1,122 stories by "Frank Scheck"
The young man onstage is singing the traditional spiritual "Trust and Obey." But just as we're settling into his sweet, lilting voice, we hear the taunts of "Sissy," "F - - - - t " and even …
No, "The Banana Monologues" isn't a male rejoinder to Eve Ensler's feminist classic. Rather, in this solo turn, John R. Brennan tells the story of an ill-fated relationship starring an organ…
'Swapping is the new cheating," declares one of the partner-swapping marrieds in Jeff Gould's play.
Perhaps, but one thing's for certain: "It's Just Sex" is the same old sex comedy.
Swappi…
When the Ice Factory Festival opens its 20th season tonight, no one will be happier than Robert Lyons, its artistic director: That's because he'll finally get to see the shows.
The Obie Awa…
The acclaimed troupe Theater Breaking Through Barriers offers something you won't find anywhere else: Its works revolve around disability " which is only appropriate, since some of its membe…
A famous American composer proves an unlikely mediator between a violinist dad and his basketball- loving daughter in "Charles Ives Take Me Home." Jessica Dickey's three-character fantasia h…
Time to fess up. You never did get around to reading James Joyce's epic-length "Ulysses," did you? You meant to, but something else always came up . . . like life.
Fortunately, Patrick Fitzg…
There's a serious "ick" factor at the final roundup of Ensemble Studio Theater's "34th Marathon of One-Act Plays." From the elderly gentleman groping his wife's breasts to a blood-stained so…
It's a post office " New York's main branch " on its way to becoming an Amtrak train station. For now, though, the historic James A. Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue is also a theater, wh…
J.B. Priestley's "An Inspector Calls" was a surprise hit when it was revived on Broadway nine years ago. Now comes Priestley's "Cornelius," which vanished after its 1935 West End run and has…
It's best known as the place where the Titanic was built. But Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipyard where "The Boat Factory" is set, was much more than that " a place where generations of …
We get not one but two Susan Sontags in Moe Angelos' "Sontag: Reborn." The first is the younger version, beginning in the late intellectual's teenage years, as she begins a search for self-i…
Reality Tv seems almost too easy a target for satire, but "Good Television" mostly avoids the pitfalls. This debut work by veteran Atlantic Theater Company actor Rod McLachlan offers disturb…
What does it take to go "Around the World in 80 Days?"
Just two hours, five actors and some highly inventive theatricality.
Jules Verne's 1873 classic about the globe-trotting adventures of …
Christopher Lloyd stars in this off-Broadway revival of Bertolt Brecht's modern classic. read more
Love lost and found is at the heart of the best works in Ensemble Studio Theatre's "34th Marathon of One-Act Plays." The first in its annual three-part series is a better-than-usual bill, de…
Perhaps you thought you could get away with secretly reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" on your Kindles and iPads. But your naughty literary predilections will be exposed should you see "Cuff Me…
The veteran comedian delivers riffs on the U.S. Constitution in his new solo show.read more
Talk about setting the scene: For "Core Values," Lauren Helpern's vividly realistic set design depicts the cramped, dreary conference room of a small Manhattan travel agency.
Lit by fluores…
Now that she's 73, Christina Crawford might want to resolve her mommy issues. That's the main feeling evoked by "Surviving Mommie Dearest," a bizarre show in which Crawford rehashes the abus…
For "This Side of Neverland" " two one-act plays by "Peter Pan" author J.M. Barrie " the Pearl Theatre leaves this side of the Atlantic for the starchy shores of Edwardian England.
The atmos…
A few minutes into his new show, Mark Nadler orders the theater doors to be locked. "You will stay for ze entire show und you vill like it!" he announces in a comical German accent he drops …
Manhattan therapist Colleen Fitzgerald has an unorthodox twist on treatment: She sees only the patients she likes.
Good luck with that in this town.
And good luck to audiences at "Love Thera…
Purim came and went, but the National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene is celebrating it now with "The Megile of Itzik Manger," a freewheeling musical adaptation of the Book of Esther that's as ta…
You may not think a play set in rural Ontario, Canada, is worth a New York minute, let alone two hours " but if you pass up "The Drawer Boy," it's your loss.
Michael Healey's drama, set in …
