540 stories by "Jacob Malizio"
2007. A mysterious photo album arrives at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Nazi-era images unlike any that have been seen before. A relentless search begins into the history trapped in th…
For those who haven’t seen it yet, though, the experience is likely to be educational, sorrowful and even enlightening. The project contains great passion and seriousness, as well as a sen…
Yet this strong ensemble of performers do generate a feeling of direct connection with the audience, close at times to intimacy. The most successful in this regard is the esteemable Kathleen…
The academic precision and only occasional indulgence in theatricality are what make Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich’s documentary play Here There Are Blueberries a powerful piece of hi…
In the end, Here There Are Blueberries has sailed past its own here-and-there shortcomings to land on a final thought, artfully told and with clarity of conviction: Just imagine how many unt…
As a museum piece, the play may be effective. Its producers have created a robust student ticket initiative. But as theater, it musters significant resources — a sterling cast, a lease on …
Playing museum archivists, the actors use the photographs to lead us through a history of perversion. Unfortunately, this dialogue is delivered with great drama. Only the legendary Kathleen …
For that reason, audiences who feel compelled to examine the records from a theater seat—who perhaps find themselves yet again confronted with a photograph of a malnourished and naked corp…
Conceived and directed by Kaufman (and devised with members of the Tectonic Theater Project), Here There Are Blueberries proves both a riveting detective story and profound examination of wh…
Here There Are Blueberries is a masterpiece, a stirring, evocative, and politically urgent work of art that exposes what happens when evil becomes ordinary. It teaches us that we cannot sit …
Texas, 1893 — Twin sisters Mary and Martha Clarke are on the run. As Black women who pass for white and hide in plain sight, they straddle a dangerous line between two Americas. When power…
This messiness is a shame because a great musical could yet be somewhere inside this odd contraption. It might need to be much shorter, with fewer of Baum’s songs, which tend to crowd one …
Sadly, the frequently disjointed final product too often feels like a victim of overdevelopment. Following a 12-year process of writing, rewriting and two out-of-town tryouts, Wanted now pac…
Wanted is at its most satisfying when it surrenders to the guttural. But that catharsis comes in fits and starts, getting caught in the throat of a poked and prodded musical that’s become …
Pfeiffer and LaFontaine have impressive voices, and do their best as actors to put blood into thinly written characters. Wanted, as a modestly diverting entertainment, didn’t need to make …
Wanted offers a bold reframing of the familiar tropes, backed by powerhouse performances and Ross Baum’s anthem-driven score, part-western, pop, soul, and gospel. The excitement of the sto…
In the end, because of its overstuffed book and themes, “Wanted” doesn’t quite know what it’s about, resulting in an underwhelming account of who the Clarke sisters were and why thei…
Disappointingly lacking in levels are Chéri and Baum’s songs, almost all of which are pitched as belting showstoppers. Wanted is a musical near entirely built out of pop- and gospel-infle…
Beyond the show’s two maids, the most riveting aspect of “Wanted” is the sly way in which Pfeiffer’s Mary goes from real gold digger to committed lover with her follow-up song, “Th…
The book for the musical, also written by Chéri, is full of holes and the plotting is so convoluted and farfetched it’s hard to know who to root for… None of that may matter all that mu…
Military lawyer Daniel Kaffee is known for his wit, charm, and uncanny talent for closing cases before they ever get to trial. When assigned to defend two young Marines accused of murder, hi…
Plenty of what makes Sorkin Sorkin is already evident here — punchy dialogue, swift scenes, moral certainty. (The characters may not always know what is right and just, but Sorkin does.) �…
Yet for all the strengths of Lincoln Center Theater’s sleek new revival of Sorkin’s military drama, at the Vivian Beaumont through January 10, the biggest letdown is how leaden those sam…
Like The West Wing, A Few Good Men airs its morality proudly, and there’s an innocence to its structure that could only come from a writer who was still figuring out how to tell stories. A…
Sorkin’s dialogue is as ping-y as it was ever going to be, but in what winds up feeling like an oddly muted almost three hours of high-stakes legal drama, its crackles never quite spark to…
