605 stories by "Joel Benjamin"
Structured like Arthur Schnitzler's wicked "La Ronde," "Mlima" begins with a harrowing hunting scene. Mlima, the giant elephant, is portrayed with dignity and astonishing physical vitali…
"Ekstasis," danced by PeiJu Chien-Pott, her hair loose, her costume a tight tube of form-fitting jersey (designed by Graham, herself), stood still as eerie clacking percussion and quiet wood…
The dancers displayed a new depth of expression, particularly in the world premiere "Espiritus Gemelos," a sensitive, beautifully acted duet about a brief same sex encounter performed by Chr…
Twist's "Creator's Note" in the program alludes to Wassily Kandinsky's musical metaphorical paintings and Twist's youthful attraction to the possibility of using abstract puppetry in combina…
The two talented, delightfully understated actors have taken on these roles with energy and sincerity. Manning makes Honeyman both simple and complex at the same time while Van Treuren m…
The ups and downs of the road to true romance provide the show with its ties to the Buffett songs. Tully opens the show with "Somethin' 'Bout a Boat," to show his romantic nature and "It…
Baker's lines are spiky and colorful, often dark, sometimes banal, but his portrait of these two and the two lesser characters is always illuminating and full of real emotion. The fade-o…
The trouble is that there is nothing new or daring or particularly interesting about the play despite its intriguing subject matter. Â It is an old-fashioned play"think warmed over Cliffor…
All the good jokes get lost in the onslaught of cast members vying for their moments and looking for the audience's approval, which admittedly was offered freely.  "Bitches" becomes c…
Lila Neugebauer has directed these two one-acts to bring out their naturalism. In the past, "The Zoo Story" was usually performed with an odd, surreal quality. Neugebauer has given the c…
Songs jostle with playlets, usually with topical references.  This is a good lineage to be part of and "Broad Comedy," the bumpy new show at the SoHo Playhouse, succeeds mostly due to…
"Body" dovetails Ensler's personal agonizing battle with cancer and her involvement with a feminist group in the Democratic Republic of Congo where women have faced violence, rape and almost…
Produced as part of the Flea's Season of Women, Del Rosso's freshman effort shows great promise. Under Marina McClure's insightfully freewheeling direction the members of The Flea's resi…
The first work on the program was "Indomitable Waltz" (2016) choreographed by Aszure Barton to dark hued music by the Balanescu Quartet and Nils Frahm. Barton achieved a graceful, yet dr…
The main event, however, is the performance of Harris who doesn't just imitate Baker but uses her own gifts to illuminate the multitalented cult figure. It's as if Baker has brought out …
"NEW BODIES" (2016) choreographed by Melnick was initiated by Sara Mearns in a summer workshop at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Skilled classical ballet dancers who were interested in expan…
Kyoung H. Park's "Pillowtalk" mixes the mysteries of passionate, but flawed, love with the realities of racism in today's society, specifically, Brooklyn, New York, where Sam (Basit Sh…
Yazbek's songs"ranging from the darkly comic "Welcome to Nowhere" (sung by the town folk) to Dina's romantically tinged "Omar Sharif" and ending with the upbeat, danceable "Concert" played a…
The famous Chinese ability to subsume themselves in crowds was evident in the flowing choreography for the mass "flight" of the Ibis across the stage. The precision of the corps de balle…
Fairchild speaks well and communicates much with his physique, but his choreography is repetitive and uninventive. Here was a chance to breathe new life into a too familiar character.Â�…
The middle work, "Walking Mad," choreographed by the Swede, Johan Inger, has inadvertently taken on an urgency and timeliness. Always a surreal study of off-handed violence, the current …
Despite a brilliant display of achingly detailed acting"reason enough for connoisseurs of acting to rush to this production directed by James Macdonald"its uneasy blend of a frightening nucl…
In "Lines," the videos were straightforward representations of Mr. Selden, clad in a loose-fitting red outfit, pausing his image in dramatic moments while in the second work, "Untranslatable…
This time Gotheiner put his dancers through a faux competition that fell in mood somewhere between "Dancing with the Stars' and "Shark Tank," combining eager striving with off-handed sadism.…
Big Dance Theater, conceived and directed by Annie-B Parson, presented "17c" at the BAM Harvey Theater. The work somehow combined the diary of Englishman, Samuel Pepys, the works of Marg…
