Liberation
Kristolyn Lloyd, Adina Verson, Betsy Aidem and Audrey Corsa in a scene from the Roundabout Theatre [more]
Whitney White
ON THE TOWN WITH CHIP DEFFAA… FROM “THE LAST FIVE YEARS,” TO “TARTUFFE,” TO COHAN, AND MORE…
I don’t like the way the new Broadway production of “The Last Five Years” was directed. But that unique Jason Robert Brown musical—long a favorite of mine--still offers rewards aplenty…. And what a wonderful surprise the Sinatra School’s production of “Tartuffe” was—with a show-stealing turn by one Harrison Gan. I’m currently holding auditions for projects. If any newcomer that talented turns up, I’ll be more than satisfied. [more]
Liberation
Bess Wohl’s latest play is the ambitious and engrossing "Liberation," her attempt to investigate the roots of the Women’s Liberation Movement back in the 1970s from a decidedly contemporary point of view. Calling it a “memory play,” she uses a narrator “Lizzie,” who tries to recreate the consciousness raising group her mother started back in 1970 in Ohio where she lived at the time. Complicating things for the viewer, Lizzie also plays her own mother (who also seems to be named “Lizzie”) in the flashbacks, showing us seven meeting from the many the group had in their weekly encounters back in the seventies. She also interviews the survivors now in the present about what they recall of those days as her mother has recently passed away and she is sorry she didn’t ask her more questions. [more]
Walden
Nevertheless, the play is one of several interesting takes on climate change in the theater recently like "Deep History." As the play evolves we are more and more immersed in the problems of climate change that are now only distant possibilities. The actors are compelling but do not entirely inhabit their roles. Making her Off Broadway debut, Rossum, best known for her work in the Netflix's series "Shameless" and film version of "The Phantom of the Opera," is suitably conflicted as one who has given up her chosen career and taken the opposite path. Winters, known for her breakout role in the HBO series "Succession" as well as many major Off Broadway roles, is more controlled as the current astronaut who is confused by her sister’s current choices. However, both sisters are a little too similar to make them dramatic opposites. In the underwritten role of Bryan, Foster is quite appealing though he can’t fill in the gaps that are missing. [more]
Jordans
In fact, the play which ought to be hilarious is almost devoid of jokes as the premise which is politically incorrect will make many white playgoers uncomfortable – unless this is the point of the play. As the setting is an event space/rental studio/production facility, we see a trendy photo shoot of a high fashion model, a taping of a motivational speaker, and a business meeting to plan a new advertising campaign for a rapper’s new product line, a pop star whose street cred is that he is on trial for aggravated assault and has been to jail a few times for drugs and theft. All of this is pushed to the limit which undercuts its humorous possibilities. Of course, there are the obvious jokes about Michael Jordan and wearing Jordan jeans. [more]
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
"Jaja" is quite different from Bioh's other plays in that it is also very revealing about life in NYC for African immigrants. Directed by Whitney White who has piloted several major new Black plays in recent years, the play is funny, poignant and illustrative. The excellent and compelling cast of 11 includes six fine actors making their Broadway debuts. David Zinn’s detailed hair salon puts every inch of Jada’s Harlem African Hair Braiding parlor on stage down to the last braid and bobby pin. [more]
On Sugarland
Aleshea Harris’ third New York stage play following her form-bending "Is God Is" and "What to Send Up When It Goes Down" is epic in all senses of the word: it includes poetry, dance, incantation, comedy and drama. The new play "On Sugarland," an anti-war drama, also harks back to the Greeks, borrowing characters from Sophocles’ "Philoctetes" and Euripides’ "The Trojan Women," as well as the concept of the Chorus. It tells three interwoven stories as well as one communal one and ends with a shocking finale that is the hallmark of Greek tragedy. Director Whitney White’s production with its cast of 14 is quite versatile and lives up to its lofty task. [more]
Semblance
Written and directed by White who is the Obie and Lily Award winning director of "Our Dear Dead Drug Lord" (WP Theater) and "What to Send Up When It Goes Down" (Public Theater, BAM Fisher and Playwrights Horizons), a NYTW Usual Suspect and former NYTW 2050 Fellow, among other impressive credits, "Semblance" asks the question: in your everyday life, how do you encounter Black women? What do you see and what do you assume? Nikiya Mathis plays seven women from all walks of life, six of them depicted in various jobs and careers and each in her own setting. The women address us directly: a line worker in a salad take-out restaurant, a nanny and caretaker with her charge in Prospect Park, a chart-topping artist preparing for a music video, an unemployed mother getting her nails done in a salon, a public figure such as a politician about to be interviewed on a news program, a bus driver on her run on an MTA bus, a medium to low level consultant in an office, and finally the actress herself as she removes her makeup. [more]
Our Dear Dead Drug Lord
Alyssa May Gold, Rebecca Jimenez, Carmen Berkeley and Malika Samuel in a scene from Alexis [more]