One of history’s greatest ironies is that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his soaring “I’ve have been to the mountaintop” speech on the very night before his death.…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 12:37AM‘Any Given Monday” is a dark comedy so offensive, so amoral and so generally unpleasant that you’ll hate yourself for laughing at it. The problem is, you’ll hate yourself a lot. The …
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:01PMThe popular singer's new show at the Cafe Carlyle proves to be a fitting and extremely entertaining tribute to the late, great performer.
SOURCE: TheaterMania at 10:00AMContemporary playwrights seem forever bent on proving Tolstoy’s line that “all families are unhappy in their own way.” The latest example is Nicky Silvers, who has mined su…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:51AMFor a mime, Bill Bowers has a lot to say. And that’s all to the good. In his new one-man show “Bill Bowers Beyond Words” -- a mix of mime and spoken vignettes -- he presents a portrai…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:09PMTerence Rattigan’s Man and Boy was written in the 1960s and is set in the 1930s, but it would unfortunately resonate in any decade. This portrait of a desperate business tycoon was ins…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:46AMAs touching as it is idiosyncratic, “Southern Comfort” effectively redefines the term “family musical.” Based on a 2001 Sundance award-winning documentary about transgender people in…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:52PMEven the most ardent musical-theater lovers would be hard-pressed to catch all 25 shows at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, running though Oct. 16. Here are a few of the more intriguin…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:21PMPlaywright Jeff Talbott clearly knows the territory that he explores in The Submission. Having had his previous efforts presented at numerous theater festivals, he’s well in a position…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:52AMNew York’s streets teem with such chaotic vitality that stepping into a theater can seem anticlimactic. So it’s exciting to enter 3LD and encounter floor-to-ceiling windows exposing lowe…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:30PMWith some exceptions, absurdism doesn’t age particularly well. The impact of what was shocking and avant-garde decades ago is reduced by the endless mediocre imitations that have follo…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:58AMLast season, the Play Company’s production of Invasion! at Soho Rep left made quite an impact, garnering an OBIE award for playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri, in his debut as a playwright…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:24AMIt’s a hard-knock life for the newsboys in “Newsies,” the stage adaptation of the flop 1992 Disney musical film that’s become a cult favorite. When this ragtag group of orphans and r…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:32PMWhen it comes to pressure, panic and pain, no one said it better than Larry Gelbart: "If Hitler's alive, I hope he's out of town with a musical." The pressure's even worse for those who dare…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:24PMFemale playwrights are woe fully underrepresented on our stages -- women of color particularly. Helping to correct that sorry state of affairs is the Ensemble Studio Theatre's "The River Cro…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:20PMImagine being able to see Eugene O'Neill's obscure one-acts, minus all those long monologues. Now you can. Enter "The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Volume 1: Ea…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:17AMTry as I might, I find it impossible to appreciate the Elevator Repair Service’s aesthetic. This enterprising downtown troupe has made a significant name for themselves in recent years…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 07:02AMThey say that in Hollywood, everybody wants to direct. Apparently, in the theater, what everybody wants to do is write. Exhibit A: Jesse Eisenberg, whose play, “Asuncion,” previews Oct. …
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:50PMIt’s been a mere ten years since the last Broadway incarnation of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies, but that ill-conceived version was lamentable enough to warrant an…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:10AMTheater rarely gets more intimate -- or more immediate -- than Richard Nelson's follow-up to last year's "That Hopey Changey Thing," set on the eve of the last presidential election. Once…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:12PMThere are plenty of one-liners in "A Night With George," and they're even more hilarious if you can un derstand them. Donna O'Connor's one-woman show, part of the1st Irish Festival, featu…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:26PMIn case you wondered what role balloons played in the US military during World War I, there's an off-Broadway show that's only too happy to tell you all about it. Enroll in "Captain Fergu…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:42AMIt seems almost criminal to take one of the English speaking theater’s finest classical actors, have him appear in a play in a tiny basement theater, and then make the run so limited t…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:18AMEvenings of one-act plays can cause theatrical whiplash. That's certainly the case with "Summer Shorts 5: Series B." Now running in rep with the recently opened Series A, featuring work b…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:44PMIf Charles Busch’s artistic to the late Charles Ludlam was made evident by such parodies as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Red Scare on Sunset, then his latest effort reveals the influe…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:34AMAnyone who saw Rent in its original incarnation at the New York Theatre Workshop will no doubt be discomfited to see that it has now become a theatrical brand. Just three years after it clos…
SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:28AMSitting through "Herman Kline's Midlife Crisis" is likely to bring on a midlife crisis of your own. Its principal plot element is the retrieval of a bag of crack cocaine from the rectum of a…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:44PMParents of teenage girls should probably avoid "Carrie & Francine," the opener of the one- act fest Summer Shorts 5: Series A. Written by 17-year-old playwright Ruby Rae Spiegel, it depicts …
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:44PMIt was a musical that spoke to a new generation — and its dramatic backstage story became theatrical legend. On Jan. 25, 1996, the night before “Rent” played its first preview off-Broa…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:14PMSeveral years back, Steve Solomon scored a surprise off-Broadway hit with his solo comedy show "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy!" An account of his dysfunctional fam…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:57PMThe centenary of Tennessee Williams’ birth has prompted a flood of productions of obscure works from his vaults. Perhaps the most intriguing is “The Pretty Trap,” an early one-act vers…
SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:54PM
