|
  Theatre in Review: Lidless (Page 73 Productions/Walkerspace)
There's nothing more dismaying than watching a playwright get her hands on incendiary material, only to write the life right out of it. That's the case with Lidless; the author, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, sets out to ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Submission (MCC Theatre/Lucille Lortel Theatre)
Jeff Talbott does himself no favors in the first 15 minutes or so of The Submission; it's rare that a play can get past such a weak premise to become something really interesting. As it happens, however, the author ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Lemon Sky (Keen Company/Theatre Row)
Are we due for a Lanford Wilson revival? The time seems ripe. Arguably the most critically acclaimed American playwright of the 1970s, his output began to dwindle at a relatively early age, his fortunes seemingly tied to the ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Newsies (Paper Mill Playhouse)
If you're feeling a little low energy, drop in on Paper Mill Playhouse, where Newsies, the running, jumping, and brawling new musical is currently threatening to leap right off the stage. Disney Theatricals, having ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Follies (Marquis Theatre)
The ghosts are back, and Broadway is better for it. As soon as the curtain rises on the single, impassive spirit of a showgirl past, you know you're going to be in good hands - and so it proves with Eric Schaeffer's revival of < ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Play It Cool (Theatre Row)
All hail Sally Mayes, one of our most distinctive musical theatre stars. Both a Broadway and a jazz baby, she can deliver a ballad straight, no chaser, breaking your heart in the process, and she can bend notes with the best of ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: After (Partial Comfort Productions/The Wild Project)
Monty, the protagonist of After, has just been released from prison after 17 years -- or, roughly, half his life -- exonerated for a rape he didn't commit. The playwright, Chad Beckim, tells us very little about the ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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, ...
|
