The new story concerns Wayne Hopkins, an American boy whose parents die tragically and his Uncle Dave informs him that he is a wizard and must attend a special school in England. Wayne is so…
Known as the Shakespeare play with the most song lyrics, the production also includes a deliciously bouncy new score by Stephen Schwartz in different musical styles from the 1920's " 1950's,…
Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins makes a memorable New York debut with an involving and engrossing play which at the performance under review you could have heard a pin drop, so rapt was th…
The play isn't just about social climbers but those who want to game the system and live beyond their income, and their sense of entitlement rivals that of the 1990's. However, this is 1901 …
Neil Pepe's production of Simon Stephens' "On the Shore of the Wide World" will not please all. The pace is consciously slow " like the life lived by these characters. However, the wait is w…
This 1877 operetta, now celebrating its 140th anniversary, has been reduced to the nine major roles and the chorus has been eliminated. The result is a streamlined version that moves along a…
Although the plot has been reset in Loveless, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1929, it is an improvement over the original story as a romantic comedy: Shakespeare's version ends with…
As Blixen, Pelletier is riveting as she wraps her cocoon around the unsuspecting but susceptible young man. Catlike and sinuous as she stalks him and the stage, she is cajoling, seductive, m…
The newly reconstituted New York City Opera opened its second full season with a shared production of Puccini's rarely performed "La Fanciulla del West" created in collaboration with the Tea…
Performed by The Bats, the resident company of The Flea Theater, the world premiere of "Inanimate" is the inaugural production in their new home on Thomas Street, between Church and Broadway…
Exquisitely produced by the Mint Theater, Jonathan Bank's direction is leisurely and slow, which undercuts the theatricality of all but the last and the most satisfying one, 'The King of Spa…
While the three plays in Summer Shorts 2017: Festival of New American Short Plays " Series B have been given proficient productions each seems ultimately unsatisfactory. All seem like first …
Bruce Norris' "A Parallelogram" endeavors to explore some sobering facts about the effect of the future on the present and responsibility to others. Unfortunately, the play ends up being lab…
The revival at the York is being seen in yet a new version of the show that began as a cabaret in 1981 and went to Broadway in 1985. Created by director Larry Alford, choreographer Wayne Alf…
Although the physical production has been well-thought-out, the script seems to have no interpretation other than a great deal of slapstick comedy which does not much register. The cast vari…
"Acolyte" by Graham Moore, Academy Award winner for his 2013 screenplay for "The Imitation Game," is a more substantial play than the other two. Based on an historical occurrence in 1954, it…
Aside from the destructive nature of the storm and that the "Pegasus" eventually arrives at a desert shore, there isn't much to be learned about climate change. We never know if Sleeper lost…
From Dominique Morisseau, the author of the critically acclaimed Skeleton Crew, Detroit '67 and Sunset Baby, comes another powerfully provocative and riveting, but overwrought, play which in…
Icke and MacMillan's version is tricked up with much multimedia, sound and lights, and disorientation. Faithful to the book, it claims to be the first adaptation to include Orwell's appendix…
True, here these Italian American sisters growing up in Park Slope, 1960, don't want to get to some place as much as get away from someplace else. As they exit their teens, their home has be…
Director Albert Schultz's program note explains that the production set itself two challenges: first, that Philip Carey would never leave the 16-foot red square center stage, and that all of…
Bastard Jones is surprisingly accessible for a contemporary musical based on a long and episodic 18th century novel. Sophisticated and off-color, naughty but nice, it proves to be a sharp an…
The Wall is also used by the performers who climb on it, disappear into it, and use it as both a platform and a launching pad. The most remarkable act is the finale " the "Trampo Wall" perfo…
He has updated the play to a contemporary city rife with decadence and corruption. The audience enters the theater from backstage in order to visit Mistress Overdone's brothel with sex toys …
Told mainly in reenacted flashbacks, In a Word plays multiple language games. It also proves the limits of language. Can you really describe exactly what happens at any given moment? And if …