1,791 stories by "ELISABETH VINCENTELLI"
A little less than three years ago, "Rain" strung together Beatles hits, hired impersonators to cover them and brought the whole shebang to Broadway.
Now "Let It Be" has landed on the Great…
Audiences are known to break into applause at the sight of a cool set. By those standards, the one in the new off-Broadway play "The Capables" deserves a standing ovation.
The stage looks as…
'The Designated Mourner" is now acknowledged not just as Wallace Shawn's masterpiece, but as a major achievement of political American theater.
But the most remarkable thing about the reviva…
Television dating shows are an easy target for satire " almost too easy. After all, it's hard to outdo bird-brained youths looking for true love in hot tubs.
But the wonderful new pop music…
"Violet" didn't create much of a stir when it opened at Playwrights Horizons in 1997. Composer Jeanine Tesori went on to high-profile Broadway productions like "Shrek" and "Caroline, or Chan…
My name's Bill W., and I'm an alcoholic." Spontaneous response: "Hi, Bill!"No, we weren't at a 12-step meeting but at a recent performance of "Bill W. and Dr. Bob" at the Soho Playhouse, com…
There's a reason we have a revue like "Forever Tango" and not "Everlasting Jitterbug" or "Always Rumba." Since its beginnings in lower-class Argentine neighborhoods, tango has enjoyed global…
Nothing says jarring like people in tuxes and gowns praising unions and singing lines like "there's something so damned low about the rich!"
This odd juxtaposition takes place at City Center…
For 20 years, New York City Center's Encores! has breathed new life into semi-obscure or simply unappreciated musicals. A few of those limited-run productions " "Chicago," "Wonderful Town" "…
The whole plot of "Unlock'd" revolves around a sheltered young woman who's so obsessed with her hair that she refuses to cut even a small piece of it to give her suitor.
This may have worked…
David Morse may not be a household name, but he's always a pleasure to watch. With his deceptively kind face and low-boil intensity, the silver-haired character actor has enlivened a wide va…
Before anybody's said a word in "Rantoul and Die," you have a pretty good idea that the play will be a warts-and-all look at working-class life.
First, it's presented by the Amoralists, a c…
One of the weirdest, most unclassifiable plays of the year isn't at a hip Tribeca venue but in Midtown, next door to "The Gazillion Bubble Show."
The writing feels almost avant-garde at tim…
'The Explorers Club" is the rare comedy that fulfills its mandate: It wants to do nothing more than make you laugh " and that it does.
Nell Benjamin's gleefully goofy new concoction, which o…
You can't accuse the cast of "The Comedy of Errors" of holding back. Everybody on the Delacorte stage, where this new Shakespeare in the Park production opened last night, exerts themselves …
Greg and Alex are a happily married Manhattan couple with a 4-year-old son. Jake is smart, creative " and he loves pretending to be a princess.
"We've got seven different Cinderella DVDs," …
'roadkill" is a fantastic theatrical experience, one you're unlikely to forget. It also happens to be the feel-bad show of the year.
The heavy subject " sex trafficking " is disturbing enoug…
The most popular young-adult novels these days " "The Hunger Games," "The 5th Wave" " feature hotties entangled in love triangles while trying to survive in a dystopian, dangerous world.
Now…
It's hard to pin down "A Picture of Autumn": You can see it as either a funny drama or the most depressing comedy of the season. Above all, the show that opened off-Broadway Monday night is …
The best sits right next to the worst in "3 Kinds of Exile," the new project by John Guare. The show is made up of three distinct works that share a theme " the experiences of a trio of East…
With plays like "Fat Pig" and movies like "In the Company of Men," Neil LaBute made a career out of antagonizing audiences. His usual MO is to expose our baser instincts by throwing unpleasa…
There's something to be said about typecasting. What's wrong with an actor zeroing in on a type and playing brilliant variations on that theme? Nobody accuses a violin virtuoso of not playin…
There are two or three good plays fighting it out within "The Tutors." But they cancel each other out, and the show that opened last night at Second Stage Uptown ends up merely promising, ra…
Like old-fashioned dramas, the new "Somewhere Fun" is staged in three acts with two intermissions. It also boasts two charismatic powerhouses in the leads: Kathleen Chalfant and Kate Mulgrew…
The most important part of any musical is the score. And "Far from Heaven" " about prejudice and repressed desire in 1957 Connecticut " boasts a gorgeously lush and evocative score. Composer…
