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Theatre in Review: Cymbeline (NAATCO/Lynn F. Angelson Theatre)

Oddly, Stephen Brown-Fried's staging of William Shakespeare's nuttiest play is at its best when soft goods are involved. Very early on, members of the company remove large swaths of fabric from the elaborate iron bed at ...

Theatre in Review: Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Penguin Rep Theatr and Shadowland Stages at 59E59)

I've always thought of Ken Ludwig as the theatre's chief carpenter, a solid constructionist of farces like Lend Me a Tenor, and musicals like Crazy for You. (I'm not being patronizing; you try building an airy, ...

Theatre in Review: Radio Downtown: Radical '70s Artists Live on Air (The Civilians/59E59)

"Where would we be without Marcel Duchamp, huh, and his ready-mades?" How often have I thought that? Haven't we all? All right, none of us have, but it is exactly the kind of kooky, yet arresting, statement that makes up the text of R ...

Theatre in Review: Show/Boat: A River (Target Margin Theatre/Skirball Center)

The Cotton Blossom has been put into dry dock, stripped of its appurtenances, and its motor subjected to an examination. That's the approach taken in Show/Boat: A River, which probes the landmark musical for...what? Take it ...

Theatre in Review: Old Cock (mala voadora/59E59)

I can hear you smirking at the title; indeed, the production begins with a recorded announcement welcoming us to Robert Schenkkan's Old Cock, followed by a pause for a laugh. To be clear, however, this is a work of ...

Theatre in Review: The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux] (Fourth Street Theatre)

The only thing better than one Joshua William Gelb is two of him. Or three. Or four. Or...well, I finally lost count during this giddy adaptation of a Stanislaw Lem story, which blends live performance and video to hilarious effect. ...

Theatre in Review: Gypsy (Majestic Theatre)

Madam Rose once again seizes the stage, in what seems to be a once-every-decade-or-so ritual. The role has become an irresistible challenge for top musical-theatre leading ladies, even if the out-of-left-field choices (Angela Lansbury, ...

Theatre in Review: Blind Runner (Under the Radar/St. Ann's Warehouse)

The fashion these days is for stripped-down productions, but few are as purposeful in this regard as Blind Runner. Written and staged by the Iranian theatre artist Amir Reza Koohestani, it is elegantly spare, ...

Theatre in Review: All In: Comedy About Love (Hudson Theatre)

One way of understanding this quizzical, oddly titled, evening is to note that Simon Rich, its author, is identified in his program bio as "a Thurber Prize-winning humorist." This is telling, because All In: Comedy About Love

Theatre in Review: Cult of Love (Second Stage Theater/Hayes Theater)

"We are in the middle of a meltdown," announces Ginny, the matriarch presiding over a houseful of psychological basket cases in Cult of Love. Not that this is anything new: In the last year or so, the Hayes Theater has become ...

Theatre in Review: Eureka Day (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)

In Eureka Day's funniest scene -- which is to say the funniest scene in town -- the eminent cast of Jonathan Spector's play is upstaged by David Bengali's projection design. It's intentional, of course, and the ...

Theatre in Review: Pen Pals (Theatre at St. Clement's)

At first glance, Pen Pals looks alarmingly conventional: Drawing on the model of A. R. Gurney's Love Letters, it uses a reader's theatre format and revolving cast to delve into the decades-long correspondence of two ...

Theatre in Review: A Guide for the Homesick (DR2 Theatre)

A pickup in an Amsterdam hotel becomes a powerful reckoning in this cunningly plotted two-hander with psychological thriller undertones. Teddy, a Black American financier ostensibly on holiday, gets together with Jeremy, a young Bostonian ...

Theatre in Review: Elf (Marquis Theatre)

This Christmas season, the people at the Marquis Theatre are giving us the gift of professionalism. Elf is that rare thing, a clever, unpretentious, strictly-for-fun entertainment that knows exactly how to win over an ...

Theatre in Review: The Blood Quilt (Lincoln Center Theatre/Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater)

Katori Hall has given us so many different kinds of plays -- among them the historical drama The Mountaintop, the musical Tina, the religious investigation Our Lady of Kibeho, and the groundbreaking study of ...

Theatre in Review: This is My Favorite Song (Playwrights Horizons)

I am grateful to Francesca D'Uva for introducing the concept of "loud smiling." At the top of her deceptively casual evening of comic confessions. she says, "I used to have this teacher in high school who used to smile so hard that ...

Theatre in Review: Welcome to the Big Dipper (York Theatre Company/Theatre at St. Jean)

Banish all thoughts of outer space: The Big Dipper is a hotel and nightclub on the verge of closing forever until it gets a surge in business thanks to a monster blizzard. The extreme weather afflicting the greater Buffalo area forces Joan ...

Theatre in Review: Babe (The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center)

Babe wastes no time setting up its generational conflict: Gus, a recording industry legend of several decades standing, is interviewing the bubbly, twentysomething Katherine for a starter position at his company. A true ...

Theatre in Review: The Merchant of Venice (Arlekin Players at Classic Stage Company)

Often cited as one of William Shakespeare's "problem plays," The Merchant of Venice is in fact a remarkably supple piece. It can absorb a multitude of interpretations, which is perhaps one reason it gets done so often ...

Theatre in Review: Death Becomes Her (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre)

How do you like your comic divas? Death Becomes Her offers you quite a choice, which I bet you'll be hard-pressed to make. First up is Megan Hilty