Sexual assault has long been a major issue in society, but only recently – particularly in the wake of the #MeToo movement – has the media and pop culture been starting to pay as much attention to this topic – and the need to eliminate the culture that allows this to happen – as should have been given long ago. With this, there has been a great surge of art being created to speak out on these important issues, and Made to Dance in Burning Buildings by Anya Pearson is one of the most creative and visually stunning examples that I’ve seen recently.

Armed with a grand, sweeping songbook from the masters of classic musical theater Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and a romantic, progressive-for-its-time book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan, it is difficult not to be continually enchanted by SOUTH PACIFIC, the groundbreaking 1949 stage musical based on James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Even better… sandwiched between timeless memorable songs, intensely romantic interludes, and cheeky, comedic banter is the show's surprisingly candid exploration of race relations—a topic that is, of course, still very much top-of-mind in today's seemingly more divided world.

It’s not uncommon to see theatre explore issues concerning the LGBTQ community. Some of the best plays I’ve reviewed over the past year or so are the ones that do a superb job at doing exactly that. However, what I haven’t seen as often are plays which specifically focus of LGBTQ parents. Yet Past Perfect – a new full-length play written by Rita Lewis – attempts to do exactly that. Earlier in the year, I had been invited the review the show during its return to Manhattan Rep’s stage, and after a minor delay in this production’s return, I had the chance to get a glimpse this past weekend.

As some of our readers might remember, last month I had the chance to review a show called What’s New, Groovy Gang. It was my first introduction to the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble, the long-running comedy group that has been thriving in the indie theatre scene for nearly a decade now. Recently, I had the chance to catch their next show of the season, and as much as I enjoyed their last show, this one proved to be even better.

The Gulf, by Audrey Cefaly, is a well-written and deftly acted piece about the strained relationship between two women. The play is suitably intimate, and the characters very believable, but overall the piece lacks energy and feels underwhelming.

A gorgeously stylized rendering of a poignant and deeply moving narrative that blends bits of welcome humor, inspiring theatricality, historical context, and vibrant, magically-tinged storytelling, “LITTLE BLACK SHADOWS” is an excellent first production of this fresh new play that I predict will only continually improve as it sees new future productions on the horizon.

Because James Fenton’s set design for “Switzerland” is so stunning, it takes several minutes to notice the antique weapons arrayed inside the beautiful, sleekly modernist study he’s fashioned. This collection of swords, daggers and pistols brings to mind crime thrillers like “Sleuth” and “Deathtrap,” which is apt since the room and the armaments in question belong to writer Patricia Highsmith, best known for novels and short stories that meld murder, eroticism and moral psychology. No doubt this small arsenal will figure prominently in the plot of “Switzerland.” That is to say, there will be blood, along with much speculation about what spilling it may mean.

There is something magnificent happening at Lincoln Center Theater, and it has to do with a powerful and intriguing woman, who has currently walked onto the stage of the Vivian Beaumont Theater, revealing that Eliza Doolittle has arrived in the twenty-first century, branding “My Fair Lady” as an old musical destined for a new era.

This tumultuous decade has largely been marked by a rise in racially motivated shootings, which often are followed up by the perpetrators walking away free without any consequences, even as such violence and bigotry continues to escalate. As a result, it makes sense that more and more people are waking up to issues of the criminal justice system in America, and in particular, how the system is biased against people of color. They are the same issues that Strings, which recently ran at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, explores in an unapologetically raw and honest way.

I love coffee. As do, I think it’s fair to say, the vast majority of us who work in theatre. Indeed, I often find myself surprised when I meet someone who says otherwise, in this industry. However, if there’s anything I love more than enjoying a good cup of coffee, it’s enjoying it with someone else. So I had a feeling that I’d probably enjoy watching a play that immediately seemed to revolve around that, and in the end, I got slightly more out of this story than I was expecting.

The latest offering of the Irish Repertory Theatre is the revival of “The Seafearer” by Conor McPherson, which opened on Broadway in 2007 and was nominated for a TONY award for best play that season. It follows the renowned style of the playwright, producing incredible natural dialogue, executed in somewhat ordinary life situations, with a collection of disreputable characters, and always providing a mysterious twist to maintain an interesting plot. In this case it is the story that revolves around the Faustian character “Sharky” who won a card game with the devil while in jail for murder, where the stakes were high: his soul or his freedom with the condition that if he won there could be a rematch at any time.

Mighty Mlima, “Kenya’s most famous elephant,” – the old, large elephant “with extraordinary tusks” – is murdered for those tusks by the Somali poachers Raman and Geedi. The story of that slaughter and how the magnificent tusks become part of the global illegal ivory trade is the subject of Lynn Nottage’s “Mlima’s Tale,” currently running in the Public’s Martinson Hall. This monstrous tale is relayed with exquisite detail and stirring magical realism from the killing of Mlima to the display of his intricately carved tusks in the new flat of nouveau riche Alice Ying in Bejing.

There’s a simple fact about theatre festivals that I try not to mention quite as much, if only out of respect for all the artists who put up their work: Some of the shows that are produced there are truly brilliant; other shows have potential, but need further development; then, there are the ones that are just flat-out terrible. During my most recent visit to the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, I had the chance to see the two extremes on full-display, in the form of two one-acts that couldn’t possibly be more different from one another.

Diets, they're a nightmare, aren't they? We all struggle to lose a few pounds. It's a topic which resonates with millions around the world. But how would it work weaved into the main plot of a musical? Well, Kay Mellor's stage musical adaption of her noughties TV show, Fat Friends has diet and weight loss at the heart of its storyline. But does it work as a piece of theatre? I headed along to the UK's biggest theatre, the Edinburgh Playhouse to find out.

When you combine the infectious beats of The Go-Go’s with the prose romance The Arcadia, you get an interesting mix of pop punk Renaissance flair. Head Over Heels opened Wednesday at The Curran, bringing the beat to San Francisco before heading to Broadway later this summer. The team that brought you unique musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, and Avenue Q redefines the musical comedy with this funky Elizabethan story.

The current Broadway revival of the groundbreaking play “Children of a Lesser God,” the first since it opened thirty-eight years ago to win the Tony award for best play, does not seem to have the emotional impact as the original. Playwright Mark Medoff has penned the love story of James Leeds, a speech therapist at a school for the deaf, and Sarah Norman, deaf since birth, who is not a student but works as a custodian at the school. The technique used to present the play is intriguing, since the actor portraying James speaks his dialogue and repeats Sarah’s words as she signs her responses, speaking for both characters. This is certainly an enormous task, and although an ingenious concept, it does lend itself to complications in relating emotional content and depth of character.

When I heard that Hartford Stage was putting an Edith Wharton novel on stage, I jumped for joy. Wharton was one of my favorite novelists in my late teens and early twenties. Having started with Ethan Frome in high school, I quickly devoured her other novels and short stories. I found her descriptions of beautiful, rich interiors and high society manners engrossing, mostly due to my interest in historical fiction at the time. I also adored the tragedy that befell on her characters, and the sacrifices made by them (usually for love – because I was a typical swooning young woman at the time). For me, film adaptations vary from excellent (House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson) to mediocre (Age of Innocence with Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder), but lucky for us, Douglas McGrath’s smart, concise adaptation of Age of Innocence definitely leans toward the former: It is a worthy reworking of Wharton’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel with standout performances and stunning staging.

In British theatre, there is currently a very good variety of plays and musicals that are touring, plus an excellent selection within London's west end. One of the longest running productions currently, is Michael Morpurgo's cream of the war genre, War Horse, produced by the National Theatre. I had never seen the play, but luckily there is a new UK and Ireland touring production currently playing at Edinburgh's Festival theatre (18/04/18 - 12/05/18). So I thought I best experience this apparent sensation for myself. But the question is, does it live up to the hype?

After seeing her estranged daughter’s “veiled suicide threat” on her “anonymous” blog, Beatriz (the irrepressible Daphne Rubin-Vega) drives her truck “like a bat out of hell” from California to Philadelphia to take her daughter Olivia (the deeply reflective Gizel Jiménez) on a seven-day road trip. After some mild mid-adolescent protestations, Olivia – sixteen – agrees to the trip hoping, perhaps, for reconciliation with her mother and an end to her deep and debilitating angst and depression.

I must admit that I knew nothing about Fun Home, so I had to do some online research, scan the Mirvish press release, and read the programme. Based on the graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, Fun Home is the recipient of several awards including 5 New York Tony Awards (Best Musical in 2015). In 2006, The New York Times named Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic as one of the best books of the year. It was created from memories of Ms. Bechdel’s childhood and the detailed journals she kept since age 10 growing up in rural Pennsylvania before and after her father’s suicide.

We see Alison at three distinct stages in her life throughout this production. In the present she is 43 years of age, a lesbian cartoonist, and struggles to understand the complex relationship she had with her deceased father. Alison grew up in a funeral home while trying to deal with her sexual awakening, and with the secrets her father faced before his death.