|
  Theatre in Review: Fifty Million Frenchmen (York Theatre Company)
For its latest round of Musicals in Mufti -- concert stagings of rarely seen shows -- York is paying tribute to Cole Porter, a plan likely to be endorsed by every right-thinking man, woman, and child in the five boroughs and beyond. ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Height of the Storm (Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
I can't be absolutely sure -- memory, as the playwright Florian Zeller knows, is a tricky thing -- but I believe The Height of the Storm may be the first play to lose its mind.
How else to explain the cunningly ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Wives (Playwrights Horizons)/Mothers (The Playwrights Realm)
Rarely do circumstances deliver such an obvious pairing of titles for a dual review; in addition, these two attractions are marked by similar strategies: Each begins as a satire, displaying a fair amount of wit before abandoning laughter ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Caesar and Cleopatra (Gingold Theatrical Group/Theatre Row)
David Staller, the man behind Gingold Theatrical Group, loves the works of George Bernard Shaw with a burning ardor -- a fact that, alone, makes him a valuable member of the New York theatre community. I only wish he trusted ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Fern Hill (59E59)
If nothing else, the spaghetti vongole sounds absolutely scrumptious. Early on in Fern Hill, Mark Linn-Baker, playing an aging rocker -- fitted out in faux Jerry Garcia style by the costume designer, Patricia ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
In many ways, I am the ideal audience member for Cusi Cram's fantasia about the life and death of St. Vincent's Hospital, a once-vital Greenwich Village institution that was unaccountably allowed to vanish. As a longtime resident of ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Filomena Marturano: Un matrimono a la Caribeña (Repertorio Español)
Just about any visit to Repertorio Español reveals how many accomplished actors the company has at its command. This time around, the name to note is Zulema Clares as the title character -- a former prostitute, now the long ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Betrayal (Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre)
Even given Harold Pinter's reputation as the master of dramatic minimalism, the new Broadway revival of Betrayal is almost alarmingly stripped-down. The actors often have little more than a couple of chairs with ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review. L.O.V.E.R. (Pershing Square Signature Center)
Lois Robbins' solo show begins with her slumped over the washing machine in a state of post-coital bliss. As it happens, her first serious relationship was with the aforementioned appliance. At a very early age -- I mean ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: American Moor (Red Bull Theater/Cherry Lane Theatre)
"You see, I have broken the fourth wall." This statement, made by the actor Keith Hamilton Cobb, is hardly necessary, since he has stepped off the stage of the Cherry Lane and, for a moment, stands in the center aisle. More to the ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Dust (Next Door at NYTW)
As the priest tells the faithful on Ash Wednesday, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." This is the immediate prospect for Alice, the protagonist of Milly Thomas' solo play, who wakes up in a morgue, a suicide. Not that she ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Felix Starro (Ma-Yi Theater Company/Theatre Row)
The people behind Felix Starro have on their hands some fascinating and extremely novel subject matter; it's too bad that no one seems to know what to do with it. A musical that cries out for a daringly theatrical approach has been ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Eureka Day (Colt Coeur/Walkerspace)
Bravely tackling a red-hot topic currently inflaming our social discourse, Eureka Day seemingly breaks one of the cardinal rules of playwrighting, adopting a different tone for virtually every scene. That it treads in such ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Contact High (Theatre 511)
It is high time for musical theatre to graduate from high school; the creators of such shows have developed an unhealthy obsession with social pressures, sexual identity, popularity (or the lack of it), and all the other challenges facing ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Make Believe (Second Stage Theater/Tony Kiser Theater)
Make Believe is populated with children who play some very adult games; the playwright, Bess Wohl, is a pretty audacious game-player herself. Only someone with nerves of steel would put a quartet of young characters, played ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Sea Wall/A Life (Hudson Theatre)
As delicate as Meissen china yet hard as bedrock are these two solo pieces, each of which offers vexing truths about the fragility of existence, the caprices of fortune, and the sheer mystery of why we are alive. They also showcase two ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: The Exes (Theatre Row)
Lenore Skomal's new play is dedicated to the idea that divorce makes a family, and multiple divorces only further strengthen the ties that bind. Chief among the exes in The Exes are Dick and Richard, men of a certain age ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: OSCAR at The Crown (3 Dollar Bill)
What is it with playwrights and the apocalyptic future? Isn't the apocalyptic present difficult enough? Whatever the reason, the world and his brother seem intent on dragging us into some terrible day after tomorrow when the economy is ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Midsummer: A Banquet (Food of Love Productions/Third Rail Projects)
If, like me, you grew up thinking of dinner theatre as rattletrap revivals of Any Wednesday paired with steamship round of beef, you may be pleasantly surprised by the activities at Café Fae, a former clothing store located a block ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Bat Out of Hell (City Center)
Bat Out of Hell once again raises the most vexing question about jukebox musicals: Why do they exist? I'm not talking about the biographical shows, like Jersey Boys, Beautiful, and Ain't Too Proud, which often have ...
|
