1,783 stories by "ELISABETH VINCENTELLI"
Watching the magnetic Tina Benko chatter about style and death in "Jackie," you've got to wonder: How the heck did she memorize that crazy script, which jumps about without an obvious chrono…
In "The North Pool," the white vice principal of a high school in Anytown, USA, asks a Syrian transfer student into his office for a little chat. The entire play consists of their conversati…
We're so conditioned to be cynical nowadays that dark is considered edgy and romance dopey. But the Roundabout revival of "Talley's Folly" that opened last night is proud to believe in love.…
For some people, clowns are one rung below mimes and air-guitar zeroes on the ladder of entertainment hell. Well, let the cranks stay home and let the rest of us laugh our heads off at "Old …
How do you come up with a new show that also feels comfortably familiar? On Broadway, the current answer is "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" " an actual premiere by the titans responsibl…
Hot on the heels of Jesse Eisenberg's "The Revisionist" comes another off-Broadway show depicting Americans in their late 20s as neurotic and immature. The couple in Amy Herzog's "Belleville…
There are times during "The Revisionist" when you almost have to pinch yourself. Is this actually happening? Are Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg really sharing a stage?
They sure are. …
Imagine a luxury car, all sleek lines, buttery leather seats, exotic-wood dashboard. Then you step on the gas pedal, and find out it's running on a measly four cylinders.
That's pretty much…
In "The Madrid," Edie Falco is Martha, a woman who abruptly leaves her job and family, and disappears. In other words, the star whose name is selling tickets plays someone who, technically s…
The Mint company is an expert in excavation, mining forgotten nuggets from the theatrical rubble. Usually choices are made on a case-by-case basis: an obscure American comedy here, an overlo…
The title of Lloyd Suh's feeble new comedy accurately sums up its starting point. The 18-year-old Jesus (Justin Blanchard) runs away from home after a blowup with his dad " Joseph, not God. …
If it's sympathetic characters you crave, skip "Really Really." This campus-set show presents its 21-year-olds as materialistic, selfish, narcissistic, manipulative and glibly coarse.
It's …
In the Irish hamlet of Innisfree, native son Sean Enright, the hero of the musical "Donnybrook!," has the distinct feeling that he sticks out. And it's not because he spent most of his life …
Watch out: There's a hot new couple in town! Maggie Siff and Jonathan Cake are so irresistible in "Much Ado About Nothing" that they would make the most embittered divorced believe in love a…
The 1998 attack on Matthew Shepard was so brutal, it shocked the nation. After meeting him at a bar one October night, two men took the openly gay University of Wyoming student to a remote a…
Let's not judge Ethan Hawke solely on the basis of "Clive": For two decades, he's been a frequent presence on New York stages, both intimate and large, venturing into classics and championin…
There are several good people involved in "Clive," including director/star Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio, back onstage after years in the "Law & Order" trenches. For their sake and ours,…
Tina Packer's survey of Shakespeare's female characters, "Women of Will," clocks in at almost three hours. And that's the abbreviated "overview": Starting in April, Packer will also perform …
You can't blame Hamish Linklater for playing it safe with "The Vandal": This is the actor's playwriting debut, after all. Don't want to go crazy and take a big public spill.
So for his drame…
Two shows tied for the Tony for Best Musical in 1960. The one that City Center's beloved Encores! series is reviving this week is definitely not "The Sound of Music." Instead, we're getting …
The new off-Broadway piece "All the Rage" starts off with a diffident man in a pale-blue button-down shirt giving out a few words of welcome. He concludes his brief speech with a meek reques…
America mostly knows Wallace Shawn as the cranky Vizzini from "The Princess Bride," but for many New Yorkers he remains half of the cult movie "My Dinner with André" and a provocative playw…
From "Little Shop of Horrors" to "Carrie" and "Re-Animator," horror musicals aren't exactly new. But it's safe to say none tops "The House of Von Macramé" in the hemoglobin department.
Thi…
Some shows leave you scratching your head, wondering when they went wrong. At least "Collision" makes it easy: It goes south in the first minute. And it's all downhill from there " a better …
Sunday's performance of "Life and Times: Episodes 1-4" started at 2 in the afternoon and petered out shortly before midnight. If only its events were as epic! There are no Norse gods and pow…
