Jessica Lurie

The Potluck

July 15, 2026

César Alvarez's "The Potluck," directed with uncommon daring by Sarah Benson, is that increasingly rare theatrical achievement: a musical willing to risk confusion, contradiction, and formal unruliness in pursuit of emotional and historical truth. Inspired by the 1979 Greensboro Massacre—in which members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party, aided by astonishing failures of law enforcement, murdered five labor organizers during an anti-Klan demonstration—the production refuses to transform political martyrdom into tidy historical pageantry. Instead, Alvarez, in concert with Benson's characteristically adventurous theatrical imagination, constructs an expansive meditation on inheritance, memory, identity, and the uneasy obligations of art itself. The result is not documentary theater, nor autobiography, nor agitprop, nor conventional musical comedy, but an exhilarating synthesis of all four. It unfolds less as a linear narrative than as an act of excavation, uncovering the ways political violence reverberates through generations long after headlines have faded. [more]

The Hang

January 25, 2022

After a grand Pippin-style introductory opening, one exhilarating number follows another in acclaimed theater maker Taylor Mac’s "The Hang." Derived from jazz and opera, this vibrant musical fantasia is inspired by the Greek philosopher Socrates’ last hours in 399 BC Athens. He’d been sentenced to death by drinking the poison hemlock for “corrupting the youth” and “impiety.” The show is based on his student Plato’s account of these events. As there’s a homoerotic strain to the Greek philosophical milieu, "The Hang" has a raucous queer vibe. [more]

Camille O’Sullivan: “Where Are We Now?”

December 8, 2021

David Bowie’s "All the Young Dudes" triumphantly rendered with a touch of Dixieland is one of several grand numbers in the spirited Irish-French performer Camille O'Sullivan’s engaging theatrical concert, “Where Are We Now?” in which she’s backed by a sensational band. That anthem’s familiar rousing opening notes are done justice by Omar Kabir on trumpet. Then clad in a shimmering sequined black skirt suit, black blouse and silver shoes, the long dark-haired alluring Ms. O'Sullivan sings the lyrics in her soaring gutsy voice. That’s while she is wonderfully dancing and miming all over the stage of Irish Arts Center’s $60 million new building and in the aisles. [more]

Rent Party

July 15, 2019

"Rent Party" is billed as a show for the whole family, but it will be of real interest primarily to preteen children. At that, it seems a rather dull outing. The actors here tend to speak in a sing-song-y manner. Very little humor or visual excitement ensues. Jazz Cat could have been a lively and entertaining figure, but he makes infrequent appearances, often speaking a few bland couplets before retreating to a corner. [more]