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The Good and The True

September 4, 2014

Strands of barbed wire run across the stage and remain so throughout the performance. The stage is divided by a train track. The walls are bare brick. The lighting often shifts to varying shades of darkness. Luggage is strewn around. Smoke flows briefly at one point. Scenes are punctuated by the sound of Czechoslovakian singing. The actors wear basic black clothes. Director, scenic and costume designer Daniel Hrbek masterfully creates powerful images. Horrors are conveyed by imaginatively utilizing very simple elements. Mr. Hrbek also succeeds in staging and pacing the action arrestingly along with the actors. [more]

Between Riverside and Crazy

August 1, 2014

This breakfast chat is in the opening of scene of Between Riverside and Crazy, by Stephen Adly Guirgis. In a series of plays that include Our Lady of 121st Street, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train and The Motherf***er with the Hat, Mr. Guirgis has become known for affectionately dramatizing the lives of passionate, off beat, New York City characters with inimitably colorful dialogue. [more]

Gertrude: The Cry

August 1, 2014

The PTP/NYC company are directed to carry on adeptly, fervently, with considerable aplomb in Mark Evanchos' monumental setting, amid some of the best and lavish costume changes – by Danielle Nieves --ever seen Off-Broadway, including Gertrude's, most of the time, that is. [more]

Varekai: Cirque du Soliel

July 30, 2014

The title is a Romany word meaning "wherever." The narrative framing device is the Greek myth of Icarus, imagining that of instead of drowning in the sea after flying too close to the sun, he lands in an enchanted forest populated by exotic creatures. [more]

Pentecost

July 28, 2014

Director Cheryl Faraone knows that to keep the ideas going it is vital to have her characters be seen as human as possible so that we are not confronted with stereotypes and agit-prop, so that we become invested, begin to put our own values on the line. I particularly liked Jonathan Tindle, Alex Draper, Nina Silver, Lawrence Nathanson and Matthew Ball. A unique, priceless artifact, a creation of the finest in the human psyche, precious to the world, versus a gypsy baby, a gypsy mother, a Bosnian, a Kurd, a Palestinian Kuwaiti, an Azeri, a Mozambican, an Afghan, a Ukrainian, a Russian, how can we decide? [more]

Clinton: The Musical

July 28, 2014

A grimacing hyper actor in a cheap white wig carries on as Newt Gingrich. Kenneth Starr strips down to a leather harness, mesh and leather underwear. Eleanor Roosevelt appears periodically in a hat and a fur, and says "Oh, shit." Al Gore is there as a life-sized cardboard cutout. [more]

Enter at Forest Lawn

July 27, 2014

Author Roberts plays Jack, the megalomaniacal producer/writer of a TV hit about a charming, witty, womanizing uncle who runs off the rails regularly. [more]

The Qualification of Douglas Evans

July 25, 2014

Presenting himself thus, in the character of Douglas Evans, with such vigorous, non-stop awfulness, takes courage as well as rampant ego and a chilling comment on his, the actor/playwright's own life, which might well have been written and delivered with an ironic god-awful humor and given the audience something to care about but Ahonen sticks to his guns. [more]

Pump Boys and Dinettes

July 17, 2014

Jordan Dean, Hunter Foster, Randy Redd and Lorenzo Wolff are The Pump Boys, and Mamie Parris and Katie Thompson are The Dinettes. All are not only terrific and personable performers, giving charmingly realized characterizations, but all wonderfully play instruments as well. [more]

Cloned!

July 10, 2014

Set in New York City in 1993, young, good-natured, genius physicist Wally's experiments in teleportation, first run amok when his pet pigeon (named after Stone's Basic Instinct character) is cloned instead of being transported. [more]

Clown Bar

July 2, 2014

Due to the cleverly written script by Adam Szymkowicz, the show is such a marvelously detailed and novel spoof of the genre. The inspired old-time show business score is a grand collaboration between Mr. Szymkowicz, composer and additional lyricist Adam Overett and musical director and additional composer Ian Axness. [more]

Holler If Ya Hear Me

June 30, 2014

The original book by August Wilson protégé and collaborator Todd Kreidler is in the fiery style of his mentor. It's also in the old tradition of social problem plays and films. In addition, there are noticeable similarities to West Side Story. Though the plot and characters often seem familiar, Mr. Kreidler has very successfully crafted a framework that everyone else involved builds upon, resulting in a bold and novel take on the subject. [more]

When We Were Young and Unafraid

June 30, 2014

Yes, it's TV soap trap. Yes, it's really good movie. And yes, it's some of the best theater, because it's the purest entertainment, storytelling, the hardest and the easiest thing to do, all in one. People are endlessly fascinating. All you need is Sarah Treem to let you in. [more]

Marilyn Maye: The 14th Annual Kathryn W. Stein Memorial Concert

June 30, 2014

"I've been a pauper, a poet—no! That's not right! How does it go?" she feigned confusion as the audience called out lyrics before she launched into a rollicking "That's Life." Having seen the original cast of My Fair Lady, she was transfixed at observing Rex Harrison on the street soon after and "stalked him" she recounted before singing a touching "I've Grown Accustomed to His Face" and a jazzy "On the Street Where You Live." [more]

These Troubled Times

June 23, 2014

Director Jennifer Ortega does a masterful job of staging all of the comedy and seriousness as well as getting sharp performances from the cast. Concept designer Moira Shaughnessy's work includes the stark slides above the playing area that depict the lush Florida scenery as well as grisly situations. [more]

Broadway by the Year: The Broadway Musicals of 1990 – 2014

June 23, 2014

Two sensational sequences were dances from Forever Tango and Swing! Mark Stuart and Mindy Wallace breathtakingly did a super sensual "Libertango," climaxing with him tossing and catching her a few times. "Don't try that at home," joked Siegel. "Sing, Sing, Sing" appeared in Swing! and Fosse, both in 1999, and was aggressively and euphorically tapped and choreographed by charismatic Jimmy Sutherland. [more]

The Zombies: A Musical

June 18, 2014

Scenically the show is quite proficient, ingeniously using simple props with well-conceived wall projections and displaying funny animations and representing the locations of the town. A great detail is the reappearing small scurrying roach in Pedro's Café. Structurally the show is problematic. The second act is packed with action and revelations but at over two hours with intermission, it all feels too long, the length diluting its effectiveness. [more]

Power Plays

June 16, 2014

The obvious initial reaction without taking into context their mission is that the plays deal with or lend power in some way, together or separately to the characters, to the audience. That is, of course, the primary goal, usually. Not, however, in this case. [more]

And If You Lose Your Way, or A Food Odyssey

June 15, 2014

Scenic designer Carolyn Mraz, lighting designer Mike Inwood and sound designer Will Pickens creatively utilize the expansive space. Their contributions to this minimalist stylized spectacle very effectively renders the farm, thrilling battle scenes, a galley ship with watery sound effects, a Trojan horse, cooking areas and a television studio for a culinary show. Brooke Cohen's artful costumes have a delightfully timeless rustic quality, adding to the visual splendor. [more]

The Anthem

June 14, 2014

This campy extravaganza channels the spirit, tone and sound of past offbeat edgy musicals: an appropriate subtitle for it would be Ayn Rand Superstar. [more]

New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival

June 11, 2014

two interactive multimedia installation pieces by electroacoustic composer and kinetic sculptor, Gary DiBenedetto. Together, Fifteen Words a Minute and The Little Woman were presented under the title Tools of Exploited Women, a mini-exhibit in the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (June 2-8, 2014). [more]

Waking in New York

June 8, 2014

The three sopranos, Compassion, Freedom I and Freedom II, whether singing alone or in various combinations, functioned as the voices of Ginsberg's muses, embodying individual threads of Ginsberg's philosophical preoccupations and convictions. [more]

Double Crossed: The Ballad of Rodrigo

June 6, 2014

Much of the action takes place in a greasy spoon run by cheery and kindhearted Sally. Underworld figures, a fast-talking reporter, G-Men, honest and crooked cops, a double-crossing dame and the conflicted hero gather there to conspire and eat grub. The author vividly renders all of these typical characters with attributes and personalities true to the ones encountered in hard-boiled movie yarns. [more]

Gotham Chamber Opera: The Raven

June 5, 2014

The understanding of music as an exploration of the shifting relationship of sound and silence, of creation and emptiness echoes Poe's purposes in The Raven: the story of a love lost and never to be recovered is also an exploration of constantly shifting experiences of discovery and loss, hope and despair, communion and isolation, life and death. [more]

Megan Hilty at the Café Carlyle

June 3, 2014

“For years I walked by this place and saw all the fancy people going in. It’s a dream come true to be here,” said Megan Hilty during her wonderfully eclectic debut cabaret show at the Café Carlyle. [more]

The Diorama

June 3, 2014

A diorama presents an obvious simulacrum of life at some period. The closest thing here is a simulacrum of a simulacrum. With embellishments by authors Jennifer Brown Stone and David S. Stone that took over whatever concept they had, presumably something to do with when a loony tune becomes a flat out loon and how to tell the difference. This is dangerous territory for experienced authors. The authors have rushed in. [more]

A Fable

June 1, 2014

Playwright David Van Asselt's is set "Somewhere, almost anywhere, below the equator." It feels like an academically imagined recreation of something that would have played at LaMaMa in 1967 for a thesis project. Debatably borrowing from Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, The Living Theatre, Candide, Urinetown and The Cradle Will Rock, it's a wearying odyssey. [more]

The Collegiate Chorale: David Lang’s battle hymns

May 26, 2014

David Lang's forty-five minute long piece is divided into five movements, all a cappella, with the exception of the fourth movement in which a snare drum is played throughout. Three of the five movements the first, third and fifth use Stephen Foster (1826-1864) song texts; the text of the second movement is Lang's adaptation of Civil War soldier Sullivan Ballou's letter to his wife, a now famous document that encapsulates the ways in which the war shredded domestic lives; the text of the fourth movement is Lincoln's core statement about both identity and citizenship, As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. [more]

The Essential Straight & Narrow

May 26, 2014

Shifting abruptly from flashbacks to a form of the present, we follow Jo, a young woman formerly a folk/country musician and now an actor. Periodically she is shown reading from and trying to memorize a script indicating that she's preparing for a role, seemingly in a television police drama. Much of the action takes place in 1974 in a rundown New Mexico wood-paneled motel room where an estranged trio of country western performers has gathered to launch a reunion tour. [more]

Mary Poppins

May 26, 2014

Director Richard Stafford thus has more opportunity to zip Mary Poppins about in the air at the WBT, much to the delight of an audience of thrilled children and their handlers. He also keeps his show moving as briskly as possible with clever use of cast members whisking about the ingenious settings by Steve Loftus. Derek Lockwood, costume designer, keeps them even busier in a wild array of constant changes. [more]

Broadway by the Year: The Broadway Musicals of 1965 – 1989

May 26, 2014

"For many of us this was our golden age," said creator, writer and host Scott Siegel in his introduction that for many present devotees of the art form that this evening's presentation was very meaningful as this was the era in which they came of age seeing many of these shows in their original productions and they are quite appreciative of them. [more]
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