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  Theatre in Review: Border People (Working Theater/ART NY Theatres)
If you're feeling depressed by the endless, cankerous debate about immigration that has gripped the nation in the last few years, Border People may very well be the tonic you need, a balm of sweet reason and powerful, nuanced ...
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Theatre in Review: Doctors Jane and Alexander/Brecht: Call and Respond
Two new productions grapple with the past in very different ways. There are few pieces more personal than Doctors Jane and Alexander, staged at HERE, in which the author and director, Edward Einhorn, probes his ...
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Theatre in Review: Stew (Page 73 Productions/Walkerspace)
Storm might be an equally apt title for Zora Howard's new play, a brash domestic comedy until -- at the very last moment -- it isn't. The emotional squalls blowing through the kitchen belonging to the character known only ...
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Theatre in Review: A Soldier's Play (Roundabout Theatre Company/American Airlines Theatre)
Some plays, especially acclaimed works from the recent past, require extra love and care to succeed, which is why Kenny Leon was such a fine choice to direct Roundabout's revival of A Soldier's Play. The 1982 winner ...
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Theatre in Review: The Confession of Lily Dare (Primary Stages/Cherry Lane Theatre)
Seeing The Confession of Lily Dare is rather like attending one of the pre-Code retrospectives held at the Film Forum: It's a kind of film festival for the stage -- a gloriously cockeyed one, to be sure -- and it provides ...
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Theatre in Review: Paradise Lost (Fellowship for Performing Arts/Theatre Row)
Fellowship for Performing Arts' mission involves "telling imaginative stories from a Christian worldview," according to artistic director Max McLean's program notes, which makes this astonishingly literal-minded production at Theatre Row ...
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Theatre in Review: Thunder Rock (Metropolitan Playhouse)
The folks at Metropolitan Playhouse specialize in dramatic rarities -- they really know how to dig them up -- and, this time out, they have a fascinating find in Thunder Rock. A product of the Group Theatre in its sunset ...
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Theatre in Review: Romeo and Bernadette (Amas Musical Theatre/ART New York Theatres)
Romeo and Bernadette is the rarest of birds -- a tuneful, good-for-laughs musical that, despite a premise that doesn't bear scrutiny, offers a showcase for some pretty sensational young people. Musical theatre fans, ...
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Theatre in Review: Emojiland: The Musical (The Duke on 42nd Street)
No surprises here: Emojiland is exactly what its title announces, a musical about those perky little emoticons that clutter up one's text messages. It's a premise that comes with built-in challenges: With a cast consisting ...
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Theatre in Review: 17 Minutes (The Barrow Group)
The period of time referenced in the title of Scott Organ's play represents a brief cul-de-sac in the life of Andy, a sheriff's deputy -- which is, nevertheless, enough to derail his life. The action tracks the aftermath of a ...
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Theatre in Review: Timon of Athens (Theatre for a New Audience/Shakespeare Theatre Company)
The world of Timon of Athens is one of false glitter -- illusory wealth, faithless friends, and social status that evaporates overnight -- but, at TFANA, the play has a solid-gold centerpiece named Kathryn Hunter. ...
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Theatre in Review: How to Load a Musket (Less Than Rent/59E59)
"To fire a musket, there are thirteen separate actions that you do first." This is only one of dozens of fascinating factoids to be found in Talene Monahon's documentary investigation of the world of reenactors, who spend their ...
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Theatre in Review: Boom (59E59)
Inside Boom -- subtitled "The Music, Culture, and Events That Shaped a Generation" -- is an intriguing tale of three people that does much to illuminate the texture of life in the Baby Boom era. Too bad that it is held ...
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Theatre in Review: My Name is Lucy Barton (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
If you want to see what a great stage actress at her peak looks like, I can do no better than suggest a visit to the Samuel J. Friedman. As the title character of My Name is Lucy Barton -- a woman who spends much of her ...
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Theatre in Review: The Truth Has Changed/Grey Rock (Under the Radar/Public Theater)
One of the benefits of the Under the Radar Festival is the light it shines on the many ways of attacking political material. For example, Josh Fox understands better than most the consequences of living in post-truth America. A ...
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Theatre in Review: Susan (Under the Radar/Public Theater)
Susan is the kind of show for which the Under the Radar Festival exists: an unclassifiable delight. Our host for the evening is Ahamefule J. Oluo, "spelled exactly how it sounds," he notes with a grin. Oluo is a jazz ...
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Theatre in Review: Maz and Bricks (Fishamble/59E59)
For a long time, before it takes a darker, more melodramatic turn, Maz and Bricks appears to be a romantic comedy that unfolds en route to an abortion-rights demonstration; I'm guessing you haven't seen that one before. The ...
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Theatre in Review: Jagged Little Pill (Broadhurst Theatre)
It's counterintuitive, I know, but seeing Jagged Little Pill the other night, my mind kept drifting toward thoughts of Mamma Mia!, if only for comparative purposes. It was the dawning realization that the new tenant at ...
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Theatre in Review: Sing Street (New York Theatre Workshop)
Sing Street is a musical in which music is oddly peripheral to the overall effect; maybe we should call it a play with a soundtrack and leave it at that. In any case, the current attraction at New York Theatre Workshop is a ...
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Theatre in Review: London Assurance (Irish Repertory Theatre)
Before he became one of the most successful playwrights of the nineteenth century, Dion Boucicault studied to be a civil engineer; in London Assurance, his experience shows. A titan during the heyday of the well-made ...
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