605 stories by "Joel Benjamin"
Guirgis and Brokaw manage to find the back-handed humor and pathos of this scene which sets the mood for a profane and scatological play that hits the audience between the eyes with its fres…
Hanging over this presentation is, as indicated, the film which divides the audience into those who did not see it and must take or leave Bourne's clever version and those who saw it and com…
The Wallenda family's act is the climax of a show that is held together by Ringmaster Ty McFarlan and the ongoing antics of Grandma the Clown and Joel Jeske aka Mr. Joel. The big-voiced …
During the jam-packed ninety minutes of "This One's For the Girls," the foursome run through a batch of songs that show the ups and downs of the last one hundred or so years through the eyes…
Martha Graham called her dancers "athletes of God."Â Watching David Greenspan perform all the roles in a six-hour marathon performance of Eugene O'Neill's 1928 melodrama, Strange Interlud…
The highlight of the program was watching the world-renowned premier danseur David Hallberg perform a work specially commissioned for him by Fall for Dance. Mark Morris, the equally famo…
Ruth Sullivan, Allison Threadgold and Patrick Hamilton in a scene from "Tomorrow in the Battle"Â (Photo credit: George McClintock) Joel Benjamin, Critic The flier for Kieron Barry's drama …
Michelle Dorrance, this troupe's director, has become a force in tap dance because she understands both its legacy and its future. She played Pied Piper to a large troupe of very talented da…
Each was asked about their first audition. Marilyn D'Honau couldn't remember, although she clearly made an impression on Robbins who subsequently used her in "Gypsy." Tony Mordente, just an …
Ingvartsen has a record of intellectualizing her work taking all the juice out of them in the process. "7 Pleasures""a misnomer if there ever was one"takes her dry, over thinking to the extr…
Twyla Tharp (Photo credit: Robert Whitman) Joel Benjamin, Critic "The more things change, the more they stay the same," goes the old French proverb. That describes the Twyla Tharp Dance …
Having spent nearly five hours in the company of Ms. Parks' parade of these beautifully written characters I find myself conflicted about these plays. She is brilliant at generating fire wit…
Faustin Linyekula in a scene from "In Search of Dinozord" (Photo credit: Agathe Poupeney) Joel Benjamin, Critic It takes chutzpah"or artlessness"to begin a show with five minutes of torturou…
Disguised as a snazzy cabaret act, set against constantly projected images from a sleazy Eighties public access talent show"from which the show's title is derived"the short, intense performa…
On a multi-tiered set that takes advantage of every square inch of the tiny Medicine Show Theatre"designed by the authors"Ms. Kostek narrated Dietrich's life story, from middle class childho…
Ms. Grossman tended toward overuse repetition of movements and arm gestures. Emotional states were supported by little else than the titles and her husband's gemlike scores. "No Words," to a…
The title comes from T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men," the one that famously includes the line: "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper" - which is exactly how Falls the S…
Nora Sørena Casey's "False Stars," part of this year's Corkscrew Festival at the Paradise Factory, starts slowly but gradually grows more involving as all the interconnections between the…
Projected titles indicate place and year"beginning with Arles, 1888 and progressing until van Gogh's suicide"which we hear as an offstage gunshot"in July of 1890. The audience is treated to …
The songs never come up to the title song made famous by Marlene Dietrich who's mentioned several times during the play. Antin's attempt at playful seduction, "Take Me Home Tonight," sung by…
Watching Evans being bossed around by the tall beanpole Russel Norris, whether in an office job, cleaning a park or waiting on tables, was to watch classic comedy performed with brilliant, b…
Antyon LeMonte, Honey Davenport, Jay Knowles and Kevin Aviance in a scene from "Trinkets" (Photo credit: Lola Flash) Joel Benjamin, Critic In an era where RuPaul has turned drag/cross-dressi…
Mark Finley, the director, knew enough to keep the play charmingly low-key with just enough animated physicality to illustrate the story. Finley clearly understood all of Strothmann's be…
Vermillion writes distinctive characters who each have their own language, but fails to make his story believable or emotionally gripping by turning it into something closer to the surreal, …
The three-part ballet is considered Balanchine's tribute to the three major artistic influences in his professional life:Â the French school, the Russian school and, of course, his own Am…
