All stories by Andrea Simakis on BroadwayStars

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Cleveland Play House captures the look, fun of 'A Christmas Story' by Andrea Simakis

the star of this sugarplum of a Cleveland Play House production is the set by Robert Mark Morgan, built to approximate the nimbleness of film, the medium that first introduced America to lit…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM[SHARE]
Friday, December 6, 2013

Writer of 'Wicked' script talks about why the big Broadway hit is so 'Popular, ' magical by Andrea Simakis

When "Wicked" opened on Oct. 30, 2003, it starred little-known actresses Idina Menzel, as emerald-skinned outcast Elphaba, and Kristin Chenoweth as the helium-voiced, popular and r…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 03:44PM[SHARE]
Thursday, December 5, 2013

Tommy Tune is bottled joy in 'Tapes, Tunes and Tall Tales' at Nighttown by Andrea Simakis

With his genial affect, slender silhouette and genuine delight at working a crowd, Tommy Tune is bottled joy. (He glows a little too, his skin lightly toasted from the South Beach sun where …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 03:49PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 29, 2013

'A Christmas Story': An innovative new production comes to Cleveland Play House by Andrea Simakis

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of Bob Clark's 1983 cult holiday hit film, the Play House is telling an entirely new "Story," with a fresh cast, director and, most dramatically, a comple…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 08:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Cleveland Play House's Laura Kepley and PlayhouseSquare's Gina Vernaci share their holiday wish lists by Andrea Simakis

Laura Kepley, who has recently taken over as the ninth artistic director in the Play House's nearly 100 year history, is going to make Christmas shopping simple this year for her husband, th…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:47AM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 24, 2013

Legendary hoofer Tommy Tune brings his one-man show 'Taps, Tunes and Tall Tales' to Nighttown by Andrea Simakis

Tommy Tune will perform his cabaret act "Taps, Tunes and Tall Tales" for two nights only, Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 4 and 5, at Nighttown. (Event organizers say the Dec. 4 show …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 07:06AM[SHARE]
Thursday, November 14, 2013

Review: 'Once' retains heart, soul on the road if not big sound by Andrea Simakis

The music in "Once" is not canned or piped in; it doesn't come from an unseen orchestra behind the scenes or in a pit " it is urgent and immediate, made by every performer on the stage.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 10, 2013

Preview: 'Once,' a small show with big heart living large on stage by Andrea Simakis

While other Broadway musicals blare, "Once" glows. Minimalism is its trademark. The experience is not unlike being locked in an Irish pub for the night and joining in on a glorious…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:00AM[SHARE]
Saturday, November 9, 2013

Review: 'Venus in Fur' erotic fun without the squirm-inducing danger by Andrea Simakis

Play House artistic director Laura Kepley has chosen actors who can more than handle the demands of the material and are particularly good at the very funny stuff. That's good news for this …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, November 6, 2013

'It's Alive!' Ensemble Theatre's 'Frankenstein' crackles with life by Andrea Simakis

"Frankenstein," part of TheatreCLE, Ensemble's shadow season featuring short-run, experimental works, has a grinning, let's-throw-this-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks sensibility s…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Sunday, November 3, 2013

Preview: David Ives on his S&M-tinged 'Venus in Fur' a brainy, kinky comedy heating up Cleveland Play House by Andrea Simakis

David Ives wrote the screenplay for "Venus in Fur" with Roman Polanski, ensconced in the filmmaker's Swiss chalet in the Alps. Ives fondly recalls a scene in the garden, when Polanski came …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:52AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Dobama's 'Cockfight Play' savagely funny, but more feathers could fly by Andrea Simakis

In Mike Bartlett's savage and provocative comedy " the title of which is actually more provocative than we're letting on with "The Cockfight Play" " director Corey Atkins has his lovers stal…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Karamu Theatre's 'Cut Flowers' honest and ferociously funny by Andrea Simakis

The winning ensemble in Karamu Theatre's "Cut Flowers" delivers a fast, ferociously funny day-in-the life dramedy by playwright Gavin Lawrence that is sophisticated and low, down a…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 11:58AM[SHARE]
Friday, October 25, 2013

'Rodgers Without Hart or Hammerstein' a tribute to the lone legend by Andrea Simakis

That Richard Rodgers kept making beautiful music following the loss of not one but two of his creative partners sounds like the plot of a great musical " or at least a winning concert. Bill …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 01:05PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 15, 2013

'Insomnia' at Cleveland Public Theatre as fragmented as the woman at its center by Andrea Simakis

In "Insomnia," Ev, Evelyn and Zelda are aspects of the same woman struggling to re-unite into a healthy whole. But like the fragmented woman at its center, though the play struggle…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:06PM[SHARE]

'33 Variations' at the Beck Center for the Arts fascinating and flawed by Andrea Simakis

As Ludwig van Beethoven in Moises Kaufman's cerebral musical mystery "33 Variations," Dana Hart captures the single-mindedness and comic rudeness of a great artist obsessed.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 04:58PM[SHARE]
Friday, October 11, 2013

'Richard III' at Great Lakes Theater a stunning, breathtakingly smart production by Andrea Simakis

Set in today's world of sleek Armani-suited execs furiously tweeting, talking and texting, King Richard, Shakespeare's most popular and chatty villain (in the Bard's canon, only Hamlet has m…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 06:26PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 10, 2013

The life and legacy of playwright Romulus Linney celebrated at Oberlin College by Andrea Simakis

"I went to a boarding school in Massachusetts for high school and I can remember calling him not only from there but also from Brown and also when I was at Juilliard and saying 'I don't…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 02:27PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Ensemble Theatre's 'Animals Out of Paper' engrossing, with a few wrinkles by Andrea Simakis

At first, Rajiv Joseph's oddball tale seems too thematically obvious. But soon, as the characters deepen and their relationships grow more complicated, like the pattern for that mesh sleeve,…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 8, 2013

'Sweeney Todd' at Great Lakes Theater a bloody spectacular spectacle by Andrea Simakis

In director Victoria Bussert's hands, "Sweeney Todd" has both a winking, pop-culture sensibility and the dark, discomfiting tinge of true madness. It's not an easy line to walk, bu…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 12:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 3, 2013

'Sleeping Beauty' creator Matthew Bourne talks fairies, vampires and naughty puppets with Cleveland crowd by Andrea Simakis

Backstage at the Place Theatre after Tuesday's performance of "Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty," his sensual, sumptuous, deeply moving and unexpectedly witty reimagining of Peter …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 02:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 26, 2013

Choreographer Matthew Bourne sinks his teeth into a Gothic revamp of 'Sleeping Beauty,' set to open in Cleveland by Andrea Simakis

When celebrated British choreographer Matthew Bourne decided to tackle "Sleeping Beauty," his third Tchaikovsky ballet, he decided to make the 100-year span that the princess sleep…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 02:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 25, 2013

'She Loves Me' at Beck Center for the Arts an irresistible romantic romp by Andrea Simakis

Why don't regional theaters produce "She Loves Me" more often? Say, around the winter holidays? After all, the penultimate, frantic, antic number -- staged in Maraczek's Parfumerie, the epic…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 24, 2013

'Woody Sez' brings glorious, unplugged passion to Cleveland Play House by Andrea Simakis

Too many musical biographies cash in on an icon's songbook without the hard, messy work of having to examine a life and produce a structured, meaningful story. One of the best things about '…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, September 23, 2013

Laura Kepley named ninth artistic director of the Cleveland Play House by Andrea Simakis

Laura Kepley, who took over the reins of the Cleveland Play House as interim artistic director in May, has been named the ninth artistic director of the 98-year-old cultural institution.

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 10:46AM[SHARE]
Saturday, September 21, 2013

Fall theater preview 2013: Welcome to a season of murder, mayhem and merriment by Andrea Simakis

Of course there are lighter offerings in Cleveland's 2013-14 theater season. But it's blood-red that rules, from "Sweeney Todd" and "Deathtrap" to a giddily Gothic versio…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]

KeyBank Broadway Series brings lo-fi lovers and Gothic romance to PlayhouseSquare: Fall theater preview 2013 by Andrea Simakis

Get ready to go Goth, as PlayhouseSquare's KeyBank Broadway Series opens with a Victorian vampire take on "Sleeping Beauty" from British choreographer Matthew Bourne and continues …

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]

Cleveland Play House brings an American folk hero to life in 'Woody Sez': Fall theater preview 2013 by Andrea Simakis

The Cleveland Play House unveils an ambitious season that ranges from folk legend Woody Guthrie to tap legend Maurice Hines, and from sentimental favorite "A Christmas Story" to th…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]

Great Lakes Theater launches its season with two bloody good shows: Fall theater preview 2013 by Andrea Simakis

Great Lakes Theater isn't afraid of the dark this season, as properties master Terry Martin prepares his special "blood-delivery system" to pump gallons of the red stuff for Stephe…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]

Broadway star Rebecca Pitcher opens the Beck Center for the Arts' season in 'She Loves Me': Fall theater preview 2013 by Andrea Simakis

The Beck Center for the Arts will open its new season with a show artistic director Scott Spence calls the "all-time perfect musical," "She Loves Me." In the lead role wi…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]

Karamu Theatre brings the sounds of Detroit, Memphis and Philly to Cleveland with 'My Hometown': Fall theater preview 2013 by Andrea Simakis

The sounds of classic rhythm and blues will shake Karamu Theatre for Lee Summers' "From My Hometown," which opens a 2013-14 season that includes a new holiday show and a reprise of…

SOURCE: Cleveland.com at 09:00AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off