Thursday, August 20, 2015
In her absorbing new play, John (directed by frequent collaborator Sam Gold), Annie Baker shows that there are many ways to be haunted and many ways to be in touch with the univers…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:28AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 19, 2015
I cannot predict that Schooled will be the breakout hit of this year's Fringe, the vagaries of theatre being what they are. However, I can say that it should be. Schooled is just this side o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:22PM[SHARE]Two brothers come into a deserted room strewn with debris. Elliot is clearly the leader, smart and full of authority. Darren is the ne'er-do-well, slow-witted and stoned. They are preparing …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:22PM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 18, 2015
On hearing the phrase "political theatre," most of us think of painful shows discussing life-or-death issues, often with unhappy endings. (Anyway, that's what I think of, and not without rea…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:08AM[SHARE]Friday, August 14, 2015
The character of Rose in Gypsy, the masterpiece by Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), and Arthur Laurents (book), is the quintessence of larger-than-life. She's a force of n…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:04PM[SHARE]Saturday, July 25, 2015
Pound, the fabulous Marga Gomez's satirical exploration of the depiction of lesbians in old movies, has only one more performance (Dixon Place, on July 25, 2015). If you have any interest in…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:12AM[SHARE]Thursday, July 23, 2015
At one point in Yussef El Guindi's brilliantly surprising play Threesome, Leila (Alia Attallah), author of a book on sexual and racial politics, says to the man about to photograph her …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:42AM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 21, 2015
I believe this is the entire list.OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLEAnd If You Lose Your Way, or A Food Odyssey, Lauren Rayner ProdutionsMaha Chehlaoui, Nick Choksi, Damon Daunno, Rach…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:07PM[SHARE]Well-done political theatre can be invigorating, inspiring, and infuriating in the best way. Not-so-well-done political theatre, however, can be pretty tedious, as shown by the pair of one a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:07PM[SHARE]Friday, July 10, 2015
In the first act of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, Winnie is buried up to her waist in a large mound of barren earth. In the second act, she is buried up to her neck. The mound of earth can be…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:21AM[SHARE]Friday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
In Clubbed Thumb's production of Jaclyn Backhaus's extraordinary Men on Boats, perfectly directed by Will Davis, it is 1869, and ten men are canoeing down the Colorado River in search o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:12AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Here is how My Perfect Mind is described in press materials and on the 59e59 website:Petherbridge, HunterPhoto: Manuel HarlanAcclaimed classical actor and two-time Tony Award nominee Ed…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:52AM[SHARE]Saturday, June 13, 2015
The Qualms, by Bruce Norris, focuses on a bunch of friends who get together periodically to have sex with one another in twos and threes. They are mellow, sure of what they want, and loving.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:51PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Tech rehearsals occur in the days immediately preceding actual performances. They allow the set, lighting, and sound people, along with the stage management team, to practice, polish, and so…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:51PM[SHARE]Monday, June 8, 2015
This post discusses the accuracy of the predictions we made here at Show Showdown. Suffice to say that none of us should leave our day job and go into fortune-telling. Mind you, we did all g…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:04PM[SHARE]Monday, June 1, 2015
In many ways, it's a familiar story. An adult child continues to care for her elderly parent despite never receiving simple acknowledgement and acceptance of who she is. The adult child migh…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58AM[SHARE]Friday, May 29, 2015
What does it mean to be a "nice girl"? And is it really a positive label? In Melissa Ross's Nice Girl at the Labyrinth, Jo (the smart and subtle Diane Davis) doesn't feel nice at all. S…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:38AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 27, 2015
The King and I is an odd classic. Full of wonderful songs, it features a dumb plot with a cutesy approach to female enslavement, a condescending view of Siamese culture, unconvincing sc…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:33AM[SHARE]Monday, May 25, 2015
Reviewer Wendy Caster discusses why she is now specifying where she sat--and how much she paid to sit there--in her reviews.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PM[SHARE]Extremely entertaining, breathtakingly imaginative, and quite funny (especially in the second act).
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PM[SHARE]StageGrade provides an important public service for New York theatre-goers: it assembles reviews of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway shows.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PM[SHARE]Until this production, Abe Burrows' Cactus Flower had not had a major New York revival. That was a good thing.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PM[SHARE]Sunday, May 24, 2015
The questions asked by Blood Red Roses: The Female Pirate Project are fascinating ones. How did certain women in history to break away from stifling expectations and become pirates…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:48PM[SHARE]Sunday, May 10, 2015
The Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC) is presenting an excellent production of Merrily We Roll Along, and you've got two more weekends to catch it. With a top ticket price of $18, it's q…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:06PM[SHARE]Thursday, May 7, 2015
Since Encores! Off-Center is presenting Little Shop of Horrors in July, I thought it would be an interesting time to revisit the movie and see how it holds up.It holds up very well.Ellen Gre…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:25PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 19, 2015
When all is lost, what is left? What can be salvaged? In the Flux Theatre Ensemble production of August Schulenburg's new play, Salvage, these questions are faced by survivors of a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:30PM[SHARE]Friday, April 3, 2015
The brilliant Fun Home opens at the Circle in the Square on April 22nd, and the big question is, "How does it fare in the round?"This is a classic glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situ…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:03PM[SHARE]The Royal Shakespeare Company production of Wolf Hall is a simple yet gorgeous production based on Hilary Mantel's best sellers Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. Gracefully&n…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:02PM[SHARE]Thursday, March 19, 2015
There are two sorts of lovers. (This is simplified, but bear with me.) The first focuses on one thing at a time, giving it full and lingering attention. The other is more varied, changing po…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:35PM[SHARE] 
