First Nighter: 'Allegiance' Attempts to Musicalize World War II's Japanese-American Internment Camps by David Finkle

We all know about the importance of being earnest, but it's likely we all underestimate the importance of not being earnest. That importance struck me while watching Allegiance, the new mus…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:45pm on November 8, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: The Gloria and Emilio Estefan Musical 'On Your Feet!' Rhythm Is Calculated to Get You by David Finkle

Let it immediately be said, audiences will certainly get their money's worth at On Your Feet! if they're enamored of the hot-hot music spread around the globe in tandem by Gloria Estefan and…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:46pm on November 5, 2015☆⚑

The Crowning Achievement of Broadway: "King Charles III" by David Finkle

Where this all leads is too thought-provoking, too explosive and too outright entertaining.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 10:30pm on November 2, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Keira Knightley as Emile Zola's "Therese Raquin," Chekhov's "Seagull" Countrified as "Songbird," "Ca by David Finkle

Apparently, director Evan Cabnet believes the difference between comedy and tragedy is that the former is played fast and...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:03pm on October 29, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Annaleigh Ashford as A. R. Gurney's Talking Dog Runs Away With 'Sylvia' by David Finkle

The comedy winks at a particular instance of a dog being man's best friend -- but not, as Gurney writes it, a woman's best friend. What the prolific playwright has here is the study of one g…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:27pm on October 27, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Michael Mayer's Casually Histrionic Take on Verdi's Rigoletto Back at the Met by David Finkle

Michael Mayer's updating Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto in a more or less contemporary Las Vegas setting of Christine Jones's devising lends the histrionic drama an alluring air of 21st-century …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 1:14pm on October 23, 2015☆⚑

First NIghter: "Trip of Love" Revue Trips Up, César Alvarez's "Futurity" is Promising by David Finkle

In a Trip of Love program note, creator-director-choreographer James Walski asserts that his expensive-looking...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:12pm on October 19, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Topher Payne's "Perfect Arrangement" Less Than Perfect by David Finkle

Topher Payne sets Perfect Arrangement, directed by Michael Barakiva at the Duke, in 1950 Washington, D. C. when Commie baiting and routing out supposed deviants of any stripe were becoming f…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:05pm on October 15, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson Play "The Gin Game"; Oren Safdie's Unseemly "Unseamly" by David Finkle

If you think you're about to hear anything critical of the two old pros James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson in director...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:57pm on October 14, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Marlo Thomas Strong in Joe DiPietro's "Clever Little Lies," Clive Owens, Eve Best, Kelly Reilly Undone in Harold Pinter's &qu by David Finkle

When Joe DiPietro's Clever Little Lies gets going at the Westside Theatre, it almost immediately gives the impression that...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:50am on October 13, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Robert O'Hara's "Barbecue" Sizzles a Bit, Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" is Catnip for Actors by David Finkle

The first act of Robert (Bootycandy) O'Hara's Barbecue consists of four scenes, two each in alternation, depicting a...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:33pm on October 8, 2015☆⚑

First NIghter: Two Big Treats at London's Globe, Two Mistreats Elsewhere by David Finkle

Even before William Shakespeare's so-called "problem play" Measure for Measure gets properly underway at the Globe, director Dominic Dromgoole has loosed on the audience what looks…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:27pm on October 7, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Simon Russell Beale and Other London Come-Ons by David Finkle

LONDON--Though Samuel Foote is not remembered today and therefore another instance in the annals of the millions once famous and...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 5:34am on September 29, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Nicole Kidman in "Photograph 51" and Other London Recommendations by David Finkle

LONDON--By now it's well known to theatergoers that Nicole Kidman is back on stage and in Anna Ziegler's Photograph...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 5:29am on September 26, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: The Royal Shakespeare Company's Outstanding "Othello" is Screened by David Finkle

About that embroidered handkerchief so crucial to Othello's undoing in the William Shakespeare tragedy that takes his name: When it's...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:10am on September 23, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: The Mint Rediscovers Harold Chapin's 'The New Morality,' Thomas Bradshaw's 'Fulfillment' Somewhat Unfulfilled by David Finkle

Mint Theater Company producing artistic director Jonathan Bank continues apace his compulsive rooting around for overlooked playwrights.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:15am on September 22, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: MJ Kaufman's Imposing 'How to Live on Earth,' Michael Laurence's Bed-Ridden 'Hamlet in Bed,' Yvan Greenberg/Laboratory Theater's Dispos by David Finkle

Give playwright MJ Kaufman and director Adrienne Campbell-Holt abundant credit for writing a compact and understanding study of isolation in How to Live on Earth, at HERE.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:04pm on September 18, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Matthew-Lee Erlbach's "Sex of the Baby," Phil Blechman's "The Black Book" by David Finkle

Although Matthew-Lee Erlbach appears to have written myriad plays and tele-whatevers, I've only seen his one-man Handbook for...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:25pm on September 13, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: The Acting Company's Irresistible "Desire," Max Posner's Completely Resistible "Judy" by David Finkle

It was Margot Harley, just leaving her lengthy tenure as The Acting Company producer, who came up with the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:17pm on September 10, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Donal O'Kelly's Exciting 'Little Thing, Big Thing,' Alan Hruska's Patience-Trying 'Laugh It Up, Stare It Down' by David Finkle

A thriller about corruption in Ireland and Nigeria involving a large cast of characters isn't the sort of thing you'd expect to turn up as the 80-minute two-hander Little Thing, Big Thing.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:18pm on September 9, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Karen Ludwig Recalls Her Substantial Acting Career in Where Was I? by David Finkle

In the English theater there's a term for it: jobbing actor. It's used to indicate actors who are regularly employed but infrequently achieve star status. They're typically extremely talente…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:10pm on September 4, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence Light Up TV Screens by David Finkle

The convolutions Harris and Wilson conjure in their separate diversions earn a high hair-raising quotient, but perhaps even more irresistible are the Walliams and Raine performances -- perfo…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:25pm on September 3, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Joan Beber's "In Bed With Roy Cohn" Falls Out of Bed by David Finkle

You could say that Joan Beber's In Bed With Roy Cohn is a fantasia about the notorious Joe McCarthy-period lawyer. It features the alienating figure experiencing nightmares during his death …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:32pm on September 2, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: Sherie René Scott's "Whorl Inside a Loop," Ken Regan's "Sense of an Ending," Anna Ziegler's "A Delicate Ship& by David Finkle

Actors Silverman and Dellapina, who plays guitar and sings nicely along the way, perform well together, and Westrate has some effective stretches. If on arrival he were to play Nate as less…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:31pm on August 27, 2015☆⚑

First Nighter: A. R. Gurney's "Love & Money" Doesn't Buy Happiness by David Finkle

When Love & Money begins with Cornelia Cunningham (Maureen Anderman) confronting lawyer Harvey Abel (Joe Paulik) over...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:40pm on August 24, 2015☆⚑