1,797 stories by "ELISABETH VINCENTELLI"
Gritty, tough-talking, blue- collar characters are hardly a rarity onstage. But most of the time their low cash balance is part of the background: It provides color and gives set designers a…
Boxing moves are often compared to ballet. "Beautiful Burnout" -- a high-octane show set in a boxing gym -- takes this analogy literally. The training and bouts explode on the elevated ring-…
Let's face it: You don't go to "Timon of Ath ens" expecting much -- if you go at all.
Widely assumed to be co-written by Shakespeare and fellow playwright Thomas Middleton, this uneven tr…
Shared space plays a big part in Adam Rapp's new "Hall way Trilogy." It even extends to the Rattlestick Theatre itself, where the stage now runs along the entire side of the house. Hallways …
Tennessee Williams would have turned 100 on March 26, and the past months have been jammed with revivals. Except we're not seeing his hits but late-period curios like "The Milk Train Doesn't…
There are star vehicles, and then there's "The Diary of a Madman," which is like a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted Ferrari for Geoffrey Rush.
And the Australian actor -- a leading contende…
In the early '80s, the late mono loguist Spalding Gray created a show called "Interviewing the Audience" in which he did just that. He brought random theatergoers onstage and got them to ope…
The prolific A.R. Gurney has made a specialty of docu menting a certain slice of America: Northeast-based, white, middle-class families bound by a strong sense of kinship and precisely delin…
EDITOR'S NOTE: After nearly 70 previews and five delayed openings, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has moved its official opening to March 15. Given the flurry of celebrity endorsements and …
Although Encores! productions such as "Gypsy," "Chicago" and "Finian's Rainbow" have made it to Broadway, fans of the long-running City Center series know such transfers are beside the point…
An early scene in the new off- Broadway play "The Whip ping Man" demonstrates the devastating power of words.
We're in April 1865 and the war has just ended. A young Confederate soldier, …
Doug is a living night mare for health- insurance companies: He's more than accident-prone -- he's a lightning rod for calamities.
In Rajiv Joseph's uneven play "Gruesome Playground Injur…
While Tennessee Williams is acknowledged as a master, his later plays are theater's answer to the madwoman in the attic: Producers and directors either ignore them entirely, or tread gingerl…
The key character in "What the Public Wants" is a driven media tycoon who reaches millions via dozens of publications. Through them, he seeks to entertain the many and influence the mighty. …
When you think about David Auburn, author of the math-and-madness hit "Proof," farce isn't the first thing that comes to mind. So his decision to overhaul "The New York Idea" -- an obscure 1…
MoliÈre's dark com edy "The Misan thrope" is one of the most cynical and twisted works in the canon, and deserves to be better known in America.
Maybe we need a Hollywood update to sho…
After the critical success of his epic "The Lily's Revenge" last year, all eyes were on Taylor Mac. Amid a cast of 40, the strikingly made-up and costumed writer-performer blossomed in the r…
The new "Room 17B" is like an anthology of clown haikus -- a se ries of self-contained routines, each one brief, elegant and perfectly balanced.
Presented by the physical-comedy company P…
A charismatic, seductive tycoon is key to Scott Brooks' new comedy, "ScreenPlay." Had a charismatic, seductive leading man been cast, this wan Hollywood satire might have gone somewhere.
…
Ibsen's "John Gabriel Bork man" is nowhere near as popu lar as his "Hedda Gabler" and "A Doll's House." Yet crowds are flocking to this obscure 1896 play at BAM. What gives?
One reason is…
Misery springs eternal. We've seen dozens of fictional families clash be cause of a Big Traumatic Past Event, but that didn't deter Jon Robin Baitz ("The Substance of Fire," TV's "Brothers a…
A lot of energy is spent setting up an explo sive situation in the family drama "Blood From a Stone." But despite the efforts of a strong cast led by Ethan Hawke -- giving his best performan…
Location, location, location: That motto applies not only to real estate but to theater. Tennessee Williams' one-act play "Green Eyes" may be slight, but staging it in an actual hotel room -…
When we first meet Emily Bridges in the new play "A Small Fire," she's wearing a hard hat and chewing up her second-in-command.
The head of her own construction company, this no-nonsense …
The woefully inept drama "Dracula," which opened off- Broadway last night, is as close as we get to dinner theater in New York. There's no prime rib, but plenty of grating cheese.
While i…
