Horwitz and Williams perfectly match each others’ energy on stage. Indeed, at times it seems as if each is trying to one-up the other’s exaggerated mannerisms. In one scene, a famous artist might dip into nonsensical French phrase, only for an interviewer to ratchet it up further by over-emphasizing an accent on a word that doesn’t need it. One might not-so-subtly flirt by bringing up a mutual past lover while the other awkwardly deflects, only spurring on further attempts. Throughout each scene, the pair’s back-and-forth is consistently excellent. They have an easygoing chemistry that makes every scenario feel fresh. [more]
If only film star George Clooney and his co-script writer Grant Heslov had hired an actual playwright to adapt their acclaimed screenplay for the 2005 film "Good Night, and Good Luck." for the Broadway stage. What worked in close up in the film does not have the same effect on the huge stage of the Winter Garden Theatre. And while David Strathairn as Edward R Murrow in the film, the role now played by Clooney on Broadway, also seemed wooden and unemotional, his every flicker of emotion on his face was telegraphed through the extreme close ups of every frame. With its cast of 22 on a huge CBS studio set, most of the characters are undefined or unidentified. At times it is difficult to know who is talking or where their voices are coming from on the multileveled setting. [more]
Eric Bogosian’s "Humpty Dumpty" was first written 25 years ago and premiered at the McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, in 2002. At that time the idea of quarantining due to a local or national disaster seemed a fantasy. However, since then, we have all lived through the Covid Pandemic and what was inconceivable became our daily existence. Not only does Bogosian’s play seem tame now, it also seems predictable and dated. Director Ella Jane New does not help the script much by allowing the vapid characters to all seem one dimensional. Possibly with a satiric approach or powerhouse performances, the play might have something new to say to us as its entitled people show their true colors. [more]
Jack Serio directs a strong cast of seasoned actors whose personal chemistry gives the ensemble a solidly believable portrayal of their characters. Juan Castano is Edwin, a mid-30s man married to Christian, a man ten years older, believably played by Ryan Spahn. The two men are struggling with issues in their marriage when Margaret enters the picture. Julia Chan is Christian's "girlfriend" from high school. They have not communicated with each other in 20 years. [more]
The results of this updating are bold, and Andrews’ intellectual ambition is undeniable. At times, his revisions might seem questionable but when the production clicks, it strikes with a thrilling originality. The production pulses with an urgency often missing from more traditional revivals of "The Cherry Orchard," a play about people running out of time. The central conflict remains: Liubov, the bankrupt widow haunted by the ghosts of her past, returns to her family estate for the inevitable sale of the land that defines her family’s history. Practical solutions are needed, but neither she nor her hapless relatives can take decisive action. [more]
While most of the audience will probably not have graduated in the last ten years (though you never know), the play speaks to all of us about the closeness and personal relationships of our college years. Playwright Natalie Margolin knows how to create tension from hints casually dropped and director Jaki Bradley has created a cohesive cast who could have been together the last four years. "All Nighter" is one of the few plays set at a college that seems to come from the author’s own firsthand experiences. [more]
The new musical attempts to out Monty Python "Monty Python" by creating a full-length show and story in their style, although its origins also go back to British Music Hall where there is also much cross-dressing (i.e. men playing women and women playing men). Those who love Monty Python will have a great time; those who don’t may find the two hour and 30 minute show heavy going. The show is also Very British and a great many of the jokes and gags don’t land for American audiences. However, the hard working cast is impressive playing many roles each and Robert Hastie’s fast paced direction doesn’t give a lot of time to think about the antics on stage. [more]
"Remembrance" by Patricia GoodSon is a story about her journey, for more than a decade, in dealing with her mother's Alzheimer's disease. As directed by Joan Kane, it is told from the perspective of a woman working with a therapist to unravel the emotional impact of those years of caregiving. It is not about the impact of the disease on the person with it but on the effect on the caregiver. [more]
In "Amm(i)gone," Mansoor masterfully delves into the delicate nuances of cultural and personal differences, exploring the connections that bind us even in our diversity. Co-directed with Lyam B. Gabel, this meta-theatrical production—spanning a compact yet potent 80 minutes—recounts the journey of Mansoor and his mother as they embark on the project of translating "Antigone" into Urdu. Surrounded by designer Xotchil Musser’s evocative set of wooden cutouts and intricate mosaics, and serene candles for effect, Mansoor guides the audience through their creative process, blending dialogue, video and audio recordings, and projected imagery to weave a story that is both intimate and expansive. The production’s clever use of multimedia enhances the emotional weight of their shared task, inviting the audience to reflect on the complexities of language, family, and legacy. [more]
In fact, the play Harmon has written is mainly about the conflict between the grandmother and the mother. While we are never really certain why Ellen and Susan refuse to be in the same room, we come to know all the details of the relationship between Renée and Ellen from three sides. The most entertaining parts of this long one-act delineate the relationship between Joshua and his Auntie Mame-like grandmother who did not believe in age-appropriate events: taking him at age seven to see "Dances With Wolves," attending a Mapplethorpe exhibit (which he did not understand) at age nine, seeing Diana Rigg in "Medea" when he was ten, and a three-movie marathon during a snow day off from school: "Secrets and Lies," "Sling Blade" and "The English Patient." Joshua credits his grandmother with changing his life making him want to be a playwright after seeing "Medea." [more]
"The Trojans" effortlessly blends sharp, often hilarious high-school dialogue with an inventive and evocative score, creating a musical experience that feels both contemporary and nostalgic. The characters’ voices ring true to their age and environment, and their dialogue flows seamlessly into the show’s musical numbers. The soundtrack, crafted from cassette tape loops and vintage analog synths, infuses the production with an infectious energy, while also echoing the show's 1980s-inspired aesthetics. There are exceptional songs throughout the score but "Boys are Bad," a standout solo for Lucas (Daphne Always), not only delivers a memorable melody but also weaves in pointed commentary on masculinity—a theme that reverberates throughout the production. [more]
"Maybe Tomorrow," written by Max Mondi and directed by Chad Austin, is a play about such a place and the person who created it. Inspired by a true story, Austin directs a cast of two in an exploration of a person lost in the present and locked within a mental space defined by the four walls of a bathroom, a person mediating the outside world through a computer and contact with one human caregiver but unable to move from a world they have defined as "safe" into the unknown world beyond the walls of a room. [more]
The new version by Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe uses contemporary and spare language but has made several events more literal as if not trusting modern audiences. The director has made the same mistake starting the play as a rehearsal in which we see the opening scene three times ranging from devoid of emotion to accomplished, which is both ineffective and pointless as it does not help us into the world of the play. The thrust stage by set designer John Lee Beatty (a room in unpainted wood, a single dining room table and mismatched chairs and a wall of French doors into a conservatory) is as stripped down and as spare as the language, a fitting place for a drama of tragic proportions, but does not offset the one- dimensional acting. The bland costumes mainly in black or white by Jess Goldstein straddle both the 19th and 21st centuries, seeming to want to have it both ways, but suggesting neither. [more]
Peter Danish’s "Last Call" is a 90-minute confection of speculative daydreaming, inspired by a brief meeting between two of the most legendary conductors of the last century, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. Set in Vienna in 1988, in the sumptuous Blaue Bar of the Hotel Sacher, just before both men passed away, the play imagines a moment when the two giants of classical music, though not close friends, exchanged words. [more]
Even though the director, Rebecca Frecknall, honors most of the play’s dialogue, Blanche’s heartbreaking confession scene with Mitch (Dwane Walcott), her suitor, revealing the sad roots of her dysfunctional life, is truncated by several meaningful words; also, the play as written ends with the men arguing over a poker game as Stella quietly mourns in the arms of her landlady, Eunice (Janet Etuk, excellent). Here it is Stella’s mournful cries that bring the curtain down, distorting Williams’ message. [more]
While the characters do not change much, they roll through the years dealing with the various crises with various levels of success. However, the play is peppered with one liners and zingers that make this one of the most entertaining plays this season. Under the polished direction of Noah Himmelstein, Aaron and Doyle get a great deal of mileage from these jokes, not all of them new, but all of them hilarious. [more]
Elliott has directed too realistically, turning "Curse" into a sad melodrama, minus the magic. Maybe Shepard’s odd take on rural goings-on had more of a shocking appeal to sophisticated urban audiences back in the seventies before TV series about Yellowstone and Fargo, filled with their own weirdness, effaced the darkness of Shepard’s characters and plots. [more]
Bess Wohl’s latest play is the ambitious and engrossing "Liberation," her attempt to investigate the roots of the Women’s Liberation Movement back in the 1970s from a decidedly contemporary point of view. Calling it a “memory play,” she uses a narrator “Lizzie,” who tries to recreate the consciousness raising group her mother started back in 1970 in Ohio where she lived at the time. Complicating things for the viewer, Lizzie also plays her own mother (who also seems to be named “Lizzie”) in the flashbacks, showing us seven meeting from the many the group had in their weekly encounters back in the seventies. She also interviews the survivors now in the present about what they recall of those days as her mother has recently passed away and she is sorry she didn’t ask her more questions. [more]
With the same preternatural gusto she brought to "Wicked" and "If/Then," Idina Menzel is back on Broadway in "Redwood" to, once again, confront musicalized trauma, this time as Jesse, a middle-aged art gallery owner from New York who, after her twentysomething son Spencer (Zachary Noah Piser) dies of a drug overdose, manically speeds across the country to climb an exceptionally tall tree. Coinciding with the show's deterministic title, that's where grief pulls Jesse: to a California redwood to grapple high above the ground with soul-crushing sorrow while having nothing to hold onto except for the healing virtue of a trite metaphor. Though it's, of course, easy to sympathize with Jesse's brutal ordeal, unfortunately the creative team responsible for Redwood never takes Jesse as seriously as her suffering, instead relying on Menzel's soaring vocals to defy gravity despite the burden of a leaden score and book. [more]
Joy Behar and a rotating cast of female celebrities find humor in divorce in "My First Ex-Husband," a new show at the MMAC Theater. Directed by Randal Myler, the evening chronicles tales of failed relationships through a series of hilarious monologues. The cast of four trade off, each delivering two vignettes about men who turned out not to be “the one.” "My First Ex-Husband" is witty, quick and ceaselessly funny. [more]
When the audience enters the theater, they are asked to fill out a slip of paper with one word that has been on their mind. Part of the show is made up of audience participation and these slips of paper come into play. Another part of the show written by DePonto and Josh Koenigsberg recounts DePonto’s life with mentalism, his childhood, his memories, his studies and his discoveries about the mind. He begins by discussing the “memory palace,” the way in which the mind catalogs our memories. The remarkable set by Sibyl Wickersheimer which is revealed when a curtain is opened is a wall of 146 lockers which resemble the way the mind works. DePonto opens some of these and removes items while some of the lockers seem to have a mind of their own and open without his doing anything. [more]
The York Theater Company--which has had only two Producing Artistic Directors in its 55-year history--has chosen Joseph Hayward and Debra Walton to head the company for now, following the recent resignation of longtime head James Morgan. [more]
“Glitter and Be Gay” is not just a Leonard Bernstein aria from Candide, but the perfect description of the campily funny new musical "Death Becomes Her" which just hit the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre like a friendly tornado. Double entendres explode in all directions. Take the song titled “For the Gaze,” as a tongue-in-cheek example. Based on the 1992 film of the same name, the creators of the musical—Marco Pennette (book), Julia Mattison and Noel Carey (music and lyrics)—have taken the smarmy, star-studded film and turned it into an entertaining, equally star-studded musical. [more]
Now, director Jamie Lloyd has taken the clunky—but entertaining—Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Sunset Blvd." (1993) and stripped it of all realistic scenery—and a few songs—hoping to get to the nitty-gritty of its Hollywood characters and period with enormous projections which suggest an expressionistic silent film. The results are decidedly mixed mostly due to a failure to settle on a tone plus some head-scratching additions that have nothing to do with the story. Lloyd, most recently represented by his dreary, stripped-down A Doll’s House and an equally spare production of Pinter’s Betrayal, has shepherded this production with a combination of brilliance and self-indulgence. [more]
The lead of the show is film star Eddie Redmayne, who won the Olivier Award for his performance as the Emcee in the London production and is also Tony nominated for this show. Director Rebecca Frecknall’s staging (with her British production team) is imaginative and innovative, quite unlike any Cabaret you have seen before. The new Sally Bowles is Scottish American actress Gayle Rankin who appeared as Fraulein Kost on Broadway in Sam Mendes’ 2014 Broadway revival of "Cabaret" which appeared at Studio 54. Frecknall’s interpretation is more dissolute and dissipated than most versions so that when American writer Clifford Bradshaw arrives in Berlin to get material for a novel the city is already deep in the throes of degradation and degeneracy when he meets second-rate singer Sally Bowles as the party girl par excellence and lead female singer of the Kit Kat Club. [more]
The new musical "Hell’s Kitchen" has made a successful transition to Broadway from The Public Theater and the new version seems to have corrected some of the flaws from before. This juke-box musical with a score by singer/songwriter Alicia Keys and a book by playwright Kristoffer Diaz (The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity), is a big ambitious show, a love letter to New York, and inspired by the coming of age story of Keys’ 17th year. It is no longer over-miked by sound designer Gareth Owen, characters seemed to have deepened, the plot seems to have gelled into a distinct coming of age story, and the redesigned set by Robert Brill has moved much of the action closer to the audience. It is a crowd pleaser with the iconic Keys’ songs “Girl on Fire,” “Fallin’” and “Empire State of Mind.” Excitingly performed by its cast made up of a handful of characters and a large ensemble of 15 singer/dancers, its most famous leads Shoshana Bean and Brandon Victor Dixon as Ali’s parents are given less to do as this is the daughter’s story. In the leading role of 17-year-old Ali, making their professional Broadway debut, is Maleah Joi Moon who proves to be an exciting musical personality who can hold a show such as this together. [more]
As for previous theatrical takes on the classic Jazz Age novel--and a few cinematic ones, too--the understandable allure of Fitzgerald's breathtaking sentences has represented a deathly siren's song for those tempted to dramatically interpret Fitzgerald by emulating him. Adopting a much smarter tack, book writer Kait Kerrigan avoids crashing into the tony shores of Long Island, where the story is mostly set, by remembering that imitation is not only the sincerest form of flattery but also usually very boring. Kerrigan still dutifully opens ("In my younger and more vulnerable years...") and closes ("So we beat on, boats against the current...") with the literary hits, also leaving in place the unhappy character arc of the novel's Midwestern narrator Nick Carraway (Noah J. Ricketts), but she lets the transplanted naif enjoy a friskier journey arriving at the disillusionment that he eventually feels from witnessing the cruel machinations of the East Coast elite. [more]
The cast of "The Outsiders: A New Musica"l bring their own substantial charisma to the stage, but it's been dramaturgically constrained by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine's book, which sacrifices poetry for explanation. That unfortunate choice is abetted by a score from Levine, Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance (the latter two comprising the folk duo Jamestown Revival) that, influenced by "Oklahoma!" instead of pure sentiment, is far too Rodgers and Hammerstein, when it should have aimed for Rodgers and Hart. [more]
No one should be sacrosanct or above satirical treatment, not even our heroes. Everyone has feet of clay. Cole Escola in their huge hit "Oh, Mary!" at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Greenwich Village certainly believes this. Their over-the-top, irreverent take on Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth is so scurrilously sexual that it is difficult to avoid guffawing at their magnificent awfulness helped by Escola’s constant silly shtick and blatant playing to the audience, all of whom seemed to be having fun. [more]
"Saw The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw" begins with a picture perfect recreation of the disgusting bathroom from the first movie in the iconic horror franchise. Then the puppet (Billy) shows up, wishing us a hearty "Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome." (Note: this review has spoilers for "Saw" the movie as well as "Saw The Musical.") The show is impressively done with a cast of three (with the exception of Detective Tapp, played via voiceover by Donnel Johnson). Danny Durr plays Gordon and Zepp, Adam Parbhoo plays Adam and Gordon's daughter Diana, and on opening night Gabrielle Goodman played Amanda, Ali and Jigsaw. Goodman in particular stands out with a lovely voice and excellent dance skills, but all three turn in solid performances. (Durr's wig is so good it deserves its own program credit.) [more]
