617 stories by "Jan Simpson"
Eve Ensler hit the theatrical equivalent of the Mega
Millions lottery with The Vagina Monologues, her collection of solo pieces in
which women talk about the full spectrum of the feminine ex…
Who
would have thunk it? After years of
being dissed, theater has become the place where all the cool kids want to hang
out. A pileup of Hollywood actors" Jake
Gyllenhaal, Katie …
Some people, like my sister Joanne, revel in the holiday
season and in all the holiday-themed shows that come with it. Other people,
like me, bah humbug our way through both.
Which is …
There may be some people who get off on watching actors
simulate sex onstage but watching people pretend to get it on under the glare
of a spotlight usually makes me squirmy. And yet, I was …
Just about everyone who has seen it is saying that the new revival
of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is not to be missed. And they're right.
This latest version of Edward Albee's m…
I've had a soft spot
for the porn industry ever since a blind date turned out to be a cameraman in
the business and took me to the party of a producer he worked with. I was
reminded of that …
Love him or hate him, Richard Nixon was rarely boring. But, alas, he is in Checkers, the new play about
the nation's controversial 37th president that is currently playing
at the Viney…
There will be, alas, no post day, and maybe not again until next Saturday. And here's why: in addition to the usual madness that always descends
at this time of year"the sprint towards…
From Jan: Samuel D. Hunter knew that he was going to alienate some
people by making a 600-pound man the central character in his new play The
Whale. As he told the online theater magaz…
Nerds"even the homeliest ones"rule in today's pop culture. They're
the stars of hit movies and TV shows. In real life, many are rich and envied. And
the prettiest girls don't even blink at h…
Hurricane Sandy has done its considerable damage and is now
gone. My husband K and I hunkered down and got through it
with no problems at all, save for a few flickering lights during the wor…
With just 10 days to go before the election and Romney
steadily gaining on Obama, you probably don't need anyone to tell you how
disappointing idealism can sometimes be, how messy democracy …
It's not easy to talk
honestly about race. And the fact that
it's no longer just a black-and-white issue in this country ups the degree
of difficulty. Still, many of today's
brig…
Hallie Foote has been celebrated as the foremost interpreter
of the plays by her late father Horton Foote and more recently of those by her younger
sister Daisy. But as I watched Daisy…
Polls say that atheism is rising in the U.S. and that even
believers go to church less often than they once did. But God still seems to be
talking to America's playwrights.
Faith w…
In some ways, the Theatre at St. Clement's, a haven for so
many theatrical endeavors over the years, is the perfect place for Ten
Chimneys, a play about the legendary actors Alfred Lunt and …
It's not often that I'm haunted by a piece of theater but AdA:
Author directing Author, a pair of one-act plays that opened at La MaMa this week,
won't let me go. The funny thing is that I h…
Even if you've been in a coma for the past month, the news
certainly must have gotten to you by now that the first of the debates between
President Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt R…
If There is I Haven't Found It Yet, the dysfunctional
family drama that opened at Roundabout Theatre Company's Laura Pels Theatre
this week, has been getting all kinds of atten…
Red Dog Howls, which opened at the New York Theatre Workshop
this week, isn't a well-made play. It
has no real conflict. Crucial bits of information are held back in a strained
effort …
Sometimes, as hard as I might try, I just don't get it. For
instance, I know that I'm supposed to like Detroit, the new dark comedy that
opened at Playwrights Horizons this past week.
…
People have been so eager to badmouth the new musical
Chaplin that opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre last week that I've been
trying to figure out why they've been so hostile towards it.…
Like most of you, I've been looking through all the fall
previews that everyone else has been doing and, to be honest, I don't know that
there are all that many shows that I'm …
Let's face it, I'm not the demographic that the producers had
in mind when they decided to bring Bring It On to Broadway. And yet, like just about everyone else who
has seen this high-…
Over the past couple of weeks, I've lost two people who
played significant roles in shaping my life. So I'm taking time out from my
usual posts to pay honor to their memories.
Remy…
