8,501 stories from Backstage
The Queen's Company, led by its artistic director, Rebecca Patterson, is an all-female ethnically diverse troupe dedicated to presenting innovative versions of classical plays. It is a lauda…
Like the characters it portrays, Blair Singer's "The Most Damaging Wound" acknowledges the need for men to bond with each other emotionally while viewing the whole process with a self-consci…
A revered but somewhat unwieldy classic of Spanish drama comes vividly to life in Repertorio Español's production.
Adapting An Ideal Husband, Oscar Wilde's 1895 play about a politician with a past, and setting it in a senator's home in 2008 is a smart idea. Unfortunately, the production doesn't work as w…
One of the pleasures derived from attending lots of Off-Off-Broadway plays is the chance to discover new talent, and Johnna Adams' wildly ambitious and mostly successful new trilogy is curre…
An angel and a monster, an idiot and a marvel, tough as leather and childishly vulnerable are all descriptions applied to Dora. Which is true? As she would say, dunno. Making her New York de…
Working under the sure hand of director Seth Barrish, Mike Birbiglia delivers his piece with some choice physical gags, winning not only laughs but also hearts.
Plays date for different reasons. Even a work as damning and compassionate, as violent and loving as David Rabe's "Streamers" suffers from events beyond its control.
The trouble with "Mindgame" is that the twist is fairly obvious five minutes after the show starts. The second act is just as easy to predict.
Virtual worlds powered by increasingly complex Internet sites send friends from two very different parts of the country into a head-on collision in Joshua Scher's intriguing play.
The Neo-Futurists are challenging without being confrontational and smart without being pretentious.
The characters in "Made in Poland" are so familiar that it takes a moment to realize that the action is taking place in Poland and not in heavily Polish Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
As woman after woman pleads with the dead soldier she loved to allow himself to be buried, in Transport Group's stylish production of Irwin Shaw's "Bury the Dead," tears ran down my face.
While Noah Haidle's play is somewhat slight and overly tricky, it does display solid characterization and a moving situation.
It's only die-hard Carol Brady fans who'll likely derive unmitigated pleasure from a program deficient in so many ways.
What to call "Arjuna's Dilemma" doesn't matter as much as what productions of its kind will mean for all types of music theatre, especially opera.
The title of Kevin Elyot's engaging play seems to refer mostly to its characters' penchant for talking a lot without listening too carefully.
A flashy and poignant 55-minute fusion of clowning and tap dance, "Time Step" is a tickling theatrical blend created by Parallel Exit, a company committed to making physical theatre inspired…
A 15-year-old landscaper approaches a lonely middle-aged man who has few apparent attractive qualities, lies about his age, and the two fall in love. From this dubious starting point, playwr…
Playwright Rich Orloff packs a lot of agile humor this collection of nine short plays dealing with the physical and psychological challenges faced by the disabled. As performed by an engagin…
The 1950s revival continues to run rampant, especially for those of us who remember the decade, however dimly. In this production of the 1954 comedy, the production values are serviceable; t…
Eager as a puppy to be liked, Oron Stenesh needs to make some effort—or a director does—to rein in some of his impulses so he can let go of others.
Marilyn Maye has plenty to teach anyone wanting to do a cabaret act.
It's one thing to make a cabaret debut at 86. It's quite another to look as if you've been doing it all your life.
The artistic director for New York Stage and Film talks about how a small company thrives in the big city.
