WHEN METAPHORS BECOME MONSTERS Art thrives when it dances on the edge of a razor — flaunting itself and teasing us — fully embracing the risk of toppling over at any moment and s…
KIDS RULE IN ENERGETIC ROCK There is an announcement before the start of School of Rock The Musical. After the expected exhortations against using electronic devices, we are assured that yes…
BLINDING SON I'm half Latino, half Eastern-European Jew, and I'm gay. But I know nothing of what it means to be African-American in a country founded on hating the color of your skin"a count…
TOGETHER ALONE Keilly McQuail and Will Von Vogt are absolutely riveting in Significant Other, Joshua Harmon's mostly funny, sometimes sad take on the pitfalls of being the GBF (gay best frie…
SEX WORK/#METOO/FUTURE TENSE Sarah Jones is a prescient writer and an actor of rare gifts and remarkable range. It's no wonder that an early patron and supporter was Meryl Streep, for like S…
THE JOY OF SURVIVAL Marin Ireland is mesmerizing and deeply moving in Ironbound. She plays Daria, a Polish immigrant. To my ear, her accent is impeccable " and most importantly, entirely con…
A TRAGI-COMEDY OF VIOLENCE Harold Pinter's The Hothouse is exactly the kind of play I hope to see at the Antaeus Theatre Company. It is a classic to some but not to others, and there's a lot…
LOVE AND “COMPASSIONATE SILENCE” We are living through an era that seems to value greed, hypocrisy, narcissism and blatant dishonesty over truth and meaning. This makes the journ…
WOMEN BEHAVING BADLY In Mike Bartlett's play about the imagined aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II's death, men hold inherited titles, but women, both living and dead, hold the keys to power. C…
THE SEXUAL POLITICS OF SAVAGES Who would have imagined that a 30-year-old stage adaptation (by Christopher Hampton) of a 1782 novel (by Choderlos de Laclos) would be so devastatingly of the …
LIGHTING UP THE SOUTHERN SKY Carmen Cusack is luminous. She uses her whole self"physically, emotionally, vocally"to open herself to the audience, holding every last one of us in her loving a…
THE SOLITARY LONELINESS OF LOSS There is something cheeky and even a bit dangerous about a writer reaching far outside his or her community, culture, or country. When an outsider succeeds, t…
DRY WIT AND RIGHTEOUS OUTRAGE The best sequence in this one-man show starring Joe Morton as civil rights activist, comedian, and writer Dick Gregory, is playwright Gretchen Law's dramatizati…
THE UNBEARABLE CURSE OF BEING I remember reading Rebecca Mead's New Yorker review of Gypsy when Tyne Daly first starred as Mama Rose. She described the experience of not being sure beforehan…
GOD THE FATHER AND THE MOTHER OF ALL GODS I will remember Phylicia Rashad's performance in Head of Passes until the day I die. She is an emotional hurricane, often still, even funny"while in…
MISERY LOVES COMPANY In referring to August Strindberg's 1900 play The Dance of Death as a foreshadowing of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, director Ron Sossi is on firm groun…
A STAR IS BORN Paul Rudnick's bright new comedy takes place on Oscar night. Michael (Brian Hutchison) is a journeyman actor with a career and life-changing Best Supporting Actor nomination. …
'SELF DEPORTATION' OR SIX STAGES OF AMERICAN GRIEF Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In life, death, and in playwright Tom Jacobson's world view, these familiar five sta…
DON'T ARGUE WITH ME, I HAVE CANCER As the play begins, two women are asleep in hospital beds in a shared room with a curtain drawn between them. A tightly wound young woman, Karla (Halley Fe…
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT One of the brilliant things about Oliver Cotton's Daytona, is how his dialogue both reveals and conceals at the same time. "Billy, are you in trouble?" Joe (George Wyne…
SHE WHO CAN’T BE TAMED Clinton Leupp may not aspire to self-help guru status, but his upcoming appearance as Miss Coco Peru in The Taming of the Tension is driven by a definite sense o…
THE HARDEST WORKING GALS IN SHOW BUSINESS One thing is clear: If Bets Malone and Misty Cotton ever choose to sell themselves as an actual country music recording duo, they will be a smash. T…
THE ORIGINAL SISTER ACT This new bio-musical of the legendary gospel/rock crossover star Sister Rosetta Tharpe is at its best when focusing on its three powerhouse female stars. Tracy Nicole…
SUPER TROUPERS BURN BRIGHTLY UNDER THE STARS I've always thought Benny Andersson and Björn Kristian Ulvaeus of ABBA, along with Mamma Mia! book writer Catherine Johnson, were incredibly sma…
THE MIRACLE OF LOVE: WINANS STYLE BeBe Winans was on-hand to enjoy a triumphant opening night for his coming-of-age stage musical Born For This, that takes him and his sister CeCe from young…