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  Theatre in Review: shadow/land (Public Theater)
Erika Dickerson-Despenza is, to my mind, the most interesting new playwright to come out of the Public Theater since Suzan-Lori Parks. An artist of real ambition, she has a kind of double vision, placing intimate stories inside ...
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Theatre in Review: Romeo and Juliet (NAATCO)
This new take on Romeo and Juliet immediately draws a line between Elizabethan and contemporary language, but it is a muddled and constantly shifting one. The Chorus enters and offers Shakespeare's opening speech about "star ...
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Theatre in Review: The Comedy of Errors (Public Theater Mobile Unit)
This unique company, a good deed in a naughty world, hits a new high with its musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's knockabout farce. The Mobile Unit travels the five boroughs, presenting tab versions of the Bard's canon to ...
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Theatre in Review: Robin and Me: My Little Spark of Madness (Abingdon Theatre Company)
Lots of kids have imaginary friends...but Robin Williams? That, apparently, was the case with Dave Droxler, author and star of this coming-of-age solo piece. Having lost his beloved grandpop -- a kooky, but endearing, character who ...
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Theatre in Review: The Habit of Art (Original Theatre/59E59)
Perhaps the most fruitful way of thinking about The Habit of Art is to characterize it as a series of interruptions. The poet W. H. Auden, ensconced in a cottage at Christ Church, Oxford, can't manage to complete his ...
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Theatre in Review: New York, New York (St. James Theatre)
From its opening moment, when a dazzling electric sign fires up, announcing the show's title, New York, New York unrolls one sensational staging moment after another. A gang of construction workers taps out a routine on the ...
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Theatre in Review: Summer, 1976 (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
If you've ever wondered why Broadway needs the presence of companies like Manhattan Theatre Club, look no further than Summer, 1976. Even the savviest commercial producer would be challenged to put on this quiet, yet ...
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Theatre in Review: Prima Facie (Golden Theatre)
Prima Facie is an impassioned closing argument disguised as a play. It directly addresses the festering social issue of violence against women in a way that is guaranteed to bring spectators to their feet. And it features a ...
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Theatre in Review: Good Night, Oscar (Belasco Theatre)
Oscar Levant may have been one of show business' greatest schlubs -- at the Belasco, his own wife calls him "Eeyore in a cheap suit" -- but Goodnight, Oscar is as sleekly tailored a vehicle as any actor could wish. That would ...
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Theatre in Review: God of Carnage (Theatre Breaking Through Barriers/Theatre Row)
"It's just bile! It's nothing!" So says one of the characters in God of Carnage, having thrown up all over an expensive sofa and coffee table. She should talk: Yasmina Reza's bleak comedy is all bile, all the time. ...
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Theatre in Review: The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Red Bull Theater/Fiasco Theater)
In the most delightful moment of the new production at the Lucille Lortel Theatre -- indeed, on any stage in New York just now -- the cast assembles, complete with guitar and ukelele, for an effervescent rendition of Cole Porter's "Let's ...
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Theatre in Review: The Thanksgiving Play (Second Stage/The Hayes Theater)
Satire often has a short shelf life, especially when the subject is topical. In 2018, The Thanksgiving Play was a merry and thoroughly up-to-the-minute spoof of wokeness as it was beginning to enter the cultural conversation. ...
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Theatre in Review: Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Ethel Barrymore Theatre)
Attention, fans of The Play That Goes Wrong: Peter Pan Goes Wrong has opened at the Barrymore, where it is scheduled to run through July. There; my work is done.
For the uninitiated: The Play That Goes Wrong, ...
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Theatre in Review: White Girl in Danger (Vineyard Theatre/Second Stage Theater)
If you've ever questioned the importance of good sound design in theatre, White Girl in Danger will provide the definitive answer. Michael R. Jackson's new work is an ultra-high-concept musical set inside the fictional ...
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Theatre in Review: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre)
Since its 1979 debut, we've had revivals of Sweeney Todd six ways from Sunday: in-the-round, with actors doubling as musicians, and the drastically scaled-down pie-shop version, complete with dinner. All had their points, but ...
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Theatre in Review: Plays for the Plague Year (Public Theater/Joe's Pub)
Full confession: I attended Plays for the Plague Year with a sinking heart, convinced that I needed to see a show about life under COVID lockdown like I needed a hole in my head. But never underestimate Suzan-Lori Parks ...
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Theatre in Review: Camelot (Lincoln Center Theater/Vivian Beaumont Theater)
As Aaron Sorkin keeps telling anyone who will listen, his revised book takes the magic out of Camelot. How right he is: How else to account for the cloud of melancholy parked over the Beaumont stage? Why is the ...
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Theatre in Review: Fat Ham (American Airlines Theatre)
Following its extended run at the Public Theater last summer, Fat Ham comes to Broadway accessorized with the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. An unabashed crowd pleaser packed with plenty of lowdown laughs, it relocates the ...
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Theatre in Review: Shucked (Nederlander Theatre)
The you-know-what is as high as an elephant's eye in Shucked, a gleeful pileup of cornpone gags and countrified melodies dedicated to the proposition that weary Broadway audiences desperately need an uncomplicated good time. ...
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Theatre in Review: Eleanor and Alice (Urban Stages)
There very well may be an engaging drama in the decades-long relationship of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth. Indeed, they made for perfect frenemies: saintly, self-doubting Eleanor, dedicated to uplifting the downtrodden ...
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