Off-Broadway

Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods

April 8, 2025

Horwitz and Williams perfectly match each others’ energy on stage. Indeed, at times it seems as if each is trying to one-up the other’s exaggerated mannerisms. In one scene, a famous artist might dip into nonsensical French phrase, only for an interviewer to ratchet it up further by over-emphasizing an accent on a word that doesn’t need it. One might not-so-subtly flirt by bringing up a mutual past lover while the other awkwardly deflects, only spurring on further attempts. Throughout each scene, the pair’s back-and-forth is consistently excellent. They have an easygoing chemistry that makes every scenario feel fresh. [more]

Humpty Dumpty

April 7, 2025

Eric Bogosian’s "Humpty Dumpty" was first written 25 years ago and premiered at the McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, in 2002. At that time the idea of quarantining due to a local or national disaster seemed a fantasy. However, since then, we have all lived through the Covid Pandemic and what was inconceivable became our daily existence. Not only does Bogosian’s play seem tame now, it also seems predictable and dated. Director Ella Jane New does not help the script much by allowing the vapid characters to all seem one dimensional. Possibly with a satiric approach or powerhouse performances, the play might have something new to say to us as its entitled people show their true colors. [more]

Danger and Opportunity

April 6, 2025

Jack Serio directs a strong cast of seasoned actors whose personal chemistry gives the ensemble a solidly believable portrayal of their characters. Juan Castano is Edwin, a mid-30s man married to Christian, a man ten years older, believably played by Ryan Spahn. The two men are struggling with issues in their marriage when Margaret enters the picture. Julia Chan is Christian's "girlfriend" from high school. They have not communicated with each other in 20 years. [more]

The Cherry Orchard (St. Ann’s Warehouse)

April 5, 2025

The results of this updating are bold, and Andrews’ intellectual ambition is undeniable. At times, his revisions might seem questionable but when the production clicks, it strikes with a thrilling originality. The production pulses with an urgency often missing from more traditional revivals of "The Cherry Orchard," a play about people running out of time. The central conflict remains: Liubov, the bankrupt widow haunted by the ghosts of her past, returns to her family estate for the inevitable sale of the land that defines her family’s history. Practical solutions are needed, but neither she nor her hapless relatives can take decisive action. [more]

All Nighter

March 31, 2025

While most of the audience will probably not have graduated in the last ten years (though you never know), the play speaks to all of us about the closeness and personal relationships of our college years. Playwright Natalie Margolin knows how to create tension from hints casually dropped and director Jaki Bradley has created a cohesive cast who could have been together the last four years. "All Nighter" is one of the few plays set at a college that seems to come from the author’s own firsthand experiences. [more]

Remembrance

March 30, 2025

"Remembrance" by Patricia GoodSon is a story about her journey, for more than a decade, in dealing with her mother's Alzheimer's disease. As directed by Joan Kane, it is told from the perspective of a woman working with a therapist to unravel the emotional impact of those years of caregiving. It is not about the impact of the disease on the person with it but on the effect on the caregiver. [more]

Amm(i)gone

March 28, 2025

In "Amm(i)gone," Mansoor masterfully delves into the delicate nuances of cultural and personal differences, exploring the connections that bind us even in our diversity. Co-directed with Lyam B. Gabel, this meta-theatrical production—spanning a compact yet potent 80 minutes—recounts the journey of Mansoor and his mother as they embark on the project of translating "Antigone" into Urdu. Surrounded by designer Xotchil Musser’s evocative set of wooden cutouts and intricate mosaics, and serene candles for effect, Mansoor guides the audience through their creative process, blending dialogue, video and audio recordings, and projected imagery to weave a story that is both intimate and expansive. The production’s clever use of multimedia enhances the emotional weight of their shared task, inviting the audience to reflect on the complexities of language, family, and legacy. [more]

We Had a World

March 26, 2025

In fact, the play Harmon has written is mainly about the conflict between the grandmother and the mother. While we are never really certain why Ellen and Susan refuse to be in the same room, we come to know all the details of the relationship between Renée and Ellen from three sides. The most entertaining parts of this long one-act delineate the relationship between Joshua and his Auntie Mame-like grandmother who did not believe in age-appropriate events: taking him at age seven to see "Dances With Wolves," attending a Mapplethorpe exhibit (which he did not understand) at age nine, seeing Diana Rigg in "Medea" when he was ten, and a three-movie marathon during a snow day off from school: "Secrets and Lies," "Sling Blade" and "The English Patient." Joshua credits his grandmother with changing his life making him want to be a playwright after seeing "Medea." [more]

Vanya

March 26, 2025

Andrew Scott in the one-man show “Vanya” after Anton Chekhov at the Lucille Lortel Theatre [more]

Maybe Tomorrow

March 24, 2025

"Maybe Tomorrow," written by Max Mondi and directed by Chad Austin, is a play about such a place and the person who created it. Inspired by a true story, Austin directs a cast of two in an exploration of a person lost in the present and locked within a mental space defined by the four walls of a bathroom, a person mediating the outside world through a computer and contact with one human caregiver but unable to move from a world they have defined as "safe" into the unknown world beyond the walls of a room. [more]

Ghosts

March 23, 2025

The new version by Irish playwright Mark O’Rowe uses contemporary and spare language but has made several events more literal as if not trusting modern audiences. The director has made the same mistake starting the play as a rehearsal in which we see the opening scene three times ranging from devoid of emotion to accomplished, which is both ineffective and pointless as it does not help us into the world of the play. The thrust stage by set designer John Lee Beatty (a room in unpainted wood, a single dining room table and mismatched chairs and a wall of French doors into a conservatory) is as stripped down and as spare as the language, a fitting place for a drama of tragic proportions, but does not offset the one- dimensional acting. The bland costumes mainly in black or white by Jess Goldstein straddle both the 19th and 21st centuries, seeming to want to have it both ways, but suggesting neither. [more]

Lists of Promise

March 21, 2025

The scene with Adam and Eve establishes the structure for the show, with each of the ensuing vignettes being conducted in a call-and-response format. The second explores a list of rules established during the Victorian Era. In this set, the aerial performers represent a young girl just coming of age and two older, more established women. The aerial characters make the call with the response coming from different members of the Grounded Women, each expanding on the list of comments being made by the aerialists. The set ends with the Contemporary Woman bringing together some of the ideas presented in the call and response, presenting the state of a woman's status in society as the result of the list of rules. [more]

Last Call

March 20, 2025

Peter Danish’s "Last Call" is a 90-minute confection of speculative daydreaming, inspired by a brief meeting between two of the most legendary conductors of the last century, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. Set in Vienna in 1988, in the sumptuous Blaue Bar of the Hotel Sacher, just before both men passed away, the play imagines a moment when the two giants of classical music, though not close friends, exchanged words. [more]

Lilith in Pisces

March 18, 2025

Kayla Eisenberg’s ("Delta Dawn," "Yiddish Club") script has a flawless grasp of rhythm – the play will rapidly speed up or slow down suddenly yet always feels completely natural. Characters consistently interrupt and speak over each other, then pause for a moment before resuming the frenetic pace. Characters are alone on stage rarely, but just frequently enough to provide necessary moments of calm. It’s a credit to her skill as a writer that 90 minutes of tension-building never feels overwrought. The script is effectively one long, deeply compelling conversation. Throughout it all, Lilith (in the form of a print of 19th-century symbolist Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s famous oil painting Lady Lilith) watches over them. Lilith, the first wife of Adam (before Eve) who defied both him and God only to become a demon, is given great thematic resonance. Eisenberg’s script explores regret, resolve, and defiance through this interesting prism. [more]

As Time Goes By

March 18, 2025

While the conversation may not always captivate, its premise—one that hinges on the unpredictability of human connection—remains intriguing. However, it’s hard to ignore the tension between the initial promise of a quick fling and the long, drawn-out conversation that ultimately defines their encounter. The result is a work that wrestles with the idea of how we fill the spaces between moments of intimacy—and whether we even have the language to fully express what it means to truly connect. [more]

Have You Met Jane Goodall and her Mother?

March 16, 2025

Who knew that a biographical play could be so witty, entertaining and charming? The latest EST/Sloan Project science play, Michael Walek’s "Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother?" is one of the most enjoyable and enlightening comedies of the season. Using the actual facts of Goodall’s first trip to Tanganyika’s Gombe Stream Reserve in 1960 to observe chimpanzees in the wild, Walek creates a play that sticks close to the well documented facts but fills in the missing information with often amusing supposition. The title refers to the fact that the Tanganyika government (then ruled by the British) only allowed Jane to study in their game park as a woman alone if she had a chaperone – so she brought along her mother. Jane Goodall’s trip was arranging by famed palaeoanthropologist Louis Leakey for her to find the missing link between humans and chimps which she finally does just before the end of her four month first trip. [more]

A Streetcar Named Desire (Almeida Theatre)

March 15, 2025

Even though the director, Rebecca Frecknall, honors most of the play’s dialogue, Blanche’s heartbreaking confession scene with Mitch (Dwane Walcott), her suitor, revealing the sad roots of her dysfunctional life, is truncated by several meaningful words; also, the play as written ends with the men arguing over a poker game as Stella quietly mourns in the arms of her landlady, Eunice (Janet Etuk, excellent). Here it is Stella’s mournful cries that bring the curtain down, distorting Williams’ message. [more]

The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar)

March 14, 2025

While there are plenty of laughs in "The Great Privation," we never lose sight of the fact the subject matter has roots in the history of medical exploitation. Previous mainstream pieces have appeared in recent years: Rebecca Skloot’s #1 New York Times bestseller, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," about a black woman whose cells were taken without her consent and unbeknownst to her contributed to numerous medical breakthroughs, and "Behind The Sheet," Charly Evon Simpson’s 2019 play presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre, loosely based on the story of J. Marion Simms, a gynecology pioneer whose progress (and success) was built on the suffering of enslaved women. [more]

Fog and Filthy Air

March 14, 2025

It is essential for the audience to become fully engaged with the story and to care about the characters. When that does not happen, the show falls flat. While Homeyer and McGrath make an effort as Father and Mother, they are saddled with one-dimensional characters whose interactions lack chemistry. Gamble’s character is more developed but lacks a believable emotional connection with the other two. The dialogue touches on emotional issues within the family but does not effectively build dramatic tension with those issues. In the final analysis, the play lacks a compelling emotional hook. [more]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

My First Ex-Husband

February 7, 2025

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. [more]

Symphony of Rats

February 6, 2025

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. [more]

Cymbeline

January 31, 2025

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. [more]

Kowalski

January 31, 2025

Robin Lord Taylor as Tennessee Williams and Brandon Flynn as Marlon Brando in a scene from Gregg [more]

Building My Casa

January 30, 2025

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. [more]

Nina

January 29, 2025

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. [more]

Grandliloquent

January 26, 2025

Gary Gulman in his one-man show “Grandiloquent” at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (Photo credit: [more]

Sheltered

January 25, 2025

"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. [more]

In the Zone

January 24, 2025

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. [more]

Mindplay

January 21, 2025

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. [more]

300 Paintings

January 20, 2025

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. [more]

January

January 19, 2025

"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. [more]

Dead as a Dodo

January 18, 2025

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. [more]

The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux]

January 12, 2025

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. [more]

My Mother’s Funeral: The Show

January 10, 2025

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. [more]

Bashevis’s Demons: 3 Tales by Isaac Bashevis Singer

December 25, 2024

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. [more]

A Shift of Opinion

December 23, 2024

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. [more]

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