605 stories by "Joel Benjamin"
Dixon Place, a mecca for LGBTQ culture in the quickly gentrifying Lower East Side, is offering a return of the campy play, "The Village! A Disco Daydream," written by Nora Burns, a dizzy, so…
David Greenspan, the shape-shifting thespian, has taken on yet another multi-character play, as if his one-man "Strange Interlude" and his more recent "Four Saints in Three Acts" whet his ap…
Though only an hour long, Deborah Hay's Horse, the Solos (2021), set on the dancers of Cullberg (founded in 1967 as the Cullberg Ballet by the late, eminent Swedish choreographer Birgit Cull…
Three solos were stunning in their display of physical endurance. One woman moved forward, repeatedly kicking one leg behind her nearly touching her head with her foot. Another, tall…
The ballerina Natalia Osipova easily transformed herself from spectral to sensuous to eerie in just the first half of her 'Force of Nature" program at the New York City Center. The show"pres…
When the older Diamond reaches an existential breaking point, he finally stands up, stage center and takes command of his memories, experiences and his life with an intensely concentrated re…
Webre went for acrobatics and precision rather than passion. Perhaps, the Chinese Communist regime frowns upon openly sexual expression in dance. Perhaps Webre can't summon anything …
"Darkness: unfolds in many very short scenes with some confusing transitions. Dubashin, the traitor to Russia, finally gets to confront Number One in a knock-down personal battle. Th…
Matthew López & Amber Ruffin (book) and Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman (music and lyrics) have transformed the written-for-laughs film into a joyous musical, keeping much of the sha…
Under the permissive direction of Garfield-Szita"who also designed the costumes"the cast comes across more as members of a sitcom than a serious drama, not helped by Morgenstein's dependence…
Ellen Abrams' new play "Eleanor and Alice " Conversations Between Two Remarkable Roosevelts" explores their superficial courtesies in a series of conversations spanning 1904 until 1962, agre…
"Kimberly Akimbo," David Lindsay-Abaire's oddball take on the title character's dishearteningly sad disease, began life as a play back in 2001, reaching New York via the Manhattan Theatre Cl…
A touching portrait of a father and his alienated son unfolds in the Manhattan Theatre Club's "Where the Mountain Meets the Sea" by Jeff Augustin, directed by Joshua Kahan Brody. ... "When t…
LaTanya Richardson Jackson (Samuel L. Jackson's wife) has directed in a desultory fashion. Long, revealing monologues, the backbone of this particular play, are delivered directly to the…
Chung has the six characters played by three actors, each playing a parent/child duo switching from one to the other in confusing frequency. In addition, each actor plays a parent of the opp…
World events have inadvertently raised the significance of the New York City Center's Annual Gala presentation of the brilliant new staging of the Jason Robert Brown/Alfred Uhry musical Para…
You won't find Vatican Falls on any map about picturesque raging waters. No, Frank J. Avella's new play, "Vatican Falls," is, instead, a passionate, sometimes humorous, indictment of the…
The venerable, historic Negro Ensemble Company is presenting an intriguing program at the equally venerable, historic Cherry Lane Theatre: "Our Voices, Our Time: One-Act Play Festival." The …
A scene from Twyla Tharp's "In the Upper Room" at New York City Center (Photo credit: Benjamin Miller) Joel Benjamin, Critic When Twyla Tharp's ballets are good, they are great: works of …
It's not clear what Amaterasu Za's mission is. If, as Dachs' program comments indicate, it is to bring Japanese culture to modern audiences, the company needs to be less stodgy and more …
Directed by Jeffrey L. Page (who also did the simplistic choreography) and Diane Paulus, this production's well-meaning gimmick is to have all the historic characters played by a "cast that …
Krevolin is a clever writer, turning Wilder's American folk tale into a modern comedy/drama with relevance to today's audiences. Although he often makes his points a bit too obviously wi…
"Men of Kyiv," choreographed to high-spirited traditional folk music by Pavlo Virsky, pitted two groups of men"one wearing blue T-shirts, the other yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian nation…
Perhaps the supreme dance festival in New York City, maybe even in the world, New York City Center's Fall for Dance 2022 is celebrating its 19th year of presenting a panoply of domestic and …
Greenspan isn't always totally clear when switching points of view, but made up for this by turning the entire, long script into a wonderland of gestures, vocalizations, postures and movemen…
