In that initial engagement, "Mad Forest" had rough edges, but it was riveting political theater, with a firsthand sense that the events were still happening as the audience watched.

There is riveting political theater taking place on the sixth floor of the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse.

No wonder this trial has been riveting theater for courtroom regulars like Manfred Schübel.

But, in spite of a few moments of genuine wit and a resonantly ambiguous final scene, it does not make for riveting theater.

Granted, a character lying still and speaking for two hours from under the covers might not strike many people - with the exception of Samuel Beckett perhaps - as riveting theater.

Whether you're bidding or not, some auctions make for riveting theater.

Others marveled at the riveting theater of it all, saying Mr. McGreevey's short speech would join other watershed televised moments in political history.

THANKS to a star-quality cast, the Enron wreck has been riveting theater.

The debate, the first ever for the Institutional Revolutionary Party, known as the PRI, became the second piece of riveting political theater in days.

The Washington Post recently referred to Saint Anselm College as "the Benedictine college with a box seat on America's most riveting political theater".