Philadelphia Theater Reviews

Review: PHILADELPHIA BALLET'S SPRING FESTIVAL at Red Rose Farm In Villanova
by Scott Serio - May 31, 2024

The annual Spring Festival has become an much-anticipated event for the Philadelphia Ballet and their patrons. Held for the fifth time, this year, at Board Chairman David F. Hoffman's Red Rose Farm the Villanova suburb of Philadelphia, the intimate, outdoor setting showcased three pieces by the ball...

Review: GISELLE at The Academy Of Music
by Scott Serio - March 01, 2024

Philadelphia Ballet's GISELLE at The Academy Of Music in Center City...

Review: BALLETX IN BRYN MAWR at Goodhart Hall
by Scott Serio - December 04, 2023

BalletX Takes Contemporary Ballet To The Philadelphia Main Line...

Review: A CHRISTMAS CAROL at People's Light Theatre Company
by Tony Oriente - December 02, 2023

A truly unique, original, and moving piece of theater brilliantly presented in time for the Holiday Season....

Review: COMPANY National Tour Comes to Philadelphia's Forrest Theatre
by Chloe Rabinowitz - November 30, 2023

Read BroadwayWorld's review of the National Tour of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company, currently playing at Philadelphia's Forrest Theatre....

Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at Walnut Street Theatre
by Tony Oriente - November 30, 2023

WIt’s time for a Broadway revival of this classic show, and this theatergoer believes this production is it! When a “Tale as old as time” is so richly and beautifully packaged in 2023, one can only melt into the lush and stellar production of  Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEASST currently playing at The...

Review: THE LIGHT at Theatre Exile
by G K Schatzman - February 10, 2023

Directed by J. Paul Nicholas and starring Abdul Sesay and Angela Bey, The Light centers on the hot-and-cold engagement night of two youngish Chicagoans as they wind up reliving their romantic pinnacles alongside their separate, secreted traumas around sexual assault. ...

Photos: Go Inside FORWARD MOTION at Perelman Theater
by Scott Serio - February 05, 2023

The New Works series for the Philadelphia Ballet brings Forward Motion to the stage with three new conceptualizations by highly respected choreographers. Check out our exclusive photos from the production here!...

Review: THE GLASS MENAGERIE Opens The Arden Theatre Company's 35th Anniversary Season
by Chloe Rabinowitz - October 13, 2022

The Arden Theatre Company's 35th Anniversary season opened with Tennessee Williams' heart-wrenching memory play, The Glass Menagerie, and is marking the Arden's first post-pandemic return to a full five-show lineup. Read BroadwayWorld's review of The Glass Menagerie here!...

Review: TRAVESTIES at Lantern Theater
by G K Schatzman - October 05, 2022

Tom Stoppard's 'Earnest'-inspired smartypants play 'Travesties' finishes its run on October 9th at the Lantern Theater....

Review: Reimagined EVITA 'High Flying, Adored' at Bucks County Playhouse
by Chloe Rabinowitz - September 26, 2022

Bucks County Playhouse's reimagined Evita, directed by Will Pomerantz, is one of the most creatively staged productions of the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit to come along in years. Evita, which chronicles the rise and fall of Eva Perón, shines a spotlight on the controversial icon whose life and death lit...

REVIEW: DEAR EVAN HANSEN Hits Philly Right in the Feels
by G K Schatzman - August 21, 2022

Dear Evan Hansen will pour your heart fit to overflow and then spend an hour eyedroppering it over the brim. The Tony-hoarding show has juggernaut bones and design. Despite less-than-lustrous vocal performance from greenhorn show star Anthony Norman, the touring cast does it earnest justice with sta...

BWW Review: INTO THE WOODS at Arden Theatre
by Tony Oriente - June 10, 2022

What did our critic think of INTO THE WOODS at Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia? A fresh and innovative take on the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine classical musical. The acting and vocal delivery from the ensemble cast let the James Lapine book shine through while giving the audience a lavis...

BWW Review: World Premiere of Seth Rozin's SETTLEMENTS Opens at InterAct Theatre Company
by Chloe Rabinowitz - April 08, 2022

There is no easy or simple way to discuss the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Seth Rozin’s world premiere play, Settlements, which opened last night at InterAct Theatre Company, centers on exactly that—not the conflict itself, but the discussion around it....

BWW Review: The National Tour of WAITRESS Comes to the Academy of Music
by Chloe Rabinowitz - March 30, 2022

The national tour of Waitress, featuring music and lyrics by Sara Bareilles, opened at the Kimmel Cultural Campus’ Academy of Music last night, where it is set to run through Sunday, April 3....

BWW Review: World Premiere of R. Eric Thomas' BACKING TRACK at Arden Theatre Company
by Chloe Rabinowitz - March 11, 2022

Arden Theatre Company, which returned to the stage this past January with a triumphant production of A Streetcar Named Desire, is back with the world premiere of R. Eric Thomas’ Backing Track....

BWW Review: The National Tour of OKLAHOMA! Opens at the Forrest Theatre
by Chloe Rabinowitz - March 10, 2022

The national tour of Daniel Fish’s reimagined Oklahoma!, now playing at the Forrest Theatre, is Oklahoma! like you’ve never seen it. Darker and sultrier than you ever imagined Rodgers & Hammerstein’s magnum opus could be, this production makes an almost 80-year-old musical feel not only modern, but ...

BWW Review: The National Tour of BEAUTIFUL: THE CAROLE KING MUSICAL Opens at the Academy of Music
by Chloe Rabinowitz - February 23, 2022

The jukebox musical is a genre of musical theatre that is not always easy to get right. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, which opened last night at the Kimmel Cultural Campus' Academy of Music, is an example of a jukebox musical done perfectly....

BWW Review: HADESTOWN Can't Get Much Hotter
by G K Schatzman - February 10, 2022

The Tony Award-winning Hadestown gets the audience on their feet on opening night at the Kimmel Cultural Campus' Academy of Music. Don't miss Broadway's deviously upbeat mythical musical tragedy, here through Feb. 20....

BWW Review: The Road to Hell Feels a Lot Like Heaven With HADESTOWN
by Chloe Rabinowitz - February 10, 2022

The underworld has never felt hotter. The first national tour of Hadestown, the eight-time Tony Award-winning musical by Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin, opened last night, Wednesday, February 9th at the Academy of Music on the Kimmel Cultural Campus and is set to run through Sunday, Febr...

Review: The Cure at Troy at Quintessence Theater
by G K Schatzman - February 06, 2022

A modest audience was drawn into the reeks and roars of a rare production of Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy on Saturday night around the intimate, runway-style stage at Quintessence Theater in Philadelphia, directed by Alexaner Burns. Actor Steven Anthony Wright leaving a definitive stamp on a cha...

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Warms Up in Philly on First Tour Stop
by G K Schatzman - January 30, 2022

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater heated up a subdued and snow-drenched Philly audience January 28 – 30 with an admirable, often stunning return to the stage at the Kimmel Cultural Campus’ Academy of Music, ending a long, pandemic-driven tour hiatus....

BWW Review: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Roars to Life at The Arden Theatre Company
by Chloe Rabinowitz - January 20, 2022

After a long two-year wait, the Arden Theatre Company has finally brought the curtain up on its highly anticipated production of Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' Originally slated for March 2020, the Arden's 'Streetcar' officially opened last night to a packed, masked, and vaxxed hous...

BWW Review: PHILADELPHIA BALLET PRESENTS THE NUTCRACKER at The Academy Of Music
by Scott Serio - December 11, 2021

Philadelphia Ballet Presents The Nutcracker at The Academy of Music in Center City. For the first time since COVID, the ballet returns to the Kimmel Campus...

BWW Review: ANASTASIA North American Tour Journeys to Philadelphia's Merriam Theater
by Chloe Rabinowitz - November 24, 2021

The North American Tour of Anastasia-the sweeping, alternate-history/fairytale musical based on the animated 1997 film-journeyed to Philadelphia's Merriam Theater last night. Anastasia features a book by theatre luminary Terrence McNally, and a score by the Tony Award -winning team of Stephen Flaher...