"Cowboy Mouth," Sam Shepard and Patti Smith's 1971 rock-'n'-roll breakup drama, gets a smartly directed and meticulously designed site-specific production.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:17AMScott Wittman's bio-musical of Andy Warhol star Jackie Curtis, starring Mx. Justin Vivian Bond at La MaMa, errs by sanitizing Curtis' provocative style.
SOURCE: Backstage at 11:17AMBedlam’s minimalist “Saint Joan,” at Access Theater, performed by a brilliant four-person cast, mines new life from Shaw’s underproduced classic.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:30AMPolish theater company TR Warszawa’s adaptation of the Danish film “Festen,” at St. Ann’s Warehouse, is too cold and calculating, blunting its impact.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMAt La MaMa, Poor Baby Bree, a comic waif with a nose for Tin Pan Alley's dustbin, makes vaudeville strange, bizarre, and captivating all over again.
SOURCE: Backstage at 10:00AMDixon Place's "Lunatic Cunning," by the multitalented James Godwin, is for adults who want to regain puppetry's illusionary wonder without being patronized.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:03AMIn "All Hands" at Incubator Arts Project, Hoi Polloi's first-rate ensemble explores the notion of community in a smart and refreshingly theatrical evening.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:27AMLa MaMa’s revival of the Talking Band’s 1983 “Hot Lunch Apostles” still has resonance yet feels like a nostalgic gasp from the past.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMCompany East's "Buddha" at La MaMa is crippled by the shapelessness of creator Kenji Kawarasaki's images, resulting in an evening neither affecting nor fun.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:31AMMark Snyder's emotionally overwrought "As Wide as I Can See," produced by At Hand Theatre Company at Here Arts Center, is overstuffed and immature.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:30AMNew York City Players' Richard Maxwell's take on Eugene O'Neill, in collaboration with the Wooster Group at St. Ann's Warehouse, lacks a beating heart.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMJust the right measure of quirk and psychodrama, buoyed by a smart and sharp production, makes Erin Courtney's new play the best 13P offering in years.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:12AMThis revival of SITI Company's piece about Robert Wilson is tiramisu for avant-gardists, a communion between the celebrated director and Will Bond, one of the smartest, most disciplined ac…
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:36AMTemporary Distortion's new film-theater piece about the private life of cops is strongest when it lets its stories speak for themselves and weakest when it dips into sentimentality.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMYoung Jean Lee gives New York audiences the feminism they deserve: conflicted, unprocessed, at times ironic, at times sincere, always provocative. Feminism, she reminds us, is never a simp…
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:59AMThis haunting collaboration between Croatian performance artists and former members of Goat Island is a first-rate love song to what we can't touch—in each other, in our art, and in …
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:44AMThough drag royal Lady Bunny's sense of humor is as sharp and as vicious as ever, her one-woman show lacks the dynamism and original material to sustain a full evening.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMIn this new play, a disjointed multimedia ghost story, writer-director Bryan Santiago's ambition exceeds his craft, resulting in a promising but baffling exercise in inarticulate creepines…
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:36AMThe Foundry Theatre's new production feels like an unusual group therapy session that though at times forced and treacly manages to be quite powerful in spite of itself.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:18AMJulia Jarcho's new play suffers under her affectless directing style, but a first-rate ensemble brings life to the otherwise chilly proceedings, resulting in an unfulfilling but still occ…
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:30AMDespite a provocative premise and a first-rate cast, this new musical's clichéd story and forgettable music keep the memory of the Moulin Rouge at an unfortunate distance.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AM"Cyclops," a concert adaptation of a little-known Euripides play, rocks and rolls and in the tradition of the best rock operas, but, lacking motivation, it never fully ignites.
SOURCE: Backstage at 09:00AMThis true-life ghost story of a lost modernist heroine is a set piece for the aged but fiery Ruth Maleczech, whose performance is not to be missed.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:00AMSusana Cook's new play is a nonsensical, childish mess that tries to be a critique of right-wing Christianity but only manages to bore and exasperate.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:43AMThis provocative interactive theater event walks a fine line between utopian sincerity and liberal critique as it makes audiences audition for a place in a supposed democratic utopia.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:30AMDirector Amon Miyamoto adapts a Kafkaesque Japanese psychodrama for his newest production, serving up an occasionally earnest but terribly beautiful, epic, and unsettling theatrical feast.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:18AMThe Assembly's ensemble-devised work is a familiar celebration of 1970s activism, but for an occasionally inspiring visit to an important moment in liberal history, this production is toug…
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:40AMYael Farber's South African version of "The Oresteia" is visually and musically thrilling, but her take on the Greek myth dilutes the story's dramatic power and political heft.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMVáclav Havel's porcine parable, a combination media circus, rural operetta, and political critique, may be one of the more playfully rewarding offerings of New York's summer season.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:19AMBaba Brinkman's playful and imaginative romp through Darwin and modern culture is a great idea delightfully staged, but its mishmash of themes and arguments overwhelms as much as it clarif…
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMHolly Hughes is as eloquent and sophisticated as ever as she traces the contradictions among her life, her passions, and her puppies in a poignant and endearing new solo show.
SOURCE: Backstage at 04:43AM