|
  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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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. ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Love and Money (Signature Theatre Company)
Cornelia Cunningham, the heroine of A. R. Gurney's latest comedy, hasn't had that much love in her life, and now she's getting rid of all her money. "I'm expiating my crime before I die," the elderly, widowed matron announces, ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: A Delicate Ship (The Playwrights Realm/Peter Jay Sharp Theater)
If you're at home with the one you love on Christmas Eve and the doorbell rings, don't answer it. That's the moral I took away from A Delicate Ship, a rather implausible three-hander about what to do when the past ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Whorl Inside a Loop (Second Stage)
If you're looking for a sheer explosion of talent, you can't do much better than Whorl Inside a Loop, in which half a dozen black actors bring to life a roomful of convicts with lively, funny, harrowing, and thoroughly ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Sense of an Ending (59E59)
Playwright Ken Urban takes on the Hobbesian nightmare of the Rwanda genocide in Sense of an Ending, a kind of moral detective drama that manages to be simultaneously gripping and ultimately unsatisfying. Give him ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Mercury Fur (The New Group at Pershing Square Signature Center)
I'll say one thing about Mercury Fur: Nobody involved in it is trying to sugarcoat the pill of Philip Ridley's hard-boiled drama of survival at any price. The whole of the Linney Courtyard Theatre has been transformed by the ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Informed Consent (Primary Stages/Ensemble Studio Theatre)
There's nothing more painful than seeing a playwright tackle tough, thorny issues without the skill to bring their complexities to dramatic life. That's that sad case with Informed Consent, which, in 95 minutes, tries to ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: John (Signature Theatre)
Annie Baker's plays constitute a kind of theatrical equivalent of the slow food movement; she assembles a few carefully chosen elements and lets them simmer at length, bringing them to a boil only when the time is right. The ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Hamilton (Richard Rodgers Theatre)
There's little to add to the rolling triumph that is Hamilton, except to note that it has expanded beautifully to fit the wider dimensions of the Richard Rodgers. Seeing it once again, it's easy to forget that, only a few ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Steve: A Docu-Musical (The New York Neo-Futurists/4th Street Theatre)
The digital age facilitates a bizarre songwriting collaboration in Steve: A Docu-Musical. Colin Summers, a lanky, paper-thin charmer with floppy hair, a mustache from the '70s, and a slightly wicked gleam in his eye, ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Cymbeline (New York Shakespeare Festival/Delacorte Theater)
In a way, Riccardo Hernandez's set design for Cymbeline gives us a preview of director Daniel Sullivan's approach to this problematic Shakespeare tragicomedy. A raised circular deck, surrounded by audience ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Ruthless! (St. Luke's Theatre)
It's summer camp season, what with Mrs. Smith's Broadway Cat-Tacular having had its brief, gaudy hour Off Broadway and now a revival of Ruthless!, a musical spoof best described as The Bad Seed meets Gypsy ...
|
|
|
|
|
Theatre in Review: Summer Shorts 2015 Series B (59E59)
As usual, they're doing two editions of Summer Shorts at 59E59; too bad they only had enough good material for one. Series B features three plays, each one marked by a distinctly unpromising premise. The fact ...
|
