Monday, November 7, 2011
Dramatist Julia Brownell scores a dramatic touchdown by making unexpected plays in this dramedy about a female football player and her conflicted family.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:01AMDirector Daniel Goldstein doesn't trust the innocent charm of John-Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz's 1971 hit and relies on too many gimmicks and topical references.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMTuesday, November 1, 2011
Playwright Kirsten Greenidge paints a detailed and edgy portrait of a youth culture seeking identity through brand names, indiscriminate sex, and fast food.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:32AMMonday, October 31, 2011
Karin Coonrod sets Shakespeare's seldom-performed comedy at an all-male college, and the cast mostly earns a master's degree in hilarity, although a few try too hard to make the grade.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMSunday, October 30, 2011
David Bar Katz can't decide if he wants to be Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Woody Allen, or comic-book creator Stan Lee in this gloppy mess of a play.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMThursday, October 27, 2011
Despite resemblances to "The Big Bang Theory" and a weak plot line, actor-playwright Jesse Eisenberg's character study of three disparate people seeking to connect is funny and insightful.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMWednesday, October 26, 2011
Ivo van Hove brings Ingmar Bergman's masterful examination of death, family, and faith to the stage in a searing staging that brilliantly employs video, sound, and unflinching acting.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:17AMThursday, October 20, 2011
Stephen Karam is not afraid to ask hard questions and blend humor and sorrow in this moving and funny play about a Lebanese-American family in a small Pennsylvania town.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMWoody Allen is as funny as ever, contributing a riotous farce that's equal parts Marx Brothers and Freud, but Ethan Coen and Elaine May get mixed results in this program of three one-acts.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:01AMMonday, October 17, 2011
Despite major talent on stage and behind the scenes and some bright numbers, this tired musical about a Jewish-Catholic wedding is as dated as a 1970s sitcom.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:54AMThursday, October 13, 2011
Katori Hall's two-character fantasy on Martin Luther King Jr. fails to delve into the complexities of American race relations and features an over-the-top performance by Angela Bassett.…
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMWednesday, October 12, 2011
Playwright-actor Zoe Kazan continues to show promise in her second play, a funny and sad portrait of a family in crisis, but she needs to smooth out some rough edges.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMTuesday, October 11, 2011
Nicky Silver's latest dysfunctional-family comedy may be a tad familiar, but it's still wildly funny and deeply touching. Linda Lavin miraculously makes a monstrous mother sympathetic.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMSunday, October 9, 2011
This revival of a lesser-known Terence Rattigan melodrama about an international tycoon has an uneven balance sheet, but Frank Langella's performance is one of its stronger assets.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMThursday, October 6, 2011
Avant-garde legend Robert Wilson stages Brecht and Weill's satirical 1928 masterpiece as a cold clown show with brilliant and haunting performances from the Berliner Ensemble.
SOURCE: Backstage at 09:25AMMonday, October 3, 2011
Adam Rapp ventures into absurdist territory with a sharp and cynical portrait of an America devouring itself and destroying the natural world.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMSaturday, October 1, 2011
Donnie Mather performs Allen Ginsberg's long autobiographical poem as a solo performance with mixed results. There are moments of moving tenderness, but also rambling repetition.
SOURCE: Backstage at 09:00AMFriday, September 30, 2011
What could have been a soapy version of "Will and Grace" is instead a poignant and well-observed portrait of a changing friendship.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:20AMThursday, September 29, 2011
Despite its subject matter of adolescent aimlessness and its rudderless characters, this rock musical about the legendary teenaged bandit packs quite a punch.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:08AMSunday, September 25, 2011
Inconsistent staging and uneven acting in this fumbling revival mar Robert Lowell's eloquent indictment of the tragic legacy of slavery.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMFriday, September 16, 2011
Ripe Time delivers a breathtaking fusion of text, dance, and design in this insightful adaptation of Virginia Woolf's classic stream-of-consciousness novel.
SOURCE: Backstage at 04:58AMTuesday, September 13, 2011
Despite complicated scientific jargon and a cheap theatrical ploy in the second act, Itamar Moses' modern romantic comedy earns laughs and touches the heart.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMMonday, September 12, 2011
The Apple family from Richard Nelson's "That Hopey Changey Thing" last season returns in a reflective, subtle rumination on the state of the nation 10 years after Sept. 11.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMSunday, September 11, 2011
Enjoying your vegetables was never easier with this wildly funny two-person clown act. Nancy Trotter Landry is goofily engaging, thanks to her expressive eyes and uninhibited physicality.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMElevator Repair Service transforms Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel of expatriates in Europe into a riotous, drunken party where everyone is putting on a performance.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMThursday, September 8, 2011
Mark Weston's historical docudrama has its heart in the right place but fails to convey the passions behind the founding of the Jewish homeland.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMThursday, August 25, 2011
This solo show briefly ascends into the clouds near its climax, but for much of its 70 minutes the play is an earthbound history lecture.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMBallroom moves and childhood memories mix in Kay Scorah's delicate and sweet dance-theater piece as terps Erin Hunter and Faith Hunter Kimberling step out like a pair of graceful ghosts.
SOURCE: Backstage at 02:30AMThis adaptation of Roland Topor's Kafkaesque novel, which also inspired Roman Polanski's 1976 film, is more confusing than intriguing. Gabriel Hainer Evansohn's production design is the mo…
SOURCE: Backstage at 01:16AMWednesday, August 24, 2011
Snooki, JWoww, and the Situation come in for a merciless parodying in this riotous riff on the excess of reality TV.
SOURCE: Backstage at 10:39AMIn Mark Jason Williams' new play about dealing with terminal illness, the prognosis is not great when lead roles are less interesting than supporting characters.
SOURCE: Backstage at 01:57AM 
