Cornelia Street

Although British playwright Simon Stephens has written three musicals with composer/lyricist Mark Eitzel, formerly of the indie rock band American Music Club, Cornelia Street, set on a quiet back street in the West Village, is the first to arrive in New York where it is having its world premiere courtesy of Atlantic Theatre – Stage 2. Led by two-time Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz who is on stage almost throughout the show, "Cornelia Street," an elegy for a bygone age of unique Village restaurants and coffee houses, does not give its cast enough to do. The songs do not forward the plot but tell us what we already know, and the plot such as it is does not get going until the second half. An interesting attempt to create a place and its regular denizens on stage, "Cornelia Street" in this form does not make a satisfying statement. [more]