Archive

Dakar 2000

March 13, 2025

The play moves by unexpected twists and turns which are both amusing and engrossing. We never do find out for certain if Dina is a spy or not. However, she does tell Boubs that she was stationed at the embassy in Dar Es Salaam when al-Quada terrorists blew up both the Kenya and Tanzanian American embassies killing 200 and wounding 4,000. As she lost all of her friends and colleagues, she has vowed to hunt down and bring to justice those responsible. [more]

Wounded

March 12, 2025

"Wounded," written by Jiggs Burgess, is a story using a cloak of humor to obscure the pain and dark feelings being hidden by the protagonists. Although referred to as a comedy or dark comedy, it should be noted that the simple addition of humor does not make it so. This play is a serious drama, in the full meaning of that form, with some humorous elements. Del Shores skillfully directs an excellent ensemble of three players to expose layers of emotional and physical wounds in the characters. Shores and the cast successfully create a deceptive cover for the story's final destination, with the dramatic tension slowly building to a surprising and unexpected ending. It is a play worth experiencing, even with a few issues concerning the logic in some of the characters' interactions. [more]

Sumo

March 12, 2025

Despite its predictable overarching plot, "Sumo," produced jointly by the Ma-Yi Theater Company and La Jolla Playhouse, is never boring. Partly, that's because, as Mitsuo, Shih is villainously charismatic, portraying the preening bully with the disarming and false sense that there is a method to his sadism. But, even more compellingly, Sumo is an immersive and sumptuous eyeful--no matter your personal predilections for loincloths and bare, overhanging bellies--with a set, props, costumes, projections, and all that glorious sumo hair provided by Wilson Chin, Thomas Jenkeleit, Mariko Ohigashi, Hana S. Kim, and Alberto "Albee" Alvarado respectively. As for the main event, there is certainly loads of cheer-inducing sumo wrestling throughout the play, but it's the sumo karaoke after the intermission that adds much-needed joy to the proceedings. That exhilarating scene, aided by Paul Whitaker's vibrant lighting effects mixed with Fabian Obispo's equally energetic sound design, also offers director Ralph B. Peña the opportunity to let the actors cut loose, at least for a little while. [more]

Talking with Angels: Budapest, 1943

March 11, 2025

So much of "Talking with Angels" is taken up by the rantings of these otherworldly emenations, which are filled increasingly by cryptic, impenetrable spoutings referencing religious imagery, that the play loses all momentum. Even though these Angels are the eponymous subjects, the really dramatic stretch of the play begins with Gitta’s plan to save not only her Jewish intimates, but scores of Jewish women after these Friday kaffeeklatsch idylls are suddenly interrupted as the Nazis bomb and then enter Budapest with frightening speed. [more]

La Gota Fria: The Cold Sweat

March 10, 2025

Anna Capunay has attempted to write a family drama in order to influence people to try alternatives to chemo and radiation. Unfortunately, in using her own family story, she has not thought out how to make this a convincing and persuasive play for others. Incidentally, the title comes from the song that singer Carlos Vives made famous in 1993 which literally refers to the weather, and not illness, though it may used metaphorically here as a cold front causing bad weather. [more]

Avalona: A Musical Legend

March 9, 2025

"Avalona, A Musical Legend," created by Dina Fanai, with music and lyrics, is a concept album with elements of modern opera. While not a musical in the usual sense of that form, it fits in a class of shows with the feel of a musical, such as "Jesus Christ, Superstar," which in its original form was a concept album concert with some notable productions being in the form initially conceived by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, but many not. It is a show at the edge of being a spectacle in the best meaning of that word, and one to be experienced as if viewing oneself on an immersive journey of discovery and transformation. [more]

Conversations with Mother

March 7, 2025

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]

Tango After Dark

March 6, 2025

"Tango After Dark" came across as more of a slick cabaret act, albeit one that was performed and staged with professional polish. The dramatically focused lighting by original designer Charlie Morgan Jones (Clancy Flynn, assistant lighting designer and USA tour) gave theatrical flair to the choreography which, though a limited vision of this dance form, was entertaining and, at times, quite exciting. There’s nothing wrong with entertainment or excitement even if it isn’t high art. This ensemble provided two hours of fantasy even if it was a glib take on the Tango. It was a good show and a good time. [more]

Georgia and the Butch

March 5, 2025

The play’s title, "Georgia and the Butch," is fitting. Only O’Keefe is named, while Maria Chabot is simply “the butch,” reflecting both how she devoted herself to O’Keefe completely (to the point of neglecting herself) but also the way she’s often written out of O’Keefe’s biography. Gage brings Chabot to the center of the narrative. By nature of the play’s format, the audience is deliberately not privy to the pair’s private moments. Instead, we are left to ponder their time apart. [more]

On the Evolutionary Function of Shame

March 4, 2025

The author complicates the issue by bringing in autism (Margot) and Alzheimer’s (the unseen father of Adam 2 and Eve 2.) When asked if she would want her autism cured, Margot answers: “I might. Plenty of people would. I’m fine with who I am, but it’s also undeniable that the world only became truly accessible to me when I entered a specific tax bracket.” Ridding the world of Alzheimer’s wouldn’t help Adam and Eve’s father who is too far gone but might help the next generation. However, Adam feels betrayed by his sister’s research that would “give transphobic parents the option to prevent their kid from being trans before they are born.” He feels he is being elimin [more]

Exiles

March 4, 2025

"Exiles" has a complicated history: it was published before it was produced, and was rejected by theaters in the UK and Ireland, most notably by W.B. Yeats on behalf on the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. It was first produced in Munich and received mostly negative reviews. The play never really got its due until a 1970 production in the United Kingdom directed by Harold Pinter. [more]

The Audit & The American Dream

March 4, 2025

Urban Stages conducted a Dynamic Duos playwriting competition for one-act, two-character stories covering any subject during their 2023-24 season. Eight plays out of over three hundred submissions were chosen for staged readings. Two were selected for a full production as part of the current season. Those shows, "The Audit" by Lynda Crawford and 'The American Dream" by Juan Ramirez, Jr., opened on February 27 in a twin bill. They are both interesting stories told well with solid performances. [more]

Curse of the Starving Class

March 3, 2025

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]

Grangeville

March 3, 2025

"Grangeville" ultimately revolves around the fragile, strained bond of brotherhood—or, more accurately, half-brotherhood—and both actors excel in capturing the tender nuances of this dynamic. Their performances resonate with a delicate authenticity, portraying two damaged individuals tentatively reaching toward one another, aware that reconciliation may or may not be in their future. The emotional pull of their evolving connection is subtle, yet profoundly moving. [more]

The Price

March 2, 2025

Arthur Miller has always been our major playwright of moral ambiguity, never more so than in his 1968 drama "The Price," now receiving its first Off Broadway revival. The metaphoric title refers both to the value of an attic of old furniture to be sold as well as the price paid by the choices that the characters have made. The fifth New York revival and the first production by the newly formed Village Theater Group directed by Noelle McGrath is both uneven at times and weakly cast, but Miller’s ultimately powerful play still makes its point. [more]

Garside’s Career

February 28, 2025

While Dickson’s production is elegant and pitch-perfect for its 1914 era, the characterizations are partly satiric and off base. While Daniel Marconi is fine as the designing, unprincipled and power-hungry Peter, he seems to be playing him as a comic character with a wink in his eye though there is no evidence in the play that Brighouse intended this. Madeline Seidman’s Margaret is rather bland, failing to show us what Peter first saw in her. As his mother, Amelia White is almost as ambitious and designing a social climber as her son. The most problematic characterizations are those of the aristocrats who are all played too broadly, rather than true to the period. As Lady Mottram, Melissa Maxwell is almost a gorgon out of Oscar Wilde rather than simply a high class snobbish member of the gentry. Sara Haider’s Gladys fails to give off the kind of signals that would tell Peter she is interested in him, while Avery Whitted as her brother Freddie is practically one of the those silly-ass men of leisure out of P.G. Wodehouse. [more]

Liberation

February 25, 2025

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]

Redwood

February 24, 2025

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]

Safe House

February 23, 2025

"Safe House" is an amorphous mosaic of sight and sound just out of reach of being any one thing. It is at once a song cycle, memory play, comedy, tragedy, a visual and aural potpourri of sensation resembling a modern avant-garde opera more than a theatrical musical or play with music. Written and directed by Enda Walsh with music by electronic-acoustic composer Anna Mullarkey, the show tells the story of Grace, a young, homeless Irish woman living on a handball court in Galway. According to Walsh, it is a story of survival in the chaotic jumble of memories mixed with dreams and fantasies of a different life. [more]

Anima Animal (Grupo Cadabra)

February 22, 2025

Featuring ballet great and former American Ballet Theatre star, Herman Cornejo in the leading role, "Anima Animal" was choreographed by Anabella Tuliano on Cornejo’s ballet concert group from Argentina, Grupo Cadabra. A creation-themed work, the long program notes detailed the complex folk vision of the world, a story that once fascinated the legendary ballet titan, Vaslav Nijinsky when the Diaghilev Ballets Russes toured South America during the First World War. [more]

Dances by Charles Weidman

February 19, 2025

“Lynchtown” (1936), probably Weidman’s best known work, is an indictment of lawlessness and group anarchy. It is one section of a three-part work called “Atavisms.” Members of the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble (Samantha Géracht, Eleanor Bunker and Lauren Naslund artistic directors) honored Sokolow’s commitment to chilling psychology interpreting Weidman’s choreography. (Sokolow was a Graham acolyte who went off on her own artistic path.) The earth-colored paneled costumes (courtesy of Kanopy Dance) were a kind of camouflage for the large group of dancers led by the Inciter (Margaret Mighty Oak Brackey). They slinked in, stalking their poor Victim, Sam K who was distinguishingly dressed in blue. Their initial stilted, flex-footed walk slowly deteriorated into skitters, off-balance tilts and turns and stomps which turned into a pileup with the Inciter on top, scouting for their quarry. Lehman Engel’s strongly percussive music supported the choreography perfectly as the Victim is trapped like an animal and dragged to his fate. In its time, “Lynchtown” was a strong work and still retains much of its power. [more]

My Man Kono

February 18, 2025

The world premiere of Philip W. Chung’s My Man Kono tells the fascinating but little known true [more]

Roses and Beyond: The Best Flowers to Give Your Favorite Artist

February 17, 2025

An artist has a long-lasting effect when they really connect on stage. A thoughtful gift such as flowers can express your gratitude in a manner that words cannot express. While roses are a common choice, there is a vast array of flowers with unique meanings that can convey profound messages. [more]

After Endgame

February 16, 2025

Doyle’s storytelling skillfully blends didactic commentary with humorous anecdotes, holding the audience’s attention throughout and resulting in a thoroughly satisfying evening of entertainment. Whether you are a chess person or not, it is a show worth seeing. Afterward, you can hang around in the "Soho Chess Lounge," the Huron Room performance space skillfully transformed by set designer and chess consultant Charles “Chuck” Matte. [more]

No Reservation

February 16, 2025

Conceived, written and directed by Elizabeth Hess, "No Reservation" is a celebration of "the lost feminine to give voice to all who have been discarded, silenced and overlooked.” The performances by members of The Hess Collective are very intense and the language rises to the level of poetry. At a brief 60 minutes, the play does not overstay its welcome or become agitprop. While "No Reservation" has no solution or answer to the question of the female power overtaken by the patriarchy, it remains a tribute to women over the centuries. [more]

The Antiquities

February 15, 2025

Kristen Sieh and Amelia Workman in a scene from Jordan Harrison’s “The Antiquities” at [more]

Night Sings Its Songs

February 14, 2025

"Night Sings Its Songs" by Norwegian author Jon Fosse (pronounced FAH-suh), the 2023 Nobel Prize-winning playwright, explores alienation and emotional disconnection by a couple in a dysfunctional marital relationship. Fosse's works are often compared to those of Henrik Ibsen and Harold Pinter. His minimalist style fits into the Norwegian existential and psychological drama tradition. Fosse is one of the most performed contemporary playwrights globally, but he is not well-known in the United States. The play, directed by Jerry Heymann from a translation by Sarah Cameron Sunde, never engages the audience in caring about the characters' emotional struggles. There is a feeling of "so what” or “why should I care” rather than one of concern or empathic understanding. [more]

Still

February 13, 2025

Mark Moses and Melissa Gilbert in a scene from Lia Romeo’s “Still” at The Sheen Center for [more]

B*tchcraft

February 13, 2025

Bitch turns herself inside out in ways sometimes difficult to bear, particularly with her frank, anatomical language, but she communicates her joy and anguish so honestly and unflinchingly that it is all somehow totally fine. "B*tchcraft" is a collaboration between Bitch and her director Margie Zohn. Between them they have crafted a powerful show that is both personal and universal in its emotional heft. The language and imagery are strong, maybe not for everyone, but they resonate with Bitch’s totality. [more]

Henry IV (Theatre for a New Audience)

February 12, 2025

Dakin Matthews’ "Henry IV" is a consistently engaging gift to the theater season. Shakespeare scholars may quibble about the extent of the cuts from "Henry IV, Part II," but the reality is the original in its entirety can be a bit of a slog. Eric Tucker’s company treats us to the sheer thrill of witnessing a rarity executed to perfection, its invigorating energy palpable in every precise detail. [more]

How Is It That We Live or Shakey Jake + Alice

February 12, 2025

In reading the script, I didn't see how the story made any sense or could have been given a reasonable life on stage. I was very wrong on both scores. The four actors of the ensemble breathe life into each of the characters, creating a compelling narrative even given the minimalist sets used. Director Hayes did a superb job blending reality with the fantastic, delivering a compelling story of love found, lost, and found again. [more]

Mrs. Loman

February 9, 2025

The play is not very consistent with life in 1949. It is unlikely that middle class married women cursed, smoked marijuana, quoted Simone de Beauvoir or engaged in affairs with other women. While the program notes by the playwright describe "Mrs. Loman" as a “feminist critique” of the Arthur Miller play and reveals that the author feels that the original “does not provide for a full female character,” Linda’s studying philosophy at Brooklyn College does not make for a feminist statement. In fact, Beauvoir’s "The Second Sex" which Linda quotes from was not published in English until 1953 which means Linda could not have been studying it in an American class in 1949. [more]

Urinetown (NY City Center Encores!)

February 8, 2025

“What an awful name for a musical,” spouts Little Sally (a brilliantly talented Pearl Scarlett Gold) as one of the narrators of the New York City Center Encores’ witty production of the 2001 surprise hit "Urinetown." Yes, it is, but it’s also an entertaining show that actually has inadvertent relevance to today’s audience with its artful jabbing at big business. [more]

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