Stanford Friedman

United States

Freelance Writer at The Front Row Center

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Articles

The Front Row Center

2 weeks ago | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanGrace’s Diner, the setting for William Inge’s classic, slice of life drama, Bus Stop, serves homemade pies and cakes. But the customers and wait staff who find themselves stranded overnight at this Kansas eatery are hungry for much more than dessert. These unhappy folks come in eight flavors of loneliness and are served up with generous scoops of desperation and naivete.
The Front Row Center

Oct 16, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanVery few works in the English language can credibly be described as timeless, but none is more deserving of the term than Thornton Wilder’s 1938 lesson on life, Our Town. It is a play about many things, indeed it is a play about everything, but the movement of time itself is this Pulitzer-winning drama’s top concern, calling out our failure to appreciate life as it speeds by, and our stubborn inability to cope when the book of days inevitably slams shut.
The Front Row Center

Sep 30, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford Friedman McNeal, Ayad Akhtar’s new drama which is receiving a star-powered and strikingly staged premiere courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater, is the kind of play where little happens but much is discussed. You may not leave the theater teary-eyed but your brain will be bursting with ideas inspired by this meaty think piece.
The Front Row Center

Sep 27, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford Friedman“Then Trump became President.” If that bit of dialog from early on in Fatherland ties your stomach in knots, prepare to be fully triggered by play’s end. This true story and brutal reminder of recent events captures one family’s trauma when, in and around the January 6, 2021 attack of the U.S. Capitol, a father loses his way down a conspiratorial rabbit hole causing his loving teenage son to turn on him.
The Front Row Center

Sep 22, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanThe Irish Repertory Theatre sails into their 36th season on a slow boat. Making its American premiere, Nancy Harris’s 2019 drama, The Beacon, takes its time navigating the troubled waters stirred up by a foursome who come together on an island off the coast of West Cork only to realize they are better off apart.
The Front Row Center

Sep 4, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanIt is not every Off-Broadway musical that boasts a chorus of 12 real-life healthcare professionals. Then again, it is unlikely there has ever been a musical quite as concerned with antibiotic-resistant bacteria as Lifeline.
Cellino V. Barnes

Aug 5, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanA couple of guys taking jabs at each other despite their friendship has always been good for a laugh. The fraternity of such classic comedy duos runs the gamut from Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis to The Odd Couple to The Smothers Brothers to Cheech and Chong. Normally not included on the list, and for good reason, are the team of Ross Cellino and Steve Barnes. Two lawyers from Buffalo, they were not so much hilarious as they were litigious.
The Sabbath Girl: A New Musical

Aug 1, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanBack in 2020, the Penguin Rep Theatre, a 45-year-old non-profit based in Stony Point, NY, brought Cary Gitter’s romantic comedy, The Sabbath Girl, to the 59E59 Theaters for a three week run. Spurred on by Penguin’s artistic director, Joe Brancato, the play now boasts an impressive score and returns to the venue reincarnated as The Sabbath Girl: A New Musical.
On Beckett

Jul 11, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanThe ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, famously observed that, “No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it is not the same river and he is not the same man.” But judging from Bill Irwin’s masterful performance in On Beckett, Heraclitus was only half right. Irwin first high-stepped his way into the raging river of Samuel Beckett’s writings in 2017, at San Francisco’s Strand Theater, and has been touring and tinkering with this 90-minute presentation ever since.
From Here

Jul 1, 2024 | thefrontrowcenter.com | Stanford Friedman

By Stanford FriedmanWhen a musical is titled From Here, it is clear that the locale of the story is going to be crucial. That is certainly the case in writer/director Donald Rupe’s sincere if structurally shaky work, but even more essential is the concept of distance, in all its forms: physical, temporal and emotional, as well as that ever-tricky space between actor and audience. The production itself is 1,000 miles distant from where it began.