Category Archives: Theater

It’s Theater Week of sorts in Red Bank oRBit! It just sort of works out that way, as the coming days see the openings of no fewer than five new productions in the area — all of them worth checking...

Some say the root problem is parking, while others say it's an imbalance in the store mix in favor of high-end goods and services. But whatever they identify as the cause of Red Bank's economic woes, downtown merchants agree that...

The dean of NJ stage critics — the Star-Ledger's Peter Filichia — has seen the future of regional theater, and her name is Isabel Wallace. As reported in today's Red Bank oRBit , the 9-year old fourth-grader from Little Silver...

She writes, she directs, she sings: Suzanne Sweeney leads her actors in warm-up vocal exercises before a recent rehearsal for this weekend's show. By LAURA KOSS Sitting alone in an otherwise empty auditorium, Suzanne Sweeney watches from the fourth row...

We may be on the verge of spring, but at the Two River Theater Company, winter's got one more hand to play. Today's edition of oRBit has the details on Melissa Arctic, the springtime musical adapted from Shakespeare's classic The...

Phoebe Ryan's much-anticipated — at least in the hallways of Red Bank Regional High, where she's a senior — pass through the American Idol machinery may not have proved as Tivo-worthy as her admirers wished. The 17-year-old Rumson resident's Idol...

Today's Red Bank oRBit has a tantalizing peek behind the curtain at 'Mary's Wedding,' the new play that you've no doubt seen advertised on posters and flyers all over town but had never heard of. The Two River Theater Company...

Following previews, 'ReEntry' is now fully underway at at Red Bank’s Two River Theater, and today's Red Bank oRBit salutes it with an admiring review. The play, by Emily Ackerman and KJ Sanchez, weighs the costs of war through the...

One of the most powerful pieces of theater to come along in a while hits the main stage of the Two River Theater this week. Called 'ReEntry,' it's a play gleaned from hundreds of hours of interviews with returning combat...

Bruce Springsteen returned to the Count Basie Theatre last night for an unbilled appearance at the venue he helped refurbish last year. That presumably multiplied the local-boy-makes-superstardom megawattage already on the stage in the t-shirted form of Jon Bon Jovi,...

The Two River Theater Co. brings a children's favorite, 'A Year with Frog and Toad,' to life starting this week for a run through the holiday-season. A family-oriented production with an engaging scene set on Christmas Eve, the musical comes...

Getting an early jump on a packed calendar of weekend events, today's edition of Red Bank oRBit brings you these holiday season nuggets: • A steaming slab 'o Meat Loaf • Tree lightings here and there in our corner of...

To be sure, his annual arrival on the cultural scene is as reliable as the post-Thanksgiving markdown. But rarely have we seen old Ebenezer Scrooge quite so ubiquitous. The next few days will see not one, not two, but three...

We Are Scientists, just one offering on a busy calendar of entertainment options this weekend. An entertainment cornucopia disgorges its goods this weekend, and Red Bank oRBit has the details on what's happening where. Among the offerings: • Rasputina, a...

In conjunction with tonight's reopening of the Count Basie Theatre after four months in mothballs, today's edition of Red Bank oRBit contains a two-fer: • We've got an interview with a Mark Eaton, a 15-year Capitol Steps veteran (and former...

Contractor Lee Babitt found he wanted to make a mark when he turned 50 — and the Basie fit the bill. Lee Babitt tells the story of a woman walking past the Count Basie Theatre three Sundays ago trying to...

The aisle stanchion on row U, left; a view of the hall from the balcony, right. (Photos by Jim Willis) After four months in dry dock, it's back to the high seas of entertainment for the Count Basie Theatre Thursday...

In Chicago, they sexed it up from the original script. In Poland, they added a scene in which the husband beats his wife, apparently thinking that's what the audience would demand. In Long Branch, though, NJ Rep shoots for a...

'The Laramie Project' is back in Monmouth County — minus, so far, any hint of the outrage that made it a hot topic last year in Ocean Township. That's when the high school principal and the district superintendent tried putting...

Almost totally obscured by scaffolding all summer, the view from the BasieCam this morning reveals a made-over performance space as it nears completion. (Click to enlarge) Taking a major step in its against-the-clock interior renovation project, workers at the Count...