Broadway Review: “Caroline, or Change”
“Under Michael Longhurst’s tender direction, Sharon D Clarke exposes Caroline’s complicated layers of feeling with a compassion for her character and for the situation she finds herself in.”
Broadway Review: “Morning Sun”
“I’m very scared. I’m very confused it’s very bright here please just tell me whether or not I am safe.” These are among the first words spoken by Charley McBride (an ethereal and impassioned Edie Falco) in Simon Stephens’s “Morning Sun” currently running at Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center - Stage I.
Broadway Review: “The Lehman Trilogy”
“Despite the quality of the work – and it is impressive – “The Lehman Trilogy” constantly reminds the audience of the dynamics of the all-too-easy transition from entrepreneurship to corporate greed, the kind of greed that has grown exponentially after the Stock Market Crash of 2018 and resulted in the collapse of the Lehman Brothers empire that began in 1844 as Heyum Lehmann stood on a wooden dock in New York harbor fulfilling his dream of America.”
Musical Theatre Web Series Review: Rock-Themed Episode Three of London’s “The Theatre Channel”
“The Theatre Channel” provides a welcomed addition to the pandemic-era theatre performances on ZOOM, YouTube, and a host of theatre-related streaming sites.
Off-Broadway Review: “Belfast Blues”
“Director Carol Kane gives Geraldine Hughes the space she needs to tell her story with authenticity and stark believability.”
Off-Broadway News: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater to Sell Tickets to View-at-Home Recordings of “The Siblings Play”
With breathtaking theatricality, stinging poignancy, biting humor, and deep empathy, The Siblings Play gives voice to multicultural New Yorkers rarely seen on the stage.
Off-Broadway Review: “Incantata” at Irish Repertory Theatre’s Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage
Townsend’s performance of the elegy (this is far more than a reading) evidence’s Muldoon’s deep respect and enduring love for the American visual artist Mary Farl Powers who died of breast cancer in 1992 after refusing any treatment.
Off-Broadway Review: “Anatomy of a Suicide” at Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater
The anatomy of suicide is larger than life. Playwright Alice Birch and director Lileana Blain-Cruz capture that enormity and the surrounding need for discussion with heartfelt grace and impassioned urgency.
Broadway Review: “Grand Horizons” at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater
Plays parsing the viability of monogamy are nothing new. The “sacred” tie that binds “one man and one woman” have been under scrutiny since the mythic Adam and Eve stumbled out of the garden shortly after their creation and subsequent fall from grace.
Off-Broadway Preview: “The Bedwetter” at Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater
Meet Sarah. She's funny. She's dirty. She's 10. And she's got a secret that you'll never guess (unless you read the title).
Off-Broadway Review: “Greater Clements” at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
“Greater Clements” is a testament to what happens when societal structures and safeguards disintegrate, when mental illness challenges societal and familial norms, and what happens when the ability to cope erodes with out a safety net in place.
Off-Broadway Review: “Pumpgirl” at Irish Rep’s W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre
The strength of Abbie Spallen’s “Pumpgirl,” currently running at Irish Rep’s W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre, lies in the playwright’s authentic characters and their believable conflicts that connect to the timeless vicissitudes of the human condition.
Off-Broadway Review: WP Theater/Second Stage Theater’s “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” at the McGinn/Cazale Theater
Alexis Sheer’s “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord,” in its final days at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, is deeply disturbing and profoundly important. Co-produced by WP Theater and Second Stage Theater, the play explores the shadowy underbelly of the teenage angst of four private secondary school young women with extraordinary perception and frightening accuracy.
Off-Broadway Review: “A Bright Room Called Day” at The Public’s Anspacher Theater
The audience connects to the dystopian vision playing out on stage and recognizes that the threat of fascism is always on some horizon in some part of the world, often closer than one would expect or hope.
Off-Broadway Review: The New Group’s “one in two” in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center
Mr. Love’s focus here is the Black queer HIV+ community. It isn’t meant to connect to other communities although it invites a more universal cry for help to end the epidemic and save the Black queer HIV+ community. See it. Do the work.
Off-Broadway Review: “One November Yankee” at 59E59 Theaters
Veteran actors of screen, stage, and television Harry Hamlin and Stefanie Powers do their best to bring Joshua Ravetch’s “One November Yankee” to the stage at 59E59 Theaters on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Off-Broadway Review: “Everything Is Super Great” at 59E59 Theaters
Broken relationships, family dysfunction, irreversible age-related illness, and loneliness insert themselves uninvited and unannounced into the lives of individuals and families. “Super great” dissolves into the realm(s) of the languorous.
Off-Broadway Review: “Seared” in the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space
Successful entrepreneurs like Harry (an overzealous but hypersensitive Raúl Esparza) typically attempt to guard their “art” from “commerce” for as long as possible. They feel frightened by the prospect of commercial success overwhelming their sense of artistic integrity. At least that is Harry’s point of view in Theresa Rebeck’s “Seared” currently running in the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space.
Off-Broadway Review: “Bella Bella” at Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center Stage I
Harvey Feinstein wisely chooses to “be” Bella Abzug and not simply “portray” her. There are no gimmicks here, no backups, no filters, no frills – just Bella. Mr. Fierstein draws on his skills of connecting with his audience to raise the rich and enduring questions raised by Ms. Abzug’s life and legacy.
Off-Broadway Review: “The Underlying Chris” at Second Stage Theater’s Tony Kiser Theater
The characters continue to cascade through the decades – all suffering from those initial injuries of twisting the wrong way (an event not to be taken literally) and becoming fatherless (one of many tragedies that “stifle” growth).