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  Theatre in Review: Twilight: Los Angles, 1992 (Signature Theatre)
Anna Deavere Smith practices a highly specific kind of theatre as journalism that leaves one wondering: Will the impact of her plays, rooted in recent events, fade over time? And can they exist without her unique gifts as an actress ...
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Theatre in Review: Fairycakes (Greenwich House Theatre)
Can actors sue their playwright for non-support? Legal minds might say no, but Fairycakes would make an excellent test case. Douglas Carter Beane, the playwright and director of this distinctly odd enterprise, has ...
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Theatre in Review: Brecht on Brecht (Theatre Breaking Through Barriers)
There are so many needle-sharp revelations in Brecht on Brecht, now at ART New York Theatres, that you will choose your own favorites; at least three stick in my memory. The first is the disconcertingly titled presentation, " ...
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Theatre in Review: Mrs. Warren's Profession (Gingold Theatrical Group/Theatre Row)
David Staller's new production of George Bernard Shaw's dramatic provocation quite properly pairs a beloved pro with an impressive new face, and both make for excellent company. The pro is Karen Ziemba as the title ...
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Theatre in Review: The Mother (The Wooster Group/Performing Garage)
In The Mother, the artists at The Wooster Group have not only embraced Bertolt Brecht's alienation effect; they've doubled down on it. One of Brecht's Lehrstücke, or "learning plays," The Mother was performed ...
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Theatre in Review: The Lehman Trilogy (Nederlander Theatre)
If, like me, you are starved for epic theatre, cheer up: The Lehman Trilogy has returned.
It's not surprising that most new productions right now feature small casts, spare designs, and intimate subject matter; it's a miracle that ...
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Theatre in Review: Autumn Royal (Irish Repertory Theatre)
One look at Charlie Corcoran's set at the Irish Rep and I said to myself, "My God, it looks like a tomb." As it happens, I wasn't far off. The walls are gray, water-stained concrete. A ceiling panel seems to enclose the space, ...
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Theatre in Review: Lackawanna Blues (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a fine actor (and an even better director) but, at the beginning of Lackawanna Blues, he displays shapeshifting skills the likes of which I've never seen before. (Others, no doubt, are more ...
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Theatre in Review: Letters of Suresh (Second Stage Theater/Tony Kiser Theater)
I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, that Rajiv Joseph is the only American writer to twice build plays around the practice of origami. The first was the lovely early work Animals Out of Paper; he returns to the ...
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Theatre in Review: Chicken and Biscuits (Circle in the Square Theatre)
Chicken and Biscuits is both a throwback and a sign of the times. It's part of the trend of new plays by Black writers (and with Black creative teams) that is a big feature of this Broadway season, a possible herald of ...
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Theatre in Review: Six (Brooks Atkinson Theatre)
"Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived." Odd words to kick off a musical, no? Or maybe not, as the irresistible opening number ("Ex-Wives") works its way into one's brain. An idea that could have gone wildly wrong, Six
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Theatre in Review: What to Send Up When It Goes Down (Playwrights Horizons)
This is not, I think, a review, at least in the usual sense. Consider it a journal of impressions. Due to sheer happenstance, I may be the last theatre writer in New York to see Aleshea Harris' much-discussed theatrical experiment. ( ...
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Theatre in Review: Hindsight (Fault Line Theatre Company/Paradise Factory)
In Hindsight, Alix Sobler stakes a claim on some of the most treacherous territory on the dramatic map, doing so with remarkable assurance and skill. It's a rule of thumb that the problems of writing a play are ...
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Theatre in Review: The Nosebleed (Chocolate Factory Theater/Japan Society)
In a way, the nosebleed is the least of it. It happens to Kenya, the five-year-old son of Aya Ogawa, the playwright, director, and cast member of this autobiographical entertainment. As you probably know, most kids get them, sooner ...
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Theatre in Review: Persuasion (Bedlam/Connelly Theatre)
I have a modest proposal: Enough with Jane Austen. The lady needs a rest.
Austen died in 1817, but she remains the center of a multinational industry, currently with 88 credits on the Internet Movie Database. Her novels have been ...
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Theatre in Review: A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet (DR2 Theatre)
As we were reminded approximately every 45 seconds on Sunday night, Broadway is back. Off Broadway is back, too, and one sure sign of it is the reappearance of airheaded intimate musicals. The title character of this three-person frolic is ...
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Theatre in Review: Yeah, But Not Right Now (Soho Playhouse)
A.J. Holmes wants you to know he is a terrible person. He also wants you to love him. And to acknowledge his talent. Indeed, it would be nice if you considered him an international star -- a stretch, to be sure, even if he once did ...
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Theatre in Review: Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop/Lucille Lortel Theatre)
When it comes to laying bare the lives of the American underclass -- the people who do our dirty work without sufficient recompense, and that's just for starters -- Martyna Majok is without peer. Exploring the corner of northern ...
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Theatre in Review: The Last of the Love Letters (Atlantic Theater Company)
"These are but wild and whirling words, my lord." Horatio's comment to Hamlet kept running through my mind at the Atlantic Theater as the protagonists of Ngozi's Anyanwu play unleashed powerful verbal cataracts, baring their souls ...
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Theatre in Review: Pass Over (August Wilson Theatre)
"Kill me now." These words, employed so often in real life to humorously express frustration, take on an unsettling urgency in Pass Over. Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu's play -- which instantly enters Broadway history as the first ...
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