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Dixon Place

White Wave: 2024 SoloDuo Dance Festival

February 16, 2024

The host company, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company ended the short, well-run program with the longest work, the three-part “Eternal NOW.”  It also had the most complex costumes, geometrically shaped and brightly-colored two-part outfits designed by Sarah Cubbage. Putting her seven dancers through their modern dance paces, Kim displayed skill at handling the cast, pitting soloist against groups and each other as they moved to an alternately slow and fast score by Marco Cappelli.   She is someone the other other dancemakers on this lineup could look up to. [more]

Ernie’s Secret Life

January 11, 2024

The show is well presented but lacks a clear narrative, leaving viewers with more questions than answers. Is it about a man's journey to self-discovery or an exploration into a confusing haze of fantasy and hallucination brought on by a mental breakdown? The added storylines used to illustrate narrative points do not clarify the overall thematic structure of the production but add layers to the mystery of Ernie’s mental state. If you like theater, even with the limitations in exposition, it is worth the effort to experience a production outside of what people typically consider dramatic staging. [more]

The Picher Project

October 13, 2023

"The Picher Project" is a bluegrass and folk-infused musical conceived and directed by Quentin Madia, with music, book, and lyrics by Madia and Lauren Pelaia. This show is based on real-life events that are not only a part of Oklahoma's history but also of the social and industrial history of the United States. Through words and songs, the story is told of how this gentle, quiet, rural area became the center of lead and zinc mining in North America, only to end up dead as the number one most polluted place in the United States. [more]

The Village! A Disco Daydream

February 10, 2023

Dixon Place, a mecca for LGBTQ culture in the quickly gentrifying Lower East Side, is offering a return of the campy play, "The Village! A Disco Daydream," written by Nora Burns, a dizzy, sometimes sad, revisit to the pre-AIDS seventies, an era of sexy go-go dancers, sugar daddies, hunky hustlers and eager newbies.  First produced last fall, its popularity propelled this current revival. [more]

The Legend of the Waitress & The Robber

May 27, 2022

Written by Renee Philippi, this witty mockery of authoritarianism is derived from Friedrich Schiller’s play "The Robbers" and the Korean novel "The Story of Hong Gildong." Composer and lyricist Lewis Flinn’s smart original score joyously recall’s Kurt Weil’s galvanizing melodies and Bertolt Brecht’s biting lyrics. It’s rousingly rendered by musical directors Jacob Kerzner and Hee Eun Kim. [more]

Specially Processed American Me

February 9, 2022

Who knew that SPAM has figured so importantly in Korean and Korean-American cuisines?  Jaime Sunwoo’s "Specially Processed American Me" tells that story and much more. "Specially Processed American Me"—check out those first letters!—uses SPAM as a metaphor to explore the huge subject of the Korean War, SPAM and her own intimate, moving autobiography as a Korean-American. [more]

PackRat

February 3, 2020

Writer and director Renee Philippi’s appealing scenario is simple, heartfelt and dramatic. It’s realized by Ms. Philippi’s supreme command of stagecraft that revels in theatricality. Designer Carlo Adinolfi’s awesome cutouts, handheld and shadow puppet creations individualize the animals with striking expressive details. Mr. Adinolfi’s stylized set pieces thoroughly convey the look of a rustic environment and his arresting projections visualize varying locales and the animals’ dreams. The production is enhanced by the perfection of Eric Nightengale’s atmospheric lighting and sound design. Composer Lewis Flinn’s energizing original music veers from jaunty to appropriately moody as it complements the piece’s actions and emotions. [more]

Speed Queen

March 9, 2018

Hilariously impersonating Marlene Dietrich while playing an accordion, singing and trotting about, is one of the grand highlights of performer Phoebe Legere’s "Speed Queen."  Spanning from W.W. I to the present, it’s a madcap lesbian historical and musical fantasia about Joe Carstairs, for which Legere has written the book and original score.  [more]

ON THE TOWN…. with CHIP DEFFAA , November 8, 2017

November 11, 2017

Memo to Broadway producers: You need to do everything you can to hook the next generation while they're young. I got hooked on theater because I saw the greatest performers, the greatest shows, from when I was very young. It would be very hard for a young person of today to see as much great theater as I did, growing up. When they read about some tickets going for a thousand bucks apiece, they might well conclude that theater isn't meant to be for them, but mostly for rich older folk. I have some friends who work in the theater who say they can't afford to take their families to shows. And that worries me. [more]

Lucky (Atlas Circus Company)

August 19, 2017

Watching Evans being bossed around by the tall beanpole Russel Norris, whether in an office job, cleaning a park or waiting on tables, was to watch classic comedy performed with brilliant, but invisible timing. (Credit choreographer Tyler Holobaski for his seamless contributions.) [more]

Virtual Memory

August 9, 2017

Mark Finley, the director, knew enough to keep the play charmingly low-key with just enough animated physicality to illustrate the story.  Finley clearly understood all of Strothmann’s best qualities as a storyteller and how to keep him on his toes as an actor and memoirist.  [more]

The Unwritten Law

August 2, 2017

Writer and co-creator Chesney Snow is also the performer.  Mr. Snow appeared in the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of the a capella musical "In Transit" as the narrator.  Snow is also a prominent beatboxer.  That’s an art form that replicates the sound of percussion by using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.  In The Unwritten Law, the African-American Snow mines the tragic circumstances of his life and those close to him. [more]

To T, or Not to T

July 9, 2017

While wearing an all black ensemble of a cap, T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, D’Lo commandingly holds forth with plentiful pop culture references in 70 minutes.  Possessing the powers of an accomplished stand-up comedian he expresses the searing and hilarious details of his transgender journey in an often rapid, hip-hop style alternating with a measured pace.  Audience members are occasionally addressed directly with riotous results. [more]

Maps For A War Tourist

June 11, 2017

Created by the documentarian theatre company Sister Sylvester, "Maps for a War Tourist" was intended to be a biographical exploration of the life of Deniz Karacagil. A former Turkish art student, Ms. Karacagil was arrested three years ago for wearing a red scarf outside. That was interpreted by the authorities as a provocative gesture in support of socialism. [more]

Turning Page

February 28, 2017

Much is made of her numerous Oscar nominations, and this reaches a wonderfully presented climax. She finally wins the award for Best Actress on her eighth nomination for the 1985 screen adaptation of Horton Foote’s play, "The Trip to Bountiful." “Is that per week?” “No. That’s for the whole thing,” was Geraldine Page’s agent’s incredulous reaction to the low salary that was offered for it. [more]

Wonder/Through the Looking Glass Houses

December 8, 2016

The final sections of this theater/dance work were more effective than the earlier scenes and they included a game show knockoff call “The Price is Right to Be a Queen,” a rigged quiz show which included rather strained audience participation. (Throughout the work the performers zipped into and out of the audience, touching, tweaking and grabbing surprised theatergoers!). The famous “Chess Match” led directly to a totally naked, well choreographed pile-up of bodies reaching for a shiny crown, just out of reach. When Alice grabbed the crown it had a real feeling of triumph. [more]

My Old Man (And Other Stories)

October 10, 2016

Gentili and Davis riotously appear together in a confrontational scene that’s similar in style to one of Tennessee Williams’ outlandish later works written during his 1960’s drug fueled “Stoned Age.” It culminates in an outrageous catfight right out of the campy 1960’s 'Batman" television series. [more]

Blossom

September 13, 2016

Lott employs skillful puppetry, complementary video projections, innovative lighting and novel sound design to show the transitions between the present and make-believe. Five puppeteers (Robert Stevenson, Jamie Agnello, Rowan Magee, Chelsea Fryer, and Sam Jay Gold) carefully and exactingly portray the slow but sure disintegration of Blossom's mind. Real-time and imaginary time are each given their own set pieces through which Blossom explores memories and in-the-moment relationships. [more]

HYPERBOLIC! (The Last Spectacle)

July 10, 2016

It is August 11, 2033, and there’s a wild party happening because the world is ending. That’s the setup of the exuberant one-hour multimedia fantasia "HYPERBOLIC! (The Last Spectacle)." This often very funny and eerie Downtown mash up of the styles of Bob Fosse and Baz Luhrmann is crossed with dashes of enigmatic Sci-Fi and drag queen sensibilities. [more]

The White Stag Quadrilogy

February 20, 2016

An element of "The White Stag Quadrilogy" which cannot go overlooked is the amount of dancing incorporated into the production. In lieu of proper production techniques, Wolfert and company instead choose to depict stags parading across the desert, or eagles flying through the sky, by way of “interpretive” dancing. Enlisting the staff of the Plaza Michelle for this purpose, the dancing trio of Derek Smith, Michelle Uranowitz, and Jaime Wright are together a band of merry misfits who revel in their undulating, gyrating, style of dance (choreographed in hilariously gratuitous fashion by Chloe Kernaghan). Referred to on multiple occasions by Wolfert as “trained professionals,” the self-aware ensemble is a recurring aspect of the play which is, time and time again—and again, hilarious. [more]

Quantum Joy

December 7, 2015

Victor Morales enters and introduces himself and notes that we are at Dixon Place. Mr. Morales who created this piece is stocky, bald, bespectacled, and possessed of a quirky everyman presence. For just under an hour, he delivers an amusing lecture with serious overtones enhanced by the illustrative projections. [more]

Whistleblower

September 18, 2015

Dendy uses his fertile imagination to tell Manning’s story beginning with his repressed childhood, on through enlisting in the Army where he was trained in computer technology. He brings in homophobia, prejudice of the transgendered, legal bureaucracy, the propaganda machinery, etc., with a wit and a cartoony, over-the-top sensibility, all with a core of sadness and anger, particularly at the absurdly long sentence that Chelsea received. [more]

POUND

July 16, 2015

Wearing a red plaid shirt, black shorts, and black combat boots, the acclaimed lesbian performance artist Marga Gomez vibrantly barrels through her solo show "POUND" with unflagging comic energy. Lasting 90 minutes, it’s a rambling and exasperating semi-autobiographical fantasia that has laughs but doesn’t satisfyingly cohere. [more]

The Flatiron Hex

May 27, 2015

Godwin's talent in seamlessly operating the puppets is an impressive sight and the use of old-fashioned materials, such as a slide projector to represent a lab was a nice choice in this age of advanced technology. The classic "mad scientist" imagery is perfect for evoking historic New York. Some choices are definitely not for the squeamish and audiences should prepare themselves for certain sights and sounds that will definitely prompt a reaction. [more]

Interview with James Godwin, Puppeteer

May 19, 2015

A 2014 Jim Henson Award recipient, Godwin utilizes remarkable puppets, masks & mystical neo-noir visuals to tell a story set in a parallel, near-future NYC filled with ghosts, elemental spirits & evil demigods. THE FLATIRON HEX will play six performances only – May 15th, 16th, 22th, 23th, 29th, and 30th at 7:30PM, at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie Street). Tickets are $16 in advance, $20 at the door, and $12 for seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.dixonplace.org or by calling 866-811-4111. [more]

The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey

February 23, 2015

The fabric of the community of a small Jersey shore town is torn apart in the wake of the mysterious disappearance of young Leonard Pelkey. At first this one-man show, written and performed by James Lecesne, follows the lines of every crime drama you have seen. Yet, "The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey" proves to be much more than superficial intrigue and ends up challenging the very conscience of society. The standing ovation and second curtain calls this show has been receiving in previews are already setting this piece of theater apart. [more]

Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2023