Category Archives: Theater

By TOM CHESEK It's not uncommon for a stage troupe to throw some local kids in with a cast of more seasoned professionals whenever the script calls for a couple of young performers. The more hometown kids in the show,...

Actor-director-administrator-set decorator-artistic director Lori Renick readies the detail-intensive set of 'Blithe Spirit' for Saturday's opening at Monmouth Players. (Photos courtesy of Diana Moore) By TOM CHESEK It's a busy Monday evening at Middletown's Navesink Library, and Lori and Paul Renic ...

A review in today's Jersey section of the New York Times of the Two River Theater Co.'s 'Macbeth' takes note of the over-the-top spillage of blood. It's a production, writes reviewer Naomi Siegel, that "oozes, drips and squirts forth a...

Johnny Podres signs autographs at the Two River Theater in August. We thought some baseball-loving redbankgreen readers might like to see this photo of Johnny Podres, the great Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who died yesterday in Queensbury, N.Y. He was 75...

By TOM CHESEK It's the local, live-theater equivalent of a blockbuster movie opening. Illuminated by star power, ablaze with spectacular stage effects and drenched with enough hemoglobin to drown the lamps of Transylvania, "Macbeth" is coming to Red Bank. Shakespeare's...

By TOM CHESEK The spirits have been restless of late over at Two River Theater, first during October's psych-out thrill ride "The Charlatan's Seance," then in the massive preparations for their upcoming Grand Guignol take on Shakespeare's bloody and accursed...

By TOM CHESEK He was the first to play the title role in Spring Lake Theatre Company's annual production of the musical "Scrooge," and went on to don the nightcap for countless performances in Premier Theatre Company's equally long-running revival...

Or maybe they're brown. Let's just say the headshot at the left is not exactly the most trustworthy. But never mind that. Joe Piscopo, faux lounge lizard turned actual jazz singer, is returning to Red Bank, following a pair of...

First of all, this is not Radiohead redux. In case you missed the news, the British rock band last week released its newest album priced solely on what fans decide how much they'll pay to download it. Now, the Count...

They started lining up more than two hours before the box office opened at noon yesterday, and there were still people waiting in line at 5:30p. The occasion? The annual Columbus Day ticket sale at the Count Basie Theatre, where...

Star Ledger theater reviewer Peter Filichia finds the puppets that populate the 'Our Town' production at the Two River Theater "adorable" but distracting. In his review, in today's editions, Filichia calls TRT artistic director Aaron Posner's approach to Thornton Wilder's...

Even from the perspective of non-fans of the game, this weekend's baseball show at the Two River Theater looks genuinely fascinating. The program calls for a full and wide-ranging schedule of baseball-themed readings ('Casey at the Bat,' anyone?), movies, speeches...

Both the Count Basie Theatre and the Two River Theater Company were major beneficiaries of whopping state funding increases as part of an effort to "create parity" among arts organizations, according to today's Star-Ledger. The Basie's fiscal year 2008 grant...

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A play about a young woman's falling underwear helped arouse record interest in the Two River Theater in the season just ended. Bootstrapped by 'The Underpants,' comedian Steve Martin's racy farce, as well as receipts from the musical 'Ain't Misbehavin','...

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By LINDA G. RASTELLI First came the Disney Channel movie 'High School Musical' in January, 2006. Then the video and the soundtrack broke sales records, giving rise to a concert tour and an ice show. 'High School Musical 2,' the...

Theater critic Peter Filichia of the Star-Ledger is more tickled by the Two River Theater Co.'s production of 'The Underpants' than he is by some of the choices made by Steve Martin, who adapted the play from 'Die Hosen,' a...

In "The Underpants," Steve Martin's adaptation of a 97-year-old German comedy that began previews last night at the Two River Theater, the character of the king is a looming but largely unseen presence. The story concerns a woman who, in...

It's turning into a break-out-the-Champagne kind of week for downtown Red Bank. First came news last week that Tiffany & Co plans to open one of its high-end emporiums on Broad Street. Now there's a poll released Monday by Monmouth...