News Ticker
- December 14, 2025 in Broadway // Oedipus
- December 14, 2025 in Interviews // Conversation with Dominick LaRuffa Jr.
- December 14, 2025 in Off-Broadway // The Surgeon and Her Daughters
- December 14, 2025 in Features // Notes Toward a One-Man Play About Scammers, Character, and Control
- December 14, 2025 in Features // A Seasonal Salon Worth Noting
- December 13, 2025 in Off-Broadway // BUM BUM (or, this farce has Autism)
- December 12, 2025 in Musicals // The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions
- December 12, 2025 in Cabaret // Mary Foster Conklin — Mirrors Revisited (50th Anniversary)
- December 11, 2025 in Cabaret // Kathy Kaefer — Kiss Me Once: Stories from the Homefront
- December 11, 2025 in Off-Broadway // The American Soldier
- December 9, 2025 in Off-Broadway // This World of Tomorrow
- December 9, 2025 in Cabaret // A Noel Coward Celebration — Steve Ross & Friends
- December 7, 2025 in Off-Broadway // Diversion
- December 5, 2025 in Off-Broadway // Meet the Cartozians
- December 5, 2025 in Features // Tom Stoppard: An Appreciation
Archive
If this family seems familiar, Winkler wrote about them in her 2016 play, "Kentucky," set seven years ago, when Hiro returned home for the first time from NYC in order to stop her sister’s wedding. Author Winkler, a Japanese-American, wrote the play sitting by her mother’s bedside in a hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, while her mother dealt with an aggressive form of cancer and she does have a sister who is a born-again Christian, though nothing like Sophie. While the play has an air of authenticity, most of the family are so unpleasant and unlikable that it is hard to penetrate behind their armor and facades.
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The creator of "Betty & The Belrays," now at the Theater for the New City, pretty much dares you to compare his well-meaning, but cartoony, new musical to Hairspray, a comparison in which the new musical fare poorly. Written—book and lyrics—and directed by William Electric Black, with music by Black, Valerie Ghent and Gary Schreiner, "Betty," like "Hairspray," tells the story of a white high school-aged girl, the eponymous Betty (Paulina Breeze), living in a racially divided city, here 1963 Detroit, where Motown and its distinctive style are being forged.
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Filichia has had a long and storied career as a theater critic and author of several books on the topic. His having witnessed a multitude of productions, this immersion informs "God Shows Up"’s fine structure and technical command of playwrighting. The bouncy dialogue has Shavian passages and the expertly defined characters make terrific roles for actors to play.
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The play is a thoughtful and illuminating look at the attractions and perils of a career in adult entertainment. Lauren’s story is a cautionary tale, yes, but the underlying attitude of the play is “sex positive.” Heckler and her associates do not shame Lauren/Scarlett for choosing to be open and unashamed about her sexuality. Yes, they show that a life in porn can be a dicey and occasionally harrowing proposition, brimming with a high quotient of misogynistic and generally creepy behavior. However, the focus is more on Lauren’s naivete about just how closed minded and judgmental the people around her will be about her decision—even when they are themselves avid porn consumers.
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In recent years the play has not fared with such acclaim. A 2008 Broadway revival starring Frank Langella eliminated the narrator character of The Common Man, the play’s cleverest device, and was not well received. Now Fellowship for the Performing Arts has brought the play to the Theater Row’s Acorn Theatre directed by Christa Scott-Reed, who also staged FPA’s revival of Shadowlands last season. Unfortunately, the academic and unimaginative production fails to bring the ideas and the tensions in the play to a boil.
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The two directors/founders of BalletBoyz, Michael Nunn and William Trevitt, directed and photographed the film which also included Pérez’s choreography. Although the movie certainly illuminated the dark themes for a screen-crazy audience, it too often was a distraction when the dancers were performing in front of the screen, spread out across the Joyce stage. Having to choose between the live and the filmed action became a problem even though both were of equal technical merit.
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Part of the tradition is the audience’s response. There was hooting and hollering from the audience, sounding like they were at a rock concert, but it was impossible not to get caught up in the enthusiasm. The general raucousness was a display of the clear delight that the audience enjoyed. It created an atmosphere of unbridled joy and who could resist? Everyone was smiling and laughing and clapping.
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Having seen it at least four times before, I can say with certainty that Sam Shepard’s "True West" (1980) is a firm and solid play: a play to be pondered both while you’re watching it and afterwards, when you consider what you saw. But the current Roundabout production leaves more than just a little to be desired: it’s slow and plodding and contemplative, instead of explosive, which is what it’s designed to be.
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Comprised of 27 short scenes in two parts that are each designated as being two acts and ranging from 1945 to 1954, "The Glen" is a stewpot of a play inspired by a real person’s life. Glenn Loney (1928-2018) was a drama critic, college professor and author. Mr. Loney’s friend, the play’s author Peter B. Hodges, states in his program note:
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Directed with touching simplicity by Henry and choreographed with a lyrical flow by Lorna Ventura, this Anne tells the well-known story utilizing a combination of voiceover readings, projections, dance, mime and fine acting. Henry has turned Anne into a dance play with an original take on this oft-told tale of a spunky, intelligent and witty young lady guarded by a mute Greek chorus of four who reflect and illuminate her inner thoughts and feelings.
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In three acts, we get idealized Norman Rockwell-style Americana. As in his dramas, O’Neill’s sense of structure is totally idiosyncratic. Ah, Wilderness! is shorter than his dramas but still feels long at two hours and 40 minutes with an intermission but it is absorbing nonetheless. That’s due to its novel perspective. Instead of the cheapskate father and drug addict mother in Long Day’s Journey into Night, we get idealized perfect parents. The young hero here is set on a path of moral rectitude rather than dissolution. O’Neill offers an uplifting fantastical reworking of his well-documented grim upbringing where everything for a change is happily resolved.
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Director John Collins made the more than seven hour running time a breeze with his attention to detail, moving his cast of office workers/Gatsby characters with such naturalness that, as each denizen of this weird space was drawn into a speaking part, it seemed organic and smooth, as well as quite amusing, beginning with Scott Shepherd who, as the first person to pick up the book, took on the character of its narrator Nick Carraway who tells the story, which takes place in 1922, from a future vantage point. Shepherd, who was in it from first to last, deserves the biggest kudos for keeping Gatz afloat with his calm demeanor and quietly stylized readings.
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"We’ll Have Manhattan: Rodgers & Hart in New York," created and narrated by the soon-to-become Broadway’s Tootsie (in the new Broadway musical), Santino Fontana found most of its emotional heft in the sad story of the partnership of the efficient Richard Rodgers and the foot-dragging Lorenz Hart who found himself, a not handsome gay man, in the wrong time and place. Hart had little personal happiness, it seems, but his songs were certainly full of gaiety and wit.
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These two mild points aside, Jaffee’s script is nevertheless hugely successful in conveying this man-vs-nature clash; his use of clever dialogue and idiosyncratic characters keep the topic in the forefront with much humor and without any preachy heavy-handedness.
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Though not in the same class with Alan Jay Lerner’s masterpiece, "My Fair Lady," "Carmelina" has a similar theme: how a young woman reinvents herself. While the three soldiers are under the impression that they invented Carmelina Campbell in the classic Pygmalion and Galatea fashion, in fact Carmelina has reinvented herself, also a major theme in the Lerner canon, along with "Coco" and "Dance a Little Closer." This charming musical comedy also features a Tony Award nominated score which deserves a second and a third hearing.
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There are many dimensions to Ray Yamanouchi’s "The American Tradition," directed by Axel Avin, Jr. for the New Light Theater Project. On one level, it’s an adventure story about a daring attempt to escape from American slavery. Eleanor (Sydney Cole Alexander) and Bill (Martin K. Lewis) are an enslaved married couple in the antebellum South. When they learn that he is about to be sold and separated from her, they seek a way to escape to the North. Eleanor proposes a wild scheme: A relatively light-skinned woman, she will disguise herself as Evander, a white male slaver. And Bill will pretend to be Evander’s slave and traveling companion.
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The Brooklyn-born Quinn has been performing stand-up since the 1980’s and his seasoned wise guy New Yorker persona was once showcased on Saturday Night Live and in recent years in several theater pieces. Clad in a plaid shirt, black jeans and sneakers, this show business veteran uses his tuneful gravelly voice with its cadences of the streets to optimum effect. His material is a model example of superior comic writing. Bursts of perfectly crafted one-liners constructed in the classic form of set ups and punchlines, skillfully composed observational riffs and occasionally addressing audience members directly, all sustain "Red State Blue State"’s 75 minutes.
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While Jessica Dickey’s "The Convent" may not have any new answers and may cover familiar material, it does so with such vitality and theatricality, that it becomes a memorable experience. Under the direction of Daniel Talbott, the seven actresses led by Samantha Soule and Wendy vanden Heuvel are compelling and expressive. By the time the play is over, the audience have experienced much that the inmates of the retreat have gone through.
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Playwright Stephen Belber offers an intricate character study comprised of a barrage of brief nonlinear scenes chronicling the eventful existence of a woman from childhood to the age of 62. With the craft and depth of a fine novelist, Mr. Belber creates a mosaic of pointed incidents imparting vital information. These pass by rapidly with no discernable shape but then at the conclusion everything majestically falls into place.
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Casual strolling was suddenly punctuated by dancers bumping and grinding at each other, these full-bodied movements resonating in slightly different ways in each dancer, sometimes leading to entwining, slithering, sweaty duets. Faces displayed over-the-top grimaces and uneasy forced smiles which led to desperate, phony-sounding laughing. Arms were swung or used to produce angular silhouettes with studied nonchalance. Bodies twitched and twisted to staccato beats—music composed and arranged by Ori Lichtik whose score for “Love Chapter II” began with barely audible electronic beats which grew in volume and speed until the score suddenly became a Latino Cha-Cha to which the dancers seemed to glory.
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Similar to a flatly serious youth exploitation flick circa 1970, playwright Phoebe Nir’s utopia-in-the-wilderness yarn "Eco Village," is likeably inept. There’s a hallucinogenic drug dinner party sequence that’s out of late Otto Preminger when he was painfully trying to be with-it that has bursting strobe lights and a female dominatrix in full regalia. The whole thing has a trippy "Gilligan’s Island" vibe combined with turgid writing and overacting. The elaborate rustic set is spectacular which helps.
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At the center of "Secret Identity" is Keith Weiss who plays JT. The proverbially baby-faced Mr. Weiss is physically, emotionally and vocally entrancing. With his rumbling low voice and expressive imposing physical presence, Weiss truly takes on the character exhibiting the pathos of the outsider. He casts off sullenness to deliver some amusing Robin Williams-style antic riffs while doing impersonations of teachers. His contorted manner when observing Trey disrobe speaks volumes about how JT feels. Weiss is onstage virtually the entire time and his performance is a chief measure of the play’s success.
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Adapting Broadway shows for "live" TV is never easy. And this production was hampered by some extraordinary bad luck. One of the stars, Brennin Hunt, ("Roger") broke his foot at the last minute, and they wound up broadcasting a tape of the dress rehearsal--instead of televising a "live" performance--for much of the night, Only the final portion--which hit home hardest-was actually airing "live." And that may well account for some of the muted energy that bothered me--the fact that we were watching a videotaped dress rehearsal. Some actors may well have been "saving something" for the anticipated live broadcast, It felt like that to me, anyway.
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Broken Box Mime Theater’s SKIN is a collection of short plays loosely centered around its one-word title. The pieces run the gamut in terms of subject matter, approach and tone. Or course, many theatergoers may have an implicit bias against the very idea of mime. This is understandable if unfair. Mime has long been viewed by many, in the U.S. anyway, as little more than pretentious preening and outsized gesturing by grimacing folks in clown makeup. More often than not, it’s seen as a joke. But this show has a fun, cool, buoyant vibe that reminds audiences that the genre needn’t be just a punchline, but something that can actually pack a punch.
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Amidst the flamboyance, Mr. Calderon significantly explores topical issues. The depiction of post-traumatic stress disorder, the eternal dramatic clash between brothers and the plight of the underclass are all vividly realized through his markedly delineated characters. His heady dialogue laces the vernacular with shrewd insights. The final scene arguably gets carried away with symbolism and luridness but what came before has been quite stimulating.
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Six actors, three men and three women, in a company of seven, play many roles in this fluid production designed by Anna Driftmier that uses several different doorways, on-stage props and furniture that is rolled out swiftly to tell Ann’s story from age 16 in 1828 to her untimely death at 66 in 1878. Jessica O’Hara-Baker is a towering Ann Lohman, aka Madame Restell, level-headed, goal-directed yet humorless as she sees a need and methodically goes about taking care of it, caring little for the mores of times or proscribed women’s roles. Narrated by Ann and including newspaper headlines read by the other cast members as well as period songs of 19th century ballads sung and played by the company, "Wickedest Woman" begins with her 1848 trial which is interrupted repeatedly in order to tell the story in chronological order.
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Manning’s direction and script are both expertly crafted. The play’s moral questions are cleverly woven into each of its fully-dimensioned characters’ words, and their tales are often presented without bias, leaving the audience to draw its own conclusions. The actors find their full potential in this play, each one as compelling as the next, filling their portrayals with humor, earnestness and passion; they listen to each other in every moment and are a joy to watch.
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Humorist and journalist Calvin Trillin has made his wife Alice Stewart Trillin, educator, writer, mother and muse, famous from such books as "Alice, Let’s Eat," "Travels with Alice" and "Family Man." When she passed away in 2001, many readers felt they knew her well enough to send Trillin condolence notes. His acclaimed 2006 memoir, "About Alice," introduced her to a wider audience. Now Theatre for a New Audience has commissioned Trillin to dramatize the book as a two hander under the direction of Leonard Foglia. The play with Jeffrey Bean as Calvin and Carrie Paff as Alice is quite charming but Alice herself remains elusive.
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The lit pumpkin on a ledge in the living room aptly suits the title of "Trick or Treat," a new play by Jack Neary. But despite the skeleton positioned on yet another shelf, the play’s title refers to more than just Halloween, as the plot that unfolds is full of reversals and shocking developments that keep tricking you into thinking that you know what’s going on, and treating you to some characters who don’t. It isn’t until the very end that you apprehend a story you thought you were following all along. There are startling surprises all along the way.
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Conceived and directed by Coral Cohen, along with musician/composer Zoë Aqua and the cast, Threads illuminates the experiences of a large swath of the Jewish population, beginning with a warmly related litany of genealogy delivered by the five fine performers: Hannah Goldman, Lea Kalisch, Luisa Muhr, Daniella Seidl and Laura Lassy Townsend. In turn, each tells of her background, the individual stories adding up to a portrait of the extent that Jews were forced to travel the world to find homes, particularly before, during and after World War II.
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Obviously, this is a play for which any sort of a happy ending will be deeply compromised, but what Simpson does so beautifully is show us how these women overcome their suspicions and envy to find support in one another. It’s tempting for playwrights to work toward such an end by wallowing in sentimentality. However, it never seems that Simpson, Robert or the talented women portraying these characters are pulling frantically at our heartstrings. The plot unfolds simply and satisfyingly, with the characters’ behavior always plausible and unforced. Surprising moments of humor serve as grace notes to an otherwise somber story.
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Though exhibiting its source material’s young adult sensibility, Ally Sheedy’s highly effective stage adaption is totally absorbing for adults as well. Ms. Sheedy shrewdly captures the sense of an adolescent’s voice and structures the presentation as a collection of pointed vignettes flowing from one to another, skillfully imparting personal and historical details.
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All four works—particularly the first three—had a certain offhanded similarity, a lack of formal movement ideas and construction, but all four choreographers are clearly students of the school of Jiři Kylián, the most famous director of the NDT whose incredibly musical, minutely detailed choreography has influenced many both in Europe and here in the United States. Kylián’s works have a touching humanity to them, while these four works tended more to movement for its own sake and arbitrary expression of emotions.
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Copyright Jack Quinn, 2001-2023
