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Articles by Victor Gluck, Editor-in-Chief

About Victor Gluck, Editor-in-Chief (1132 Articles)
Victor Gluck was a drama critic and arts journalist with Back Stage from 1980 – 2006. He started reviewing for TheaterScene.net in 2006, where he was also Associate Editor from 2011-2013, and has been Editor-in-Chief since 2014. He is a voting member of The Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle, the American Theatre Critics Association, and the Dramatists Guild of America. His plays have been performed at the Quaigh Theatre, Ryan Repertory Company, St. Clements Church, Nuyorican Poets Café and The Gene Frankel Playwrights/Directors Lab.

Practice

December 4, 2025

With a three-hour running time (the first act runs two hours straight without an intermission) the play is too long for its repetitiousness having the actors go over the same theater games and monologues over and over again. Of course, the play becomes an endurance test for the actors as well as viewers, whether it was intended to or not. Actors who have undergone this kind of training may be amused; those of us who have not may be bored or lose interest. Although the actors who make up the ten-member cast of "Practice" play very different personalities, we see so little of them individually that it is hard to keep them separate and they become a big blur. [more]

Sweet Smell of Success

November 30, 2025

The film version starring Burt Lancaster as sleazy yet powerful gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker (similar to the notorious Walter Winchell) and Tony Curtis as hungry press agent protégé Sidney Falco was not a success as the ugly underbelly of tabloid journalism was not what filmgoers wanted from some of their favorite box office stars in 1957. Some of the same problems apparently recurred when nice guy John Lithgow took on the role in the stage musical in 2002. The reedited version by Guare and Carnelia (which is closer to what they originally intended) remains faithful to the original plot but gives a more humanizing backstory and a more palatable ending. They have also restored the original opening (“Rumor”) and a duet for Hunsecker’s sister Susan and her boyfriend Dallas (“That’s How I Say Goodbye”), cut on the road. [more]

Kyoto

November 26, 2025

Unlike J.T. Rogers’ Tony Award-winning "Oslo" which handled similar material about the secret Oslo Peace Accord conference, "Kyoto" by Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson makes little concession to its audience giving almost too much information and depicting too many characters, while being patently undramatic much of the time. However, the topic is so explosive that it carries its audience through its 11 conferences. (One hardly notices Natalie Pryce’s costumes so closely does one have to listen to follow the flow of the arguments.) One does come away with the knowledge these sorts of conferences are almost futile with each nation having its own agenda and limits to how far it will go even at the expense of other nations. It is almost remarkable that the Kyoto conference reached any consensus at all. The question now is how much of that was actually enforced by the signatories to the protocol. [more]

The Seat of Our Pants

November 26, 2025

Michael Lepore as the Telegram Boy, Micaela Diamond as Sabina, Ruthie Ann Miles as Mrs. Antrobus, [more]

Richard II (Red Bull Theatre)

November 25, 2025

If you know the play, you many have trouble following it as several actors double: Ron Canada plays both John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (Richard’s uncle and Henry Bolingbroke’s father) and later the Bishop of Carlisle. Daniel Stewart Sherman doubles as both Sir Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfork and later as courtier Sir Stephen Scroop. Ryan Spahn is seen as Richard’s favorite Bagot, a Welsh Captain, and as a companion to the Queen. The ending has been changed as there is no Sir Piers Exton: another character comes to murder Richard in his cell, giving a different import to the scene. As there is no Duke and Duchess of York, the Duchess’ defense of her traitorous son after Bolingbroke becomes King Henry IV is given to the Queen instead. [more]

Archduke

November 24, 2025

Patrick Page (back row) and Jason Sanchez, Adrien Rolet and Jake Berne (front row) in a scene from [more]

44 – The Musical

November 19, 2025

"Saturday Night Live" has made political satire look easy and has a lot to answer for. "44 – The Musical" written, composed and directed by Eli Bauman, who worked on the Obama campaign in Las Vegas in 2008, has created this slight parody of the 44th president’s first term. While the show is slickly produced, the writing is lazy using vulgar language – the f-word is sprinkled generously throughout the dialogue and repeated in its songs whose names are not spelled out in the program – and the satire only takes on the most clichéd items. As none of the talented cast looks or sounds like the real people they are playing, we need to keep reminding ourselves who they are. [more]

Romy & Michele: The Musical

November 18, 2025

Schiff’s book so slavishly follows her screenplay without adding new material that there is nothing much to wait for. The lyrics by Sanford and Jay alternate between not scanning and extremely simple rhymes. None of the songs tell us anything we don’t already know. With one or two exceptions, Hanggi has directed her cast to be as much like the movie as possible, leading to pale imitations of more robust characterizations. Jason Sherwood’s unit set is augmented by Caite Hevner’s projection design, neither of which creates much atmosphere.  Tina McCartney’s costumes seem to be clones of those used in the movie. Much of the look of the period is created by Tommy Kurzman’s hair, wig and make-up design. [more]

Pygmalion

November 13, 2025

In their latest, Shaw’s ever-popular "Pygmalion," Staller has staged Shaw’s never-used prologue created for the 1938 film version which has the gods and goddesses on Mt. Olympus recount to the modern audience the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea which inspired Shaw’s Edwardian comedy. The set by Lindsay G. Fuori creates an Al Hirschfeld-inspired Greek temple used for all of the play’s five scenes. Four of the actors dressed in white Grecian robes (courtesy of designer Tracy Christensen) greet us and tell us the myth that we will see in Shaw’s updated 20th century comedy in which the sculptor becomes a professor of language and linguistics and the statue becomes a flower girl who wants to improve her speech well enough to get a job in a flower shop. However, Staller does not stop there but has created narrative introductions for each act which is rather intrusive though it may help some first-time viewers to understand the play. (Is there any theatergoer who has not seen the play’s musical version My Fair Lady on stage or screen?) [more]

Reunions

November 11, 2025

"Reunions" is a charming new Edwardian musical made up of two classic one- act plays: James M. Barrie’s 1910 “The Twelve-Pound Look” and the Quintero Brothers’ 1901 “A Sunny Morning.” Using an ensemble of six main actors who rotate roles, these two one-act musicals have the same theme: former lovers meet years later by an accident that changes their lives. However, the Barrie play deals with a middle-aged couple in a London mansion while the Quintero play brings together two septuagenarians in a Madrid park. Beautifully directed by Gabriel Barre, this is an elegant evening worthy of its Edwardian ancestry. [more]

Liberation

November 9, 2025

Kristolyn Lloyd, Adina Verson, Betsy Aidem and Audrey Corsa in a scene from the Roundabout Theatre [more]

Queens

November 8, 2025

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Martyna Majok, who has specialized in plays about the immigrant experience like Ironbound and Sanctuary City, has revised her play Queens first seen at the Claire Tow Theater at LCT3 in 2018. The new version now at Manhattan Theatre Club Stage I at New York City Center still with an all-female cast has three fewer characters and is now in two acts instead of three. However, the play, though still powerful and authentic, continues to be confusing as it goes back and forth between scenes in the borough of Queens in 2017, 2001 and 2011, and with two middle scenes set in the Ukraine in 2016. Mostly taking place in the same basement apartment in New York, at one point women from both 2001 and 2017 are on stage simultaneously. It is all a little bit difficult to keep the chronology straight. [more]

Art

November 5, 2025

James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale in a scene from Yasmina Reza’s “Art” at [more]

Oh Happy Day!

October 31, 2025

"Oh Happy Day!" demonstrates an advance of technique over Cooper’s eight-scene sketch evening in "Ain’t No Mo’." However, the new play is much too talky and seems to cover some of the same material more than once, even though on another level it deals with our relationship with God. The play is an interesting entertainment but one assumes Cooper meant it to be more than that. It is, however, an artifact of the difficult times we live in. [more]

Playing Shylock

October 30, 2025

Mark Leiren-Young’s timely one-man show, "Playing Shylock" (formerly called simply "Shylock"), has arrived in New York after its premiere run in Toronto in its new version rewritten around the life and career of veteran film actor Saul Rubinek ("The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," "Unforgiven," "Frasier") playing himself. Returning to the stage for the first time since 1990, Rubinek plays an actor performing Shylock in a (fictional) production of Shakespeare’s "The Merchant of Venice" which is shut down by protestors claiming that the play is anti-Semitic and the theater company has caved in to their demands. While the play is fascinating and provocative, it also has some flawed passages but Rubinek is commanding at all times. [more]

Art of Leaving

October 27, 2025

While Broadway was once filled with plays like this a generation or two ago, "Art of Leaving" now seems very dated. It would have been more believable set back in an earlier decade. Matt Gehring’s direction emphasizes the sit-com nature of the play which is a mistake as it makes the proceedings seem all that much more shallow. Both Aaron and Diana are very thinly written so we learn little about their 25 year marriage except that Diana has lived her life to please her unhappy and demanding husband. Jordan Lage’s Aaron is a total egoist who is lacking in sympathy, while Audrey Heffernan Meyer’s Diana seems unbelievably naïve as to what is available to women today. [more]

Let’s Love!

October 26, 2025

The fourth evening of one-act plays by Academy Award-winning screenwriter and director Ethan Coen is coyly called "Let’s Love!," when by rights it should be called "Let’s Have Sex!" In three one-acts, all on the same theme, couples are looking for love in all the wrong places - or all the wrong ways. Neil Pepe, artistic director of Atlantic Theater Company smoothly directs the high-powered cast led by Aubrey Plaza, Nellie McKay and Mary McCann as he has done the previous three Coen evenings ("Almost an Evening," "Offices," and "Happy Hour.") What is unusual about "Let’s Love!" is that the language is continually raunchy and the foul-mouthed women have all the best lines, though not the most completely written characters. [more]

Truman vs. Israel

October 25, 2025

Although William Spatz’s "Truman vs. Israel" depicts a fictional encounter between former President Truman and lawyer and later first Jewish woman congresswoman Bella Abzug in 1953, the play brings to life these two colorful and flamboyant personalities who are not so much known today as they once were. As directed by Randy White, the real problem with the play is that in reviewing Truman’s career leading up to the accusation of anti-Semitism, it rehashes a great deal of political history which will be unfamiliar to most theatergoers. One almost needs a score card to follow the ins and outs of Truman’s controversial career. The play also cuts between 1988 and 1953 making it confusing as to what is happening when. [more]

Crooked Cross

October 22, 2025

Samuel Adams as Moritz Weissmann and Ella Stevens as Lexa Kluger in a scene from the Mint Theater [more]

The Other Americans

October 18, 2025

Comedian and actor John Leguizamo’s "The Other Americans," his first full-length and full-cast play, aside from his satiric one-person shows, is making its Off Broadway debut and proves to be an impressive dysfunctional family drama. Following in the tradition of Arthur Miller’s "All My Sons" and "Death of a Salesman," Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun" and August Wilson’s "Fences," as well as Eugene O’Neill’s "Long Day’s Journey into Night," the play focuses both on its 59-year-old Colombian American protagonist Nelson Castro and his estranged son Nick, and his pursuing the American Dream in all the wrong ways. While this New York play is both generic and derivative, its authentic Latino milieu makes it particularly notable as it is difficult to name any other play that fulfills this role. [more]

Limón Dance Company: Fall 2025 Season including “The Emperor Jones”

October 17, 2025

The Limón Dance Company is celebrating the start of its 80th Anniversary season with a triple bill at The Joyce Theater which in words of artistic director Dante Puleio celebrates “where we have come from and where we are going.” In this vein, the evening included “Chaconne” (1942) originally created by Jose Limón as a solo for himself, now expanded to 21 dancers including members of the Limón Dance Company, Limón2, Company Alumni, Students and Limón Family. This was followed by “The Emperor Jones” (1956), inspired by the expressionistic Eugene O’Neill play, but now updated to an urban setting in Puleio’s reconstruction. The final piece of the evening was the world premiere of “Jamelgos” by Diego Vega Solorza, who actually was born in the same region in Mexico as Limón and counts him as one of his mentors. The season is dedicated to the late Carla Maxwell who helmed the company for almost 40 years and died on July 6 of this year. [more]

Are the Bennett Girls Ok?

October 12, 2025

The style and tone of "re the Bennet Girls Ok?" has been updated to contemporary language with the women using “like” and multiple curse words including the F-bomb so that although we see women dressed in Mariah Anzaldo Hale’s clothing from 1811 what we hear is 2025 language. And while the jokes suggest this is now a farce, none of it is very funny, with the men getting the worst of it. Both Charles Bingley (nicknamed "Bing Bong" by the Bennet sisters) and Fitzwilliam Darcy are figures of fun so that we do not see what the women see in them. While the original novel was a social comedy, the serious problem that the Bennet women must marry as they will be evicted from their house on the death of their father is no longer a consideration today: entailment to the oldest male heir was discontinued in England in 1925. Also unlike in 1811, women can now work and earn their own money. [more]

And Then We Were No More

October 11, 2025

As a playwright Tim Blake Nelson has always been interested in moral and ethical problems in such play as "The Grey Zone," "Eye of God" and "Socrates." His latest play "And Then We Were No More" now at La MaMa E.T.C. is also about such knotty questions but this one is set in the near future. A dystopian drama, "And Then We Were No More" investigates a justice system no longer interested in mercy but in an algorithm which makes all decisions. Mark Wing-Davey’s production featuring acclaimed actress Elizabeth Marvel is glacially cool in the manner of sci-fi movies that have something serious on their mind. The play has some resonance for the times we are living through now.  [more]

(un)conditional

October 5, 2025

Although the advance press materials suggest that Ali Keller’s "(un)conditional," the 2024 Lighthouse Series winner at SoHo Playhouse, is about wife swapping, it is, in fact, about two couples with different sexual problems that eventually become one story when it transpires that two of the people know each other from work. Director Ivey Lowe has used a suitably light touch to deal with this delicate and sensitive subject matter. While the play is never erotic, it may be the most intimate play you have ever seen so far. The actors playing the two couples are excellent at handling this tricky theme, one that cries out to be addressed more often even though it may make some uncomfortable. [more]

Mexodus

October 2, 2025

Actors and musicians Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson have written a dynamic, exciting new two-character hip-hop musical in "Mexodus," a telling of the little known story of the Underground Railroad that went South to Mexico. It may also be the first New York musical to use live-looping for its soundtrack, with both musicians playing multiple instruments as well. "Mexodus" not only tells the tale of a Texas slave who escapes to Mexico but also the stories of both of its performers. The current relevance of the show to our immigration situation cannot be underestimated. [more]

This Is Not a Drill

September 27, 2025

You may recall that on January 13, 2018, Hawaii residents including tourists received an alert that a ballistic missile had been spotted on the way to the islands. You may also recall that it was later reported as a drill only for security workers, and that the alert was over after 38 minutes. Songwriter Holly Doubet remembers that day as she was visiting the islands and has not forgotten the minutes pondering her impending death. This is the premise of The York Theatre’s new musical 'This Is a Not a Drill," conceived by Doubet with book by Joseph McDonough and Doubet, and a 15 song score by Doubet, Kathy Babylon and John Vester. A pleasant enough entertainment, there is no urgency except for the hysterical characters at the Hibiscus Resort and Hotel who take the alert seriously. We know, of course, that it was false, so the authors have made their plot out of "Love Boat," "Hotel" or "White Lotus" multiple storylines with each couple having their own crisis. Unfortunately, the characters and their problems are all clichés and stereotypes which all end happily, Hawaii being a place for solving one’s problems. It might have been more exciting dramatically if some of these plots had not had happy endings. [more]

let’s talk about anything else

September 22, 2025

Whether Anthony Anello’s "let’s talk about anything else" is a dark comedy, or a thriller with horror overtones, or drama about the effects of guilt, it is the sort of play that doesn’t need its first act which is used simply to introduce the characters with the play really beginning in its second act. However, it isn’t very good at introducing its characters as it takes a long time to find out the names of the seven friends on stage. It does have a smashing and shocking ending suggesting the lengthy play has a good story that needs to be reworked and shortened. [more]

The Wild Duck

September 21, 2025

The latest revival has been directed by Simon Godwin, artistic director of Washington, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre Company, in a co-production with Theatre for a New Audience. This revival uses the contemporary version by David Eldridge, first seen at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2005 which combines some of the minor characters, shortening the cast list. While the text is clear, the uneven acting and interpretation of the characters undermines the play’s powerful and tragic resolution. [more]

Lady Patriot

September 16, 2025

Ted Lange’s "Lady Patriot" reunites the author/director with his cast mates from The Love Boat series, Jill Whelan and Fred Grandy. Leaving that aside as it has little to do with his new historical play, the third in Lange’s American history trilogy, "Lady Patriot" is based on true events that took place in the Jefferson Davis White House and the neighboring house, the Elizabeth Van Lew Mansion, in Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, 1861 – 1865. While the play purports to tell the story of the leak in the Davis cabinet and the successful Union spying ring in the Confederacy in Richmond, it lacks urgency and tension even at the end when the Confederacy is about to come to an end. Told in 18 short scenes, the play could use a good deal of pruning of its two and a half hour running time. [more]

Twelfth Night (Free Shakespeare in the Park)

August 31, 2025

When the play begins those who know the original will recognize that Ali has edited the text: the first two scenes have been flipped which makes perfect sense letting us know that Viola, the heroine, has been shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria, and that she has lost her twin brother Sebastian. (She decides to dress in male clothing in order to see the lay of the land as a single woman in a foreign country.) Unfortunately some of the other edits, including the most famous scene in the play in which the unloved puritan Malvolio reads out loud the forged letter he has received with the famous lines “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em,” are mistakes. Much of the edited material makes the play dark so the intent may have been to soften the play’s somber side, though it does eliminate much of the characters’ best material. [more]

Amaze

August 31, 2025

British illusionist Jamie Allan has brought his aptly named magic show "Amaze" to New World Stages and it is truly awesome. His act is so low key that one doesn’t at first realize how remarkable his tricks are taking many familiar and famous magic acts one step further – like the card trick with a deck of blank cards. He also uses his show to build the theory that children are more susceptible to magic and illusion and that we all need to return to our childhood memories and imaginations. [more]

Ava: The Secret Conversations

August 25, 2025

American actress Elizabeth McGovern is best known today for her role as Lady Cora, Countess of Grantham, in the long-running "Downton Abbey" series. However, she is also an Academy-Award winning nominee for her performance in the film of "Ragtime" as chorus girl and actress Evelyn Nesbitt. Since the early 1990s when she moved to London, she has often appeared on the West End stage. Now she has come to our shores as Hollywood icon Ava Gardner in a play of her own devising: "Ava: The Secret Conversations," adapted from the 2013 book of the same name by celebrity journalist Peter Evans and Gardner herself. Although not the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of actresses to impersonate sex symbol Gardner, McGovern is charming and surprising, profane and coy, an independent woman who knows her own mind and has a great deal to say. She gives off flashes of fireworks along with the witty dialogue taken from Gardner’s own words. She is not only convincing but sympathetic as she recounts the mistakes and tragedies in her life. On stage throughout is Aaron Costa Ganis as British journalist Evans who we don’t learn as much about but makes an interesting foil for the flamboyant Gardner, even in these later years after her screen fame. [more]
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