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  Theatre in Review: Completeness (Playwrights Horizons)
Here's how boy meets girl in Completeness: Molly, a budding microbiologist, is running an experiment involving yeast cultures, genetics, and ailing lab rats. (Please don't ask me more; my science grades were only marginally ...
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Theatre in Review: The Wood (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre)
It's remarkable how quickly a fine actor, armed with some powerful words, can wake up a sleeping play. Shortly into Act II of The Wood, we encounter Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant who, in 1997, was brutally attacked by ...
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Theatre in Review: The Select (The Sun Also Rises) (New York Theatre Workshop)
New York Theatre Workshop has long been the home of what you might call Novel Theatre. Over the last decade or so, the company has produced adaptations of books by Dorothy Allison, Michael Cunningham, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William ...
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Theatre in Review: Sweet and Sad (Anspacher Theatre/The Public Theater)
Sweet and Sad begins with the off-stage strains of liturgical music; later, bells will toll the melody of "Onward, Christian Soldiers." Both are lovely, but they can't compete with the eloquent verbal chamber music of Ric ...
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Theatre in Review: Temporal Powers (Mint Theatre Company)
"Did j'ever at all dream of bein' rich?" The question is put by Min Donovan, a remarkably tough-minded young Irishwoman, to her husband, Michael. His response is silent, so she bitterly adds, "No! You did not. Contented you'd be as long ...
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Theatre in Review: The Tenant (Woodshed Collective/West Park Presbyterian Church)
If you've seen Sleep No More, and still haven't had enough of theatre as an interactive themed experience, you might want to give The Tenant a whirl. Even if you didn't really care for that overly arty deconstruction ...
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Theatre in Review: Summer Shorts 5, Series B (59E59)
There's nothing like the moment when a sleepy evening suddenly comes to life. In the second edition of this year's Summer Shorts, a collection of one-acts, it comes during Will Scheffer's The Green Book. Rebecca ...
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Theatre in Review: Rent (New World Stages)
We've barely had time to miss it, but Rent is back, taking advantage of the new economic law of the theatre that says long-run Broadway shows can downsize to take advantage of Off Broadway contracts. In this scenario, New ...
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Theatre in Review: Olive and the Bitter Herbs (Primary Stages/59E59)
Meet Olive Fisher. A New York actress of a certain age -- if you asked her for the exact figure, she'd probably hit you -- her one moment of fame came in the '80s, when she played an old sourpuss ---not unlike Clara Peller, the "where's ...
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Theatre in Review: Death Takes a Holiday (Roundabout Theatre Company/Laura Pels Theatre)
If the new musical at the Roundabout proves anything, it's that, even when the title is Death Takes a Holiday, you'd better take Death seriously -- or else.
It's been a point worth noting ever since 1924, when the ...
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Theatre in Review: The Pretty Trap (Cause Célèbre/Theatre Row)
If you ask me, Tennessee Williams is having a pretty lousy centennial. Here he is, 100 years old, and plenty of people think of him as one of the greatest American playwrights -- so where are the major revivals? The seminars? The ...
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Theatre in Review: All New People (Second Stage)
All New People begins with a fellow named Charlie standing on a chair, his neck in a noose. Not only is he severely depressed, he's having an all-around bad day, as evinced by his struggle to find an ashtray for his ...
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Theatre in Review: The Shoemaker (Theatre Row)
Less than a minute into The Shoemaker, the playwright, Susan Charlotte, announces her intentions with unusual clarity. Hilary, a middle-aged woman, enters a shoe-repair shop. The owner refuses to help her, claiming, ...
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Theatre in Review: The Patsy/Jonas (Transport Group)
You won't find an odder, more quixotic -- and, at times, more charming -- entertainment than The Patsy. David Greenspan, Jack Cummings III, and Kristina Corcoran Williams have dug up a hit domestic comedy from the ...
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Theatre in Review: Hair (St. James Theatre)
The tribe is back, and the be-in is on again for another summer of love. This time, the venue is the St. James, rather than the Martin Beck (now home to a very different sort of '60s-era musical, How to Succeed in ...
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Theatre in Review: Silence! The Musical (Theatre 80)
Sometimes, a star is hidden in plain sight, just waiting to be discovered. Consider the case of Jenn Harris. She's turned up in a number of well-received Off Broadway productions, and, I assume, has gotten her fair share of praise ...
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Theatre in Review: Master Class (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
Will the real Maria Callas please stand up? It's a fair question; after all, we've had so many to choose from. Repeated viewings of Master Class over the years have revealed the remarkable way in which the role of Maria ...
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Theatre in Review: Tryst (Irish Repertory Theatre)
If you're in the mood for a summer stock experience but don't want to brave the wilds of Connecticut or New Jersey, you could drop in on Tryst. Rather mysteriously, the Irish Rep has chosen to revive this two-hander ...
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Theatre in Review: Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Park)
Funny thing about Measure for Measure; for decades -- centuries, even-- nobody wanted to deal with it, regarding its plot as both preposterous and distasteful. In the last couple of decades, however, it has acquired a ...
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Theatre in Review: The Eyes of Babylon (59E59)
Jeff Key has led such a dramatic life, I only wish some of it had made its way into The Eyes of Babylon. An Alabama native, a theatre professional, and a gay man, he made the counterintuitive decision to join the U.S ...
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