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…
A jukebox opera isn't a bad idea. The Met pulled it off last year with "The Enchanted Island," which borrowed plotlines from a couple of Shakespeare plays and stuffed them with baroque arias…
You can see why theater companies are drawn to "The Caucasian Chalk Circle": Writing at the end of WWII, Bertolt Brecht brought together elements from an old Chinese tale and the Judgment of…
Men hang out in a homey pub. They exchange gruff jokes, down drink after drink, and soon enough start trading tales. Naturally, "The Weir" takes place in Ireland " where else would camarader…
'Basilica" is the rare new play that spares us the self-inflated problems of the white, big-city middle class. Set in gritty south Texas, the show deals with the travails of the blue-collar …
Oh no, not another immersive, sung-through rock musical! But "Murder Ballad" first opened at Manhattan Theatre Club last fall, the same time the Russian-inflected "Natasha, Pierre & the Grea…
Shakespeare in the Park doesn't have summer to itself anymore. Pretenders have popped up with all kinds of gimmicks: site-specific environments. Shows where the audience follows the cast as …
One of the things that makes Broadway star Laura Benanti so much fun to watch is the discrepancy between her unassuming behavior and what happens when she starts singing. Benanti is one of t…