1,122 stories by "Frank Scheck"
When it comes to pressure, panic and pain, no one said it better than Larry Gelbart: "If Hitler's alive, I hope he's out of town with a musical." The pressure's even worse for those who dare…
Female playwrights are woe fully underrepresented on our stages -- women of color particularly. Helping to correct that sorry state of affairs is the Ensemble Studio Theatre's "The River Cro…
Imagine being able to see Eugene O'Neill's obscure one-acts, minus all those long monologues. Now you can.
Enter "The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Volume 1: Ea…
Try as I might, I find it impossible to appreciate the Elevator Repair Service’s aesthetic. This enterprising downtown troupe has made a significant name for themselves in recent years…
They say that in Hollywood, everybody wants to direct. Apparently, in the theater, what everybody wants to do is write.
Exhibit A: Jesse Eisenberg, whose play, "Asuncion," previews Oct. 12 a…
It’s been a mere ten years since the last Broadway incarnation of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s Follies, but that ill-conceived version was lamentable enough to warrant an…
Theater rarely gets more intimate -- or more immediate -- than Richard Nelson's follow-up to last year's "That Hopey Changey Thing," set on the eve of the last presidential election.
Once…
There are plenty of one-liners in "A Night With George," and they're even more hilarious if you can un derstand them.
Donna O'Connor's one-woman show, part of the1st Irish Festival, featu…
In case you wondered what role balloons played in the US military during World War I, there's an off-Broadway show that's only too happy to tell you all about it.
Enroll in "Captain Fergu…
It seems almost criminal to take one of the English speaking theater’s finest classical actors, have him appear in a play in a tiny basement theater, and then make the run so limited t…
Evenings of one-act plays can cause theatrical whiplash. That's certainly the case with "Summer Shorts 5: Series B."
Now running in rep with the recently opened Series A, featuring work b…
If Charles Busch’s artistic to the late Charles Ludlam was made evident by such parodies as Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Red Scare on Sunset, then his latest effort reveals the influe…
Anyone who saw Rent in its original incarnation at the New York Theatre Workshop will no doubt be discomfited to see that it has now become a theatrical brand. Just three years after it clos…
Sitting through "Herman Kline's Midlife Crisis" is likely to bring on a midlife crisis of your own. Its principal plot element is the retrieval of a bag of crack cocaine from the rectum of a…
Parents of teenage girls should probably avoid "Carrie & Francine," the opener of the one- act fest Summer Shorts 5: Series A. Written by 17-year-old playwright Ruby Rae Spiegel, it depicts …
It was a musical that spoke to a new generation " and its dramatic backstage story became theatrical legend.
On Jan. 25, 1996, the night before "Rent" played its first preview off-Broadway, …
Several years back, Steve Solomon scored a surprise off-Broadway hit with his solo comedy show "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy!" An account of his dysfunctional fam…
The centenary of Tennessee Williams' birth has prompted a flood of productions of obscure works from his vaults. Perhaps the most intriguing is "The Pretty Trap," an early one-act version of…
They must put some thing in the water in Canada. The country has spawned an endless series of circus troupes, the most famous being Cirque du Soleil. The latest arrival is the Montreal-based…
Granted, "It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues" -- but the blues are more than enough in the New Haarlem Arts Theatre's rollicking revival of the Tony-nominated 1999 revue.
From the fiery gospe…
There's one thing to be said about the Drilling Company's "Hamlet": You can't beat the parking.
That's one of the perks of Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot, a series of free productions p…
Imagine "The Wizard of Oz" spiked with a little salsa and me rengue. Que divertido! You've pretty much summed up "The Yellow Brick Road," a fun new riff on L. Frank Baum's classic.
It's g…
As metaphors go, it's hard to beat a pair of shoes. That's the main lesson im parted by "The Shoemaker," in which the title character attempts to fix a woman's broken soul -- sorry, sole -- …
'The Honeymooners," "I Love Lucy" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor." Which one of these is out of place? None of them, says Claire Beckman, artistic director of the Brave New World theater co…
It’s not easy to kill Death Takes a Holiday. This old chestnut about the Grim Reaper taking a much needed vacation was a Broadway hit way back in the 1920s, spawned a successful 1934 m…
