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Joel Zwick

Sukkot

July 21, 2026

Matthew Leavitt’s "Sukkot" begins with a deceptively simple premise: a grieving widower builds a sukkah because he believes it is the closest remaining path to his late wife. From that premise emerges one of the most satisfying new family plays to arrive this season, a comedy-drama that understands grief not as a singular emotion but as an unruly collection of contradictions. It is uproariously funny without ever mocking pain, deeply moving without reaching for sentimentality, and wise enough to recognize that families often express love most fluently through irritation. The 6th Act's superb production at 59E59 Theaters, directed with remarkable assurance by Joel Zwick, allows Leavitt's finely calibrated script to breathe, laugh, and ache in equal measure. [more]

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]