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Articles by Joel Benjamin

About Joel Benjamin (579 Articles)
JOEL BENJAMIN was a child performer on Broadway and danced with leading modern dance and ballet companies. Joel has been attending theater, ballet and opera performances ever since childhood, becoming quite opinionated over the years. He was the founder and artistic director of the American Chamber Ballet and subsequently was massage therapist to the stars before becoming a reviewer and memoirist. He is a member of the Outer Critics Circle.

Fall for Dance Festival 2023: Program 1

October 2, 2023

Ballet BC, the Canadian-based modern ballet company, began the program with 'The Statement," Crystal Pite’s witty take on a boardroom meeting, a corporate boardroom meeting full of intrigue and tension. Jay Gower Taylor’s slick set made the ballet with its chic, but spare conference table over which hung an ominous large, chimney-like structure, all lit with sharpness by Tom Visser. There wasn’t much of a musical score, just some rumblings by Owen Belton, over which a mini-play by Jonathon Young, pitting two couples against each other—one in business casual and the other more formally attired (costumes by Pite and Joke Visser)—became the sound score to which the dancers moved. The actors speaking the lines were Meg Roe, Colleen Wheeler, Andrew Wheeler and Jonathon Young, himself.  The stylish, nimble dancers were Patrick Kilbane, Sarah Pippin, Vivian Ruiz and Rae Srivastava. [more]

Bettinger’s Luggage

September 28, 2023

An alternate title for Albert M. Tapper’s Clifford Odets-esque "Bettinger’s Luggage" might be "The Flood." In Tapper’s period piece, a flood destroyed the eponymous shop, an event around which Tapper’s tale of a family-owned business on Delancey Street in the Lower East Side of 1974 revolves. Solidly directed by Steven Ditmyer, "Luggage" is a classic story of one generation disappointing another with unreasonable expectations, with a touch of Jaime Sánchez’s character in the "The Pawnbroker"’s self-sacrifice tossed in for emotional heft. [more]

Zoetrope

September 23, 2023

Clearly, "Zoetrope" often becomes difficult to follow for non-Spanish speakers.  The dearth of realistic sets makes knowing which location is which confusing, despite the occasional descriptive titles.  Then, the fact that most of the actors—all of whom are terrific—play several parts in a rapidly time-shifting plot makes figuring out who’s who and who is in a relationship with whom difficult to ascertain.  Why is Puerto Rican independence glossed over?  How does Claudio become a filmmaker?  It’s the debut of his movie that ends "Zoetrope." [more]

Tripping on Life

September 18, 2023

Shaye tells of a pot and drug-addicted couple who are totally disgusting parents to a two year old.  That’s just not acceptable even though it is told as a funny hippy-dippy anecdote. Even so, Shaye is a great storyteller, her narration a perfect substitute for the absent camera.  However, she is a poor developer of characters.  Her insights end with naming the drugs each character takes.  None of the characters seem to have any means of support, however colorful they are. [more]

Anne Being Frank

September 13, 2023

Elisha has written a refreshing new take on Anne Frank’s life.  Called "Anne Being Frank" (a title that should, perhaps, be reconsidered), the one-person, multi-character show posits a surreal possibility, that Frank managed to survive the War and decided to rewrite her oft-expurgated famous Diary [more]

Relapse: A New Musical

September 8, 2023

In "Relapse" ’s most original conceit, a quartet called The Intrusive (Vinny Celerio, Audree Hedequist, Nicole Lamb and Zummy Mohammed) becomes a Greek Chorus, insinuating themselves into the minds of the four unhappy patients while commenting on the inner workings of their care.  The four are nimble, vivid and sing well, choreographed by Freyani Patrice whose movements ooze, flit and crawl about the stage as these four surround each character. [more]

A Séance with Mom

August 23, 2023

Redman’s "A Séance with Mom" at the Chain Studio Theatre veers dizzyingly from one character to another, characters that include middle-aged Nadine who searches for her Mom; her mom, Gussie; an old Reformed Jewish Rabbi; several other Gussies; and, oh yes, Jesus and Gary Cooper, not to mention Shakespeare.  It has to be mentioned that Nadine is the only character who isn’t dead. [more]

Here Lies Love

August 2, 2023

"Here Lies Love" unreels like an MTV music video with the emotional content lost in the technique.  The real issue of this musical is that it’s impossible to feel anything for the lead characters, with the possible exception of Estrella.  They are moved about the extraordinarily gimmicky set like chess pieces with Imelda checkmating everybody.  Jacobs evinces the boldness of Imelda, the script limiting her ability to show any tenderness or vulnerability.  Llana's Ferdinand is written pretty much as a stolid symbol, hardly human at all. [more]

Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre: One Dance

July 26, 2023

Korean Arts Week celebrated the theatrical and fine arts of South Korea, a culture under-represented in New York City compared to, say, those of Japan, China and India. At the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, the Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre performed "One Dance," a celebration of historic formal, ritual dance forms of Korea.  Although "One Dance" certainly had theatrical viability and a great number of performers, the problem of placing religious and ethnic rituals onto a proscenium stage and presenting them before an audience of three thousand wasn’t completely solved. [more]

Ballet Hispánico: Buscando a Juan

July 18, 2023

There is an elegiac formality to Buscando.  However, other than Juan de Pareja’s name in the title there is little in the choreography that evokes either period or personality.  The choreography is interesting, yes, but were it not for informative program notes available online, Brito might have been a Christ figure with a dusting of Latin finesse and pulse and Sprauve a Mary Magdalene substitute. [more]

Chanteuse

July 16, 2023

The Nazis persecuted not only Jews, political opponents and its own, but also homosexuals.  Jews were forced to wear the infamous yellow stars; gays, the pink triangle. Alan Palmer, in his one-man show "Chanteuse" at HERE Arts Center, gives an intimate, heartbreaking look at one victim—fictional or not—that turns impersonal facts into passionate theater. [more]

Good Vibrations: A Punk Rock Musical

July 6, 2023

Terri Hooley (a game, genial Glen Wallace) is both the main character and the narrator of "Good Vibrations: A Punk Rock Musical" at the sparkling Irish Arts Center.  How he morphed from Terry to Terri is a bloody tale that opens the show, albeit with a bit of winking Irish humor. Written by Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson, "Good Vibrations" takes place in the 1970’s in a Belfast rife with violence, at the height of the inter-religious disturbances in Northern Ireland called The Troubles and is based on the 2012 film of the same name (which they also wrote).  Terri Hooley is a real person and Good Vibrations paints a mostly complimentary portrait of this man who was so important to the music scene in Belfast. [more]

Rock & Roll Man

June 29, 2023

"Rock & Roll Man," the new jukebox/biographical musical at the New World Stages has a great deal going for it. The story of legendary Rock & Roll impresario Alan Freed is told in a series of delicious period songs with a few original works (by Gary Kupper who also cowrote the libretto with Larry Marshak and Rose Caiola) thrown in. The show is basically factual, although a tad exaggerated, and doesn’t shy away from Freed’s well-known issues such as his alcoholism and taking payola. Best of all, the cast is led by Constantine Maroulis in a complicated, fine-tuned and, for him, subdued performance. [more]

The Light in the Piazza

June 23, 2023

New York City Center Encores!’s new production of the musical, directed by Chay Yew, stars another Tony Award winner, the sensational Ruthie Ann Miles, as the determined Margaret Johnson with beautiful-voiced Anna Zavelson as a believably three-dimensional Clara. The Encores! production is more down-to-earth than either the film or the original Lincoln Center production and more satisfying as a human drama.  There’s no stinting on humor, but the characters’ formerly trivial problems now seem more worthy of our attention. [more]

Wake Up

June 19, 2023

Spencer Aste in a scene from his one-man show “Wake Up” at the Axis Theatre (Photo credit: [more]

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Spring 2023 Season

June 11, 2023

"Dancing Spirit" was a gentle ballet choreographed by Ronald K. Brown to a suite of music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead and War. First one dancer, then two and then the entire cast slowly made their way down a darkly lit diagonal (perfect lighting by Clifton Taylor) dressed in Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya’s white flowing dresses for the women and dark pants and pale shirts for the men.  This was a ritualistic journey.  The simple movements—walking, tilting, dipping into deep, wide pliés and bending at the waist—were developed into complex combinations all to quiet music of Ellington. [more]

Ballet Hispánico: Spring 2023 Season

June 8, 2023

The major work of the evening was “Sor Juana,” choreographed by Michelle Manzanales (“in collaboration with the Company”) and performed to a selection of period music including a composition by the title character, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century nun, proto-feminist, poet and composer.  “Sor Juana” was commissioned by New York City Center. Gabrielle Sprauve as Sor Juana was dignified and powerful as she strode amongst the others, all dressed in extravagant period costumes by Sam Ratelle. A black and white habit straight out of a famous contemporary portrait of Juana was a standout even though it was soon stripped off to reduce Sprauve to a tight, white leotard as if reducing her to emotional essence.  She is joined by the similarly attired Isabel Robles in what became the apex of the work: a sensual, yearning duet that included supported lifts and much entwining. [more]

Grey House

June 6, 2023

Eerie and irritating in equal measure, Levi Holloway’s "Grey House" at the Lyceum Theatre dredges up the classic plot device of many horror films:  strangers stumbling into a den of oddballs and suffering the consequences. The couple that does, indeed, invade the eponymous domicile, Max and Henry (Claire Karpen – subbing for Tatiana Maslany - and Paul Sparks, both excellent) actually refer to this conceit and even joke that the results are always bad. Sometimes this premise results in hilarity as in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and sometimes, as in "Grey House," it causes unintended hilarity for its obvious stunts (faces at a window, smoke emanating from a scary basement) along with some gruesome imagery, too bloody to describe here; but suffice it to say Henry, whose left leg is injured in a snowstorm-caused car/deer collision, suffers in a ghastly manner.  That the car was driven by his wife doesn’t help matters. [more]

Primary Trust

May 25, 2023

Eboni Booth’s "Primary Trust" at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre is a genial, gentle tale of a genial, gentle young man and his difficulty negotiating the speed bumps of life. What keeps "Primary Trust" afloat is the light touch of its director, Knud Adams, who never lets Booth’s play bog down.  Rather than wallow in sadness, Adams permits the actors—all fine—to ride the gentle waves of their fates. [more]

Misconceptions

May 21, 2023

Abortion, pro or con?  The Blessed Unrest theater company has taken on this thorny issue. Steven Wangh’s "Misconceptions"—an ironically perfect title—unfolds in the form of a series of interviews which take us into every nook and cranny of the issue—pro and con.  It is by no means just a dry documentary or a blasting screed, but a warm, sophisticated and ultimately moving humanization of the subject. [more]

shadow/land

May 14, 2023

"shadow/land" by Erika Dickerson-Despenza is a play about the August 2005 disaster, Hurricane Katrina. It is the first episode of a ten-part magnum opus. "shadow/land," though, is more than a play.  It is a painfully rich vision of what hundreds and hundreds of stranded rooftop denizens, so touted in the media, must have gone through behind the waterlogged walls of New Orleans.  It is the rare theatrical work that recreates the agony and frustration of a natural disaster that transcends the fourth wall, seemingly without artifice, so involving is the entire endeavor. [more]

Robin & Me: My Little Spark of Madness

May 11, 2023

Under the direction of Chad Austin, Droxler uncannily becomes not only Williams (and all of Williams cinematic characters who each serve up different helpful advice), but also his father Ed; mother Mary; and other characters, all, of course, just facets of his own persona.  He even conjures the comic actor Jim Carrey who, for a short time replaces Robin Williams as an ad hoc advisor.  Even Jack Nicholson makes a guest appearance. [more]

New York City Center Encores!: Oliver!

May 7, 2023

When Mary-Mitchell Campbell’s baton brought out the first notes of the "Oliver!" overture from the Encores! Orchestra, the memorable tunes just flowed and didn’t stop until more than two hours later at the standing ovation and exit music.  Lionel Bart’s score is rich in melody, the lyrics and the libretto evoking Dickens while still being theatrical. (The late William David Brohn did the lavish orchestral arrangements.) Lear deBessonet, the show’s director (and the Encores!’ artistic director) has fashioned a fast-moving evening filled with great performances starting with the sweet, fresh-faced Oliver of Benjamin Pajak and the incredibly talented ensemble of kids who gambol about with abandon. [more]

Summer, 1976

May 5, 2023

Auburn (Pulitzer Prize winner for Proof) has a knack for writing complex female characters.  That knack hasn’t failed him in "Summer, 1976."  Diane, the lustrous Laura Linney, is an aloof artist/university professor who meets Alice, the warm and magnetic Jessica Hecht, a stay-at-home mom, via their very young daughters.  Alice’s husband, the unseen, but occasionally heard, Doug, an economist on the tenure track at the university where Diane also teaches, devised a babysitting co-op that involved coupons exchanged for hours of babysitting, a system that eventually breaks down quite humorously. [more]

Peter Pan Goes Wrong

May 1, 2023

The Company soon loses its way as bunk beds self-destruct, lines get mangled, Peter Pan flails about in failed attempts to fly and crocodiles and mermaids parade about on skateboards. If this sounds like a normal production of Barrie’s classic tale, then I am telling it wrong. The main problem with "Peter Pan Goes Wrong" is that virtually all the jokes are physical, an unending series of scenic disasters that become not just predictable, but tiresome.  Even the great physical comedians of the silent film era knew when enough was enough. [more]

Dance Theatre of Harlem 2023

April 24, 2023

A short documentary film about the fabulous actress, composer, pianist and wife of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Hazel Scott, preceded the new ballet, "Sounds of Hazel," choreographed by Tiffany Rea-Fisher.  The film revealed Rea-Fisher’s inspiration to put her feelings about Scott into ballet form. The resulting work, though uneven, gave the DTH dancers many opportunities to show their zest, sensuality and grace while still not particularly illuminating the astonishing life of Scott whose career was sidelined by the McCarthy Blacklisting forces. The score, featuring only two Scott performances plus a pro-America speech she made, divides the work into seven sections designated by geographical locations: Trinidad, Harlem, Paris. The score was arranged and partially composed by Erica “Twelve45” Blunt. Although well-meaning, "Sounds of Hazel" is not well choreographed, uneasily combining sassy hip swings with ballet to evoke Trinidad and jazzy movements adorning ballet steps to bring Paris alive.  Had Scott’s name not been in the title, there would be no way to infer that Sounds of Hazel was about her. [more]

Regretfully, So the Birds

April 13, 2023

Silliness and whimsy can often be admirable qualities in a play, but not when taken to the degree playwright Julia Izumi has in her new work, "Regretfully, So the Birds Are," a co-production of and WP Theater and the Playwrights Horizons where the show has been well launched. "Regretfully," directed by Jenny Koons, centers on the trials and tribulations of the Whistler family:  mother, Elinore, in prison for burning her husband alive; Illy and Neel, brother and sister who want to marry each other; sister Mora the cynical third sibling; and Cam, the dead father who has morphed into a snowman. [more]

Bob Fosse’s Dancin’

April 6, 2023

Perhaps it’s the difficulty of finding dancers who can perform the intricate, body isolation moves so emblematic of Fosse’s very individual style, but to those who know and experienced his brilliance when he was hands on, this cast is a bit too clean cut and even-tempered.  (The late Ann Reinking, a Fosse muse, was more successful staging her revival of "Chicago" still setting records on Broadway after moving from its New York City Center Encores! birthplace.) Nevertheless, Cilento is using a great deal of the original vignettes, excluding a few (most particularly Fosse’s perfectly ludicrous sexualizing of a ballet class) and adding more spoken lines, including an intermittent narration given by the charming, solid Manuel Herrera who also shows off his great dancing chops. [more]

Best Friends

March 28, 2023

The Israeli Artists Project, dedicated to bringing the art and artists of Israel to American audiences, has mounted a production of Anat Gov’s "Best Friends," a zippy portrait of three best friends through the years.  The play, presented alternately in Hebrew and English, fits snugly on the stage of the Rattlestick Theater in the West Village. [more]

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch: Água

March 19, 2023

"Água," making its American debut, created in 2001 during a residency in Brazil, is a work of great beauty, humor and creativity —and dishearteningly, an overlong dance/theater work.  Even the most beloved visitor who overstays his welcome, enervates rather than stimulates. Its series of discrete sections never congealed into a seamless whole, each, though fascinatingly staged and performed by this impeccable troupe, not making much sense even in the surreal world of Bausch’s imagination. As usual, Bausch combined speaking with movement, not pairing them particularly smoothly in this work.  Água actually began with a dancer speaking as she peeled and ate an orange, going on about a muscle cramp that caused her to leave her bed and gaze at the heavens through her window. [more]

Dear World (New York City Center Encores!)

March 17, 2023

"Dear World," the not terribly successful 1969 Jerry Herman musical based on Jean Giraudoux’s "The Madwoman of Chaillot" (1945), was basically a vehicle for the brilliant Angela Lansbury.  It needs a star to pull off its quirky inconsistency and New York City Center Encores! has a gem, Donna Murphy, who, though under-rehearsed due to a Covid scare and carrying her script, gives a colorful and moving performance as its central character, Countess Aurelia. [more]

Elyria

March 16, 2023

What makes "Elyria" intriguing is how its American location affects the hidebound ritual social rules of its Southeast Asian characters.  That all the characters emerged from an African diaspora that seemed to have little influence on their ingrained Indian culture only adds to the colorful rendition of an old-hat story. [more]
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Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2023