Posts in New York
Review: Spicy Witch Productions presents “The Virtuous Fall of The Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows”

Gina Femia’s extraordinary new high school-set play “The Virtuous Fall of The Girls From Our Lady of Sorrows” utilizes a simple premise to dive headfirst into the complex, all-too disheartening vortex known as the patriarchy. Set in the not-so-distant past immediately following 9/11, the play follows an adolescent group of girls trying to stage an original adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Measure For Measure” at their all-girls Catholic school.

Read More
Review: “Carcass” at Shetler Studios

“Carcass” is a new play by Eddie Vernovsky that chronicles the story of Eric (Vernovsky),  a depressed young man who is struggling to find his purpose in life. This is made all the more difficult by a girlfriend he doesn’t really like and a family that pushes every button and crosses every line. “Carcass” had the potential to be a great family/relationship drama about a broken man searching to be whole, but unfortunately, very few of the characters felt fleshed out enough to where I wanted to know what happened to them, and the spiritual journey of Eric felt very simplified.

Read More
Off-Broadway Review: “The Pink Unicorn”

The LGBTQ+ communities have undergone significant and healthy upheaval since Elise Forier Edie developed “The Pink Unicorn” in 2011 at The Blue Mountain Center in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. Although the playwright has attempted to update the script, its present incarnation currently running at the Episcopal Actors’ Guild falls short of reflecting the rich complexities of gender identity and gender expression, choosing instead a barrage of stereotypes and sometimes offensive diction. This despite an impressive performance by Alice Ripley as a conservative Texas mom who daughter announces she is ‘gender queer.’

Read More
Review: “The Floor is Lava” at LaMama Experimental Theatre Club

As we get closer to the point where Millennials and Generation Z makes up a solid majority of the voting age population, there has been an increased desire not just for younger people to see perspectives like their own represented in the world of theatre and film, but also for content that helps Baby Boomers and Generation X better understand the unique struggles that today’s young adults – born in the 1980s and 1990s – continue to face in life. Judging by the way it’s been advertised, it’s clear that the main goal of The Floor is Lava is to become the latest creative effort to try and fill that role

Read More
Off-Broadway Review: “Original Sound” at Cherry Lane Studio Theatre

What a pleasant surprise to walk into the Studio space at Cherry Lane Theatre and see a fresh, new look developed for the exciting new production “Original Sound” by Adam Seidel. Scenic designer, Justin Townsend has transformed the space into a multi-purpose set used for several different locations but always having the lingering aura of a contemporary, professional recording studio. Lighting by Kate McGee supports specific locations and has created a multi-colored neon tube installation as a focal point that pulsates during scene changes adding to the highly charged production and sleek design.

Read More
Off-Broadway Review: “Happy Talk”

Happy talk – the type of verbal communication, replete with counterfeit smiles, that too often serves as a replacement for authentic connection between individuals – cascades across the stage at the New Group’s world premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s “Happy Talk” at the New Group at Pershing Square Signature Center’s Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre.

Read More
Review: Vanguard Theater Company presents “A Little Princess”

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.

Read More
“Antigone” at the In Scena! Italian Theatre Festival NY

Telling the classic story of the doomed daughter of Oedipus, Debora Benincasa’s one-woman adaptation of “Antigone” is incredibly refreshing. Beginning with an acknowledgement that we are about to watch a play, this version of “Antigone” sets the tone of the piece right away. Benincasa brings great humor and thoughtfulness to a piece that is typically tragic and free of much laughter. She knows this too, even encouraging you to recall sad things like your spouse leaving you or your mother yelling at you in order to get you  in the right frame of mind, because, as she says, it’s a tragedy, afterall.

Read More
Review: “Friendly’s Fire” at Theater at the 14th Street Y

“Friendly’s Fire” is a new play by John Patrick Bray, following Gulf War veteran, Guy Friendly (Matthew Weitz), as he struggles to maintain control of his mind and emotions as a drug attack from a recent lover brings out his, already prominent, PTSD. He creates visions and a whole cast of characters that help guide him to a deeper understanding of himself. Along for the ride is his friend Todd (Adeyinka Adebola), who, not seeing any of what Friendly is seeing, goes along in the hopes that, while they wait for help, he can understand his friend just a little better. What follows is a play incredibly moving in story and almost psychedelic in atmosphere.

Read More
Review: “The Buffalo Play” at The Tank

Taking place entirely in a jail cell near Yellowstone National Park, “The Buffalo Play” tells the story of a Woman (Ciara Griffin) as she is visited by the vision of a buffalo (Kendra Potter), after having just taken a baby buffalo and put it in her car because she thought it looked cold. This eventually leads to the baby being rejected by the heard and having to be euthanized. The Woman and the Buffalo discuss life and nature and the morality of human interference. Combing realistic and abstract elements, this new play by Ciara Griffin and Kendra Potter, explores human’s relationship with wildlife and our internal connections to the nature around us.

Read More
Review: “Evil Clowns Have Feelings Too” at the Producer’s Club

Clowns!

Some people find them entertaining, or at the very least amusing. Others might find them creepy, perhaps to the point where they appear in their nightmares. For a select few, it may be a combination of all of the above. In IRTE’s latest show – which, as the title suggests, is all about evil clowns – that combination is exactly what is shown to theatergoers…although thankfully, it leans far more toward the silly and whimsical side of these characters.

Read More
Off-Broadway Review: “BLKS”

Poet-playwright Aziza Barnes puts many ingredients into their script blender to whip up a “comedic look” at the lives of Octavia (Paige Gilbert), Imani (Alfie Fuller), and June (Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, three twenty something black women living in New York City – a city where black lives seem not to matter and where, for that reason, it has  become difficult for the trio to navigate the bumpy road to finding intimacy and purpose.

Read More
Review: Retro Productions Presents “Mary, Mary”

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.

Read More
Review: “Miseducated: an oral history of sexual (mis)education” at The Tank

Sex Ed is something that everyone has had some sort of encounter with in one way or another, whether it was  extremely restrictive in the information given (perhaps even no information at all) or given way too much information to the point of confusion. Often as we grow older we find that the information that we received as children was a little off or just downright wrong. This is what “Miseducated” is about.

Read More
Review: 'Sons of the Prophet' at Normal Ave

In Normal Ave’s final installation in their 2019 season, “Sons of the Prophet” explores the tenacity of the human spirit in the face of senseless tragedy.  This production has made its home at the Medicine Show Theatre and will play through May 5th.  At the beginning of the matinee I saw, the show’s director Shannon Molly Flynn announced Normal Ave’s residency at the Medicine Show theatre. So first and foremost a huge congratulations to them for finding a home for what continues to be a talented and up and coming theatre company.

Read More
Review: “Spanker Machine” at BAAD and the Bernie Wohl Center

“Spanker Machine” is performed through the In Scena Italian Theater Festival and tells the story of a young woman, Anita, as she tries to make sense of the most traumatic moments of her life through dressing up as her favorite characters (Sailor Moon, Anne of Green Gables, Oren Ishi). Tormented by a mother who never accepted her controversial sexuality and a lover, Marco, who left without explanation, she finds refuge in her characters. We as the audience are given details of her life outside of the characters through, phone calls and Anita’s stories.

Read More
Review: 'The Bigot' at the Theatre at St. Clement’s

Taking us back to those uncomfortable holiday dinners, this new play by Gabi and Eva Mor, tells the story of homophobic, racist, and all around bigoted, Jim. Jim’s narrow views and downright offensive language make him a very hard person to be around. Even his own son, Seth (played by Dana Watkins)  is exhausted with trying to get his father to understand just what is wrong with some of the things he says. Yet, with his father’s health waning and Seth the only one to take care of him, he hopes that he can use his time with his father to try and open his mind a little. Seth, along with the help of Jim’s next door neighbors, Paula and Aysha,(Played by Jaimi Paige and Faiven Feshazion) whose romantic relationship Jim has expressed extreme distaste for, attempt to open up Jim’s eyes to a world beyond his narrow understanding.

Read More
Broadway Review: “Be More Chill”

It is difficult to separate “Be More Chill,” currently running at the Lyceum Theatre, from the hype surrounding what has become a teenage cult musical since its 2015 run at the Two River Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey and its recent off-Broadway run at The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center in 2018. This hype has been heightened by a cast recording and an extensive marketing campaign. What is this musical about and how successful is its current Broadway incarnation?

Read More