Archives for: " 2011"
Review: Close Up Sapce
Dec 23rd
David Hyde Pierce somehow always manages to project a vaguely uncomfortable, awkward quality in his characters. It feels totally appropriate for Close Up Space, the uncomfortable, awkward new comedy being presented by the Manhattan Theatre Club. This ove… more »
Review: Farm Boy
Dec 22nd
In what surely must be purely coincidental timing, Farm Boy has arrived for a holiday engagement at 59E59 Theaters. Michael Morpungo’s “sequel” to his War Horse has opened just as Steven Spielberg’s big-budget film adaptation hits theaters, and while the… more »
Review: Misterman
Dec 20th
The cavernous St. Ann’s Warehouse provides the perfect theatrical environment for Misterman, Irish playwright Enda Walsh’s one-person play starring Cillian Murphy in his U.S. stage debut. The actor--best known on our shores for his intense turns in such… more »
Review: Elective Affinities
Dec 16th
Good luck scoring an invitation to the most exclusive social reception in town. It’s being held at the palatial and luxurious Fifth Avenue townhouse belonging to the very wealthy Mrs. Alice Hauptmann. There you will be treated to tea, finger sandwiches,… more »
Review: Lysistrata Jones
Dec 15th
The near demise of commercial off-Broadway has resulted in a plethora of unsuitable Broadway productions of tiny shows that look awfully wan in big theaters. The latest example is Lysistrata Jones, originally presented by the enterprising Transport Group… more »
Review: On a Clear Day You Can See Forever
Dec 12th
In the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, we learn that the central character experienced a past life and suffered an untimely end, only to be reborn in a new incarnation. Such is the case, too, with this 1965 musical by Burton Lane (music) and… more »
Review: Stick Fly
Dec 9th
It’s a long weekend’s journey into night at Stick Fly, Lydia R. Diamond’s overstuffed play about an African-American family’s tumultuous reunion at their summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. Featuring an ungainly mixture of social, racial and economic comme… more »
Review: Once
Dec 7th
When the indie film musical Once was released five years ago, it became a critical and box-office sensation. This touching tale of the relationship between a Dublin Irish street musician and the Czech émigré who helps him find his musical voice had a ref… more »
Review: The Cherry Orchard
Dec 6th
The stifling languorousness that so often afflicts contemporary productions of Chekhov is thankfully nowhere in sight in this Classic Stage Company’s revival of The Cherry Orchard. Directed by Andrei Belgrader and featuring a stellar cast including Diann… more »
Review: Bonnie & Clyde
Dec 2nd
One might think that true-life, murderous outlaws wouldn’t exactly be a likely choice for musical treatment, but then again composer Frank Wildhorn has already put songs in the mouths of such characters as Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So it comes… more »
Review: Radio City Christmas Spectacular
Nov 25th
There’s a chill in the air. The tourists are packing the streets. And the Christmas decorations are blanketing the stores. It can only mean one thing. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is once again filling the halls of the venerable theater with thro… more »
Review: An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin
Nov 22nd
There’s a lot of love being expressed at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Not only by the audience towards Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, the veteran musical stars who have been performing on New York stages for more than three decades each. But also betwe… more »
Review: Seminar
Nov 21st
In the opening minutes of Theresa Rebeck’s new play, four young students nervously await the arrival of a famous novelist who they’ve hired to conduct a series of private seminars on writing. That we know he’s played by Alan Rickman is an immediate clue… more »
Review: Private Lives
Nov 18th
It’s not surprising that Noel Coward’s Private Lives is so often produced on Broadway. This delicious 1930 comedy, which has been seen here no less than four times in the last three decades, offers absolutely delicious roles for its star players, combini… more »
Review: Burning
Nov 15th
Thomas Bradshaw’s new play Burning is playing at the New Group’s theater on 42nd Street, but it would have been right at home on the old 42nd Street as well. This sprawling, ambitious tale set in the worlds of art and theater features enough graphic sexu… more »
Review: Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway
Nov 11th
There’s a mass seduction going on nightly at the Broadhurst Theatre. In his one-man show Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, the Aussie performer has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. It’s a charm explosion, the sort of dazzling exhibition tha… more »
Review: Godspell
Nov 8th
Just in case you didn’t you didn’t get your hippy-dippy fix with the recent revival of Hair, there’s now the 40th anniversary production of Godspell to help you get your groove on. Stephen Schwartz’s 1971 musical, conceived and originally directed by Joh… more »
Review: Sons of the Prophet
Nov 7th
Santino Fontana continues to emerge as one of the great talents of the New York stage in Sons of the Prophet, the latest confident from Stephen Karam. As some might remember, it was another Karam work, Speech and Debate, that inaugurated the Roundabout U… more »
Review: Asuncion
Nov 3rd
Jesse Eisenberg certainly hasn’t written an attractive part for himself in his debuting playwriting effort, now being presented by the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. In his dark comedy Asuncion, the Oscar-nominated star of The Social Network plays Edga… more »
Review: We Live Here
Nov 3rd
I don’t envy actress-turned-emerging-playwright Zoe Kazan; it’s hard to write a family play that steers clear of the usual tropes of long-simmering resentment and buried history. Her second work, We Live Here, arrives at Manhattan Theatre Club’s City Cen… more »
Review: Chinglish
Oct 28th
Miscommunication—of the linguistic, cultural and relationship kind—is the subject of David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish. Receiving its Broadway premiere after an acclaimed run earlier this year at Chicago’s Goodman Theater, this witty new comedy by the author… more »
Review: Relatively Speaking
Oct 21st
Relatively Speaking, the new evening of comic one-acts by Woody Allen, Elaine May and Ethan Coen, has just opened on Broadway, and all I can say is…oy! That this level of writing talent--not to mention an estimable cast of many comedic pros--could produc… more »
Review: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs
Oct 18th
The recent death of Steve Jobs provides a fascinating conundrum for Mike Daisey, the writer/performer of the solo piece The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. On the one hand, it provides an added level of discomfort, since the monologue is not exactly com… more »
Review: The Mountaintop
Oct 14th
One of history’s greatest ironies is that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his soaring “I’ve have been to the mountaintop” speech on the very night before his death. Now, emerging playwright Katori Hall has imagined the events of that final evening at t… more »
Review: The Lyons
Oct 12th
Contemporary playwrights seem forever bent on proving Tolstoy’s line that “all families are unhappy in their own way.” The latest example is Nicky Silvers, who has mined such territory to fruitful comic effect in plays like Raised in Captivity, The Food… more »
Review: Man and Boy
Oct 10th
Terence Rattigan’s Man and Boy was written in the 1960s and is set in the 1930s, but it would unfortunately resonate in any decade. This portrait of a desperate business tycoon was inspired by an obscure, real-life figure. But modern audiences may be for… more »
Review: The Submission
Sep 30th
Playwright Jeff Talbott clearly knows the territory that he explores in The Submission. Having had his previous efforts presented at numerous theater festivals, he’s well in a position to lend verisimilitude to this darkly satirical portrait of a gay mal… more »
Review: The Bald Soprano
Sep 28th
With some exceptions, absurdism doesn’t age particularly well. The impact of what was shocking and avant-garde decades ago is reduced by the endless mediocre imitations that have followed throughout the years. Such is the case with The Bald Soprano, Euge… more »
The Swedish Invasion: An Interview with Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Sep 27th
Last season, the Play Company’s production of <i>Invasion!</i> at Soho Rep left made quite an impact, garnering an OBIE award for playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri, in his debut as a playwright. This season, <i>Invasion!</i> returns… more »
Review: The Select (The Sun Also Rises)
Sep 15th
Try as I might, I find it impossible to appreciate the Elevator Repair Service’s aesthetic. This enterprising downtown troupe has made a significant name for themselves in recent years with their theatrical adaptations of classic Americans novels, of whi… more »
Review: Follies
Sep 13th
It’s been a mere ten years since the last Broadway incarnation of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies, but that ill-conceived version was lamentable enough to warrant another revival sooner than later. Thankfully, the Kennedy Center production h… more »
Review: Bluebird
Aug 23rd
It seems almost criminal to take one of the English speaking theater’s finest classical actors, have him appear in a play in a tiny basement theater, and then make the run so limited that it sells out virtually immediately. But such is the case with the… more »
Review: Olive and the Bitter Herbs
Aug 17th
If Charles Busch’s artistic to the late Charles Ludlam was made evident by such parodies as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Red Scare on Sunset, then his latest effort reveals the influence of another comedic master, Neil Simon. Like his hit Broadway play… more »
Review: Rent
Aug 15th
Anyone who saw Rent in its original incarnation at the New York Theatre Workshop will no doubt be discomfited to see that it has now become a theatrical brand. Just three years after it closed on Broadway after a twelve-- year run, it has returned in a f… more »
Review: Death Takes a Holiday
Jul 22nd
It’s not easy to kill Death Takes a Holiday. This old chestnut about the Grim Reaper taking a much needed vacation was a Broadway hit way back in the 1920s, spawned a successful 1934 movie adaptation starring Fredric March, and was the basis for the much… more »
Review: Master Class
Jul 8th
Tyne Daly has big shoes to fill in Terrence McNally’s Master Class. Not just those of her character, the legendary opera star Maria Callas, but also such esteemed forerunners in the role as Zoe Caldwell and Patti LuPone, who delivered mesmerizing turns a… more »
Review: Side Effects
Jun 21st
The latest in a seemingly endless series of plays about crumbling marriages, Michael Weller’s Side Effects never manages to transcend its formulaic aspects. This companion piece to the playwright’s Fifty Words-- presented a few seasons back at the same t… more »
Review: Drama At Inish at the Shaw Festival
Jun 17th
A quick visit to the Shaw Festival at picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario yielded an unexpected delight in the form of Drama at Inish. This 1933 little-known work by Irish playwright Lennox Robinson is receiving an endearing revival courtesy of the… more »
Review: Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark
Jun 15th
After several delayed openings, endless technical problems and myriad cast injuries, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has finally landed on Broadway, officially at least. The much maligned, reportedly $70 million musical about the popular comic book web-sli… more »
Review: One Arm
Jun 13th
Tennessee Williams apparently had a bottomless drawer filled with forgotten plays and scripts, so it’s no surprise that in recent years they have begun to pop up with regularity. The latest example is Moises Kaufman’s adaptation of One Arm. Based on a 19… more »
Review: The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
Jun 9th
A fascinating footnote to pop music history is explored to probing effect in the new musical The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World. Music geeks will recall that the band was composed of three teen-age girls who--at the urging of their Mama Rose-style stage… more »
Review: Through a Glass Darkly
Jun 7th
Through a Glass Darkly, the theatrical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1961 film being presented by the Atlantic Theater Company, demonstrates how much his work depended on the brilliant use of imagery. This claustrophobic portrait of a young woman succum… more »
Review: Lysistrata Jones
Jun 6th
The award-winning Transport Group has lately been living up to its name, presenting site-specific revival of such works as The Boys in the Band and Hello Again in lofts in Chelsea and Soho respectively. Their latest production, Lysistrata Jones, makes ev… more »
Review: The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman
Jun 3rd
The Best is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman, the new musical revue inspired by the famed composer of such Broadway hits as Sweet Charity, Barnum, City of Angels and many others, raises inevitable questions. What to leave in? What to leave out? Do yo… more »
Reviews: Knickerbocker & Cradle and All
May 26th
Two new Off-Broadway comedies demonstrate that the current crop of playwrights is clearly grappling with parenthood issues. Both Jonathan Marc Sherman’s Knickerbocker and Daniel Goldfarb’s Cradle and All deal with impending, possible and actual child-rea… more »
Review: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark
May 23rd
Lynn Nottage’s new comedy couldn’t be more different from her last effort, the Pulitzer Prize winning, Rwanda-set Ruined. A satirical portrait of the subservient roles assigned to black performers in 1930s Hollywood--and decades afterwards, for that matt… more »
Review: A Minister's Wife
May 20th
A little show called My Fair Lady provides ample demonstration that the works of George Bernard Shaw are certainly ripe for musical treatment. But the latest attempt, A Minister’s Wife, illustrates the pitfalls as well. This chamber musical adaptation of… more »
Review: King Lear
May 10th
Most actors play King Lear as an imperial monarch, the better to contrast with the character’s subsequent descent into madness. But in the new production of the play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, veteran British actor Derek Jacobi (of I, Claudius fam… more »
Review: Julia
May 9th
That life doesn’t always offer the opportunity to neatly right past wrongs is a promising theme for a drama. Too bad, then, that Julia squanders it.
The central character is Lou, a clearly ill man in his seventies who wanders into a rundown coffe… more »
Review: The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures
May 6th
If the title of Tony Kushner’s new play premiere puts you off, wait until you actually sit through it. The overlong and overstuffed The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures is typically Kushnerian in its… more »
Review: The School for Lies
May 4th
Playwright David Ives has clearly had a ball adapting Moliere for his screwball verse comedy The School for Lies, and his enjoyment is infectious. Retaining the basic characters, situations and 17th century setting of The Misanthrope, this comedy being p… more »
Review: The People in the Picture
Apr 29th
A musical whose themes encompass the Holocaust and Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t exactly qualify as a feel good experience. That’s perfectly fine—there’s plenty of room on the boards for serious musicals these days. But the Roundabout’s The People in the P… more »
Review: The Normal Heart
Apr 28th
It may be a time capsule of a play, but the sterling new Broadway revival of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart reveals that it has lost none of its urgency or power. A semi-fictionalized account of the beginning of the AIDS crisis and the efforts of a grou… more »
Review: Baby It's You!
Apr 28th
You can’t say that the new musical Baby It’s You! is shy about its intentions. In the opening moments of this show about the mega-selling ‘60s girl group The Shirelles, an image of a jukebox is projected. Clearly this new effort conceived by Floyd Mutrux… more »
Review: The House of Blue Leaves
Apr 26th
In his revelatory production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, director David Cromer unearthed the darkness underlying a play that is usually presented as a paean to a more innocent America. He applies the same approach to the new Broadway revival of John G… more »
Review: Born Yesterday
Apr 25th
The title of Garson Kanin’s play proves all too accurate with the new Broadway revival of Born Yesterday. This comedy about a crooked businessman in cahoots with corrupt politicians may have been written in 1946, but it seems timelier than ever in this e… more »
Review: Jerusalem
Apr 22nd
Considering his brilliant comic turn earlier this season in the revival of La Bete and now his titanic performance in Jez Butterworth’s new play Jerusalem at the same theater, we might as well engrave actor Mark Rylance’s Tony Award right now. We also mi… more »
Review: Sister Act
Apr 21st
There’s fun, if not musical comedy heaven, to be found in Sister Act, the new Broadway musical adaptation of the hit 1992 movie starring Whoopi Goldberg. Featuring plenty of talent both on and off stage, the show boasts some terrific performances, an eng… more »
Review: High
Apr 20th
That former sexpot Kathleen Turner, who so memorably raised temperatures in such films as Body Heat and Crimes of Passion, has become a formidable presence in middle age. Her body thickened and her voice now a husky baritone rasp, the actress cuts a stri… more »
Review: Sleep No More
Apr 19th
Attention, theatergoers. Sitting in a seat and watching a show is so yesterday.
The truth of that statement is well demonstrated by Sleep No More, the wonderfully immersive theatrical experience—presented, fittingly, by the EMURSIVE production compa… more »
Review: Wonderland
Apr 18th
Down the rabbit hole indeed.
Wonderland is the sort of horrifically bad Broadway musical that doesn’t come along too often these days. Based on-- you guessed it—Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this new work by Frank Wildhorn isn’t numbingly ponder… more »
Review: War Horse
Apr 15th
Stage wonders of the most magisterial sort are delivered in War Horse, the hit London production that has been remounted by the Lincoln Center Theater. This epic drama about the bond between a British boy and his horse combines dazzling stagecraft with d… more »
Review: The Motherf**ker With the Hat
Apr 12th
The Motherfu**ker With the Hat has at least two things going for it right off the bat. The first is that marvelously profane--albeit generally unprintable--title. The second is the coup of having landed comedian Chris Rock for his Broadway debut in this… more »
Review: Charlie Sheen's Violent Torpedoes of Truth at Radio City Music Hall
Apr 12th
Charlie Sheen, he of the “Tiger DNA” and “Adonis Blood,” returned to Radio City Music Hall Sunday night as part of his Violent Torpedoes of Truth tour that has garnered endless media fascination. Unlike his first show at the venue on Friday night, which… more »
Review: Catch Me If You Can
Apr 11th
There’s so much that works about Catch Me if You Can that it’s easy to overlook what doesn’t. This adaptation of the 2002 Steven Spielberg film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks boasts the sort of old-fashioned aspects so many contemporary musical… more »
Review: Company
Apr 8th
The most surprising thing about the New York Philharmonic’s star-studded concert production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company is how unmusical it is. Sure, the orchestra sounds great under the assured conducting of the venerable Paul Gemignani. And it’s a pl… more »
Review: Anything Goes
Apr 8th
As Reno Sweeney, Sutton Foster may not have the powerhouse belt of Ethel Merman or the roof-shaking authority of Patti LuPone. But she’s got one thing that her predecessors didn’t. She’s got legs.
When this dazzling musical comedy performer aims tho… more »
Review: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
Apr 4th
The title character of the new play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is pretty pissed off. His country is in ruins, with death and destruction all around him. He’s still locked up in a dilapidated zoo. And when he follows his true nature by chomping on a… more »
Review: The Book of Mormon
Apr 1st
Contrary to what you may have heard, The Book of Mormon is not the second coming.
But it is a raucously entertaining and exhilarating musical comedy that is impossible to resist. Written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone along with R… more »
Review: La Cage aux Folles with Harvery Fierstein and Christopher Sieber
Mar 31st
Harvey Fierstein has finally claimed the part he was born to play in the newly cast revival of La Cage Aux Folles. The gravel-voiced performer has now assumed the role of Albin--the flamboyant drag queen performer who goes under the stage name Zaza--in t… more »
Review: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Mar 28th
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying? It’s easy. Simply cast Daniel Radcliffe in the lead of a popular vintage Broadway musical, and sit back and watch his multitude of young Harry Potter fans throw money at the box-office.
Fortunately,… more »
Review: Hello Again
Mar 25th
At the rate the Transport Group is going, there won’t be any loft spaces left in Manhattan. The enterprising theater company, who staged a well-received revival of The Boys in the Band last season in a Chelsea loft apartment, repeats the gimmick with the… more »
Review: John Leguizamo's Ghetto Klown
Mar 23rd
Middle age has done little to dim the energy of John Leguizamo, who begins his latest solo show Ghetto Klown by frenziedly dancing to James Brown’s “Sex Machine.” This entertaining autobiographical piece by the actor/writer--following in the heels of suc… more »
Review: Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical
Mar 22nd
There have been reports about Priscilla Queen of the Desert having been made more family-friendly for Broadway. But it’s hard to imagine that this musical, arriving here after successful runs in Australia and London, could have been any bawdier. For all… more »
Review: Arcadia
Mar 18th
Watching Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is bound to make you feel smarter.
This 1993 play, a career highlight for the playwright, is a complex interweaving of past and present, of intellect and emotion, of science, history and art. It’s a dense, challenging… more »
Review: Peter and the Starcatcher
Mar 16th
If the backstory of The Wizard of Oz can be turned into the theatrical juggernaut that is Wicked, then why not apply the same treatment to Peter Pan?
That at, at least, must have been the thinking behind Peter and the Starcatcher, based on Dave Barry… more »
Review: Cactus Flower
Mar 14th
If you’re going to revive an old-fashioned chestnut of a romantic comedy like Abe Burrows’ Cactus Flower, the least you can do is deliver a staging with some sparks. They are sadly lacking in the Off-Broadway revival currently on view at the Westside The… more »
Review: That Championship Season
Mar 7th
After two movie adaptations and an Off-Broadway production a decade ago, there would seem to be no compelling reason to revive Jason Miller’s That Championship Season. But, ah yes, there is, as this old-fashioned drama provides a perfect opportunity for… more »
Review: Good People
Mar 4th
Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, who won the Tony and Pulitzer for Rabbit Hole, has expertly tapped into the zeitgeist with his newest work, Good People. This hard-edged comedy about class differences is bound to strike a chord in a modern economic clima… more »
Review: Beautiful Burnout
Mar 3rd
If the new theater piece Beautiful Burnout is any indication, the Scottish theater company Frantic Assembly is aptly named. This work by Bryony Lavery (Frozen) set in a boxing gym is a whirlwind-paced portrait of young pugilists training and sparring. Su… more »
Review: Timon of Athens
Mar 2nd
It’s easy to see why the Public Theater has chosen William Shakespeare’s--and possibly Thomas Middleton’s, according to some scholars--Timon of Athens as the inaugural productions of its Public LAB SHAKESPEARE series. This rarely performed drama, one of… more »
Review: Barrymore in Toronto
Mar 1st
Lucky Toronto audiences are currently being given the opportunity to witness Christopher Plummer reprising his virtually one-man-show Barrymore, about the famed matinee idol who was as famed for his drinking and debauchery as his stage and film performan… more »
Review: Diary of a Madman
Feb 25th
As he’s demonstrated in such films as Shine and the recent Broadway production of Ionesco’s Exit the King, there are few actors as adept at playing crazy characters as Geoffrey Rush. Now starring in the titular role in The Diary of a Madman, the performe… more »
Review: Interviewing the Audience
Feb 17th
Everybody has a story, but some are more interesting than others. So you take your chances with Zach Helm’s Interviewing the Audience, currently at the Vineyard Theatre. Based on a concept created by the late Spalding Gray, this theater piece is akin to… more »
Review: Black Tie
Feb 11th
Few playwrights have covered a particular social milieu as exhaustively and effectively as A.R. Gurney. For decades now, he has been steadily producing comedies dealing with the social mores of the WASP set, with often sublime results (The Dining Room, T… more »
Review: Three Sisters
Feb 9th
For all their staying power over the years, the plays of Anton Chekhov are remarkably fragile works in performance. It’s so rare that all the elements come together--that all of the performers work in synch, that the directorial tone is cohesive—that mor… more »
Review: Gruesome Playground Injuries
Feb 8th
If the title of Rajiv Joseph’s new play Gruesome Playground Injuries isn’t off-putting enough, what transpires onstage certainly is. This dark comedy about two friends who compare the all-too-visible scars from various physical traumas over the course of… more »
Review: The Whipping Man
Feb 7th
It’s easy to see why Matthew Lopez’s play The Whipping Man has enjoyed considerable success on the regional theater circuit. Set during the final days of the Civil War and concerning an impromptu Passover Seder conducted by a pair of black slaves and the… more »
Review: The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
Feb 4th
Tennessee Williams’ 1963 play The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore has defied success in all its previous incarnations. It flopped on Broadway not once but twice and the 1968 film adaptation—retitled Boom and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Bur… more »
Reviews: The New York Idea / What the Public Wants
Feb 3rd
Two current revivals of vintage plays, one American and one British, demonstrate that not every forgotten drama from the past is necessarily worth excavating. Both the Mint Theater Company’s revival of Arnold Bennett’s 1909 What the Public Wants and the… more »
Review: The Misanthrope
Feb 2nd
It’s such a welcome pleasure to once again hear poet Richard Wilbur’s gorgeously elegant verse translation of The Misanthrope that one can almost, but not quite, overlook the general blandness of the Pearl Theatre Company’s revival. While Moliere’s 17th… more »
Review: American Idiot
Jan 31st
Imagine Frankie Valli stepping in on vocals for Jersey Boys. Or Ringo Starr manning the drum kit for the Beatles tribute Rain. Such is the electrifying effect of the presence of Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong as the drug dealing St. Jimmy in Ame… more »
Review: Green Eyes
Jan 27th
Theatrical experiences rarely come in more intimate forms than Green Eyes. This production of a long-lost Tennessee Williams play—how many of them are there, exactly?—is being performed in a room at midtown’s Hudson Hotel, with its fourteen audience memb… more »
Review: Other Desert Cities
Jan 25th
Sharp dialogue delivered by a quintet of superb actors enlivens Other Desert Cities, Jon Robin Baitz’s entertaining if ultimately overly familiar dysfunctional family drama. Director Joe Mantello’s superb staging of this work about a California clan squa… more »
Review: John Gabriel Borkman
Jan 20th
Don’t expect a respite from the frosty temperatures at the superb production of John Gabriel Borkman being presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. From the mounds of snow dotting the bleak set to its chilly emotional climate, Ibsen’s 19th century cla… more »
Review: The Importance of Being Earnest
Jan 19th
It’s safe to say that there hasn’t been a Lady Bracknell quite as haughtily imperious as Brian Bedford’s in the pitch-perfect new production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Playing the grand dame who looks at her daughter Gwendolyn’s prospective suit… more »
Review: Blood From a Stone
Jan 15th
Just in case you somehow fail to realize that the blue-collar family at the center of Blood from a Stone is falling apart, the set designed by Derek McLane periodically alerts you. Several times during the course of this new work by first time playwright… more »
Review: A Small Fire
Jan 14th
The concept of illness as metaphor has long been a fertile area for playwrights, the latest example being Obie Award-winner Adam Bock’s (The Receptionist, The Thugs) A Small Fire at Playwrights Horizons. Tracking the physical disintegration of a vibrant… more »
Review: Being Harold Pinter
Jan 11th
The back story behind Being Harold Pinter is nearly as compelling as this powerful, politically themed show itself. Being presented by the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, this production by the Belarus Free Theatre almost didn’t make it to the… more »