8,501 stories from Backstage
Director Annie Dorsen explicitly states that she doesn't consider her experimental "Democracy in America" to be a political performance; rather, "it is art made in a political way."
As a whole, the actors are outstanding, but creator Layon Gray indulges his artistic notions too easily, harping on the same points repeatedly. With some crucial edits, Gray could have somet…
"Hostage Song" is strong stuff that must be seen to be appreciated.
Playwright Hilary Bettis gives an entertaining, perceptive tour of the confused middle-school mindset.
Bruce J. Robinson's confusing, pretentious play relates its tale so badly that it's a good 30 minutes before the premise is clear.
In his latest work, Stephen Adly Guirgis has delivered numerous powerful individual scenes, directed with a laserlike specificity by Philip Seymour Hoffman, yet there is also a good deal of …
If Maude Maggart's dream is to be a cabaret star, she's achieved it. If her dream is to be a cabaret artist, she's well on the road to realizing it.
"Dirt" details in searing fashion the battered psyche of an illegal immigrant-a 30-year-old Iraqi peddling roses in an American city.This is painful but powerful theatre and all too pertinen…
Happily, playwright Timothy Findley's take is not the usual historical sweep but just one imagined dramatic evening with Queen Elizabeth, with Will Shakespeare and his troupe thrown in for g…
The spooky coolness of Basil Twist's staging of "Petrushka" borders on the surrealistic trappings of a David Lynch film.
The lovable Jon Peterson carries Musicals Tonight!'s heavily staged concert version of "Half a Sixpence" single-handedly. He's a bloomin' sensation.
Theatre for a New Audience applies a high-concept gloss to "Antony and Cleopatra" that's laid low before the action begins. Ironically, director Darko Tresnjak has assembled a cast that migh…
Emotionally stirring, visually stunning, and often breathtakingly intelligent, director Bartlett Sher's gorgeous revival of "South Pacific" restores an American musical theatre masterwork to…
Trained classically, Bergman has over the last few years been making the transition to boitedom, and it hasn't been an easy change. While her soprano is consistently stunning, her mastery of…
Playwright Willy Holtzman explores terrorist acts -- physical and intellectual -- perpetrated by U.S. citizens: timely and potent stuff that's undermined by clichéd writing.
Family values get a good old-fashioned pummeling in these two classic Edward Albee one-acts, powerfully revived by the Cherry Lane Theatre under the playwright's direction.
"Juno" is the perfect example of the kind of show City Center's Encores! series should be presenting - a flawed work unlikely to receive a full revival but still containing enough worthy ele…
It has the makings of a compelling drama. In "The Optimist"'s world, however, there is no balance.
Ernest Hemingway's drama has three acts and runs three hours and could do with some judicious trimming, but the script brims with juicy lines, and its story is fundamentally sound.
This is a powerhouse "Gypsy" you'll want to see. It could have been even more moving if director Arthur Laurents and star Patti LuPone had pulled back just a notch or two.
Adam Bock's play features a central act of symbolism right out of "The Ham-Fisted Dramaturgy Rulebook" and a simplistic theme: People act stupid when they're wasted.
The interconnected vignettes in Ken Urban's playlet seem to be building to some larger message, but he escapes accountability by cutting it short in standard one-act fashion.
We can only hope that the murdering main character's victims suffered less than audiences forced to endure this ridiculously inane musical.
"Even if the show is not too hot, I don't care, I'm not coming back," says Jackie Mason in his new standup show at New World Stages, referring to this purportedly being his "final one-man co…
