All stories by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief on BroadwayStars

Saturday, September 23, 2017

The Climbers by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The play isn’t just about social climbers but those who want to game the system and live beyond their income, and their sense of entitlement rivals that of the 1990’s. However, this is 1…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:20PM
Thursday, September 21, 2017

On the Shore of the Wide World by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Neil Pepe’s production of Simon Stephens’ "On the Shore of the Wide World" will not please all. The pace is consciously slow – like the life lived by these characters. However, the wai…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:28PM
Sunday, September 17, 2017

The Sorcerer (New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players) by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

This 1877 operetta, now celebrating its 140th anniversary, has been reduced to the nine major roles and the chorus has been eliminated. The result is a streamlined version that moves along a…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:35PM

Loveless Texas by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Although the plot has been reset in Loveless, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1929, it is an improvement over the original story as a romantic comedy: Shakespeare’s version ends wi…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:44PM
Wednesday, September 13, 2017

The Baroness – Isak Dinesen’s Final Affair by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

As Blixen, Pelletier is riveting as she wraps her cocoon around the unsuspecting but susceptible young man. Catlike and sinuous as she stalks him and the stage, she is cajoling, seductive, m…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:08PM
Sunday, September 10, 2017

La Fanciulla del West (New York City Opera) by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The newly reconstituted New York City Opera opened its second full season with a shared production of Puccini’s rarely performed "La Fanciulla del West" created in collaboration with the T…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:44PM
Sunday, September 3, 2017

Inanimate by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Performed by The Bats, the resident company of The Flea Theater, the world premiere of "Inanimate" is the inaugural production in their new home on Thomas Street, between Church and Broadway…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:40PM
Sunday, August 27, 2017

The Suitcase Under the Bed by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Exquisitely produced by the Mint Theater, Jonathan Bank’s direction is leisurely and slow, which undercuts the theatricality of all but the last and the most satisfying one, 'The King of S…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:15PM
Saturday, August 12, 2017

Summer Shorts 2017: Festival of New American Short Plays – Series B by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

While the three plays in Summer Shorts 2017: Festival of New American Short Plays – Series B have been given proficient productions each seems ultimately unsatisfactory. All seem like firs…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:38PM
Friday, August 11, 2017

A Parallelogram by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Bruce Norris’ "A Parallelogram" endeavors to explore some sobering facts about the effect of the future on the present and responsibility to others. Unfortunately, the play ends up being l…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:19PM
Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Jerry’s Girls by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The revival at the York is being seen in yet a new version of the show that began as a cabaret in 1981 and went to Broadway in 1985. Created by director Larry Alford, choreographer Wayne Alf…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:31PM
Saturday, August 5, 2017

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare in the Park) by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Although the physical production has been well-thought-out, the script seems to have no interpretation other than a great deal of slapstick comedy which does not much register. The cast vari…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:50PM
Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Summer Shorts 2017: Festival of New American Short Plays – Series A by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

"Acolyte" by Graham Moore, Academy Award winner for his 2013 screenplay for "The Imitation Game," is a more substantial play than the other two. Based on an historical occurrence in 1954, it…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:35PM
Monday, July 31, 2017

Singing Beach by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Aside from the destructive nature of the storm and that the "Pegasus" eventually arrives at a desert shore, there isn’t much to be learned about climate change. We never know if Sleeper lo…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 08:36PM
Sunday, July 30, 2017

Pipeline by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

From Dominique Morisseau, the author of the critically acclaimed Skeleton Crew, Detroit ’67 and Sunset Baby, comes another powerfully provocative and riveting, but overwrought, play which …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:49PM
Thursday, July 13, 2017

1984 by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Icke and MacMillan’s version is tricked up with much multimedia, sound and lights, and disorientation. Faithful to the book, it claims to be the first adaptation to include Orwell’s appe…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:37PM
Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Napoli, Brooklyn by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

True, here these Italian American sisters growing up in Park Slope, 1960, don’t want to get to some place as much as get away from someplace else. As they exit their teens, their home has …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:08AM
Monday, July 10, 2017

Of Human Bondage by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Director Albert Schultz’s program note explains that the production set itself two challenges: first, that Philip Carey would never leave the 16-foot red square center stage, and that all …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:38PM
Sunday, July 9, 2017

Bastard Jones by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Bastard Jones is surprisingly accessible for a contemporary musical based on a long and episodic 18th century novel. Sophisticated and off-color, naughty but nice, it proves to be a sharp an…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:03PM
Friday, July 7, 2017

Ovo (Cirque du Soleil) by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The Wall is also used by the performers who climb on it, disappear into it, and use it as both a platform and a launching pad. The most remarkable act is the finale – the “Trampo Wall”…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:10PM
Sunday, July 2, 2017

Measure for Measure (Theatre for a New Audience) by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

He has updated the play to a contemporary city rife with decadence and corruption. The audience enters the theater from backstage in order to visit Mistress Overdone’s brothel with sex toy…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:39PM
Saturday, July 1, 2017

In a Word by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Told mainly in reenacted flashbacks, In a Word plays multiple language games. It also proves the limits of language. Can you really describe exactly what happens at any given moment? And if …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:46PM
Friday, June 30, 2017

Cost of Living by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The play is enlightening for a physically abled audience as to the needs of the disabled both physically and emotionally. Both stories include a tender, poignant bathing scene as the caretak…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:34PM
Saturday, June 10, 2017

Sweetee by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

"Sweetee" is an admirable attempt to depict determination in the face of prejudice in the Deep South 80 years ago. While the cast appears to be older than their characters, they make a valia…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:29PM
Friday, June 9, 2017

On Strivers Row by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Like in a Noel Coward comedy, the witty zingers come fast and furious: “That her big white Cadillac looks like a pregnant Frigidaire,” “Did you say she was from Newark or Noah’s Ark?…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:20PM
Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Whirligig by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Say this for actor Hamish Linklater: he writes juicy parts for his fellow actors. He also knows how to set up a sense of community. The New Group production directed by its artistic director…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:15AM
Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Building the Wall by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Unlike such political plays as Arthur Miller’s "The Crucible," David Hare’s "Stuff Happens" and the current "Oslo" by J.T. Rogers, Building the Wall is speculative political fiction. Pro…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:25PM

Sojourners & Her Portmanteau by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Expect great things from Udofia in the future. Both plays demonstrate that she writes full-bodied, three-dimensional characters, while "Her Portmanteau" reveals that she can also write a pla…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:14PM
Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Pacific Overtures by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The playing space designed by Doyle is a narrow white runway with a stool at one end and at the other, an archway created by continuing the flooring into the air on which Japanese writing ap…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:31AM
Friday, May 19, 2017

The Lucky One by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Director Jesse Marchese has cast the play very strangely. Ari Brand’s Bob is a good deal shorter than his younger brother so that one must continually remind one’s self which is which. A…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:55PM
Thursday, May 18, 2017

T.B. Sheets by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The opening resembles that of Mann’s novel: a horse and buggy deliver a visitor to a tuberculosis sanitarium on a mountain top overlooking a valley, suggesting that the unspecified time is…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:01AM