Sunday, March 17, 2024

Bedlam’s The Assassination of Julius Caesar as Told by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

The play is treated like a rehearsal (a conceit also used by Bedlam in their incomprehensible and lame "Henry IV" workshop in Brooklyn in 2023) with the director (Andrew Rothenberg who also …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:54PM

Fair Winds and Winds of War by Joel Benjamin

Kahn has a good ear for the subtleties of each character and the period.  However, "Fair Winds" doesn’t handle all the major themes smoothly and the use of the narrator sometimes feels li…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:42AM
Thursday, March 14, 2024

STUDENTS LAUNCH GO-FUND-ME CAMPAIGN TO SAVE PERFORMING ARTS PROGRAM AT NEW YORK’S FAMED PROFESSIONAL PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL by Chip Deffaa, Editor-At-Large

I think the city’s top performing-arts schools—Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts, and the Performing Arts; PPAS; and the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts—are among the…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:47PM

ON THE TOWN WITH CHIP DEFFAA: AT “THE CONNECTOR” by Chip Deffaa, Editor-At-Large

What a terrific, beautifully layered performance Ben Levi Ross gives in “The Connector”—a moving, original new musical from Jason Robert Brown, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Daisy Prin…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:13PM
Monday, March 11, 2024

Tuesdays with Morrie by Scotty Bennett

Seadog Theater’s current revival of "Tuesdays with Morrie," with exceptional direction by Erwin Maas, is a beautifully orchestrated presentation starring Len Cariou as Professor Morrie Sch…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:51PM
Sunday, March 10, 2024

The Ally by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Itamar Moses’ 'The Ally" is a play of ideas not only torn from today’s headlines but tomorrow’s as well. Ostensibly dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian question on college campuses to…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:42PM

Existentialism by Tony Marinelli

The text created by Bogart in collaboration with Maddow and Zimet is a collage of assembled passages from the works of Sartre and de Beauvoir, amongst others. Maddow and Zimet don’t often …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:05PM
Saturday, March 9, 2024

Brooklyn Laundry by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

John Patrick Shanley has become our poet of lonely, desperate working class people trying to make a connection despite their inadequacies and hang-ups in such plays as "Danny and the Deep Bl…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:53PM
Friday, March 8, 2024

Pontus Lidberg: “On the Nature of Rabbits” by Joel Benjamin

How the metaphor of rabbits fit into this was puzzling, yet the dreamlike (nightmarish?) rabbit imagery was the strongest visual idea and pervaded the work, from a toy stuffed bunny to grote…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:54PM

Maiden Voyage by Scotty Bennett

Under Alex Keegan's skillful direction, the characters are allowed to develop their understanding of who they are and how they fit in an organization traditionally run by men. The captain is…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:23PM
Thursday, March 7, 2024

by Chip Deffaa, Editor-At-Large

On March 4th, 2024, I witnessed the best major-club debut I’ve seen in years. And I kept thinking, as I watched David Marino sing, “The good old days are now…” The post appeared f…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:22PM
Wednesday, March 6, 2024

The Maid and The Mesmerizer by Joel Benjamin

Lynn’s dialogue is astute and subtle, following the heartbeat of this strange, but understandable couple lifting it out of soapiness and melodrama.  She has written a very modern drama. .…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:14AM
Monday, March 4, 2024

The Script in the Closet by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Playwright Joyce Griffen’s idea of farce in her new play "The Script in the Closet" is a series of 48, mostly very short scenes in which to keep the plot going she continually introduces n…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:50PM
Sunday, March 3, 2024

A Sign of the Times by Joel Benjamin

This York Theatre Company production at the New World Stages, following a presentation at Goodspeed Musicals in 2016, shoehorns these songs into a book by Lindsey Hope Pearlman from a story …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:52PM
Thursday, February 29, 2024

This is not a time of peace by Joel Benjamin

"This is not a time of peace" has a stream of consciousness feel effectively handled by the director Jerry Heymann. There is never any confusion about who is who and what they represent des…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 07:05PM

The Seven Year Disappear by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

While "The Seven Year Disappear" may challenge and confuse many theatergoers, people used to performance art may get the in-jokes. Jordan Seavey whose play "Homos, or Everyone in America" wa…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:08PM
Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Deadly Stages by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

While we could use a good murder mystery stage play, "Deadly Stages" is too derivative to suit the bill. The cast work hard mostly playing multiple roles, but the play seems to have attempte…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:47PM
Monday, February 26, 2024

The Life & Slimes of Marc Summers by Joseph Pisano

Christopher Rhoton's Double Dare-inspired set belies these weightier autobiographical details, offering enough of a time-warping simulacrum to help middle-aged members of the audience shed a…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:59PM

Jelly’s Last Jam (New York City Center Encores!) by Joel Benjamin

Does the New York City Center Encores! new production of "Jelly’s Last Jam" hold up against the original Broadway production (1992-1993) which starred Gregory Hines (Tony Award), Savion Gl…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:04PM
Sunday, February 25, 2024

Five, The Parody Musical by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

When she arrives dressed in a white pant suit, Labeija steals the stage with Hillary’s number “Miss Me Now” which trumps them all with a series of Broadway parodies paying tribute to C…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:46PM
Saturday, February 24, 2024

The Order of the Golden Scribe: Initiation Tea by Scotty Bennett

"The Order of the Golden Scribe: Initiation Tea" is an immersive and interactive theater experience co-created by Shuai Chen and Arlo Howard, who also directed. It combines a story about a s…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:00PM
Friday, February 23, 2024

ON THE TOWN WITH CHIP DEFFAA … “AFTER MIDNIGHT” AT PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE by Chip Deffaa, Editor-At-Large

I don’t think I’ve ever been as disappointed by a Paper Mill Playhouse presentation as I have been by their production of After Midnight. This adaptation of the original Broadway produc…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:32PM
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

The Tiger’s Bride by Christopher "caz" Caswell

Director/writer Suzanne Karpinski has made a valiant effort to corral the chaos by encouraging the audience to get a card stamped by the actors in the various spaces, presumably in the hopes…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:17PM
Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Sunset Baby by Joseph Pisano

"Ain't nothin' sentimental about a dead revolution." Wearing a too-short, too-tight dress, shiny thigh-high boots, and a long fuchsia wig, the twentysomething Nina (Moses Ingram) attempts to…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:33PM

Twyla Tharp Dance: Winter Season 2024 by Joel Benjamin

Like her masterful Sinatra solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov, “Brel” takes Cornejo from a strolling meditating figure (“Quand On N’A Que l’Amour”) to an anguished lover (“Ne Me Quit…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:53PM

Until Dark by Scotty Bennett

The balance is off between the two storylines. If the most crucial dramatic element of the story is the legal issue surrounding consent, the dynamics of the sisters’ current and historical…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:56PM

Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance by Tony Marinelli

It is a rare author indeed that can take uncomfortable material, and by uncomfortable that is, to hear, digest, and process a subject no one likes as a subject of conversation, and then give…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:56AM
Monday, February 19, 2024

Between Two Knees by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

At the performance under review, part of the audience found the show hilariously funny, while others proverbially sat on their hands. The show makes use of history, parody, satire, burlesque…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:47PM
Saturday, February 17, 2024

Warrior Sisters of Wu by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Inspired by 20th century film and video games based on the classic Chinese novel of the 15th century, 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms," Damon Chua’s delightful and engrossing "Warrior Siste…

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:51PM
Friday, February 16, 2024

White Wave: 2024 SoloDuo Dance Festival by Joel Benjamin

The host company, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company ended the short, well-run program with the longest work, the three-part “Eternal NOW.”  It also had the most complex costumes, …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:56PM

The Apiary by Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief

Unfortunately, at 70 minutes the play seems skimpy. Structured in a great many short scenes, only one thing happens in each, so that there is a sameness to it all. Basically a two character …

SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 03:53PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards