Entries by Aaron Thomas
Thinking through Theatre and Performance by Maaike Bleeker, et al. (review)
Theatre Topics, 30.1 Opening section What can theatre help us to do? How can performance help us to think in new ways? What are the possibilities that theatre can open up? What can we learn from the performing body? How might theatre function as theory? Thinking Through Theatre and Performance, the first in an […]
The Routledge Companion to the Contemporary Musical
Chapter 16: The Pink Elephant in the Room Opening Section The day after the revival of Promises, Promises opened on April 25, 2010, Newsweek posted an article entitled “Straight Jacket” on its website that began with the following provocation: “The reviews for the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises were negative enough, even though most […]
Microdramas: Crucibles for Theater and Time by John H. Muse (review)
PAJ: Performing Arts Journal, 40.2 Opening section It seems appropriate that in our current moment – as we scroll through Instagram or watch brief videos on Snapchat – that a theatre scholar would seek meaning and profundity in short plays. After all, people’s attention spans are reportedly growing shorter and shorter, and more and […]
Sondheim and Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd
Part of The Fourth Wall series of books from Routledge From the Back Cover Sweeney Todd, the gruesome tale of a murderous barber and his pastry chef accomplice, is unquestionably strange subject matter for the musical theatre – but eight Tony awards and enormous successes on Broadway and the West End testify to its enduring […]
Imagined Theatres: Writing for a Theoretical Stage
5 pieces edited by Daniel Sack Dealing by W.B. Worthen – gloss by Aaron C. Thomas Disappearing Act by Fintan Walsh – gloss by Aaron C. Thomas A Happy Life by Aaron C. Thomas – gloss by Aaron C. Thomas Music for Charlie Morel by Aaron C. Thomas – gloss by Joseph Cermatori Remains […]
Making the Radical Palatable by Jacob Juntunen (review)
New Theatre Quarterly, 33.2 Opening section The argument of Jacob Juntunen’s Making the Radical Palatable is simple: that mainstream AIDS theatre—unlike the radical performances described by David Román in Acts of Intervention—was able to effect incremental change in the U.S. by diluting the radical politics of AIDS activism and aiming for ‘assimilation’ instead of […]