First Nighter: Ivo van Hove's Strong Take on 'Angels in America' by David Finkle

Since Tony Kushner could be considered to know best, why not quote what he says he admired after seeing Ivo van Hove's revival of the playwright's Pulitzer Prize-winning Angels in America, a…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:22am on October 25, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer-Prized "Disgraced" in a Welcome Return by David Finkle

If you go by several adamant playwrights, it's a terrible idea for married couples to get together over an after-hours drink...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 1:22am on October 24, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: The Death of Klinghoffer on and Off Stage at the Met by David Finkle

White-hot controversy is dogging the opera's Metropolitan Opera House premier engagement after many productions elsewhere, only some of them protested. The circumstances have, not surprising…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 5:05pm on October 21, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Amusing "Billy & Ray," Affecting "brownsville song (b-side for tray)" by David Finkle

The Billy & Ray of the vague title Mike Bencivenga gives his play at the Vineyard are Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler. ...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:08am on October 21, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Emily Dickinson, Dorothy Parker Trod Local Boards by David Finkle

Only occasionally does Engstrom include one of Parker's economic poems. She leaves out the one about men not making passes at girls who wear glasses and the suicidal one with the conclusion …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:00pm on October 19, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Gotham Opera Company Enlivens Two Martinu Works by David Finkle

Leave it to Neal Goren. He's cherry-picked Bohuslav Martinu's comic one-acts Alexandre Bis and Comedy on the Bridge...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:41pm on October 18, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: John Waters's John Lennon, Carol Burnett's Letter Writer by David Finkle

Yes, I was in Shea Stadium when the Beatles shook their moptops and played their instruments for 35 minutes while not...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:51pm on October 16, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Marcus's 'Killing of Sister George,' McPherson's 'Port Authority' by David Finkle

Context is everything. At least that's the impression I had on leaving The Actors Company Theatre revival of Frank Marcus's 1965 multiple prize-winning play, The Killing of Sister George, at…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:35pm on October 6, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Is Donald Margulies's 'Country House' Too Chekhovian or Not Chekhovian Enough? by David Finkle

Curiously, one of the reasons the play falls short of Pulitzer Prize-winning Margulies's usual vaunted mark is that he's chosen, as many playwrights before him have, to make The Country Hous…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:35pm on October 2, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Markus Potter's 'Stalking the Bogeyman,' Ira Lewis's 'Chinese Coffee' by David Finkle

From start to finish Pendleton and Walsh give astoundingly natural performances that go some way, though not far enough, to justify the length of the sketch.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:41pm on September 29, 2014☆⚑

Bridget Everett and the Age of Vulgarity by David Finkle

The hot cabaret singer who could rest comfortably on her natural talents...doesn't.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 5:17pm on September 29, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: 'You Can't Take It With You' Takes You With It Merrily by David Finkle

Rarely have I seen such a large collection of scene-stealers on one stage. Check that. There's so much hilarity occurring that no one can steal a complete scene. What these thieving actor…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:08pm on September 28, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Peter Brooks' Valley of Astonishment, The Sucker Emcee, The Bullpen by David Finkle

The interest Oliver Sacks takes in the human brain fascinates Peter Brook. The Valley of Astonishment is another consequence of that fascination, and, as presented at the Young Vic, currentl…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 4:25pm on September 26, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Ivo van Hove Undoes "Scenes From a Marriage" by David Finkle

Discounting the rare scare flick, I've only once been tempted to look away from a movie screen--and succumbed to the urge. It...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:44pm on September 22, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Neil LaBute's Money Shot Hits the Target by David Finkle

The Money Shot (title appropriated from porn-industry jargon, if you didn't already know) shouldn't be as consistently amusing as it is. LaBute get his laughs -- and he gets a carload of th…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:33pm on September 22, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: "Uncle Vanya" Misfires in More Ways Than One by David Finkle

During the intermission after the first uneven two acts of the Pearl Theatre Company's Uncle Vanya revival, I remarked to...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:38pm on September 21, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Two Gentlemen of VeronaOn Screens Big and Bold by David Finkle

There's no telling when Two Gentlemen of Verona will come around again. So if an incarnation this good is available, that's even more reason to tune right in.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:51pm on September 20, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: A. R. Gurney's "Love Letters," Walter Anderson's "Almost Home" by David Finkle

Is Love Letters A. R Gurney's most lucrative play? No one seems to be quite sure, but it has to be up there among the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:28pm on September 18, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: George Kelly's "Fatal Weakness" Not Fatally Weak by David Finkle

In Craig's Wife, George Kelly's 1925 play subsequently filmed twice with Rosalind Russell and then Joan Crawford as the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:45pm on September 15, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Cera, Culkin, Gevinson Distinguish "This is Our Youth" by David Finkle

In Kenneth Lonergan's revived 1996 play, This is Our Youth, a Steppenwolf production transferred to the Cort, what...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:11pm on September 11, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: 'Bauer' Is Marvelously Artistic About Art by David Finkle

In the history of art, the importance of patrons has rarely been underestimated. The egregious result of Solomon Guggenheim's support for Rudolf Bauer is one of the most disturbing instances…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:47pm on September 9, 2014☆⚑

What Joan Rivers Can Teach Us All About Work by David Finkle

Remembering the clubs where the late comedian established her working patterns.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 5:55pm on September 7, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Restaurant Play 'My Manana Comes' Is a Tangy Dish by David Finkle

Four busboys are hustling non-stop at Frederick's Madison, an Upper East Side Manhattan restaurant, when Elizabeth Irwin's My Manana Comes -- ultimately an ironic title -- begins with veloci…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:08pm on September 6, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Musicalized 'Red Eye of Love,' Gurney's 'Wayside Motor Inn' Short of Must-Sees by David Finkle

On the set, empty for the most part, are two upstage pianos. Music director Greg Jarrett and Roberto Sinha play them, both wearing straw hats and other Bromelmeier-supplied speakeasy garb. T…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:55pm on September 4, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Naomi Wallace's "And I and Silence" and Not Much by David Finkle

If you tend to think of playwright Naomi Wallace as compulsively pretentious--I do--be advised that And I and Silence, the title...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:27pm on August 25, 2014☆⚑