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- November 5, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // The Morbs
- November 5, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Livia
- November 4, 2026 in Features // Abingdon Theatre Company Celebrates 34 Years of Opening Doors
- November 2, 2026 in Event Listings // This Week at TheaterScene: November 2–15, 2026
- November 2, 2026 in Spotlight // Jerry Herman (1931–2019): The Best of Times, From Our Seats
- November 1, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // The Kick Inside
- October 31, 2026 in Musicals // Copperfield! The New Musical
- October 31, 2026 in Spotlight // Terrence McNally (1938–2020): Theater Changes Hearts
- October 31, 2026 in Broadway Plays // 860
- October 30, 2026 in Features // This Week at TheaterScene: November 2–8, 2026
- October 30, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // A Ghost in Your Ear
- October 28, 2026 in Concerts // The New York Pops: “007: James Bond Forever”
- October 27, 2026 in Music // Queeney Todd: The Demon Bottom of Fleet Street
- October 27, 2026 in Broadway Plays // Other Desert Cities
- October 27, 2026 in Spotlight // Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021): The Last Giant, Seen From Our Seats
- October 26, 2026 in Spotlight // Duncan Sheik (1969–2026): The Sound of Spring Awakening
- October 26, 2026 in Spotlight // Anna Louizos Tribute
- October 25, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Degenerates
- October 25, 2026 in Musicals // Slam Frank
- October 24, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // The Ask
- October 23, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // The Bald Soprano
- October 23, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Phyl
- October 22, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Machine Learning
- October 21, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // King of the Yees
- October 19, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Good Time Charlie
- October 16, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Night of January 16th
- October 16, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Fish
- October 15, 2026 in Musicals // Midnight
- October 14, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Kramer/Fauci
- October 11, 2026 in Musicals // Soon
- October 11, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Burning Leaves
- October 4, 2026 in Broadway Plays // School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
- September 30, 2026 in Musicals // Our Sinatra
- September 29, 2026 in Off-Broadway Plays // Crazy Mama: A True Story of Love and Madness
Archive
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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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.
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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.
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“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.
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Victor Gluck, Editor-in-Chief The world premiere of Philip W. Chung’s My Man Kono tells the
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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.
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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.
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Kristen Sieh and Amelia Workman in a scene from Jordan Harrison’s “The Antiquities” at
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"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.
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Mark Moses and Melissa Gilbert in a scene from Lia Romeo’s “Still” at The Sheen Center for
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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Foreman's dramatic structure feels like an audacious attempt to stage the tumultuous workings of the mind itself. Neurons ignite, voices both internal and external whisper, scream, and echo through the chaos. Like a pinball careening through an ever-shifting machine, the sensory overload flashes, buzzes, and swirls, pulling you in with distractions that both enthrall and devastate. Yet, amidst it all, you may find yourself trying to self-convince that it somehow all makes sense…not perfect sense, but even nonsense has a layer of sense.
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It’s always fascinated me, seeing how different actors can interpret the same material. In “Sunset Boulevard,” Nicole Scherzinger delivers a bold, bravura star turn I’d never have expected from a former pop singer making her Broadway debut. In “Drag: the Musical,” Remi Tuckman, with sensitive support from musical director Andrew Orbison, pierces our hearts with the show’s best song. And James T. Lane and company remind us why “A Wonderful World,” despite imperfections, is well worth seeing.
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Marjan Neshat as Marjan the teacher in a scene from the Roundabout Theatre Company production of
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The modern verse translation reasonably maintains a semblance of the Elizabethan iambic pentameter form supported by the ensemble's solid delivery of the lines. People familiar with Elizabethan dramatic poetry may be put off by the change in the wording but not necessarily by the presentation of the text. Overall, it is an enjoyable show worth spending time on whether or not one is an admirer of Elizabethan drama done to a modern beat.
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Robin Lord Taylor as Tennessee Williams and Brandon Flynn as Marlon Brando in a scene from Gregg
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Playwright/actor Braulio Basilio may appear prophetic when we sit in horror today watching the news as a returning president maps out how he plans to deprive immigrants of any and all freedoms in this new administration. Created and conceived by actors Basilio, Ursula Tinoco, Gilberto Gabriel, and their fellow Teatro 220 colleague Andrés López-Alicea, "Building My Casa" is a timely piece of theater that desperately needs a wider audience. In "Building My Casa," they do not give us any surprises nor are we ever expecting any; they give us a tale of three endearing individuals who each in their own way are strangers in a strange land.
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Forrest Malloy’s "Nina" follows five women in their last year of acting school figuring out their lives while preparing for their final production together: "The Seagull." The on-the-nose Chekhov is luckily relegated to the background until the very end – this is a play about a friend group before it’s a play about theater. "Nina" is at once funny and emotionally compelling, all on the strength of a great cast.
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This may not have been a typical program for the Malpaso Dance Company, but the troupe seems to lean towards the darker parts of life. As moving as each of the works are, they all painted a gloomy view. The movement style was an amalgam of ballet and the plasticity of good old-fashioned modern dance: lots of extensions, falls, turned-in legs and twisty partnering.
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Gary Gulman in his one-man show “Grandiloquent” at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (Photo credit:
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"Sheltered" by Cate Wiley is a story about what it is to be a homeless woman in a city in the United States. As directed by Liz Peterson, this play tells the stories of these women trapped by circumstances in systems of neglect and half-measures that are often beyond their control. In some cases, homelessness is a choice to escape something in the home, usually an abusive partner or spouse. Drugs, alcoholism and mental illness play a role as well. All of these things are depicted by a hardworking cast who effectively delivers a snapshot of the day-to-day reality of homelessness. It is an emotionally powerful play with an important story to tell. It is not a blockbuster play, but it is a play that should be seen for the compelling story it tells.
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Written in 1917, shortly after the U.S. entered World War I, "In the Zone" shows how group hysteria can build, as the various crew members decide that one of their own, Smitty, must be a spy. The play is a tribute to the heroic merchant seamen who served in both World Wars (and before and after), ferrying supplies and personnel across the oceans. Swept up into a conflict that made their difficult jobs even harder and more dangerous, they put their lives on the line every day.
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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.
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Not only are the paintings massive but they also cover all sorts of modern periods of art without Kissajukian having known their work (abstract work by Picasso, Matisse, Joan Miró, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Basquiat, etc.) After the show the audience is invited to experience his recent art work on display in four galleries in the theater while he remains available to answer questions. Not only are the paintings a kind of therapy for him, he also titles them with witty names and explanations, often having little to do with actual images.
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"January" presents a story about the emotional impact of the killing of one child by another by weaving together the thoughts and actions of the two single mothers involved and how the national media treats the event. There are scenes blending memories and dreams with reality, presenting the protagonists' thoughts as if they existed in real-life moments with an almost hallucinogenic quality. These dramatic devices work most of the time. Still, there is a critical point in the play where what is being presented goes on for too long, almost to the point of losing the story thread. The projections used are effective but sometimes come very close to being propagandistic. Even with some of the unevenness of the production, it does present an important story that needs to be told. "January" is a heavy lift emotionally but ultimately worth the effort.
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The best constructed work was the finale, “Grace” (1999), in which Brown created a Goddess figure come down from Heaven “to spread grace among humans.” In addition to a score by Duke Ellington, Roy Davis, Jr. and Fela Anikulapo Kuti which went from darkly dreamlike to upbeat, guest vocalist Gordon Chambers sang an uplifting soulful, spiritual number as the angel-like lead ushered the cast through a portal to their ultimate fate: heaven. Was it my imagination or did the dancers costumed in red change into the white of the rest of the cast as they exited? Was this, perhaps, a symbol of the acceptance of …grace? Costumes were by Omotaya Wunmi Olaiya.
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While they credit the eight puppeteers textually, “with help from the ensemble,” Warnock and Waage are also credited as executive producers along with set and costume design. Mr. Waage is given solo credit for the sublime puppet design and construction. All in all, the parts make for a rather resplendent whole. Starting with the puppeteers dressed in sparkly black fabric that bring a deserved attention to the constant manipulation of the puppets and a set that constantly morphs between scenes. The initial “lights-up” has a large chunk of sparkly “glitter basalt” that dissolves into the individual puppeteers. The look is reminiscent of Adrian’s classic sequined pantsuits for Judy Garland in concert. Kudos to lighting designer Daphne Agosin for capturing every sparkle in those costumes as well as to the projection designer Erato Tzavara for creating surreal space within the confines of the Baruch’s venue. Thor Gunnar Thorvaldsson’s original music and sound design underscore the fantastical display on stage.
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If only he had carried through on that idea. We will never know if this staging might have worked as Herskovits has sabotaged all that is best in the original and made it both more confusing and less entertaining. Originally produced with 27 actors, Herskovits has reduced the cast to ten with so much doubling that it is difficult to know who is who. At least one character (Parthy Hawkes) is sometimes played by two actresses simultaneously which does not make for coherency. While the majority of the characters are white, Herskovits has cast it mainly with Black actors who wear sashes across their chest identifying them as white which is distracting rather than edifying. If you have not seen one of the two famed movie versions recently, it is impossible to follow the story line. Some actors switch gender as well as character or race.
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Audra McDonald in a scene from George C. Wolfe’s production of “Gypsy” at the Majestic
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The fun is in the technological achievement of the piece, which is impressive. Gelb performs center stage while his image is broadcast to screens on either side of the theatre. What happens on those screens is extraordinary – Gelb, as Tichy, interacts with himself flawlessly in perfectly choreographed scenes. You kind of feel like you're on a ship roaming the space-ways. The screens make things feel cramped, in a good way, and it's surprisingly believable when a wrench floats in outer space.
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The troupe, led by a mother and two daughters—Aparna Ramaswamy, Ranee Ramaswamy (mother) and Ashwini Ramaswamy—presented “Children of Dharma,” based on elements of the famous Hindu epic "The Mahabharata." A totally original interpretation of this age-old story, it is a complicated tale about Krishna, “the embodiment of nature,” (a bare-chested Garrett Sour wearing just a plain dhoti), somewhat explicated by a voiceover narration recited by Leon Conrad. Two other characters dominate: Draupati whose epic dice game incites an epic war and Gandari, who tragically loses and mourns her many children.
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Audra McDonald is an American treasure—an artist with complete command of the stage. And if you’re thinking of going, remember that January and February are often the best time of the year to buy theater tickets. Many people choose to stay home on cold wintry nights. You can often get very good seats, at good prices, to the very best of shows. And this production is not to be missed!
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Charlotte Bennett directs an exquisite cast of three in an exploration of these themes. Nicole Sawyerr solidly leads the ensemble in the lead role of Abigail Waller, a working-class playwright. Sawyerr is supported by Samuel Armfield, who perfectly embodies two characters: an unnamed theatrical director with a class-based condescending attitude and Darren, Abigail's brother. The third member, Debra Baker, skillfully takes on a number of other characters, the two most important of which are Abigail's mother and an actress portraying the character of a mother in a play written by Abigail. Baker gives distinctly different presentations of these two pivotal characters. She also takes on a number of other ancillary characters who voice supporting elements to the overall story.
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Must you love your immediate family unconditionally if you know they drive you crazy? And must you show up for family gatherings like Christmas if it always evolves into a vicious fighting match? Is love nothing more than propinquity, that is biological closeness? Leslye Headland’s "Cult of Love" produced by Second Stage at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater, a searing comedy-drama, reminds us that most American plays other than Our Town are about dysfunctional families that make various levels of accommodation to their problems. The cast led by Zachary Quinto, Mare Winningham and David Rasche are consummately believable as a family who has seen too many Christmases devolve into shouting matches.
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Typical of Singer stories about 19th century Polish Jewry, these three dramatizations combine Jewish mysticism and demonology with Baker as the narrator of two of the stories while also playing the demons in both (“The Mirror” and “The Last Demon.”) The third story published in English as “Cockadoodledoo” but here renamed “Thus Spake the Rooster” is performed by Seigel in two parts as the title character who seems to have supernatural powers. The evening is both directed and designed by Moshe Yassur and Beate Hein Bennett, both of whom worked on the Yiddish versions of Waiting for Godot and Death of a Salesman seen in New York under the auspices of The New Yiddish Rep.
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There are a number of problems with these vignettes, ranging from the individual characterizations of the men involved to the superficial nature of the historical details of the events being discussed. Sheppard overacts in portraying O. Henry as a barely coherent alcoholic. It is not credible that a person as "drunk" as O. Henry would be engaged in any serious discussion with the likes of Mark Twain and William Hearst, let alone Teddy Roosevelt or even Schiff. The performances don’t engage the viewer to care about who the character is and what he has to say. In a number of the scenes, the dialogue seems contrived to present a particular socio-political viewpoint without any explication or depth.
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Jenny Lyn Bader’s "Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library" has moved from a successful run at the 59E59 Theater to the intimate WP Theater on the Upper West Side. This is fortunate for those who missed it. Mrs. Stern shines a light on a dark moment in the life of a major cultural figure of the twentieth century whose career was nearly short circuited.
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Girelli’s lyrics provide wonderful support to Willett’s choreography. A motif for the song “Valentine” has the dancers in tango movements covering their hearts with their palms. The playfulness of musical chairs takes over another song where chairs are left empty so prospective partners can sit in each other’s laps. The song “Tonight You’re Mine” provides for a very athletic, relentlessly physical duet danced by Marissa Nielsen-Pincus and the bare-chested Ryan Wuestewald. A passionate duet for Devika Chandnani and Noah LaPook is performed to “King of Tears,” a song that confronts the deep emotional pain from heartbreak, emotional vulnerability, and personal struggle to recover from a relationship that has ended.
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The main difference is the delightfully over-the-top, campy production that takes the audience into the fertile mind of Mark Morris and his artistic colleagues. The mostly black and white scenic design by Adrianne Lobel features circular prosceniums within circular prosceniums, exaggerated furniture and, wittily, a gigantic world map with lights indicating where the different ethnic dances—Chinese, Spanish, Russian---are from, as if Martin Pakledinaz’s hilarious costumes didn’t already tell the story.
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It's the play's best scene, an astounding mix of incredible absurdity and, for all the Zoom veterans out there, undeniable believability, especially with everyone talking and typing past each other. Still, while serving the play's humor, director Anna D. Shapiro must simultaneously contend with its overt underside, sick children, as well as a modern audience replete with the traumatic knowledge that, after the 2018-2019 school year, the worst is yet to come. Given that, it's an outright testament to the impressive comedic talents of Shapiro, Spector, and the play's ensemble that the subject matter of "Eureka Day" can remain a laughing matter.
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Director Shira Milikowsky keeps increasing the tension as the 85-minute play peels away revelation after revelation. Each man has a guilty secret and may have betrayed a friend which is eating him up. Although there are never more than two men on Lawrence Moten III’s pitch perfect set for the rather shabby blue and white hotel room which suggests a dorm, we eventually witness and learn about two other stories that they are both stewing over: what happened between Teddy and Ed before Ed stormed out and Jeremy’s encounter in Uganda with Nicholas, a gay man in need of more than medical help.
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The second premiere was a battle of the sexes duet, “Me, Myself and You,” choreographed by Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish to a Duke Ellington song, “In a Sentimental Mood” sung lustrously by Brandie Sutton. Caroline T. Dartey, in a long, silvery robe (costumes by Danté Baylor) rose from the floor and wandered beautifully towards a standing screen on the other side of the stage. Once unfolded, the screen was revealed to be a three-part mirror which seemed to fascinate Dartey as she almost made love to her own image.
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Director SuzAnne Barabas takes a muted approach, choosing to emphasize the intimacy of the narrative. Mags and Bernie are the only two characters in the play, and both are on stage nearly the entire time. There is little in the way of action, as the 80-minute runtime consists almost entirely of Mags and Bernie reading the letters they send to each other. Day and McKeon spend long periods sitting down and reading their letters out loud, and set designer Jessica Parks arranges the stage as two living rooms, separated by an invisible barrier that neither can cross. Maintaining the physical distance between the characters, the set and directing evoke the feeling of being in both living rooms at once, listening to Bernie and Mags casually read their letters out loud before mailing them.
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Sarah Blush directs a cast of five in the story of a father and daughter on a road trip from New York City to a storage unit in California. It is a trip that is both se in the present and past, and it is filled with a flow of information that mixes reality with fantasy in a liminal space between sanity and insanity. This story operates from a different dimension the moment one walks into the performance space. The set is a large orange square, shag-carpeted pit with no clues as to the staging. The two principal characters making this trip by car never sit as if they are in a car but casually walk the raised outside edge of the box. It is an element of this stagecraft that adds beautifully to the edginess of the production.
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If one did not read Laura’s extensive program notes in the Playbill given out at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres, it would not be until three quarters of the way through that the play’s real theme becomes clear. In addition, the family tree is so complicated that the script uses two pages and lists almost as many off-stage characters as appear in the play. Of course, this is not available to audience members or to critics before they see the production.
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Walking into the Peter Sharp Theater we have no hint of what is behind what look like opaque vinyl shower curtains from one end of the stage to the other. Within moments of her appearance, decked out in a black suit and tie like the kid who hates to dress up to go to Grandma’s for Sunday dinner, we know Francesca D’Uva just doesn’t want to be here. At the end of 80 minutes, we are so glad she came. She breaks the ice by letting us know how sensitive she is to mouth sounds telling us about a high school teacher who smiled so hard you could hear it. On the count of three, we all try to copy the smile noise. “I love bringing people together like that. That will be the only piece of crowd work I do tonight. So hope you enjoyed it. You’re done.”
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The trio demonstrates that their voices are as supple and fine as they ever were. Each gets to play their best suit: Winokur’s loud, clarion voice, Bundy’s wry wit and Butler’s recounting her hilarious but painfully missed opportunities even though she has appeared in 12 Broadway shows and been nominated for the Tony Award. Their patter and narration is entertaining and hilarious and the musical numbers are both tributes to their careers as well as songs we have not heard them sing before.
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"Tender Napalm" is a poetic play that doesn't so much tell a story as it does evoke feelings. What is love? What are relationships between men and women really about? Set (sort of) on a desert island, the play contains powerful language memorably brought to life by Ahlers (Man) and Pedretti (Woman). Both actors are young up and comers and it's a pleasure to see them in the intimate TheaterLab space. With seating on both sides and staging that takes full advantage of the intimacy of the room, there isn't a bad seat in the house.
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The success of this play and our ability to navigate the ride relies heavily on the flawless cast led by Troyano herself. She shepherds us through every turn of the script and we willingly follow her everywhere she takes us. One of the standout moments is when Branden is whisked away to the Havana nightclub El Pescadito in Phantasmagoria. Alina as Carmelita entertains at the piano dressed as Bola de Nieve, a legendary Afro-Cuban cabaret artist. “Bola” performs a song “Messie Julian” containing lyrics “Yo soy negro social, soy intellectual, y chic” with modified references to Branden. When he asks what the song is about, Carmelita reveals herself to be half-bear ready to attack him.
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Katori Halls’ "The Blood Quilt" is fine as a family drama about warring sisters who both love and resent the mother who has just died. However, as a story of secrets and revelations it takes a little too long to get where it is going. It could use more incidents and exposés to warrant its length which seems padded. Don’t blame the fine actresses who seem to be living their several roles.
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Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2026
![Joshua William Gelb in Josh Luxenberg’s “The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux] (Photo credit: Maria Baranova)](https://www.theaterscene.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Resized-500-orange-uniform-Joshua-William-Gelb-7thVoyage_02__Maria_Baranova-174x131.jpg)
