All stories by Joseph Pisano on BroadwayStars

Monday, April 17, 2023

Shucked by Joseph Pisano

In addition to a surfeit of approximate rhymes, the score for Shucked includes a paean to corn and a reprise of the following ready-for-Hallmark advice: "maybe love is like a seed/a little s…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:15AM
Monday, March 27, 2023

Parade by Joseph Pisano

While Brown's tunefully varied score strives to historically situate the bigoted nightmare we're witnessing within the cultural context of the South's fabricated sense of nobility and victim…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:17PM
Monday, March 20, 2023

The Coast Starlight by Joseph Pisano

When it comes to plot, characters, or often both, even the best theater tends to require a suspension of disbelief. Given that it's hardly a sucker's bet for indolent playwrights to pin thei…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:09PM
Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Fall River Fishing by Joseph Pisano

Absurdist to an increasingly ho-hum degree, Szadkowski and Knox let their imaginations run amok with silly speculations about pre-double-homicide life in the Borden household that are punctu…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:21PM
Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Lucy by Joseph Pisano

Writer/director Erica Schmidt's "Lucy" is a play struggling to find a point of view, or perhaps a point of view struggling to find a play. If the latter is true, then that narrative position…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:25AM
Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Between Riverside and Crazy by Joseph Pisano

Living in his "palatial" rent-controlled apartment on one of Manhattan's most stunning architectural stretches, Walter "Pops'' Washington (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is an aging man of agin…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:07PM
Thursday, January 26, 2023

Without You by Joseph Pisano

And that's the agonizing tension in "Without You;" in his lyrical responses to Larson, Rapp is well aware that it's not a back-and-forth, that Larson can't say anything more than he has alre…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:24AM
Thursday, December 15, 2022

The Far Country by Joseph Pisano

All of the above occurs prior to the intermission and, if "The Far Country" has a shortcoming, it's that the second half feels like a sequel to what came before rather than a continuation of…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:18PM
Monday, December 5, 2022

KPOP by Joseph Pisano

Adopting the hokey framing device of a concert documentary, Kim turns the impending U.S. debut of a South Korean entertainment company's three hottest acts into a triptych of rigorously gend…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:41PM
Sunday, November 20, 2022

Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & The Pool by Joseph Pisano

Still, rest assured, most of what Birbiglia says is funny, even for any fans well aware that Birbiglia is leading us somewhere that is not. Given the eponymous Hemingway allusion, the show's…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:51PM
Tuesday, November 8, 2022

You Will Get Sick by Joseph Pisano

Ostensibly a comedy, or a tragi-comedy, or a dystopic mashup of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Field of Dreams," Diaz's play could possibly be enjoyed as a befuddling trifle if not for its serious …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:14PM
Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Walking with Ghosts by Joseph Pisano

"Walking with Ghosts" is a decidedly intimate experience, one that seems tailor-made for an off-Broadway theater like the Irish Rep. Price and his production team try to expand the show to B…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:03PM
Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Death of a Salesman by Joseph Pisano

To be clear, the casting isn't colorblind; it's just casting, with director Miranda Cromwell delicately drawing out a different set of lived experiences from Miller's almost untouched words.…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:46PM
Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Cost of Living by Joseph Pisano

Perhaps because of its prestigious accolade, or just undeniable merit, "Cost of Living" is the first of Majok's heartfelt efforts to make the journey from off-Broadway to on-Broadway in the …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:47AM
Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Jasper by Joseph Pisano

Most poignantly, when Drew starts to wonder if maybe their son's survival has been the opposite of a blessing, Andrea expresses horror for a thought that, thanks to Pimentel's touchingly sub…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:18PM
Thursday, September 1, 2022

Kinky Boots by Joseph Pisano

Several years after vacating its Broadway home, "Kinky Boots" has settled in to a cozier off-Broadway venue, Stage 42, at a presumed discount for theatergoers, albeit with a much smaller orc…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:50PM
Sunday, June 26, 2022

Lessons in Survival: 1971 by Joseph Pisano

Originally broadcast on "Soul!," an early PBS program dedicated to showcasing Black arts and politics, Baldwin and Giovanni's one-on-one echoes contemporary concerns while also remaining dec…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:35PM
Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Islander: A New Musical by Joseph Pisano

An import from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, "Islander" embraces that renowned international jamboree's artistry and experimentalism, most notably by forgoing musicians for sound looping ma…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:41PM
Sunday, May 8, 2022

American Buffalo by Joseph Pisano

The 1975 play "American Buffalo," now onstage at the Circle in the Square Theatre in a crackling revival, remains the quintessential Mamet experience, the one that should be seen to fully ap…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:01PM
Saturday, April 30, 2022

Suffs by Joseph Pisano

Unfortunately, while Wells (Nikki M. James) and Mary Church Terrell (Cassondra James), another renowned Black suffragist, occasionally pop up to offer intersectional insights, they mostly c…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:09PM
Monday, April 18, 2022

The Little Prince by Joseph Pisano

Essentially, Mouron boils the story down to a couple lines about love and beauty, while eliding any sense of the loss, isolation, and dread that the novella also poetically conveys. Her litt…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:27PM
Saturday, March 26, 2022

Alex Edelman: Just for Us by Joseph Pisano

Despite the familiar visual trappings--mic stand, performer-blinding stage lights, and a dull curtain backdrop--Edelman's deceptively free-flowing talents hew more towards the monologist Spa…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 07:51PM
Tuesday, March 8, 2022

A Touch of the Poet by Joseph Pisano

Director Ciarán O'Reilly confidently lets the clever cast explore their characters' profound complexities, which means forcing the audience to simply accept a few psychological contradictio…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 08:13PM
Sunday, February 27, 2022

Space Dogs by Joseph Pisano

Heyman and the rest of the production team quickly turn "Space Dogs" into an exercise of quantity over quality. More lights. More noise. More projections. More props. It's theater as sensory…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:48PM
Thursday, February 17, 2022

Made by God by Joseph Pisano

It's just that, as the fictional Eva supplants the non-fictional Ann onstage, the play reverses course and sacrifices its human scale back to the rhetorical, with pro-life Eva and pro-choice…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:29PM
Monday, February 7, 2022

Long Day’s Journey into Night by Joseph Pisano

But, again, O'Hara does these actors no favors, forcing them to contend with incongruous historical information while also depriving them of the greatest acting benefit O'Neill's four-act pl…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:27PM
Tuesday, December 14, 2021

The Streets of New York by Joseph Pisano

Cue the Irish Rep and its remounting of artistic director Charlotte Moore's musical "The Streets of New York," which the theatre first premiered twenty years ago in the aftermath of Septembe…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:52PM
Monday, November 22, 2021

A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Joseph Pisano

Performed as one long 80-minute monologue, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing also offers actor Jenn Murray little, if any, respite, laying on her shoulders complete responsibility for telling ev…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:57PM
Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Autumn Royal by Joseph Pisano

Previously only known for his novels and short stories, first-time playwright Kevin Barry brings the same full-hearted doom and gloom to the stage in "Autumn Royal" that was evidenced in his…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:36PM
Sunday, October 10, 2021

Six: The Musical by Joseph Pisano

More concert than musical, the 80-minute show's libretto adds little to its cast album, with the lyrics of each queen's autobiographical song also pruning their individual histories to a poi…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:07PM
Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical by Joseph Pisano

Since it's difficult to make fun of something that was never meant to be taken seriously in the first place, Hogue and director Nick Flatto are often left to spin their wheels by simply reha…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:51PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime