Friday, October 13, 2017
While not all musicals from Shakespeare have worked and updates are particularly risky, "Desperate Measures" avoids all of the pitfalls and is a refreshing and satisfying work in its own rig…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:14PMDirector Ralph Lewis, apparently not trusting the material – or finding the play too dated – has staged a carnival-esque version (adapted by S.M. Dale in June 2016) which includes 16 son…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 03:37PMTuesday, October 10, 2017
Part of the problem is the lack of innovation in Ray Roderick’s staging in this show which calls out for invention and clever handling of sets and props. Devin Vogel’s colorless stage de…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 09:40PMAlthough director Kimberly Senior who also piloted the Chicago production has staged the play with elegance, she never really turns up the heat so that there are not many sparks in Carter’…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:29AMThursday, October 5, 2017
The central character is actually Mrs. Fisher who worries about her children and plots to open Amy’s eyes to her husband’s faults. Unfortunately, Annette O’Toole has been directed to p…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:42PMWednesday, October 4, 2017
The new story concerns Wayne Hopkins, an American boy whose parents die tragically and his Uncle Dave informs him that he is a wizard and must attend a special school in England. Wayne is so…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 04:53PMMonday, October 2, 2017
Known as the Shakespeare play with the most song lyrics, the production also includes a deliciously bouncy new score by Stephen Schwartz in different musical styles from the 1920’s – 195…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 08:40PMThursday, September 28, 2017
Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins makes a memorable New York debut with an involving and engrossing play which at the performance under review you could have heard a pin drop, so rapt was th…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 04:33PMSaturday, September 23, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 05:20PMThursday, September 21, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:28PMSunday, September 17, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 06:35PMAlthough 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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 01:44PMWednesday, September 13, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:08PMSunday, September 10, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 10:44PMSunday, September 3, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 09:40PMSunday, August 27, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:15PMSaturday, August 12, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 09:38PMFriday, August 11, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 09:19PMTuesday, August 8, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 04:31PMSaturday, August 5, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 05:50PMWednesday, August 2, 2017
"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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 01:35PMMonday, July 31, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 08:36PMSunday, July 30, 2017
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 …
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:49PMThursday, July 13, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 09:37PMWednesday, July 12, 2017
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 …
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 10:08AMMonday, July 10, 2017
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 …
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 10:38PMSunday, July 9, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 10:03PMFriday, July 7, 2017
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”…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 10:10PMSunday, July 2, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 03:39PMSaturday, July 1, 2017
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 …
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 11:46PMFriday, June 30, 2017
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…
Linked From www.theaterscene.net at 09:34PM 
