While Barry was to become famous writing plays about the very rich, the Whites are of the middle class and live on earned money. In the play’s second act, eight months have passed, and mon…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:42PMGingold Theatrical Group’s "Heartbreak House" is an interesting but misguided attempt to update Shaw’s Edwardian masterpiece and make it seem more relevant to our times. Despite the stel…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:24PMUsing a format that has worked for him before in his George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein evenings, Hershey Felder has returned to 59E59 Theaters in a charming biographical musical as legen…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:03PMAlthough "Smokey Joe’s Café" has been seen in New York before, the new production now at Stage 42 is an entirely different incarnation of the show that still holds the record for Broadway…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:14PMThe mellow sound of Brandt’s score proves to be easy listening, but the individual musical numbers do not build to any dramatic climaxes so that the show seems tamer than material concerni…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:41PM"Days to Come" fills in the gap in Hellman’s career between her first play, the controversial "The Children’s Hour," and the immediate successors, the hugely commercial hit and often rev…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:40PM"Be More Chill" is an impressive musical version of Ned Vizzini’s cult novel. Not only does it reproduce the plot on stage, it also gives it a high tech look that dramatizes the story wher…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:58AMThe clever invention is that each of them has a best friend who only they can see and hear: Neurosis (Brennan Caldwell) is Frank’s best buddy, a more cautious, nervous version of Frank, an…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:08PMIf the show plays like it was written by a committee, in fact, it has been. The book is by producer/ writer Ken Davenport and The Grundleshotz who turn out to be a group of performers and wr…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:03PMComedian/monologist Mike Birbiglia, best known for "Sleepwalk with Me," has the remarkable knack of finding humor in autobiographical crises that shouldn’t be funny but in his hands are up…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:05PMShaina Taub’s joyful and sunny updated musical version of Shakespeare’s comedy, "Twelfth Night," is back in a full production courtesy of Free Shakespeare in the Park and Public Works wh…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:58PMUnder Michael Mayer’s fast-paced direction, "Head Over Heels" starts badly and busily but eventually slows down to a delightful Elizabethan parody on love and gender. While not all of The …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:00PMAlong with its twists and turns, Bohjalian’s "Grounded" is so fully explored that it is hard to believe that it is a first play. On the long wait on the runway at Kennedy Airport for a fli…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:12PMGardley makes use of a little known piece of American history: while Louisiana was under Spanish and later French rule, it had a three-tiered racial system. Aside from white settlers and bla…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:57AMThe plays in Summer Shorts 2018 - Festival of New American Short Plays have often had a theme running through all the offerings in one evening, however they were concealed or obscured. This …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:54PMHaving added the 200-seat indoor Touchstone Theatre in 2009 to the outdoor Hill Theater with a capacity of 1,089, the season which began on June 14 now runs until November 18. It currently s…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:26AMIf "The After-Dinner Joke"’s 66 scenes seem cinematic, that is due to the fact that it originally was a teleplay commissioned by BBC for the series "Plays for Today" examining public issue…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:10PMn what easily could have become a one-man show, playwright Strand has cleverly created dramatic tension by first introducing us to a second character and later a third. Set during the 2012-2…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:42PMCharlotte Moore’s version streamlines the plot somewhat from Lerner’s original by eliminating Daisy’s fiancé for whom she wants to quit smoking as well as a subplot with Greek shippin…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:47AMAdd to this list Mike Lew’s new witty and clever "Teenage Dick" (being given its world premiere by Ma-Yi Theater Company in association with the Public Theater), both an update and a parod…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:46PMSixtyish Eric Miller is an angry white man, hating Catholics, Blacks, homosexuals, women, and other groups. He has also become very nationalistic. He not only wants to tell the world, he thi…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:29PMUsing a tremendously talented and versatile cast of nine actors (three black male actors, three black female actors, as well as three white performers) playing from three roles to 12, the st…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:57PMUnlike the musicals "Rent" (an update on Puccini’s "La Boheme"), and "Miss Saigon' (inspired by Puccini’s "Madame Butterfly") both of which had all new music by other composers for their…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:22PMWith Miles Malleson’s 1925 "Conflict," being given its New York premiere, the Mint has uncovered a brilliant political and social drama which has tremendous relevance for today with its di…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:18PMHarmon’s new play resembles "Admissions," his last New York offering seen at Lincoln Center this March, in that it debates a topic from many sides but then fails to give us the author’s …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 08:08PMJackie Sibblies Drury is a unique new voice in the American theater. Her use of metatheater is all her own. "Fairview" has a great deal to say about race in America and the angle you see thi…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:31PMAlthough the advance publicity for Ben Josephson’s "The Property" refers to it as a comedy, there is nothing funny about it, neither jokes nor comic situations. In fact, the heroine’s de…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:12PMIn the recent Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi’s "Otello," Otello was white which left no reason for his jealousy if he was identical to all the Venetians around him. In the current …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:53PMDirector Lucy Gram uses six actors to play 11 roles which has worked for such companies as Bedlam and Fiasco. However, here the four actresses play both men and women, three of them never ch…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:49PMThe chance to see Anton Chekhov’s first produced play, "Ivanov," not only in the original Russian (with English surtitles) but in modern dress proves to be a revelation. Staged by Russia�…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:00AMHer newest work, "Fruit Trilogy," an evening of three one acts, “Pomegranate,” “Avocado” and “Coconut,” has all of the strengths and weaknesses of her previous stage plays which …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:05PM