8,501 stories from Backstage
Harlem Rep makes clear its association with the City College of New York's Department of Theatre and Speech but still purports to be a professional theatre. On the basis of this production, …
One can't help but admire how resourcefully this 16-person ensemble dramatizes the events - character-heavy and action-packed as they are - of the famous 1975 film, even as it inevitably fal…
Anything would be better than this amateurish mess of paranoid political satire, which is the theatrical equivalent of a punishment from God.
Barry McGovern is a masterful Beckett interpreter whose one-man show "I'll Go On" blends Beckett's words with George Carlin's comic timing. The laugh-till-you-hurt/hurt-till-you-laugh result…
"Around the World in 80 Days" matches form and content brilliantly as five actors playing 39 roles perform Mark Brown's adaptation of Jules Verne's adventure story of a race against time aro…
Courting Mae West would not be without its excitement, nor is LindaAnn Loschiavo's play of the same name. Yet though it has all the witty banter and innuendo that's expected, too many storyl…
The cast has energy to spare, but John Heimbuch's violent, nihilistic comedy suffers from a bad case of ADD.
The cast members do the best they can with the material, but Owusu's muddy script falls flat, especially under Rye Mullis' cartoonish direction.
"The Higher Education of Khalid Amir" takes off with a series of hilarious scenes and characters.
When broad comedy fails to catch fire, it can be hard to assess the reasons, but in this case a flaccid script and sloppy direction leave the cast adrift, forcing them to fill in unmotivated…
Though the show is a little heavy on the exposition, Dorothy Parker's surefire material and an adept cast help the play, under Bricken Sparacino's direction, flow well, some rough patches no…
Christopher Evan Welch discusses doing Durang and deviating from disciples.
Craig Pomranz has a terrifically rangy and expressive tenor but doesn't make showing it off in all its splendor his top priority. He's only interested in it for its ability to carry lyrics a…
"Zen and the Art of Doing Nothing," written and directed by Michael Wallach, has flashes of originality, even brilliance, crammed into a creaky backstage story of a nervous actor pressured b…
"Can I Help You?"'s complicated albeit incomplete stories rely on the viewer to connect the dots and make interpretations, elevating it from an obsessively detailed multimedia theatrical exp…
For some, high gas prices drain resources.
Lenora Champagne crams "Traces/fades" with enough material to fill two or three plays. It's little wonder, then, that given the piece's running time - just 60 minutes - much of the work feel…
Bare skin is the name of the game when it comes to gay-themed plays. Chip Deffaa riffs on this maxim of maximum exposure in "Theater Boys," his attempt at a cheeky musical comedy.
By juggling so many stereotypes without any real intelligence or insight, the crew behind "The Red Paintball" sadly seems to have shot itself in the foot.
Philip Mutz's play is exactly the type of fluffy fun one always hopes to find in festivals but so rarely does.
Who is this hermitic, tormented man on stage? It's Liam Neeson, of course, wearing a forlorn yet mysteriously blank-faced look.
"[title of show]" is a delightful 90 minutes, fueled by the passion, wit, and wackiness of its creators.
Lenelle Moïse's music has a beat that gets under your skin, fascinating rhythm, and real theatrical power. It's new. Expatriate, however, written and composed by Moïse, recounts famili…
"Bed and Breakfast" craves to be nothing more than a friendly boulevard comedy, an assemblage of pleasant gay personalities rather like, say, "The Last Sunday in June" of a few seasons back.…
At almost two hours, "Daguerreotypes" is a punishingly long time to sit in the Where Eagles Dare Theatre's wicker seats and unfortunately not quite worth the red lines your skin will accrue.
