May 15, 2019

Review: Vanguard Theater Company presents “A Little Princess”

May 15, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Vanguard Theater Company’s “A Little Princess” bursts with the earnest vivacity of a small child at Christmas—or make that rather, twenty small children shining on stage currently in this valiant tale of a girl whose spirit can’t be squashed. Based on the classic novel by Frances Hodson Burnett, this “A Little Princess” by composer Andrew Lippa and book and lyric writer Brian Crawley hops, skips, and jumps it’s way around the dark Victorian undercurrents of racism and classism, preferring instead to bask in the warm glow of youthful optimism and defiant “keep your chin up” songs.

May 09, 2019

Review: Retro Productions Presents “Mary, Mary”

May 09, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Author Jean Kerr once quipped, “Being divorced is like being hit by a Mack truck. If you live through it, you start looking very carefully to the right and to the left.”

Kerr is full of such quips, and she uses them hungrily in her 1960s comedy hit, "Mary, Mary," being revived ambitiously by Retro Productions at the Gene Frankel Theatre downtown.

"Mary" is about what happens when two people have married each other, separated, and after vigorously looking to the right and left, through a number of snarky quips, get back together happily ever after, no questions asked.

April 18, 2019

Review: Hedgepig Ensemble presents “Mary Stuart”

April 18, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

In a world enraptured equally by Game of Thrones and Fox News politics, female leaders vying for a place in the history books being pitted against each other is nothing new. In this fresh take on perhaps the world’s most iconic sister rivalry of Mary, Queen of Scots vs. Elizabeth I of England, Mary Stuart examines female leadership under the eyes of family, politics, and religion in a production fit for a Queen.

April 01, 2019

Review: Hamlet Isn’t Dead presents “Hamlet”

April 01, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

To go or not to go? If that is the question of this review, New Yorkers looking to escape the pendulum swing happening between seasons outside right now should get themselves inside to The Center at West Park where Hamlet Isn’t Dead’s “Hamlet” captivates and excites.

March 19, 2019

Review: Mystical Feet Company & EMVEE Productions Present “THE MAR VISTA: In Search of My Mother’s Love Life”

March 19, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Written, directed, and choreographed by the industrious and passionate Yehuda Hyman, “THE MAR VISTA: In Search of My Mother’s Love Life” is a comical, semi-autobiographical dance-play hybrid that ultimately gets lost within its dizzying breadth of aspirations.

February 26, 2019

Review: “We Are The Tigers” at Theater 80 St. Marks

February 26, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Move over “Mean Girls,” there’s a new queen bee in town. Nine to be precise, currently gracing the stage at Theater 80 St Marks in the new musical We Are The Tigers.

February 25, 2019

Review: The Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company Presents “Intersections” at 92nd Street Y

February 25, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Provocative, whimsical, and ethereal, the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company defies expectations of postmodern dance and soars, unafraid to take risks and dazzle with unflinching honesty.

February 10, 2019

Review: "Exposed" at the MCS Theatre

February 10, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Ms. Heckler’s direction and the ensemble’s script are equal parts shockingly brave and vulnerable, a raw dissection of one girl’s decisions magnifying a nation’s sickness. The dialogue in the show is lifted from interviews with, tweets at, and scenes of female pornstars and the effortless juxtaposition of different formats from monologues to sound clips to choreographed interpretive porn scenes elucidate the team’s overall creative mastery.

January 09, 2019

Review: "Frankenstein" – Manual Cinema at Under the Radar Festival at The Public

January 09, 2019/ Christopher Peterson

Worried about the fate of live performance or cinema in this digital age? Run to see Frankenstein at The Public’s Under the Radar Festival this month and you’ll be shouting, “It lives!!”

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein turns the anatomy of a play inside out in a unique amalgamation of shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, sound, and live music. Interwoven stories of Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein, and his Monster unfold before one’s eyes in a 97-minute spectacle of nonverbal, unadulterated marvel in which actors and technicians are one entity, seamlessly transitioning between a multitude of characters and multimedia platforms to tell the story. Three playing areas exist comprised of live feed cameras, lights, projecting screens, and puppets that allow Manual Cinema to manually create a sort of live movie projected on one giant screen above center stage.

December 13, 2018

Review: "Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show"

December 13, 2018/ Christopher Peterson

“Ruben & Clay’s First Annual Christmas Carol Family Fun Pageant Spectacular Reunion Show” panders and meanders its way through a muddy mix of Christmas songs and jokes, that equal parts put you in the holiday spirit as they do put you to sleep.

December 09, 2018

Review: First Maria Ensemble’s “Macbeth” at Teatro Círculo

December 09, 2018/ Christopher Peterson

In an age of inescapable information inundation, First Maria Ensemble’s “Macbeth,” directed with ferocity by Celeste Moratti, is a light in the dark. Lines are blurred between truth and fake news, leadership and tyranny, and this production shines with an earnest honesty to interrogate Shakespeare’s classic text in a way that can only be driven by our modern time’s aggrandization of the self in an increasingly isolating world.