“Forget Vladimir and Estragon.  Marie Glancy O’Shea’s The Singing Sphere says it’s women who are more apt to be waiting.”

“A trip to Brooklyn’s Theatre XIV offers further proof that Austin McCormick is one of this century’s most exciting and inventive theatre director/choreographers.”

“In Ellen Abrams’ Eleanor and Alice Trezana Beverley and Mary Bacon portray groundbreaking women on opposing sides of a political family.”

“Using personal examples from her career, the careers of her influencers, and the careers of her colleagues, Judy Gold’s Yes, I Can Say That! is an entertaining and informative talk on the dangers of villainizing comedians for expressing their truth through their art.”

“Red Bull returns to live performances with a top-shelf production of a true crime thriller of unknown Elizabethan authorship.”

“The celebrated author takes on issues involving “model minorities”, racist school admission tests and an old Marie’s Crisis showtune singing buddy of mine.”

“It took more than ninety years for Betty Smith’s prize-winning Becomes A Woman to celebrate an opening night, but The Mint’s artistic director prefers the special connection that occurs during previews.”

“There are twelve languages spoken in AnomalousCo’s ambitious political theatre/cabaret piece (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling, but its international cast communicates the unity their characters find in survival and fighting back.”

“Jessica Owens’ Shedding Load recalls how New York’s 1977 blackout signaled change in a Brooklyn neighborhood and jump-started the hip-hop movement.”

“As weird as Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre’s production of Václav Havel’s Audience sounds, in the end translator/director Vit Horejs’ charming bit of protest theatre disguised as whimsey makes perfect sense.”

“On the surface, the newest offerings at WP Theater and The Tank aren’t very similar, but they’re linked by the theme of attempts to control women; one through personal behavior and the other through political acts.”

“I feel a sense of relief when the house light go down, the actors appear, and for a while, I have no obligations but to sit and listen to what the artists want to communicate.  This is especially welcome when they’re of a culture that’s not mine, exposing me to ways of everyday life that are common to them but foreign to me.” 

“Gordon Boudreau, in his guise as the title character of The Wildly Inappropriate Poetry of Arthur Greenleaf Holmes, understands completely if you’re so offended by the tastelessness of his presentation that you choose to get up and leave the theatre.  In fact, he encourages the rest of us to applaud anyone who walks out, in admiration of their good judgement.”

“There’s no cover charge when Curtains Up! struts their talented stuff every Tuesday night at The Monster, but the extroverted crowd makes tipping a part of the show.”

I caught Stephen Morrow’s Darkness After Night: Ukraine two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took a brief break from the front lines of his country’s defense against Russian aggression to address a joint session of the United States Congress to plea his case for weaponry support.

Nothing is known of the script for William Darby’s Ye Bare and Ye Cubbe, which gave one performance in 1665 at Fowkes Tavern in Accomack County, Virginia.  But what does remain is the record of a trial held when the playwright/actor and his two co-stars were charged with blasphemy after a sworn statement was submitted by playgoer Edward Martin. 

Given the setting of Events, Bailey Williams’ stinging social satire of life-consuming office culture, The Brick offers a nearly environmental venue.  I’ve done enough office temping in my life to know that if there’s one thing hip companies full of creatives love, it’s exposed brick.

Tom Brokaw famously referred to the Americans whose lives were shaped by living through the Depression and World War II as The Greatest Generation. Underneath The Skin can serve as a reminder that this demographic also includes people whose lives were further shaped by The Lavender Scare, Stonewall and the AIDS epidemic.

When you consider that Noel Coward was capable of writing a popular song titled World Weary when he was 28, it shouldn’t be surprising that The Rat Trap, which he wrote at age 18, is wise beyond the playwright’s years in matters of love, marriage and domestic competition.