Saturday, March 9, 2013
Oh yeah, we're still covering off-off-Broadway -- Trevor deserves a larger venue (and much larger audience) pronto . . . I'm looking at you, Second Stage! And rogerandtom breaks the fourth w…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:11AMSunday, March 3, 2013
Come join me over at the new site, won't you, as I talk about the ticking trust bomb at the suspenseful heart of Amy Herzog's quite enjoyable Belleville.
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 10:22PMThursday, February 28, 2013
Enough has been said about how terrible Resident Evil 6 is, from the ridiculous story and the lack of horror to the spotty controls, awkwardly laid-out zones, poor scenarios (drivi…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:26AMSunday, February 24, 2013
Mary Kaye Schilling catches the always candid and often eloquent Steven Soderbergh on the eve of his retirement in an article for New York's February 4, 2013 issue, and for me, the most…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 02:58PMFriday, February 22, 2013
"Yes, but it is art?" is entirely the wrong question, if for no other reason than that it doesn't matter. We're talking about an entirely subjective thing here, and while we may get wrapped …
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 11:48PMThere's a mistaken belief out there that reality television is a cheap substitute for scripted programming: you don't have to write anything, the cast is generally replaceable after fifteen …
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 03:29AMThursday, February 21, 2013
For the record, while I may be resuming regular posting here in the future (don't reset all your links), for the next few weeks, I'm going to be posting to http://thatsoundscool.wordpre…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 03:35PMIn a recent issue of The New Republic, Adam Kirsch writes of the decline of the essay, describing even good writers such as John Jeremiah Sullivan (or, one would imagine, Michael Pollan…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:51PMSaturday, January 26, 2013
Photo/Russ RowlandOnce upon a time, to borrow the banal storytelling mechanic used by playwright Lyle Kessler's pretentious philosophers, there was a critic who thought he'd seen more than h…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 02:03PMSunday, January 20, 2013
Crystal (America Ferrara) would like you to buy a new car, preferably within the next week. Because that's when her Saturn dealership is shutting down. And she works on a straight commission…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 09:00PMFriday, December 21, 2012
Is there anything more important in the theater than confidence? Without it, Robert Askins could never have written his Obie-award winning Hand to God (in which a boy's Satanic sock puppet t…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 04:27PMFriday, December 14, 2012
Photo/Carol RoseggGreed, despite what you may have heard, isn't good. Comedies about greedy men, on the other hand are. And while Red Bull (every bit as energetic as the drink) is best known…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:30AMFriday, December 7, 2012
Flux Theatre Ensemble @ The Secret Theatre44-02 23rd StreetLong Island City, NYthrough December 15, 2012Running Time: 100 minutes (no intermission)Photo/Isaiah TanenbaumIs there such a …
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:25AMTuesday, December 4, 2012
Photo/Carol RoseggIt's Christmas Eve, 1864, and Paula Vogel is shining a spotlight on three wise American men as they momentarily step back from the brink of their war and enjoy a moment of …
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 10:00PMSaturday, November 17, 2012
The Performers is about adult industry stars and their large endowments, but the Broadway stage must be cold or something, because these outsize-stars are shriveling up under the lights…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:08AMWednesday, October 24, 2012
Photo/Benjamin Heller If How to Break were an actual hip-hop track, it would be defined by the solid chorus and rhythmic structure that bridges the dramatic beat(boxing) surrounding the…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 04:45PMFriday, October 19, 2012
Thirty plays an hour. Two to twelve new plays a week. All year long. Even with a revolving ensemble, that's a daunting task for any theater company, especially a non-illusory one like the Ne…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:36AMMonday, October 1, 2012
Photo/Sandra CoudertWriter/director Adam Rapp's latest play, Through the Yellow Hour, has once again transformed the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: one enters through a narrow graffitied c…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 11:47PMTuesday, September 25, 2012
Photo/Joan MarcusThe thing you need to know about Red Dog Howls, before you get frustrated or restless, is that Alexander Dinelaris is deliberately pacing his play in a fashion that wil…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:01AMMonday, September 24, 2012
Photo/Hunter CanningIt doesn't feel particularly ambitious or adventurous of Thomas Bradshaw to adapt the biblical story of Job to the stage -- even the title, Job, is straightforward, and t…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 03:53PMTuesday, September 11, 2012
For my first review back after an unusually long "vacation," and for a show being produced by the normally wonderful Mint Theater Company, I wish I had more positive things to write. But thi…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:33PMThursday, June 21, 2012
Photo/Joan MarcusWhy are sitcoms so popular in America? Perhaps it's because nothing bad ever really seems to happen, at least nothing that can't be shrugged off and reset by the end of the …
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 10:57PMWednesday, June 20, 2012
Photo/Monica Simoes"I'll have like this different level thing going for me where like the revolutionaries are all sentimental lovers and they all die because of it. It'll really just be a st…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:53PMMonday, June 18, 2012
Photo/Deborah AlexanderRest assured, there are no Ewok-equivalents in Sovereign, the third and final part of Mac Rogers's epic work of science-fiction theater, The Honeycomb Trilogy. In fact…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:19AMSunday, June 17, 2012
I don't think Chekhov ever used the term "creep" to describe his characters, and yet that perfect word choice is one of the little joys that makes Annie Baker's adaptation of Uncle Vanya&nbs…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 08:19PMSaturday, June 16, 2012
The very funny concept behind Luther, the second of three plays running as part of Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks festival, is that Walter (Gibson Frazier) and Marjorie (Kelly Mares) have adopt…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 02:16AMThursday, June 14, 2012
At the heart of Women's Project Theater's We Play for the Gods is the sense that there are untold riches at the fingertips of the fourteen playwrights, directors, and producers -- all w…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:49AMWednesday, June 13, 2012
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, while campaigning against his former protegee William Howard Taft and the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson, was shot by John Flammang Schrank. The bullet was s…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:50AMFriday, June 8, 2012
Photo/Joan MarcusFood and Fadwa opens with a crash course on Palestinian parties, a direct address from Fadwa (Lameece Issaq) to her studio audience that both fills us in on the premise…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 01:15AMWednesday, June 6, 2012
Democracy's a lovely thing -- everybody ought to have their voice heard -- but it's dangerous, too. After all, popularity, volume, and ideas aren't always enough to string together a coheren…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 03:38PMTuesday, June 5, 2012
Given that Kenneth Lonergan's Medieval Play is running in the Signature's largest space, I have to wonder if artistic director James Houghton was aiming for a Dante-like vibe in the spa…
SOURCE: That Sounds Cool at 12:57AM