1,783 stories by "ELISABETH VINCENTELLI"
Jordan Harrison's "Maple and Vine" has one of the most intriguing premises of the year.
Katha (the quicksilver Marin Ireland) and Ryu (Peter Kim, stiff and bland) are a 30-something New York…
To call Alan Ayckbourn prolific is an understatement. "Neighbourhood Watch," which just opened at 59E59 Theaters, is his 75th play. And since the British master is a mere 72 and spry " he of…
In 2006, the intimate Irish movie "Once" conquered millions of hearts with its sincere romance between two young musicians in Dublin. The film earned back 100 times its $200,000 budget, and …
Ethan Coen's new show may be titled "Happy Hour," but by the time it finally ends, you may have renamed it "Two Miserable Hours I'll Never Get Back."
The movies Coen and his brother, Joel, m…
There's an intense, otherworldly quality to Cillian Murphy. Maybe it's the Irish star's memorable, piercing-blue eyes. Maybe it's the way in which he disappears into his roles, whether it's …
Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" is one of the funniest dramas ever written. Or maybe it's one of the saddest comedies. That makes it tough to pull off, and shows often fall into a bland…
Alice Hauptmann lives in a fancy Fifth Avenue townhouse, and she couldn't be more welcoming. Visitors parked in her parlor while waiting to meet her are served tea in dainty cups, along with…
Going by numbers alone, Frank Wildhorn is Broadway's most successful composer, with six new shows in 14 years.
We're talking quantity here. The quality is debatable.
Wildhorn's best known fo…
Teenagers tend to be self-centered, but Matthew, the blond hunk in "Wild Animals You Should Know," is a grade-A narcissist. In the first scene of Thomas Higgins' new play, he recites the Boy…
You may have heard about the Australian star currently setting Broadway on fire. The heat that emanates from "An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin," three blocks away from Hugh Ja…
There are teachers who gently coax their charges. And then there's Leonard, the brilliant editor who runs the titular fiction workshop in Theresa Rebeck's new Broadway comedy "Seminar." His …
Upon hearing that there were changes in the new edition of the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular," a friend shrieked, "They'd better not have cut the ice rink!"
No worries: The ice rink and …
Those critical of star-casting on Broadway should catch Kim Cattrall " the single best thing in the humdrum new revival of Noël Coward's "Private Lives" that opened last night.
Best known…
Following in the feel-good footsteps of "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," here comes "Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays."
The basic presentation is the same. Likable actors " in thi…
The brave cast in "Burning" should get combat pay. You have to wonder what's harder to pull off: the nudity and graphic sex scenes, or the sincere, overwrought dialogue. Oh, to be a fly on t…
For its latest piece, "How Much Is Enough?," the Foundry Theatre reconfigured St. Ann's Warehouse. A new space has been set up in what is usually the bar and hangout area, and the audience s…
Hugh Jackman, the Wolverine of the "X-Men" franchise, turns out to have real-life superpowers: In "Back on Broadway," which opened last night, he turns his entire audience into a bunch of 12…
'The Blue Flower" takes place in the first third of the 20th century, mostly in Germany, against a backdrop of WWI, Weimar and the rise of Nazism. Three of the main characters are visual art…
Having your eyeballs pulled out -- an act infamously featured in "King Lear" -- is horrific. Yet in the Public Theater production that opened last night, the scene barely registers. It's not…
There's a divan in "Venus in Fur," and it's pretty versatile. At first it's a potential casting couch -- after all, the play takes place during an audition in which an actress, Vanda (Nina A…
Way before "Wicked," composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz had a blockbuster under his belt: 1971's "Godspell," which ran for 2,700 performances, 500 on Broadway. Not bad for a score Schwartz w…
There are a few plays within Jon Robin Baitz's drama "Other Desert Cities," which reopened on Broadway last night, after a successful run earlier this year at Lincoln Center.
The show starts…
In his zany comedy "Love's Labour's Lost," Shakespeare quadrupled the romance factor: There's not one, not two, but four young couples, and they engage in four times the amount of word play,…
A show doesn't have to be first-class to make a memorable impression. Exhibit A: "Now the Cats with Jewelled Claws," an obscure Tennessee Williams one-act at La MaMa. The production is ramsh…
The tiny Bank Street Theatre is a freakishly appropriate place to watch the excellent new dark comedy "The Atmosphere of Memory." There's no stage to speak of; if you're sitting in the first…
