|
  Theatre in Review: The Few (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre)
One of the playwright Samuel D. Hunter's many virtues is his freshness of vision; he shows us characters and worlds we haven't seen before. In The Few, the lights come up on a dingy, cluttered trailer interior in which a man ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Here Lies Love (The Public Theater)
Featuring the most strikingly original musical staging I've seen in years, Here Lies Love has returned to the Public, this time in an open-ended commercial run. David Byrne and Fatboy Slim have converted the gaudy, ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Lovesong of Alfred J. Hitchcock (Brits Off Broadway/59E59)
Can't we keep Alfred Hitchcock off the analyst's couch? Apparently, the temptation to put him there is irresistible. In 2012, there was the feature film Hitchcock, about the making of Psycho, which was criticized by Times< ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Playing with Grown Ups (Brits Off Broadway/59E59)
"I find adults fascinating." So says the winsome 17-year-old Stella, who is about to discover the consequences of playing with grown-ups. If only the adults in Hannah Patterson's play were worthy of that fascination. Instead, Pla ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: An Octoroon (Soho Rep)
An Octoroon comes with such a controversial production back story that it gets referenced in its opening scene. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' play was originally scheduled to be produced at P.S. 122 in 2010, but things got ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: 17 Orchard Point (Theatre Row)
Say what you want about Michele Pawk: She knows how to make an entrance. At the beginning of 17 Orchard Point, she sashays through the front door of a modest Cleveland house, in a chic black-and-white suit, an enormous ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Cabaret (Roundabout Theatre Company/Studio 54)
Once again we are invited to the Kit Kat Klub, where denizens of the night slink through a speakeasy door, slither around the stage, and invite us to join them in a dance of death. Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall's 1998 staging ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Fabulous Miss Marie (New Federal Theatre/Castillo Theatre)
"There is no despair in Miss Marie's house," says the title character in The Fabulous Miss Marie. Maybe not, but there's certainly enough lust, deception, scandal, and all-around moral decay to eat at the souls of all who ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Inventing Mary Martin (York Theatre Company)
In some ways, the best thing about Inventing Mary Martin is its title. The show's creators have noticed something that isn't often discussed--that, as opposed to say, Ethel Merman, who basically played the same brassy, wisecracking ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Act One (Lincoln Center Theater/Vivian Beaumont Theater)
The first goosebump moment in James Lapine's stage adaptation of Moss Hart's memoir, Act One -- and by no means the last -- comes just before intermission. Hart, an aspiring playwright with only one ignominious ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Belasco Theatre)
When the current Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch was announced, my skepticism antenna went on high alert. The Belasco Theatre? Really? For a naturally grungy show that enjoyed a long run in the most awful dive ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Casa Valentina (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
Given Broadway's current mania for stars, it's interesting that so many of the season's plays have been large ensemble efforts. Denzel Washington is only one among equals in A Raisin in the Sun and Bryan Cranston is backed by a ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Of Mice and Men (Longacre Theatre)
Of Mice and Men is one of the many celebrity-driven productions that define Broadway today, but to my mind the real star of the show is the director, Anna D. Shapiro. Her special gift is to take diverse groups of ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Cripple of Inishmaan (Cort Theatre)
"Has the egg man been?" "He has, but he had no eggs." This exchange, worthy of Samuel Beckett, makes a fine introduction to the cockeyed world of Martin McDonagh, who creates rocky Irish landscapes filled with unspeakable behavior ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Great Immensity (The Civilians/Public Theater)
There can be no doubt that the greatest crisis facing mankind today is global warming, which is why it gives me no pleasure to report that The Great Immensity doesn't succeed either as absorbing theatre or a call to arms. The ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Violet (Roundabout Theatre Company/American Airlines Theatre)
Violet Karl is on a pilgrimage, and you could say the same thing about the show that contains her. Violet, the musical, opened at Playwrights Horizons in 1997 with an eye firmly fixed on Broadway; thanks to a not-so-hot Tim ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Annapurna (The New Group/Theatre Row)
The playwright Sharr White tips his hand in the first moments of Annapurna. The lights come up on the spectacularly cluttered trailer interior designed by Thomas A. Walsh. Nick Offerman, as Ulysses, the ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra (Playwrights Horizons)
Kirk Lynn's new play has so many peculiarities that it's hard to pick just one. So let's start at the beginning. Reggie and Carla, a young couple, are playing a sex game; he is blindfolded and she is describing herself in ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (Circle in the Square)
Audra McDonald has given us so many splendid things over the course of her career, yet none of them prepares one for the shock of seeing her as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. The conceit of Lanie ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Mysteries (Flea Theatre)
Consider the following statement from the program bio of Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, director of The Mysteries: "As founding artistic director of [the theatre company] Exit, Pursued by a Bear (EPBB), he has served over 11 ...
|
