.
( By Desmond Ryan, INQUIRER THEATER CRITIC, 09/17/2002 03:32 PM EDT)

Broadway: Musicals, revivals and P. Newman
After a season of gradual recovery that confounded the doomsayers, Broadway has every hope of continuing its rebound this fall with shows that aren't quite as conservative as they seem at first glance.
( By Desmond Ryan, INQUIRER THEATER CRITIC, 09/15/2002 10:40 AM EDT)

Video Choices | A master of musicals, remastered for DVD
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of composer Richard Rodgers. There have been several centennial tributes in the theater (Flower Drum Song wil open on Broadway next month), and 20th Century Fox has joined in the celebration with a handsome boxed set containing DVD remasterings of six Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals.
( By Desmond Ryan, Inquirer Columnist, 09/14/2002 10:11 AM EDT)

'Two Gentlemen' plays it straight; 'Tempest,' too light
In the next couple of weeks, Shakespeare lovers will have an opportunity that comes along about as often as Tiger Woods shoots a round of 81: the chance to enjoy concurrent productions of the first and last plays in the canon.
( By Desmond Ryan, INQUIRER MOVIE CRITIC, 07/23/2002 11:19 AM EDT)

Video Choices | Sampling Frankenheimer at his best
Martin Scorsese once defined the plight of the archetypal film noir protagonist as this: "Whichever way you turn, fate puts out a foot to trip you up."
( By Desmond Ryan, Inquirer Staff Writer, 07/20/2002 01:43 PM EDT)