Sunday, June 16, 2013
In Frankenstein Upstairs, Mac Rogers once again uses science fiction as his delivery system to present us with his unique combination of insight, humor, wisdom, and compassion. The plot is s…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:17PMFriday, June 14, 2013
Sometimes more is less, as clearly shown by the revival of Pippin currently on Broadway. Or perhaps I should write "sometimes more is less for me," since Pippin's multitude of Tony Awards (r…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:59PMWednesday, June 12, 2013
Everyone has the occasional bad bad at work; 3 Kinds of Exile offers us a few of John Guare's.The first exile, Karel, has a few advantages: (1) his story is genuinely interesting; (2) he is …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:30AMTuesday, June 11, 2013
Potted Potter promises to present all seven Harry Potter books in 70 minutes, a promise it only kinda sorta keeps. Its talented, energetic cast of two--Dan Clarkson and Jeff Turner, who are …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:52PMI was glad to see Cyndi Lauper win best score for a musical, because I love Cyndi Lauper.But then I happened to turn on the radio and catch the tail end of this interview. Specifically, I ca…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:23AMMonday, June 10, 2013
For the first time in years, I felt that the Tonys were ours again, that the show and the awards focused on theatre and existed to entertain people for whom theatre is so primary that their …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:26PMMonday, May 27, 2013
Smash has had its supporters and detractors, but even its supporters never defended its quality. "Guilty pleasure," they said. "The show you love to hate." And it's not like there hasn't bee…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:13PMMonday, May 20, 2013
In his one-man Macbeth, the protean Alan Cumming orates, cries, hits his chest, yells, whispers, throws things, and tries to drown himself. What he doesn't do is define characters or tell a …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:31PMFriday, May 10, 2013
I had no intention of seeing Nice Work If You Can Get It. I'm not a Matthew Broderick fan, and word-of-mouth made the show sound lame. Then nicely discounted tickets became available, and Je…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:58PMJessica Walker has a pretty mezzo-soprano voice and a fascination with the male impersonators of the late 19th and early 20th century. With co-writer Neil Bartlett, she has turned these into…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:28PMSunday, May 5, 2013
It's amazing what really excellent playwrights can pull off. Take the Flux Theatre Ensemble's Honey Fist, by the wonderful August Schulenburg. In a dry description, it sounds like a stew of …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:55PMSaturday, May 4, 2013
When reading reviews, you sometimes just have to wonder, "Did we see the same play?" The Call, written by Tanya Barfield, directed by Leigh Silverman, and currently playing at Playwrights Ho…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:36PMOkay, Collegiate Chorale, you spoiled us with The Mikado, and raised the bar far too high. Then along comes Song of Norway, an okay presentation of an unimpressive show. It doesn't help that…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:52PMWednesday, May 1, 2013
In Sans Merci, written by Johnna Adams and directed by Heather Cohn, two young women, Kelly (the awkwardly, impressively real Rachael Hip-Flores) and Tracy (the lovely and intense Alisha Spi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:10AMFriday, April 26, 2013
At the beginning of Michael Healey’s play, The Drawer Boy, a young actor/director named Miles (Alex Fast) shows up uninvited at the door of a farmhouse, hoping to carry out research on fa…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:44AMTuesday, April 23, 2013
The Epic Theatre's version of Shakespeare's Richard III (here called Richard III: Born With Teeth) aims for immediacy, edge, and individuality, and it largely succeeds. With a strong cast le…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:00AMSunday, April 21, 2013
Thrilled to have an audience, George and Martha--no, woops, Edgar and Alice--strut their hated and acid barbs with the eagerness of a three-year-old saying, "Mommy, did you see that? Mommy, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:20PMTuesday, April 16, 2013
A woman is bent over the back of a couch; a man stands behind her; a sex act is about to take place. The man seems reluctant; the woman encourages him; their discussion is clearly meant to b…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:00PMSunday, April 7, 2013
Playwright Joe Gilford's parents were Jack and Madeline Gilford, and Finks is his fictionalized account of how the "Red Scare" of the 1950s affected their lives and careers. Finks has all t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:56PMMonday, March 18, 2013
(I saw an early preview of Hands on a Hardbody, so take this review with the proverbial grain of salt.)A bunch of people stand around a pickup truck, each trying to win the vehicle by being …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:56PMWhether you are a guest, a speaker, or a show, it's important not to overstay your welcome. As a 90-minute one act, The Lying Lesson might have come across as an entertaining little show. As…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:28PMSunday, March 10, 2013
(I saw an early preview of Kinky Boots, so take everything I write with the proverbial grain of salt.)Kinky Boots is not a great show. I'm not even sure it's a good show. But it is an entert…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:09PMSunday, March 3, 2013
Here are the main reasons to see this lovely production of Much Ado About Nothing: Jonathan Cake as Benedick. Clear and smart direction by Arin Arbus. Jonathan Cake. Delightful scenery (Ricc…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:00PMA woman carrying a yoga mat comes home, drops her coat on the floor, starts stretching. She is startled to hear a noise in the bedroom when she is ostensibly alone. Her fear turns to annoyan…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:39PMFriday, March 1, 2013
Watching Teresa Deevy's engrossing 1936 drama Katie Roche made this contemporary woman extremely grateful to be a contemporary woman. Katie is a servant in a small town in Ireland in the 193…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:55AMThursday, February 28, 2013
Jesse Eisenberg's new play, The Revisionist, seems to be a predictable exploration of familiar territory: Uneasy young man, complete with cache of weed, visits much older female relative. …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:00PMSunday, February 24, 2013
If you like Bill Irwin and David Shiner, you will like Old Hats. It has everything you could ask for: baggy pants, brilliant physical humor, sublime silliness, and the magical ability to wal…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:33PMJohn Doyle is where Sondheim musicals go to die. His Sweeney Todd, with its instrument-playing cast, fractured staging, and missing throat-slittings, wasn't Sweeney Todd, and his Company, wi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:29PMSunday, February 10, 2013
Bethany begins with Charlie (Ken Marks), a third-rate motivational speaker, practicing his spiel in the mirror. "And I'll tell you one thing about [your] higher power," he says. "He wants yo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:10PMFriday, February 8, 2013
Clive, written by Jonathan Marc based on Baal by Bertolt Brecht, and directed and starring Ethan Hawke, is yet another tale of a male artist so charismatic and tortured that people line up t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:48PMSunday, February 3, 2013
Kate BaldwinFiorello!, the 1959 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, requires a lead actor full of energy and charisma. In the current revival at Encores!, Danny Rutigliano, while likeable and ph…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:15PM 
