#dan olmstead

Red — Walnut Independence Studio on 3

Just as Sweeney Todd instructs Anthony Hope about the various shades of blonde hair, the painter, Mark Rothko, lectures his assistant, named Ken but never addressed as such, about the multiple properties of the color red.

There’s crimson and scarlet and ruby. There’s blends towards orange such as rust and fire-engine red. There’s gradations towards purple like maroon and magenta. There’s darker…

Harvey — Walnut Street Theatre

Harvey, the towering — 6’2″…and a half — invisible rabbit in Mary Chase’s durable 1944 play, is a survivor. He outlasts Veta Louise Simmons’s plot to have him exorcised from the otherwise comfortable Midwest home she shares with her brother and daughter. He overcomes the doubt and ridicule heaped on people who claim to be able to see him. He cheers yearning soul after yearning soul in series for…

High Society — Walnut Street Theatre

The Walnut Street Theatre production of “High Society” is a curiosity in two distinct and separate ways, one having to do with its performances, the other regarding Arthur Kopit’s unnecessary rearranging and cheapening of the show’s source, Philip Barry’s “The Philadelphia Story.”

Secondary characters played by Jenny Lee Stern, Alexis Gwynn, Dan Schiff, and Grace Gonglewski far outshine the leads…