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  Theatre in Review: Fondly, Collette Richland (Elevator Repair Service/New York Theatre Workshop)
Not too far into the first act of Fondly, Collette Richland, the actor Greig Sargeant looks out at the audience and exclaims, "I can't understand a single thing that is happening!"
"You and me both," snarled a male voice ...
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Theatre in Review: The Quare Land (Irish Repertory Theatre)
You will look long and hard before you find a protagonist as determinedly eccentric as Hugh Pugh in John McManus' new play; when we first meet the cranky nonagenarian, he is in the bathtub, up to his neck in bubbles, listening to ...
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Theatre in Review: Catch the Butcher (Cherry Lane Theatre Studio)
Ever wonder what serial killers are like at home? Here comes Catch the Butcher to tell you all about domestic life with a husband who has dispatched nearly a dozen women in his lead-lined, soundproofed basement. Give ...
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Theatre in Review: Daddy Long Legs (Davenport Theatre)
Clearly, Paul Gordon has a thing about orphans. The composer-lyricist's resume includes the 2000 Broadway musical Jane Eyre, featuring one of the most benighted (and parentless) heroines in nineteenth-century literature, and < ...
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Theatre in Review: The Gray Man (Pipeline Theatre Company)
These are the elements that make up Andrew Farmer's new play: An eerie lullaby about a little girl who is carried away into the woods, where she dies. A pair of women, bearing lanterns in the darkness and frightening unseen children ...
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Theatre in Review: Spring Awakening (Brooks Atkinson Theatre)
Since the new production of Spring Awakening has been brought to Broadway by the Deaf West Theatre Company, it is fitting that many of its most telling moments unfold in silence -- or nearly so. As a matron uncomfortably ...
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Theatre in Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pearl Theatre Company/Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival)
Welcome to the age of Downsized Shakespeare. The idea is afoot these days, in many of the better theatres, that you don't need all that pageantry and all those extras to do one of the Bard's works; half a dozen actors will do nicely, thank ...
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Theatre in Review: Fulfillment (The Flea Theater)
Thomas Bradshaw's career as a playwright has depended so much on shock value that one might be forgiven for thinking that "provocateur" is his first name. Still, it's surprising to see how, well, sedate his work is getting. I'm ...
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Theatre in Review: How to Live on Earth (Colt Coeur/HERE)
The characters in How to Live on Earth want to be sent to Mars, never to return, and, having spent 90 minutes with them, I heartily endorse the plan. The playwright, MJ Kaufman, posits a countrywide search for ...
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Theatre in Review: The New Morality (Mint Theater Company)
The program notes for The New Morality call it a "tempest-in-a-teapot" comedy. I'm afraid that the tempest is barely a squall and the tea is exceptionally weak.
We live in an age that no longer believes in light comedy's ...
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Theatre in Review: The Christians (Playwrights Horizons)
In Lucas Hnath's new play, a pastor preaches a sermon on redemption and opens the door to a personal purgatory. Paul, the pastor, has every reason to consider his life blessed. Standing in his sumptuous sanctuary, backed by an ...
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Theatre in Review: Hamlet in Bed (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
The minute he steps on a stage, Michael Laurence sends out a powerful force field of neurosis; he's a walking double bind, sending a white-hot mixed message that screams "Don't look at me; no, look at me!" With his lean, lanky frame ...
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Theatre in Review: Isolde (New York City Players/Theatre for a New Audience)
Isolde left me speechless; I hasten to add that this is not a compliment. This was my first experience with the theatre of writer-director Richard Maxwell, who, over the last couple of decades, has built a following ...
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Theatre in Review: Stoopdreamer (the cell)
A lost slice of New York comes to achingly vivid life in Stoopdreamer. I'm referring to Windsor Terrace, a section of northwestern Brooklyn that was once home to a thriving community of Irish Catholics. It was the kind of ...
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Theatre in Review: Pondling (Gúna Nua and Ramblinman/59E59)
The instant that Genevieve Hulme-Beaman walks on stage and speaks the opening words of the solo show Pondling ("I had my new shoes on. They were my new shiny black ones. Fresh and shiny from a shiny green and white box ...
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Theatre in Review: Judy (Page 73 Productions/The New Ohio Theatre)
I have seen the future and it is vague. At least, that's the prognostication offered by Max Posner in his rather baffling new play. Judy is set in the year 2040, and, as he envisions it, the world has gone through more ...
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Theatre in Review: Desire (The Acting Company/59E59)
Half a dozen eminent playwrights tackle the short fiction of Tennessee Williams in this intriguing theatrical omnibus. It's fair to say that Williams' prose comes in a distant second to all but his weakest plays -- it's hard to ...
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Theatre in Review: The Legend of Georgia McBride (MCC Theater/Lucille Lortel Theatre)
Just when you thought the theatre had squeezed every last drop of amusement out of the overwrought ways of drag queens, here comes The Legend of Georgia McBride to deliver an unexpectedly fresh twist on an old formula. ...
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Theatre in Review: Laugh it Up, Stare it Down (Cherry Lane Theatre)
You're likely to do more staring than laughing at this oddball entertainment, an old-fashioned sex comedy crossed with a kind of Socratic dialogue. The playwright, Alan Hruska, doubles down on his peculiar premise: Laugh It Up ...
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Theatre in Review: Little Thing, Big Thing (Fishamble: The New Play Company/59E59)
One doesn't usually expect to find 59E59 hosting an action comedy thriller with an odd-couple twist, but Donal O'Kelly's new play features a plot borrowed from the summer offerings at your local multiplex. The biggest innovation ...
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