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  Theatre in Review: Shows for Days (Lincoln Center Theater/Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre)
To play a force of nature, you get a force of nature: In Shows for Days, Patti LuPone, who has excelled at impersonating divas named Evita, Reno, Norma, and Maria -- not to mention a certain furiously determined stage ...
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Theatre in Review: Mrs. Smith's Broadway Cat-Tacular (47th Street Theatre)
Like so many theatre people, David Hanbury moonlights. He has a perfectly respectable career as an actor, appearing in Goldoni, Molière, and Shakespeare at the Guthrie, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Trinity Rep. But then there ...
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Theatre in Review: Scenes from an Execution (Potomac Theatre Project)
Even if Scenes from an Execution was a far less interesting production it would now be mandatory viewing, given the fact that Jan Maxwell -- one of the finest actresses now working on the New York stage -- has recently ...
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Theatre in Review: Awake and Sing! (NAATCO/The Public Theater)
It's time once again for a visit with the Berger family, the embattled Bronx clan caught in the stark, soul-killing vise of the Great Depression; this particular get-together is a little bit different, however, as the family of first- and ...
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Theatre in Review: Significant Other (Roundabout Theatre Company/Laura Pels Theatre)
Talk about being up-to-the-minute: Even as the Supreme Court was preparing to hand down its landmark decision about marriage equality, Roundabout opened Significant Other, a play that, in its own oddball way, is a kind of theatrical ...
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Theatre in Review: Judith: A Parting from the Body/Vinegar Tom (Potomac Theatre Project)
Potomac Theatre Project kicks off its season with a two-part meditation on women, history, and power, by the company's two favorite playwrights. This is not a double bill calculated to make new fans of Howard Barker or Caryl ...
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Theatre in Review: Happy Days (Theatre @ Boston Court/The Flea Theater)
"Another heavenly day." It's one of the most unbeatable opening lines in dramatic literature, not least because it is delivered by a woman buried up to her chest. She is Winnie, the indomitably cheery housewife who ritually counts her ...
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Theatre in Review: Of Good Stock (Manhattan Theatre Club/City Center Stage I)
There's been a healthy debate lately about the lack of opportunities for women playwrights, with the group known as The Kilroys publishing lists of new works by women that should be seen. The debate seems to be paying off; last season saw ...
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Theatre in Review: Doctor Faustus (Classic Stage Company)
In Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe condemned his title character to hell. In Andrei Belgrader's production, Faustus is sent to Hellzapoppin'. Indeed, so much is going on, and so little of it has ...
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Theatre in Review: Guards at the Taj (Atlantic Theater)
Is it me, or are our playwrights becoming more devious? They're certainly becoming more ruthless. Suddenly, just recently, we're getting plays constructed like little tinder boxes, rigged to explode on opening; they leave one wondering how ...
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Theatre in Review: Gloria (Vineyard Theatre)
Gloria is, quite possibly, the first play of real brilliance of this new season, and I'm not sure what I can tell you about it. The author, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, has constructed a bear trap of a play marked by a jaw ...
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Theatre in Review: ADA/AVA (Manual Cinema/3LD Arts and Technology Center)
I know it's only June, but I'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction: It is highly unlikely that this season will produce anything as odd and altogether original as the experiment in puppetry and shadow play known as ADA/AVA ...
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Theatre in Review: The Qualms (Playwrights Horizons)
"Are you one of these talkers or would you be interested in a little action?" This classic line from Born Yesterday rattled around in my head while watching The Qualms, and for good reason. In his new play, Bruce ...
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Theatre in Review: My Perfect Mind (Brits Off Broadway/59E59)
A few years ago, Edward Petherbridge, in New Zealand to play King Lear, suffered a stroke that severely impaired his ability to move. As a visit to 59E59 will show, he made a full recovery, and is uncommonly spry for 78. My ...
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Theatre in Review: The 35th Marathon of One-Act Plays: Series C (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
Series C is a fine example of why EST's Marathon is such a necessary part of the New York theatre scene. While the five plays presented are of varying quality, talent is everywhere, and not just among the playwrights. ...
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Theatre in Review: The Tempest (Shakespeare in the Park/Delacorte Theater)
Michael Greif's production of The Tempest begins with an imaginatively staged shipwreck. Choreographed movement, thundering sound effects, banners, and a toy ship -- hoisted, hanging precariously in the balance -- all ...
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Theatre in Review: Consent (Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre)
Gay men, here's a tip: That cute kid half your age on the subway platform, staring at you, rubbing his crotch, might be all right for a one-night stand, but he's going to be trouble in the long run. This will be news only to the most naïve ...
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Theatre in Review: The Old Masters (The Flea Theater)
Sam Marks finds a fresh slant on the well-worn topic of middle-class malaise in The Old Masters, a slightly ragged but nevertheless interesting new play. Ben, his protagonist, is a youngish painter whose career appears ...
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Theatre in Review: The Twentieth Century Way (Theatre @ Boston Court/Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)
One of the more squalid episodes in American law-enforcement history is aired in The Twentieth Century Way. Playwright Tom Jacobson, perusing the book Gay L.A., by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons
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Theatre in Review: Most Dangerous Man in America (W.E.B. Du Bois)(New Federal Theatre/Castillo Theatre)
Most Dangerous Man in America is the second play in two seasons that New Federal Theatre has produced about the scholar and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois; perhaps on the third try the results will be a little less ...
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