Avow - Reviewed by KARL LEVETT

While the plot lines lend themselves to soap opera, happily playwright Bill C. Davis is averse to suds and skillful enough to wrap all the conflicts in an entertaining package: This revised …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Fire Throws - Reviewed by JASON FITZGERALD

The most revealing thing about the spirited but misguided "Fire Throws" is that of the array of sights and sounds it offers audiences -- vivid video projections, muscular Balinese choreograp…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Zombie - Reviewed by ROBERT WINDELER

This world-premiere, hourlong solo piece about a serial killer understandably will have a limited audience, but it's hard to quibble about its... execution.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Human Jukebox - Reviewed by RONNI REICH

Despite the title, Joseph Keckler is much more than a human jukebox.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Astronome: A Night at the Opera (A Disturbing Intiation) - Reviewed by RONNI REICH

Both director-designer Richard Foreman and composer John Zorn vividly bring out the work's dark themes with uncommon candor, lucidity, and depth. But together they are often overstimulating,…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Know Thy Enemy - Reviewed by RON COHEN

Lillie Marie Redwood's absorbing play takes place in a maroon camp - the name given to sequestered communities of runaway slaves - in the Georgia swamplands in the 1830s.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play - Reviewed by LEONARD JACOBS

There are multiple beginnings to Sheila Callaghan's provocatively titled play and many midsections and endings too. At 95 minutes, it's a long performance. It's the totality that provides a …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

<cite>Othello</cite>, reviewed by Andy Propst

Clocking in at nearly three hours, director Arin Arbus' stuffy staging of "Othello" only sparks to life during its last 60 minutes.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Reviewed by Adam R. Perelman

If you've been under the vast Colorado sky, where the firmament is so clear that the stars look close enough to touch, you have some idea why evangelicals think it's God's country—and why locals won't be so easily driven away. Their uneasy marriage—and the unease evangelicals have with certain types of marriage—is the subject of the Civilians' striking new piece This Beautiful City.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Winter's Tale - Reviewed by ADAM R. PERLMAN

A sad tale may be best for winter, but is it best for "The Winter's Tale"? Sam Mendes certainly seems to think so, for in his star-studded new production -- playing in rep with The Cherry Or…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

L'isola disabitata (Desert Island) - Reviewed by RONNI REICH

Although Franz Joseph Haydn's music is capably rendered, and each performer shows potential, the overall product is as not as successful as Mark Morris' sweet and surprisingly subtle product…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Three Sisters - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

Though decidedly a mixed bag, this Classical Theatre of Harlem's production contains enough worthy elements for a satisfying evening.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Anne Steele: Strings Attached - Reviewed by DAVID FINKLE

No one -- especially no one in the indigenous cabaret community -- should be surprised that Steele knocked 'em dead while inducing two standing Os with a high-energy show.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits) - Reviewed by ANDY PROPST

Symbolism and magic realism take a back seat to human drama in Caridad Svich's lyrical and satisfying adaptation of Isabel Allende's novel.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Soul Samurai - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

This glorious melting pot of influences and inspirations is theatre at its best.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Mourning Becomes Electra - Reviewed by LEONARD JACOBS

In director Scott Elliott's revival of Eugene O'Neill's comedy "Mourning Becomes Electra" -- wait a minute. This isn't a comedy.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Story of My Life - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

In these financially strapped times, there are sound economic reasons for mounting a two-character, single-set, 90-minute musical with only nine musicians.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Olivia Stevens: Passion - Reviewed by DAVID FINKLE

As the comedian Emily Levine says, "Tension is something you can figure out a way to live with, while pretension is fatiguing."

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Barbara Carroll - Reviewed by DAVID FINKLE

Barbara Carroll loves Stephen Sondheim, and he has every reason to love her back.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Fresh Kills - Reviewed by MARK PEIKERT

Opening her play with an act of fellatio and ending it with a suicide, playwright Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder is anything but timid. Unfortunately, the characters in her "Fresh Kills" remain fr…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Conversation With a Kleagle - Reviewed by ROBERT WINDELER

Kevin B. Ploth has directed the 100-minute piece with appropriate intensity, but his staging of a largish cast isn't helped by the unevenness of the acting company.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Conversations on Russian Literature (Plus Three More Plays) - Reviewed by ROBERT WINDELER

Sometimes all you can really hope to take away from an evening or afternoon at the theatre is the memory of one astonishing performance. In David Johnston's two-handed 52-minute play of the …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

American Rapture: The Lonely Soul of a Crowded Nation - Reviewed by ROBERT WINDELER

While the umbrella title is ironic, an unusually high level of acting and careful direction make "American Rapture: The Lonely Soul of a Crowded Nation" very satisfying if not quite rapturou…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Book of Lambert - Reviewed by JASON FITZGERALD

Leslie Lee's play, receiving a fine -- and overdue -- world premiere at La MaMa, mines deep, starting in the recesses of the New York City subway and ending in the depths of its characters' …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Chuck.Chuck.Chuck. - Reviewed by NICOLE VILLENEUVE

The modular structure and stream-of-consciousness style of William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" make the novel a daunting choice for theatrical adaptation. Yet Immediate Medium's new producti…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑