Plays

The Hills of California

October 16, 2024

In a theatrical era when "full-length" works often fail to exceed 90 minutes, the English playwright Jez Butterworth dares to dubiously dramatize for approximately twice that span. His previous Broadway epic, "The Ferryman," conflated The Troubles with anachronistic paganism, a disturbed old woman's fear of banshees, and lots of boozing, earning Butterworth much critical acclaim, as well as Olivier and Tony Awards, for this bold mix of pretentiousness and unabashed Irish stereotyping. "The Hills of California," Butterworth's latest overhyped synthetic slog teeming with underdeveloped characters, is basically a tale of two postwar entertainment cities: Los Angeles, the world's dream capital, and Blackpool, England, a fading resort town that's become uniquely fit for delusions. [more]

McNeal

October 15, 2024

As in Ayad Akhtar’s plays "Disgraced," "JUNK" and "The Who and the What," all of which have been produced by the Lincoln Center Theater, "McNeal" is always interesting, always arresting. Unfortunately, in McNeal each scene seems to bring up a new theme and never completely finishes with the previous one. The individual confrontations are fine, but they never coalesce into a unified whole other than to depict the messy life of a famous author which can’t be the author’s sole purpose. Is the message that Artificial Intelligence is dangerous or only in the hands of the wrong people? [more]

People of the Book

October 14, 2024

“Lust, jealousy, and personal politics” are the punches promised by the publicity tag line for award-winning playwright Yussef El Guindi’s new play "People of the Book," currently on the boards at the intimately compact Urban Stages. The story centers around three high school friends, one of which has returned from the Middle East with a new bride and his newly written, soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture celebrated book. Themes of competition, morality, and judgment are all bandied about in this ambitious play. [more]

The Wind and the Rain: A story about Sunny’s Bar

October 14, 2024

Director Jared Mezzocchi uses the proximity of the actors to the audience to its best advantage. We don’t even question when one of our ranks is pulled out to play Young Sunny. It adds to the sense of community that is the cornerstone of this production. Kudos to Mezzocchi and the four actors in intuitively divining who in the audience is most right for participation. As the play dashes back and forth in time, the actors are kept moving, narrating as they go along. Again physical life clearly dictates whether they are in character or in narration mode. Mezzocchi incorporates projection design to complement the telling of the history of the ever-changing neighborhood. It provides a welcome steady stream of point-of-reference when one considers the land was once dry tundra in the shadow of a glacier twice the height of the Empire State Building. [more]

Lakeplay

October 12, 2024

Welcome to 'Lakeplay," a character study-play written by Drew Valins and directed by Hamilton Clancy. It is billed as “a terrifying adventure” but does not live up to that description. There are moments of suspense, but not terror-filled. If being frightened by a story is what you are looking for, this is not the show for you. The show is more of a work in progress with issues relating to the venue, sets, and unevenness of some of the scenes. [more]

The Counter

October 10, 2024

Despite this obvious shortcoming of The Counter, Anthony Edwards, a growing New York stage presence after much TV and movie fame, resolutely ignores it, never letting Kennedy's contrived writing come between him and the character (as a frustrated fan of ER, I've seen this steadfastness before). The scraggly bearded Edwards portrays Paul, a retired firefighter from far upstate New York whose geniality occasionally gives way to pronouncements about the monotony of his remaining days and the unfairness of his former ones. Although these gnawing thoughts are "secrets," he shares them with Katie (Susannah Flood), a fairly new transplant to the area who is also a waitress in the diner he frequents when nobody else is around. That's essential for Kennedy's ludicrous plot, because Paul's inner turmoil manifests itself in a grave request for Katie to do something that, if overheard, would cause any sentient adult to immediately contact the authorities, resulting in the play ending not too long after it begins, unless Kennedy felt like keeping the story going through a depiction of Paul's psychiatric treatments. [more]

Magnificent Bird/Book of Travelers

October 7, 2024

Gabriel Kahane’s pair of song cycles are a welcome throwback to when lyrics were poetry and told great stories. Think of the 70's when the airwaves were blessed with the voices and songwriting of Harry Chapin, Joni Mitchell and Cat Stevens and you will have a basic understanding of what Kahane has successfully put together here. [more]

Soup in the Second Act

October 7, 2024

Barry Primus’ "Soup in the Second Act" is described in press materials as a "dramatic comedy" but it's more drama than comedy. The humor comes from old-fashioned actor jokes such as this one: "Two actors bump into each other on Times Square. 'God, where have you been? I haven't seen you in such a long time.' 'I'm doing a one man play all over the country.' So the other says, 'That's great. That's great. Anything in it for me?'" If you like that sort of thing, you'll enjoy "Soup in the Second Act" (which is itself the punchline for another actor joke). [more]

Fatherland

October 3, 2024

While the play is compelling, the question is what is the message? Is the play asking would we have done what the son did? The father is quoted by the son as calling him a traitor while the son defends his action as that of a patriot who was appalled by his father’s attacking the Capitol. The play is, to a great extent, preaching to the converted as only people who consider what happened on January 6th an insurrection would attend the play, while MAGA proponents will not view it that way. The ending is somewhat predictable though the twists and turns of the story do not always take the expected path. [more]

Dickhead

October 2, 2024

"Dickhead," written by Gil Kofman and directed by Richard Caliban, is a story about the patriarch of a dysfunctional family in the midst of a near-total disintegration. The action is centered on Richard (Ezra Barnes), an abrasive, abusive lawyer who is rightly called “a dick” by his wife and just about everyone who interacts with him. He is also called Dick, as a nickname for Richard. The only time he is called "Dickhead" is midway through the action, in a maybe friendly comment by his oldest friend Howard who is given a solid portrayal by Chuck Montgomery. In the opening scene, Richard is in the office of his therapist Dr. Adams (Frank Licato) on a cell phone call with a tech support person at the internet company. This action provides a portrait of Richard’s personality: nasty, abrasive, ego-centric; a real dick. It also indicates that things are not going well in Richard's home life and job. Barnes' performance is well-tuned to the character, although, at times, getting close to being too much of a dick. Licato effectively embodies the therapist who is not as balanced as he appears to be in the opening. Licato gives a good performance of another character late in the play, the doctor’s wife. [more]

The Witness Room

September 29, 2024

Four hardened male plainclothes police officers are being coached for a “suppression hearing” – that is a court proceeding prior to trial to challenge the legality of the evidence taken from the crime, whether it be drugs, statements, or identification. In "The Witness Room," there are two bags of cocaine that were removed from the crime scene, but the sloppiness of the affidavits filed by the four police officers means some “rehearsal” is necessary for all four men to be in agreement on what actually happened months earlier when a man was arrested. This is not as dense as "Rashomon." In place of the exquisite storytelling that offered subjective, alternative and somewhat contradictory versions of the same incident, "The Witness Room" gives us a very real situation where the slightest discrepancy either frees a criminal or sends an innocent person to jail. [more]

The Goldberg-Variations

September 27, 2024

"The Goldberg-Variations" by George Tabori (written in 1991, now having its belated new York premiere) is a confused and confusing conflation of Bible stories and backstage bickering amongst a playwright, his director, designer and actors. Now at the Theater for the New City, the overlong production, directed by Manfred Bormann keeps the audience scratching their heads as each part of the Good Book is explored. [more]

Honor

September 26, 2024

"Honor," a one-act play, written and superbly directed by T.J. Elliott, explores the conceptual nuances of “honor” within the context of a corporate investigation into a case of harassment and intimidation brought against a corporate executive. It is a clashing of privilege and ego between executives, revealing some ugly truths about corporate management while also dealing with the ambiguities of personality and individual perceptions. The play is short and solidly to the point, and I don’t see how expanding it will add anything to the mix. It is a beautifully executed production and will resonate with anyone with a passing familiarity of executive corporate culture. [more]

Medea Re-Versed

September 26, 2024

Quintero who obviously knows his Greek plays and Greek mythology is extremely faithful to the original myth and to Euripides’ play. What he has added is a contemporary vernacular all in rhyme, music played by two guitars and a beatbox, and the odes of the chorus presented as song. This gives the 2,500 year old story a modern sensibility, often lacking in productions of Greek tragedy. Although Quintero has had a career as an actor, particular at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival the last five summers, what is most remarkable is that this is his first work for the theater, both as playwright and composer. Medea Re-Versed looks and sounds like the work of an experienced dramatist of many years standing. [more]

The Spirits’ Speakeasy

September 24, 2024

There is no program for the event nor a press script, which makes sense, since "The Spirits’ Speakeasy" is less theater and more experience. There are missed opportunities for the actors to move the attendees around so they experience more of what is going on in both rooms. My companion and I thoroughly enjoy catching up with each other, so much so that when Margery finally arrives in the lounge to give a few lackluster readings (based on the billets dropped into the box but presumably not seen by her, and half of the guests names she calls out do not answer anyway) we are unfazed. Finally, Houdini bursts into the room, challenges Margery’s authenticity by calling her a fraud, and insists she participate in a mysterious magic box trick, which was dramatic and fun. All told, although the activities of the evening are infrequent, we do not feel the evening is a disappointment at all. [more]

The Roommate

September 19, 2024

Of course, with Farrow and LuPone under the direction of six-time Tony Award winner Jack O’Brien, this is an occasion for cheering although this comedy drama, a cross between a female version of "The Odd Couple" and "Breaking Bad" is both predictable and razor thin. However, it is also a scenario for two consummate actresses to strut their stuff. The roles are not a great stretch for either of them – Farrow has often played grown-up waifs and LuPone has often been seen in recent years as a New York sophisticate, but these are the kind of performers that hold your attention at all times, making you afraid to look away and miss anything. [more]

Our Class

September 18, 2024

Under Igor Golyak's hyper-inventive direction the production's form is masterfully daring, ignoring the barriers of past, present, and future, as well as performance and life. Golyak's double disrespect for temporal and fourth-wall distancing is most evident in the actors' frequently unsettling playfulness, including a foreboding sing-a-long with the audience during a pretend Jewish wedding. Smilingly staged by both Catholic and Jewish classmates when such interreligious bonhomie was still possible, the echoes of these characters' younger, imaginative selves continue to linger as some of them mature into monsters, their brutality imbued with an anachronistic childlike quality that strengthens the devastating sense of a lost innocence. [more]

The Voices in Your Head

September 18, 2024

In this return engagement of the site-specific "The Voices in Your Head" we are often asked to give pause in order to consider how differently we all process our grief. Earlier this summer another play, someone spectacular, tackled the same subject matter but in a more predictable way. With that play, we never forgot we were in a theater watching a support group navigating their weekly session (but for that evening without the benefit of their group leader). While that was presented in thrust staging (the audience surrounding the actors on three sides), The Voices in Your Head created by Grier Mathiot and Billy McEntee welcomes us as new members to the group. [more]

Observant

September 16, 2024

Rebecca Hoodwin, Arielle Flax, Fady Demian, Arielle Beth Klein and Melissa Woolf in a scene from [more]

Counting and Cracking

September 14, 2024

While "Counting and Cracking" is an unforgettable epic of a family and a country, it is also a study of the fight for democracy and the lengths people will go to fight for their beliefs. The title comes from Apah’s definition of democracy: “Democracy means the counting of heads, within certain limits, and the cracking of heads beyond those limits.” The play could not be more timely as we go into the last weeks of this fraught election campaign. Counting and Cracking will be one of those evenings in the theater that will become legendary both for its storytelling, its staging and its message. [more]

In Search of Elaina

September 14, 2024

"In Search of Elaina" is a story by Kara Ayn Napolitano that digs into the weeds of a remembered past. It explores what happens when the life left behind catches up and crashes into the carefully laid-out landscape of now. Joy Donze skillfully directs a strong ensemble on this journey into the clash of the now with the memory of then. [more]

The Ask

September 13, 2024

Betsy Aidem and Colleen Litchfield in Matthew Freeman’s “The Ask” at the wild project (Photo [more]

The Tempest (Smoking Mirror Theatre Company)

September 6, 2024

Although meaningful dialogue is written in iambic pentameter, not all text is so structured. There is a skill in delivering lines within the structure of iambic pentameter, but it is equally important that the rhythm of all the dialogue be consistent. The lines must be spoken as if they were a normal speech pattern without paying attention to the structure. Unfortunately, the delivery by the ensemble varies widely, ranging from sounding like a textual reading to a clear, direct delivery to one completely out of character for the words spoken. As a result, the interconnections between the elements of the story are lost, causing a breakdown in clarity. [more]

Hurricane Season

August 26, 2024

"Hurricane Season" is the sort of vanity production in which one assumes that the author thinks he or she has invented the next step in the avant-garde. Unfortunately, Estes’ production will give most theatergoers a headache attempting to follow his play as well as the unnecessary flashing video. Whatever the play wants to say about “erotic desire and national anxiety,” it is lost in the proceedings on stage. Incidentally in the cause of transparency, Hurricane Season is not the least bit erotic though there is a certain amount of simulated sex. [more]

Pretty Perfect Lives

August 26, 2024

Tarlton’s work is not without promise. As a social critique of people who are surgically attached to their smartphones, it is somewhat spot-on. (Heaven forbid we miss that recent post documenting what was ordered in the latest restaurant!) At points when actors were immersed in their phones rather than looking at or speaking to each other, the silence of audience realization, or rather revelation, was deafening. [more]

Someone Spectacular

August 13, 2024

Doménica Feraud who has also written "Rinse, Release" has made a career of writing about very human psychological problems. While "Someone Spectacular" is rather untheatrical in its presentation as there are no fireworks which you might have expected in the situation, the characters become more absorbing as we get to know them, their stories and their problems. Not only is it all very real but it is easy to identify with one or the other as we all have gone through some loss in our lives. Tatiana Pandiani’s direction is smooth and fluid if a bit too serene. Some may also find the play comforting if they are going through the same thing or have suffered a loss recently. For the record, that title is explained near the end when Thom states “I lost someone spectacular” which how all the characters feel about their losses. [more]

Odd Man Out

August 12, 2024

"Odd Man Out" takes what is essentially a radio drama and puts the audience within the physical context of the story. You can hear the characters moving. You can smell the flowers in the garden or the blooming tree in the yard. You can hear and feel the rain. It is a sensory augmentation of what was once only an aural experience. Smelling a rose is no longer an act of imagination but one of immediacy, and that enhances the suspension of disbelief that an audience undergoes to make them actual though passive participants in the action of the story. [more]

Airport and the Strange Package

August 12, 2024

"Airport and the Strange Package" effectively combines good old-fashioned paranoia with witty references to Kafka’s classic. King and his collaborators have fashioned a frightening but entertaining portrait of airport security gone crazy. After all, what modern traveler hasn’t feared the awesome, if arbitrary, power of the Transportation Security Administration? [more]

Job

August 9, 2024

Max Wolf Friedlich's "Job" starts out with a bang or, more accurately, a near bang that elicits a couple of immediate worries: first, something awful will happen to a seemingly benign character and, second, a potentially overreaching playwright does not have anywhere dramatically to go after such a skillfully crafted throat-grabber. While the stress of the former concern rises and falls and rises again, the sense of foreboding from the other one eventually fades away as the thoughtful depths of Friedlich's compact, mind-bending two-hander become increasingly apparent. Given this gradual profundity, Job is the rare work that genuinely rewards repeat attendance, an opportunity undoubtedly appreciated by theatergoers who have seen Job in either or both of its off-Broadway stints during the past year (the play's world premiere at the SoHo Playhouse received an enthusiastic review from our Editor-in-Chief Victor Gluck). [more]

The Meeting: The Interpreter

August 5, 2024

Seemingly not trusting the material, director Brian Mertes has used all kinds of stage gimmicks including having the two actors photographed live by a team of three videographers whose equipment runs on a track around one side of the stage while a huge screen covers the second half on which we see the actions of Wood and Curran blown up to one story high. (Aside from the distraction, those who sit in the audience on stage left may find this blocks part of their view.) The meeting at Trump Tower which precipitates the ostensible action is played by the two actors and six miniature (nude!) puppets by famed designer Julian Crouch. At various points the two actors enter a booth in the back of the stage for no explained reason, as if in a session at the United Nations. There is also unexplained dancing and singing that seems to have little to do with the events at hand. [more]

When My Cue Comes

August 4, 2024

The cast does a beautiful job interpreting their characters. Watson plays Reynaldo as an anxious, emotionally fragile person ready to fulfill their employer's slightest request. Moore imbues Jacques de Boys with the haughty imperiousness of someone who feels his position is one of substance and importance, even if only for a brief moment on stage. Ethridge puts an interesting spin on his Boatswain, giving him a laid-back, almost California surfer vibe. It is not quite what one may expect from a character in a 17th century play but the characterization provides an interesting contrast. Parks embodies the Stage Manager with a flat-affect, matter-of-fact efficiency as expected until she reveals an inner child excited about trying new ways of being. DeBoer gives The Messenger an energy and perspective that delivers the play's central theme by showing the other characters and the audience that it is possible to escape the limitations of a static definition of self and explore the wonders of imagination. [more]

It’s Not What It Looks Like

July 31, 2024

"It’s Not What It Looks Like," is a two-hander, written by John Collins in collaboration with Chesney Mitchell. It is the winner of the 2023 Soho Playhouse Lighthouse Series competition for new plays. The play is a cleverly devised procedural drama that does justice to its title: somebody died, but the how and why are unknown. It is a mystery with which to spend a summer evening. [more]

Bringer of Doom

July 31, 2024

The play doesn’t tell us enough about any of the characters which gives the actors little to work from. What does Lotte do for a living or is she a trust fund kid? As Lena Drake plays her, she seems totally adrift besides her hatred of her mother. While David Z. Lanson’s Demetrius is described as a professional (albeit failed) comedian, he has nothing to say that is very funny. The jokes tend to fall flat. Asking for drink, Demetrious says, “Anything you’d use on a medieval axe wound is fine.” As the entitled Esme, Laura Botsacos is self-absorbed, egotistical and unsympathetic. However, the author makes us think that she is the wisest one of all as she is usually right. It is she who says “At what point in life do we stop blaming mom?” - a statement the audience must be thinking as well. While James Andrew Fraser’s Clancy at first appears very dense, he does have a large vocabulary and catches many nuances, so he is not as dumb as he comes across on a first impression. [more]

Inspired by True Events

July 22, 2024

Actor Ryan Spahn’s first play "Inspired by True Events" at the new Theatre 145 (formerly the Ohio Space) is a professional, skillful production. Unfortunately, as a backstage thriller it leaves something to be desired. The first shock does not occur until two-thirds of the way through, making most of the play a simple waiting game for something to happen. What the playwright needs is to study classic stage thrillers like Emlyn Williams’ "Night Must Fall" and Frederick Knott’s "Wait Until Dark" to learn how suspense is built into this genre. [more]

La Viuda (The Widow)

July 21, 2024

María Irene Fornés’ rediscovered "La Viuda" is a valuable addition to her better known canon. It is a challenging play in that it is basically an 80-minute monologue with other characters in flashback occasionally interrupting Angela’s narration. Director Olga Sanchez Saltveit makes a fine case for this play with a spirited and lively production but she has not solved all of the play’s inherent problems. Performed in repertory with Sam Collier’s "A Hundred Circling Camps," "La Viuda' is a worthy part of Dogteam Theatre Project’s inaugural season. [more]

A Hundred Circling Camps

July 20, 2024

A Hundred Circling Camps, written by Sam Collier and superbly directed by Rebecca Wear, is a story based on the "Bonus March" of 1932. It is more than a play about a historical event. It is also a commentary on the nature of citizens exercising their right to assemble and petition the government to redress grievances, rights established in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is a show worth seeing because of its story and the actors' performances. The Bonus March of 1932 was a demonstration by veterans of World War I asking that the financial promises made by the U.S. government be honored in advance of the original payment date of January 1945. The economic situation for people in the United States was desperate during the Great Depression, and the veterans, most with families to support, felt that the money promised would help them survive. [more]

Bill’s 44th

July 17, 2024

"Bill’s 44th" is a story of loneliness told within the context of a birthday celebration. It is a wordless puppet show for grown-ups created and presented by Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck. James and Manjuck combine to inhabit Bill, a middle-aged man with a belly paunch and a paper-maché bald head with bushy eyebrows, a mustache, and deep, empty eye sockets. His legs are those of Manjuck, and his arms are those of James and Manjuck. It is a remarkable display of puppetry. Their collaboration brings emotional heft to the puppet with actions that are choreographed to perfection. Jon Riddleberger plays a supporting role as a pizza delivery man and later as the puppeteer of a human-sized dancing carrot stick. [more]

Clowns Like Me

July 7, 2024

Ehrenpreis’ "Clowns Like Me" is sad, but true, and with the help of writer and director Jason Cannon, the brutally honest tale finds all the humor that’s possible. Within a very few minutes we are introduced to all the tools to discuss an obvious manifestation of his obsessive-compulsive disorder: cleanliness. Out come the goggles, gloves, cleaning rag, spray bottle and his co-stars Swiffer and Dirt Devil in this elaborate Ginger and Fred dance to clean where the average person would see no dirt. [more]

N/A

July 4, 2024

Correa who for many years worked for Congresswoman Constance A. Morella knows his way around government and his characters are very convincing. The casting of Diane Paulus’ production is superb and Taylor and Villafañe make excellent sparring partners. The encounters which take place mainly in N’s congressional office that of first Minority Leader and then later Speaker of the House (the same set by Myung Hee Cho) include fast-paced repartee, quips, retorts and wordplay, all worth listening to. You are required to listen intently as the dialogue is fast paced and rapid fire. When we meet them A has just won her first primary in the Bronx and Queens, defeating the Democratic Party candidate that N has supported. In the course of the five scenes of the play, we next meet them when N needs A’s vote to regain the Speakership, while the last scene takes place four years later when the Republicans have regained the House and N is packing up her office, having stepped down from her position as party leader. [more]

A Man Among Ye

July 3, 2024

"A Man Among Ye" is episodic, with flashbacks and confusing dialogue. It is filled with sword fights, sea shanties, revenge plots, mermaids, witches, and mythical creatures. As a highly stylized dark comedy, it misses more than it hits. Despite the claims that it is based on a true story, it is mostly fiction and fantasy and lacks consistent explication. It needs a more straightforward, consistent storyline, and, in several cases, there is superficial character definition and development. The cast does a respectable job of trying to make sense of a show that doesn't know what it wants to be. [more]

cunnicularii

June 30, 2024

"cunnicularii," beautifully written by Sophie McIntosh and sensitively directed by Nina Goodheart, is a fantasy that deals with many of the adjustments in attitudes and perspectives encountered by new parents. It is a fable focusing on the sometimes overwhelming physical and emotional issues faced by mothers on their first time into the world of motherhood. It is a beautifully realized drama, both funny and serious. If you enjoy good theater, with solid acting, it will be very much worth the effort to see this production. It will only be around for a short time, so make the time to see it. [more]

Ella the Ungovernable

June 26, 2024

David McDonald has discovered onto an obscure and interesting story: 15-year-old Ella Fitzgerald’s incarceration in the New York Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York, after her mother was killed crossing the street, and her miraculous escape from it. While little is known of her life during this period, McDonald calls his play "Ella the Ungovernable" “speculative fiction.” As co-directed by actress Michele Baldwin (who plays Ella’s mother Tempie, short for Temperance) and the playwright, the play feels a bit long without an intermission. [more]

Isabel

June 25, 2024

"Isabel" is a story written by reid tang and directed by Kedian Keohan. It uses various stylistic techniques to tell the story of a trans sibling relationship. It has elements of dark comedy mixed within a dramatic arc of psychosexual exploration of gender, all wrapped within a framework of dark mystery but without a clear point of view. The performances are uneven, the “smoke” special effect is distracting, and the staging misses defining the locales of the scenes. The production comes across as more of a dress rehearsal than a fully-realized staging. [more]

The Welkin

June 24, 2024

It is the first year that Haley’s comet has been predicted. Sally Poppy, trapped in a loveless marriage at age 21, has committed a murder with her lover of a child from a rich family she has worked for. She has been sentenced to death by hanging and then to be anatomized (you really don’t want to know). However, she has declared she is with child. If it is true, she will be deported to America after the child is born. But is it true? Twelve local matrons have convened in an unheated upper room of the courthouse to decide on the truth of her statement, from women who know her to be a liar, to those who pity her hard life, from older women with many children, to young ones about to have their first child, from a gentlewoman down to a simple farmer’s wife. The central character is Elizabeth Luke (played by film and television star Sandra Oh), the local midwife who does not wish to see injustice occur. She has brought Sally into the world but though she doesn’t know her since, she feels that the all-male court has not given her a fair chance. On the opposite side is Mrs. Charlotte Cary, a colonel’s widow who is convinced from private knowledge that Sally is a bad one and could be guilty of any crime. [more]

The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century

June 19, 2024

"The Employees: A Workplace Novel of the 22nd Century" is a tone-poem play adapted by Lauren Holmes and Jaclyn Biskup from a novel of the same name by Danish poet and novelist Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken). Biskup directs an ensemble of four who portray multiple crew members on a spaceship sent to search for a new planet for the people of Earth. The novel's structure of narrative reports to tell a story about the human condition, the future of work, and the ills of late-stage corporate capitalism does not transfer well to a dramatic stage presentation. [more]

Tomorrow We Love

June 18, 2024

The play is framed, movie style, by a trial of the leading character, so that the bulk of the play becomes a flashback to what led up to it. However, the show which is occasionally amusing is too dependent on name dropping and 1950’s references: "Leave It To Beaver," "Dragnet," Sputnik, Charles Atlas, Jack LaLanne, Flannery O’Connor, James Bond, Geritol, Jane Wyman, Henny Youngman, "Valley of the Dolls," Jack Kerouac, and quotes from "Damn Yankees," "South Pacific" and "A Star is Born." While the sound design by Morry Campbell is often witty with snatches of the themes from "Written the Wind," "A Summer Place," "West Side Story" and Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, much of the exaggeration is too farfetched without being remotely believable: Farley refers to his ex-wife Lena Horne and claims to have been brought up at The White House by President Calvin Coolidge and his wife. [more]

Home

June 18, 2024

No matter where you grew up, that place always elicits a tangled mix of memories, including sorrows that were often beyond one's control. That's certainly true for Cephus Miles (Tory Kittles), the Black protagonist of "Home" who endures a particularly powerless coming of age in lawfully segregated North Carolina. The play, which earned Tony Award-nominated success on Broadway, in 1980, after a critically acclaimed downtown run, was revived Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2008 as part of a season-long tribute to the Negro Ensemble Company, the artistic home of "Home" and its author Samm-Art Williams. Sadly, he passed away right before previews began for his sensitive work's current and only Broadway reappearance, a beautiful production that has now also turned into a fitting memorial. [more]

Push Party

June 14, 2024

"Push Party" is a story by Nia Akilah Robinson that reaches into the supportive community spirit that celebrates a woman’s status as a mother, independent of a child or children. It is a story that explores the relationships of a group of friends as they gather to celebrate the impending birth of a new child to one of their numbers, but in this case, a child that has been born but is not yet in the arms of her mother. It would be a relatively simple story if that were the only focus, but Robinson gives something much more with socio-political commentary on the conditions under which pregnant women must endure in a patriarchal society, and most especially, women of color. [more]

Midnight Coleslaw’s Tales from Beyond The Closet!!!

June 12, 2024

Perhaps "Midnight Coleslaw’s Tales from Beyond The Closet!!!" ’s tagline “an evening of boner-chilling terror” was not meant to be a typo. The premise of an evening of one-act plays that explore queer culture and perspective through (low) comedy and the macabre could be entertaining, if only the end result had enough macabre to fill out the evening. One act gives a truly creepy story of a young couple falling for a chair that appears to be made of human skin with a gender all its own that pleases both members of the heterosexual couple. The second act finds a lesbian couple on the eve of one of them turning her mother over to an assisted living facility. She in turn is haunted by the ghost of her long deceased father as the couple ready the mother’s house for sale. The last act is for the most part a monologue of a gay man that may or may not be celebrating his last birthday on earth. [more]

Party Clown of the Rich and Famous & The Hungry Mind Buffet

June 7, 2024

There’s so much fascinating material in "Party Clown of the Rich and Famous" and its companion compendium of four short works, "The Hungry Mind Buffet" that it pains me that the works aren’t presented with classier production values, unfortunately a reality in cash-strapped Off-Broadway presentations. Even so, the evening offers much to savor. [more]

Breaking the Story

June 6, 2024

The dialogue is smart and sophisticated. The author’s unfocused theme seems to be the conflict between Marina and Nikki as to journalistic ethics. Marina believes in reporting the story whatever it is and let the audience decide. Nikki only reports on people and stories she can champion not wanting to give an outlet to evil-minded people. (There is something to be said for both points of view.) However, Scheer doesn’t take this argument very far and drops it quickly each time the two reporters clash without a resolution. The playwright also flirts with the idea that the danger of her work is adrenaline for Marina who couldn’t live without it, rather than just obtaining and breaking the story. Aside from the obvious meaning of the title, Nikki wants to name her podcast on Marina “Breaking the Story: The Life of Marina Reyes.” [more]

How to Eat an Orange

June 4, 2024

This is the story of Claudia Bernardi, a visual artist and activist, as told in a one-woman show, "How to Eat an Orange." It tells of Bernardi’s time growing up in Argentina in the profound gloom of the military junta and the stories of the “desaparecidos,” the missing ones. It was written by Catherine Filloux, a French Algerian American playwright who traveled to and wrote plays about human rights conflicts in countries worldwide. She brings a first-hand narrative understanding of what Bernardi experienced during and after the time of the junta and her work in other countries with this collection of desaparecidos' stories. [more]

The Opposite of Love

June 3, 2024

Ashley Griffin’s "The Opposite of Love" is not afraid to tackle questions of sex, intimacy, abuse and suicide. It does so with great sensitivity and delicacy. It is as though the author does not want to frighten off those who have similar problems. However, it is this very timidity that makes the play feel so tame, as though not only are the actors awkward around each other but the author is too coy with her material. However, the actors and the direction always hold our attention even when the subtext is left to the audience. [more]

The Fires

May 28, 2024

Raja Feather Kelly, an award-winning choreographer of recent Broadway musicals "A Strange Loop" and "Lempicka," as well as "Teeth," the recent Playwrights Horizons success imminently getting a commercial Off-Broadway run, makes his debut as a playwright with "The Fires," a work drenched in sorrow. The play examines three, actually four, Black men who inhabit the same third floor South Brooklyn railroad apartment in vastly different eras: 1974, 1998 and 2021. [more]

All of Me

May 24, 2024

Laura Winters’ "All of Me" is a lively rom-com of rich boy meets poor girl much on the lines of 1930’s film comedies. However, the new wrinkle here is that Lucy is disabled using a motorized scooter and a text-to-speech Augmentative and Alternative Communication device to speak, while Alfonso uses a motorized wheelchair and also uses an AAC device to speak as well. Both are independent people though Lucy needs a great deal of help while Alfonso’s wealth gives him staff to take care of his needs. They would seem a perfect fit for each other except that their mothers don’t think so. Ashley Brooke Monroe’s production is spirited and animated. What she cannot overcome in the smart and nimble dialogue is the delay in the response time using AAC devices so that there is an unavoidable pause between the responses in the repartee. Another problem is that though the main characters are played engagingly by Madison Ferris and Danny J. Gomez, the rest of Lucy’s dysfunctional family seems clichéd and familiar. [more]

A Groundbreaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted

May 23, 2024

Playwright Jake Shore has something serious on his mind but his scatter-shot take on Artificial Intelligence does not make the case. The repetitious dialogue and events only undercut the intended satire. The attempts at humor like “You just make sure to tell the cell phone you’re dating that I’m excited to meet her,” “Love is like … a charcuterie board. All different types of pretzels and cheeses … and crackers,” and “I think I want to triple major in English, Math and Non-human Biologics” are neither funny nor absurd enough to count as satire. The acting and directing style fail to elevate all this to a level of farce or lampoonery. There is a very important play to be written about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence but this isn’t it. [more]

Jimmy Tingle: Humor and Hope for Humanity

May 21, 2024

Watching Jimmy Tingle is like encountering a fascinating guy at a bar : you listen, you're engaged, you're just enjoying the ride. Tingle has been at it a long time, and he has stories to tell as well as political takes on events past and present. In his 60 Minutes II segment, he discusses the possibility of a presidential candidate Donald Trump, sounding prescient since this is many years before it actually happened. [more]

Just Another Day

May 20, 2024

Dan Lauria’s "Just Another Day" is quite leisurely in its delivery but Lauria and McCormack inhabit their roles. While the play could use some pruning, it is a charming portrait of two elderly people drifting into an age when they cannot count on their memories but know that there is something important they wish to recall. Their hidden backstories and their changing recollections at times make this play like a mystery as well as a comedy. "Just Another Day" is a tribute to those people old enough to know that their pasts are slipping away unless they can pin them down. [more]

The Actors

May 20, 2024

Ronnie Larsen, Allen Lewis Rickman and Jeni Hacker in a scene from Larsen’s “The Actors” at [more]

Small Acts of Daring Invention

May 15, 2024

If the play's goal is to pay homage to Wright, it misses the mark for most audiences. If one is unfamiliar with Wright, most of the symbols revealed in the play will not be understood in terms of her life story. This fact is not necessarily a distraction from the action since the play provides a suitable level of mystery, imagination, and surprise, resulting in an entertaining but possibly unsettling experience, starting with the opening and carrying through to a satisfactory ending, all without spoken dialogue. [more]

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