By Samuel L. Leiter . . . If one of the purposes of theatre can be said to be communion, the sense of shared emotional and intellectual response to an event, then the experience of watching Thoughts of a Colored Man certainly fits the description. Keenan...
by Sandi Durell . . . Born Stephen Joshua Sondheim, the great songwriter died unexpectedly on Friday November 26 at his home in Roxbury, Ct. at the age of 91 as announced by publicist Rick Miramontez and Aaron Meier of O&M/DKC, thru his Texas based attorney and...
By Sandi Durell . . . This topical play about racism, Trouble in Mind, by Alice Childress, currently part of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s new season, is a play within a play. It took 66 years to reach Broadway (the play written in 1955) because the then white...
by Yani Perez . . . The Dark Outside by Bernard Kops, directed by Jack Serio, presented by Theater for the New City this November, addresses familial issues and the need for healing and unification. The play is centered on the traditional family structure of a...
By Sandi Durell . . . Ah the allure of becoming a film star! It’s the same in Lagos, Nigeria (set in the 1990’s when the film industry was hopping) as it is in Hollywood. MCC’s Newman Mills Theater finds Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls: or the African Mean Girls Play)...
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . As I left Off-Broadway’s New World Stages, where the Red Bull Theater is reviving The Alchemist, Ben Jonson’s Jacobean comedy of 1610, two reviewers I know signaled to me their delight with what they’d just seen. I guiltily acknowledged my...
The much talked about Diana opened at the Longacre Theatre on West 48th Street last night, November 17. Theater Pizzazz’ Magda Katz was on the scene to capture photos of theater’s royalty who attended on the red carpet and at the after party at Bryant Park Grill. The...
By JK Clarke Corruption takes many forms, but one of the most horrifying is when government officials join forces with corporations (in either cost-cutting or money-grab scenarios) and endanger the lives and well-being of the citizens they are tasked with protecting....
By Carol Rocamora . . . Have you ever found yourself still laughing at a play you saw a day or two ago, or even longer? Not a full-throated laugh, not a chuckle, but a tickle you feel at the back of your throat that comes from watching a play by Ionesco, say, or...
By Marilyn Lester . . . Paul Osborn’s foxy light comedy, Morning’s at Seven, has been a durable classic since its debut in 1940. This latest revival by The Peccadillo Theater Company demonstrates why, with Director Dan Wackerman smartly steering a remarkable cast...
Monday night, November 16, 2021, the new revival of Stephen Sondheim's and Marianne Elliott's Company celebrated its first performance back on Broadway following the COVID-19 pandemic, with a special celebratory curtain call at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre on West 45th...
By Sandi Durell . . . Labeled a musical comedy, A Turtle on a Fence Post, is an expose of the serious corruption prevalent in our political environment – a play with music to lighten the load - - In this case, referred to in the program as “… a fictionalized story...
by Carol Rocamora . . . Plays on immigrant issues in America have been flooding our stages in recent times. David Henry Hwang has been writing about Chinese-American identity for decades (FOB, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Soft Power). Ayad Akhtar’s explosive play...
by Adam Cohen. . . Baby the Musical was a modest success in the 1980s. An urbane musical that focuses on three couples navigating having a baby at various stages of their lives. The show has been revitalized and modernized and is being...
By Marilyn Lester . . . The founding of the United States of America is often referred to as “the American experiment.” In the 245 years since the nation’s birth, that bright, apple pie American Dream has also shown a dark side—the subject of Assassins. The Classic...
By Brian Scott Lipton . . . Not every show lives up to its billing, but the 2021 Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes does – even if it’s a mouthful. Rarely has 21st-century technology been put to such jaw-droppingly good use. The giant...
by Brian Scott Lipton . . . Hurricane season is basically done, earthquakes are basically unheard of in the Big Apple, and blizzards rarely hit New York in November. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still be shaken by a force of nature. In this case, it’s named Holden...
by Melissa Griegel . . . Variety Life Productions, a new NYC-based experiential theatre company overseen by Kaitana Magno (Queen of the Night, The Box) and James Sutherland, marries live music, dance, nightlife, variety, circus acts, and immersive entertainment in...
by Melissa Griegel . . . A new immersive experience, Odd Man Out, opened at The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street between Broadway and Church) on November 9th, taking “passengers” on a journey through the darkness on a simulated airline flight. The limited engagement...
By Samuel L. Leiter. . . Even a dunghill can produce flowers. If we consider the Covid pandemic a dunghill, we can also appreciate flowers sprouting from it, like Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord by and starring Kristina Wong. A California-based performance artist, a...
Review by Barbara & Scott Siegel . . . Caroline, or Change is right on the money — and that is the truth in more ways than one. This revival of the critically acclaimed 2003 musical comes back to The Great White Way burnished from the fire of time. What it says...
By Ron Fassler . . . Boasting collective Tonys and Pulitzer Prizes among its high-end creative team, The Visitor, just opened at the Public Theatre, is a beautifully crafted musical that, though small, is mighty. Based on the 2007 film of the same name, it stays...
By Marilyn Lester . . . In a benefit for TADA! Youth Theater, the charmingly spooky musical, Mrs. McThing (Jack Urbont, composer and Michael Colby, book/lyrics), played two performances on Halloween, and it was spooktacular. Witches hats off to all concerned who...
By Ron Fassler . . . It seems hard to believe that I first encountered Connor McPherson and Bob Dylan’s Girl from the North Country three years ago upon its American premiere downtown at the Public Theatre. It took over a year from then to line up all the elements...
By Marilyn Lester . . . For nearly 100 years, Winnie the Pooh (aka Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply, Pooh), the anthropomorphic bear created by author and playwright A.A. Milne, has delighted children —and a lot of adults too—from young to old. This new musical stage...
THE BOOK WRITTEN BY THE THEATER COMMUNITY AMIDST THEIR 17 MONTH SHUTDOWN - - - The launch held at Haswell Greens on Nov. 1 celebrated the book created by Andrew Norlen that weaves more than 200 letters from Broadway theater veterans, devout theatergoers, teenage...
By Ron Fassler . . . Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse, in lower Manhattan, is housed on the site of a colonial mansion where General George Washington once set up headquarters. Later the home of Aaron Burr, it was sold to fur magnate John Jacob Astor in 1817 upon which...
by Adam Cohen . . . Following Neil Simon mining personal lore for professional gain, playwright Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor) turns tender and romantically serious with his new play “Dear Jack, Dear Louise.” The play leverages the World War II letters of Ludwig’s...
by Carol Rocamora. . . Recently, I’ve been dazzled by the miracle of transformation happening on our New York Stages today. I’m referring to the art of an individual performer to transform himself or herself into another person so completely, so effortlessly, that it...
By Brian Scott Lipton . . . For better and worse, Anna Deavere Smith’s plays can feel like over-researched term papers, where you learn more about the subject at hand than you could have ever imagined – or possibly even needed to know. That’s particularly true of...
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