Plays

Maestro

September 16, 2016

Felder’s play begins with a video of the actual Leonard Bernstein delivering a colorful, yet entertaining, illustrated lecture on music. When Felder sashays down the aisle, a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other, the lack of resemblance is, at first, bothersome. But, somehow, sitting at a piano—which he plays impeccably—his monologue pulls you into Bernstein’s tumultuous life story. [more]

Bachelorette

September 13, 2016

This comedy revival of Leslye Headland’s 2010 play, that was adapted for the 2012 film of the same name, "Bachelorette," is as caustic and outrageous as ever. While looking ahead to a wedding day is supposed to generate feelings of excitement and bliss as women band together to stand by their girlfriend as she prepares to say “I Do,” this is often times not the case with several different personalities in the same room. It can be a very stressful time as emotions heighten and feelings get hurt, and "Bachelorette" humorously and dramatically represents this experience as three girls meet up to celebrate the night before their friend’s wedding in a swanky hotel suite. [more]

Aubergine

September 13, 2016

Playwright Julia Cho has crafted an engaging and universal work that unevenly blends reality with mysticism. The characters are all very well delineated and the dialogue is flavorful and realistic. It’s structured as a series of short scenes that include monologues, flashbacks and fantasies. The play’s two-act form diminishes its momentum, running two hours and fifteen minutes with an intermission. Repetitiveness and a preoccupation with profundity sidetrack its effectiveness at times. [more]

Crackskull Row

September 8, 2016

Director Kira Simring’s superior staging theatrically presents the play’s complicated situations with clarity and surrealistic flourishes. Characters often enter and exit through unlikely places such as through the audience or from a side door. Though the play lasts only 75 minutes, Ms. Simring’s physical realization of it makes it seem lengthier with the depth she has brought to it. Her results with the cast, some of who play dual roles is superb. [more]

The Layover

September 6, 2016

Following "Bachelorette" and "Assistance," Leslye Headland’s latest play, The Layover, is a taut psychological thriller told in an updated film noir style. Trip Cullman, who has directed all of her New York productions, has made the play a tour de force of tension and unease. As acted by Annie Parisse, Adam Rothenberg, Amelia Workman, John Procaccino and Quincy Dunn-Baker, the tone is marvelously sustained. The only fly in the ointment is the ending which will take you entirely by surprise and may feel unmotivated. [more]

About Clarence and Me

September 4, 2016

To call "About Clarence and Me" simply a play is misleading, as the project features an entirely original score by co-writer Scott Hiltzik. A classical musician, Hiltzik’s music is technically striking but carries a modern flare. In additional to their finely tuned performances, both DeMone and Roll impress as musicians as well. Roll proves himself to be quite the accomplished classical pianist, demonstrating mastery of the keys by way of precision and constraint. DeMone, ever his opposite, produces from the piano a sound descendent of a ragtime piano roll, at times accompanied by the veteran singer’s sonorous growl. Directed by Hiltzik’s co-writer Jones, the duo’s intimacy with the material is plain to see in the final product. Full of nuanced moments both thematically and in performance, the writing team’s hands-on approach is responsible for this well-rounded and solid production. [more]

The Trojan Women

September 4, 2016

Written in 415 B.C. as a criticism of the Athenian capture of Melos and the subjugation of its population earlier that year, "The Trojan Women" has remained relevant throughout the last 2,500 years due to mankind’s penchant for war. Although Ellen McLaughlin’s new adaptation makes some changes to the Euripides original, it retains its power pertinent for our own time in the wake of the refugee crisis. While at times callow, Anne Cecelia Haney’s production for The Bats is persuasive, potent and poignant. It also provides an excellent introduction to the plays that make up Greek tragedy for those who have not experienced them on stage. [more]

The Jamb

September 3, 2016

Besides achieving sensitive and strong performances from the cast, director David Drake masterfully fulfills the playwright’s intentions with his lively and brisk staging. The collaborative group UnkleDave's Fight-House’s fight direction is thrillingly realistic for several physical conflicts. [more]

Caught

August 31, 2016

The beauty of Chen’s technique lies in engaging the audience in a guessing game that they don’t immediately know they are a part of – presenting them with certain messages that appear to be true, but challenge them to think about it from a different perception. One of the main themes is examining the different viewpoints between the Chinese and American cultures and how perceptions can be skewed. The result is a clever and eye-opening puzzle that teaches important lessons around the human experience in a shocking way by offering extremes. [more]

A Day by the Sea

August 30, 2016

Now that we have been through all the angry play movements, literate writers like N.C. Hunter and Terence Rattigan are once again ripe for revival. While in his own time, Hunter was criticized for being too much like Chekhov that now seems a plus in the days of sloppy craftsmanship and plays that are really movie scenarios staged in the theater. "A Picture of Autumn" was obviously a post-war British variation on Chekhov’s "The Cherry Orchard," while Waters of the Moon resembles "The Sea Gull." "A Day by the Sea" owes a great deal to Chekhov’s "Uncle Vanya" and includes the same basic cast of characters. [more]

Touch

August 27, 2016

Toni Press-Coffman’s "Touch" is a rather challenging play both in that a great deal of it is narrated in recollection and also that it deals with much naked emotion. The cast led by Peter McElligott who is onstage almost throughout the evening could not be bettered. Director Nathaniel Shaw has made this under-dramatized play into a more theatrical experience. While Touch will not be for everyone, it is an impressive document of the workings of the human heart. [more]

To Protect the Poets (The New York International Fringe Festival 2016)

August 21, 2016

"To Protect the Poets" shows how readily lines can be crossed when “street justice” is employed, instead of the judicial system. This first-rate, timely and intelligent play is a just representation of how two people who love each other deal with violent crimes against women and police brutality. [more]

LUNT AND FONTANNE: “The Celestials of Broadway” (The New York International Fringe Festival 2016)

August 20, 2016

While "LUNT AND FONTANNE: The Celestials of Broadway" is a fine and concise review of their careers for people who have never heard of them, Murphy and Lang make them seem more superficial than necessary. It is true that Fontanne was born in England, but Murphy and Lang play both of them as very English and exceedingly refined and proper, not backed up by their performances as themselves in "Stage Door Canteen." The Lunts’ famous use of overlapping dialogue which was years ahead of its time can be seen in the video of their film of "The Guardsman." Murphy and Lang often use it to talk over each other’s lines making them unintelligible, while the Lunts came in on the last syllable of their cues which is much more realistic. The Lunts may have appeared in many light drawing room comedies, but to portray them as delivering their lines on the same level all time would not have made them as famous as they were. [more]

NIGHT OF THE LIVING N-WORD!! (The New York International Fringe Festival 2016)

August 18, 2016

Laden with jokes, sight gags and flamboyant characters, Mr. Free’s well-constructed and startling work combines the outrageous sensibilities of John Waters’ films with the social consciousness of Norman Lear’s television sitcoms. Free’s giddily convoluted scenario is dense with flashbacks, fantasies and surprises. Just when a thread is exhausted he is seamlessly on to another. The classic horror film "Night of the Living Dead" is emulated for the deadly serious dénouement. [more]

Implications of Cohabitation

August 16, 2016

Directed by Leni Mendez, "Implications of Cohabitation" is a smooth running machine, albeit some undeveloped moments in the script. The staging is fluid and the story is clear, but some exchanges between characters are borderline inauthentic. The set design by Anna Grigo is effective, but slightly repetitive. The main set piece is an empty apartment, and the decorum of the apartment is changed to reflect the change in location. Unfortunately, these changes are minimal and don’t do much to enhance or differentiate one scene from the next. [more]

Summer Shorts 2016 – Series B

August 15, 2016

Richard Alfredo’s 'The Dark Clothes of Night," a brilliant parody/homage to film noir and hardboiled fiction, the third play of Summer Shorts – Series B, is so good it alone is worth the price of admission. The other two plays which precede it in this year’s 10th Festival of New American Short Plays have interesting but undeveloped premises. But "The Dark Clothes of Night" is an instant classic, a humorous satire that is also a brilliantly theatrical study in paranoia, fear and evil and the elements that made film noir irresistible. Directed by playwright Alexander Dinelaris, the three actors in this memorable short work play multiple roles with assurance and aplomb. [more]

Naked Brazilian (The New York International Fringe Festival 2016)

August 15, 2016

Writer Gustavo Pace is the handsome, youthful and animated performer of this autobiographical exploration. He loudly rattles on in Portuguese and English while adequately portraying himself and several characters. These include his father, brother, a female therapist working on turning him straight, and various others he encounters. It’s an amiable and passable performance that’s heavy on volume and shaky on intelligibility. [more]

Troilus and Cressida

August 12, 2016

While "Troilus and Cressida" is rarely staged, Daniel Sullivan’s production full of bombs and smoke suggests that in our time of endless wars it speaks to us again, and the play’s cynicism also seems to capture the current zeitgeist. It also features memorable performances from John Glover, John Douglas Thompson, Max Casella, Sanjit de Silva, and Alex Breaux, among others. [more]

Crimes and Crimes

August 11, 2016

The August Strindberg Repertory Theatre presents this production. Since 2012, they have produced a number of the author’s works in New York City and for this one it was decided to condense and update it in order bring out its humor. The result is pretty much laugh-free. [more]

Alice in Black and White

August 9, 2016

"Alice in Black and White" is a play-within-a-play. Two parallel stories are told: one of Austen’s life and relationship with Gertrude Tate, her companion for over 40 years; and one in the early 1950’s involving a Staten Island Historical Society receptionist and journalist Oliver Jensen, who later published "The Revolt of the American Woman" (which included Austen photographs) and a Life magazine article on Austen. [more]

Paradiso: Chapter 1

August 6, 2016

A new media and sophisticated ticket booking system is brought into play even before the play begins. In order to buy tickets, a theatergoer has to give out his/her cell phone number for text follow-up information as to confirmation of time and the Midtown location. The immersive theater is kept secret until the day of booking the event. The address of where "Paradiso: Chapter 1" is being held is texted only four hours before the participant’s allotted time. [more]

Austin

August 5, 2016

Thomas G. Waites has a long list of major credits that go back to the film "The Warriors" in 1979. As Austin, he gives one of the strangest performances in memory. It’s a monotonously upbeat steamroller turn that recalls the hyper enthusiasm of the young Donald O’Connor combined with the cloying seriousness of the older Mickey Rooney at his most lachrymose. Watching Mr. Waites is exhausting and bewildering. [more]

Men on Boats

August 2, 2016

In this swashbuckling comedic play, 'Men on Boats" takes an innovative approach by casting ten women in the roles of the first “white” discovers of the Grand Canyon. However, this was not a nod to the current trend of casting cisgender or transgender actors. The use of “on boats,” instead of “in boats,” indicates the state of being in which the actresses find themselves — a history panorama where gender and race play little part. [more]

Summer Shorts 2016 – Series A

August 1, 2016

As might be expected LaBute’s new one act, "After the Wedding," contains a shocker. However, when it arrives in Maria Mileaf’s production, it is so matter-of-fact that it has little or no impact. Elizabeth Masucci and Frank Harts play a married couple of six years. Named simply “Him” and “Her,” they alternate telling (different) versions of their years together without interacting. However, both of them recall an event that occurred on their way to their honeymoon which should have been a game-changer. For these self-absorbed people millennials, it was simply another incident along the way. Sitting in chairs facing the audience, Masucci and Harts are rather charming as the amoral couple but the play seems like a scene from a longer play not yet written. [more]

Butler

August 1, 2016

Taking place during the time of the Civil War, "Butler" is a tale of conscience, courage, and transcendence. As Major General Benjamin Butler, Ames Adamson has risen to power but is faced with a decision that could change the game for slavery in America. Many of the themes surrounding a nation divided such as injustice, prejudice, and lack of understanding remain extremely relevant today and are just as impactful with events occurring every day in our world. Instead of ignoring the issues or using power as the only weapon, Butler flips the script and uses empathy and understanding as a means to connect. [more]

BenDeLaCreme’s Inferno A-Go-Go

August 1, 2016

“We’re actually going to be talking about 14th century Italian literature,” proclaims BenDeLaCreme near the start of his/her entertaining multimedia solo show" BenDeLaCreme’s Inferno A-Go-Go." It’s very loosely and irreverently based on Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy. That literary classic describes a journey through hell including The Ninth Circle. Here it’s used as a clever pretext for an hour of inspired silliness with flashes of seriousness. [more]

A Class Act

July 30, 2016

While "A Class Act" covers material dramatized elsewhere, Norman Shabel’s play, seen at The Playroom earlier this year, is always absorbing, always unpredictable. The seven member cast is totally believable in their roles as lawyers and corporate bigwigs. This is a tense and enlightening evening in the theater that demonstrates the startling inner workings of the legal system even in what seems like an open and shut case. [more]

Quietly

July 29, 2016

“The characters in this play both the living and the dead are completely fictional.” This statement explains the play’s overall contrived quality. Both of the lead characters have such striking similarities that at times they come across as mouthpieces academically articulating “The Troubles,” the 30-year war in Northern Ireland between The British and Catholic natives that ended in 1998. [more]

The Mushroom Cure

July 29, 2016

In the course of 90 minutes, we follow the ups and downs of Strauss’ professional, mental health and romantic lives in great detail. To his credit, Strauss gives the impression of delivering these stories as if for the first time. He was fresh and very involved, yet sensitive to the audience’s reactions. He managed to make a tediously unattractive condition fascinating and also managed to make himself affecting and human, his disability notwithstanding. OCD has never been as attractively rendered. [more]

Small Mouth Sounds

July 27, 2016

Inspired by the playwright’s attending a silent spiritual retreat at an upstate New York institute in the woods, this is an absorbing play which immediately causes the viewers to listen intently as our world is never really silent. In Stowe Nelson’s remarkable soundscape, the play begins with a torrential rain, and then proceeds to a great many sounds we usually take for granted (both performed by the actors and recorded): breathing, laughing, clicking of a pen, sighing, a gong ringing, whispers, giggling, crickets chirping, the crunching of chips, birds, a sip of tea, a sneeze, coughing, a cell phone ringing. As a result of this state of affairs and the fact that the actors (in general) don’t speak, we become attuned to watch the smallest facial expression and other forms of non-verbal communication. [more]

Privacy

July 26, 2016

Playing his most mature role to date, Radcliffe, late of Harry Potter, is charming as he begins as an introverted, reticent Englishman and then slowly panics as he realizes the extent to which his obsession with the Internet has left him vulnerable to outside forces. He is particularly fine in the computer dating sequence in which he must do a great deal of quick thinking and ad libbing as the participants change nightly. The mainly British production team includes set designer Lucy Osborne who has created a witty New York apartment for The Writer made up almost entirely of boxes made to look like iconic skyscrapers, and the clever projection design of Duncan McLean. [more]

Strange Country

July 26, 2016

These are among the choice zingers in playwright Anne Adams’ emotionally raw, earthy and often very funny contemporary dysfunctional Texas-set, family drama, "Strange Country." This entertaining piece of Americana has the humanity of Lanford Wilson, the quirkiness of Beth Henley and the unruliness of Sam Shepard. [more]

Oslo

July 26, 2016

Bartlett Sher complements Rogers by punctuating the play with visual puns that substantially add to the drama and importance of the enfolding events. A dinner party at Mona and Larsen’s home is disturbed by two phone calls, ringing at the same time. Larsen fields a call from Israel and Mona takes a call from the P.L.O. Phone cords or wires are crossed, as Larsen and Mona exchange mouthpieces and try to arrange meetings and facilitate a place and time for the negotiations in Norway. [more]

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