8,501 stories from Backstage
Ultimately, this study of the breakdown of a self-appointed cadre of superheroes called the Protectorate hews too closely to the conventions of the comic-book form.
Politicians and other public figures who have been masking their homosexuality behind a marriage seem to be making news regularly of late, but somehow little in Norman Beim's fitfully amusin…
It would be nice to report that this festival of short plays examining Nathaniel Hawthorne from perspectives both faithful and fanciful will inspire audiences to rush to the nearest bookstor…
"North" manages to combine its poetic imagery and associative narrative into a surprisingly moving event. At the center of it all is the angelic singer-composer Heather Christian, who delive…
Playwright Eric Simonson captures the wry, heartbreaking texture of "Slaughterhouse-Five" Too bad director Joe Tantalo's smooth, stylish production insists on a surface-deep sameness that mi…
Ethan Coen is making an auspicious debut as an Off-Broadway playwright. His one-act plays are economically written and delightfully witty. Each hits you like a smack in the head.
In adapting his novel to the stage, Ariel Dorfman has attempted a broader look at tragedy. What he hasn't located is any particular viewpoint. And director Hal Brooks provides a slack outlin…
Peter Constantine's new translation of Niccolo Machiavelli's 1513 play has several elements going for it, including Jim Calder's speedy production. A few of the actors, however, disappoint.
The production would be more successful if the layers of artifice were stripped away to allow the words to speak for themselves.
Joe Mantello allows David Mamet's outrageous satire to take flight by firmly rooting it in believable behavior. This "November" gets my vote.
After you leave the theatre, you can rearrange the pieces of "Church" into something mildly interesting. What you can't do is forget that the actual experience of attending "Church" isn't ve…
As Broadway becomes more reliant on huge spectacle, this inventive adaptation of a classic film demonstrates that two planks and a passion for fun beat a soulless multimillion-dollar blockbu…
Instead of going for the jugular, as George C. Wolfe's script demands, this utterly disappointing production is tentative and restrained.
Producer-director-designer-writer Frank Cwiklik takes the well-worn tragedy and extrapolates the source material (as well as other Shakespearean motifs) into a dark, decadent fantasy world w…
Using a cunningly abridged script by Erik Ehn, "Frankenstein: Mortal Toys" captures the profundity of the novel's message and spectacular landscapes in an intimate and restrained experience.
Director Joshua Carlebach and adaptor Jason Lindner have ably transformed the best-known novel and life story of controversial mid-20th-century existential writer Louis-Ferdinand Céli…
"Terminus" is a rare theatrical experience, one where a master storyteller can shock you, impress you, disgust you, and make you appreciate not only that the play is over but also that you s…
Anyone expecting the inspired lunacy of, say, "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" (perhaps "Riffs on the Kherem of Spinoza?") is sure to be disappointed. David Ives backs up a serious topic…
In its United States premiere, Italy's Teatro Del Carretto brings a revelatory theatricality to the tale of an innocent beset by scoundrels who survives by dint of his capacity for whimsy an…
Productions of Dion Boucicault's 1874 melodrama are rare, so it's a treat to see this excellent version from the Storm Theatre. Director Peter Dobbins, also the company's artistic director, …
With so many cabaret and vaudevillian acts in theatres these days, this offering from the British company 1927 is one of the top wickedly good times around.
Writer-performer Victor L. Cahn does a credible job of clarifying some Holmesian enigmas in this one-man show, though he can't resist the temptation to re-create the great detective in his o…
Director Deborah Warner's triumphant National Theatre of Great Britain revival of Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days," in which Fiona Shaw gives a groundbreaking, highly original performance, is r…
Fiona Shaw talks 'Happy Days' and 'Harry Potter.'
