Bob Abelman covers theater and cultural arts for the Cleveland Jewish News. Follow Bob at Facebook.com/BobAbelman.3
Excerpts from "Murder, Center Stage"
The rough draft first paragraph of Gwen’s review of the musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” was typed out on her computer just before she left her near west side efficiency apartment for downtown Cleveland’s Hedley Theatre. It read: Read more
The opening night production of “Sweeney Todd” has been halted and I’ve been sitting in the sixth-row seating of the Hedley Theatre for about an hour now. After the gruesome murder that took place mid-production in front of sickened North Coast Theater board members and five hundred shocked … Read more
It’s late by the time my backstage interrogation by Detective Brandstätter ends. Read more
“When the musical number, ‘God, That’s Good!’ begins at the start of Act II,” says detective Brandstätter as we walk up the offstage ramp that leads to Sweeney’s onstage second-story barbershop and the scene of the crime, “This area is in darkness. Is that correct?” Read more
Excerpts from "All the World's a Stage Fright"
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Humble beginnings. There is no better way to describe the School of Film & Media Arts at Cleveland State University.
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With many people proceeding with caution as indoor entertainment venues reopen, the Mandel Jewish Community Center in Beachwood is following suit with regard to its 15th annual Cleveland Jewish Filmfest. Twenty-five international films will be showcased in person with limited capacity and a …
“It’s important to me that Tamar be remembered for her delightful personality and her aspiration to succeed,” said Anat Ariel, in a 2019 interview with The Jerusalem Post, five years after her 25-year-old daughter’s death. “I want her name to evoke values such as perseverance, determination,…
When the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival debuted in 2010, its 93 films were seen by 1,800 attendees in venues throughout the Cuyahoga County century village of Chagrin Falls. Last year, the event – which went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic – reached an audience of more than 37,000 fr…
At the start of 2020, the stage was literally set for a New York City audition reading of Mike Petrone’s “Caesar: The Musical” before an audience filled with potential backers and producers. A studio recording of the songs in this Broadway-bound passion project had also been created for dist…
How renowned is Neil Simon? He has been showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. In 1983, he became the only living playwright to have a Broadway theater named after him.
“All the World’s a Stage Fright: Misadventures of a Clandestine Critic,” written by Bob Abelman, the Cleveland Jewish News arts and entertainment critic, last week was named a finalist in the 2021 American Fiction Awards novella category. Awards were presented for titles published from 2019 …
From the start, none too fragile theatre in Akron has produced plays that offer the darker and more disturbing sides of the modern zeitgeist. Works like Neil LaBute’s “In a Forest, Dark and Deep,” Johnna Adams’ “Sans Merci,” and Matt Pelfrey’s “Pure Shock Value” take the stage rather than an…
A clear sign that the New York City theater scene is coming back to life after its March 2020 pandemic shutdown is the September 2021 world premiere of “A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet.” This show – the first new musical to debut Off-Broadway since theaters went dark – is the brainchild…
We’ve all had a difficult 15 months living under the shadow of COVID-19 – the health scares, the isolation, the heartbreaking personal and professional losses. And, of course, there has been the absence of live theater.
Founded in 2000, convergence-continuum’s core mission has been to “produce contemporary, cutting-edge plays that examine our current culture in innovative, environmental settings.”
In the 1990s, there were two blips on the nation’s pop culture radar that some of us are still recovering from: Boy bands and contemporary Christian music.
