8,501 stories from Backstage
There's a fascinating play buried within Jason Grote's sprawling and intellectually ambitious fantasia on "The Arabian Nights," but it may take just a bit more magic to bring it out.
In "Milk-n-Honey," an ensemble piece composed of monologues and brief encounters centered on food, we encounter the sweet and the sickly ties we share with what we consume. It's laudatory to…
"Speech & Debate" - the high school-set debut play of Roundabout Underground - emerges as a showcase in young talent tripping over itself. To be sure, there are currently less frustrating wa…
Despite director Cat Parker's energetic staging, plot problems ultimately keep "Sister Cities" a surface situation dramedy instead of a compelling portrayal of family, grief, and responsibil…
"Crossing Brooklyn," a world premiere musical from the Transport Group, might just be the longest hour and 45 minutes you've ever spent in the theatre.
Jim Knable's "Spain" begins well, demonstrating an imagination in full bloom. But in Act 2, as the early rambunctiousness segues into pastoral romance, the play loses its way.
Though strongly acted and directed, "The Receptionist" is basically a political cartoon illustrating how easily evil can creep into our lives. The message is valid, but the play is so slight…
Richmond Shepard is a whirlwind on stage, and he gives this meditation on moviemaking and madness what spark it possesses.
The emotional core of this 17th-century Japanese revenge play is buried under layers of pretentiousness posing as intellectual theatricality.
Tony Martin, who'll be 95 come January, became the leading contender for the Most Astonishing Cabaret Event of the Year Award when he recently put in two nights at Feinstein's at Loew's Rege…
It isn't long before "What if Saori Had a Party?" abandons ironic cross-cultural inventiveness in favor of trite downtown weirdness and lame metaphors.
"Black Watch" is the most affecting picture of war this side of "Apocalypse Now."
Chazz Palminteri's revival of his 1989 one-man show is a crackling good lesson in storytelling and acting to which director Jerry Zaks lends his customary polish.
Playwright Charles Mee picks apart his process of creating theatrical collages.
Embracing a severe aesthetic, creator and artistic director Diqui James has conjured a performance of meaningless hyperactivity that's not worth the discomfort it exacts.
NAMT festival inspires some to stand up and take notice.
In her latest performance piece, Karen Finley becomes a conduit for our nation's divided soul.
In "The Overwhelming," J.T. Rogers introduces us to the Exleys, an American family visiting civil war-torn Rwanda in 1994. Unfortunately, the playwright's overambitious work leaves theatrego…
You may never have heard of Martin Harvey Friedberg, but if you ever struggled to catch your breath while laughing at the genius of Richard Pryor or squirmed in your chair at the neurotic hi…
Haran does the Day catalogue - or the portion she includes - extremely well, exuding effortless class.
Author Sam Marks' seriocomic two-hander shows some insight into the hostility and insecurity that lurk below the surface of standup comedy even as it fails to demonstrate the least affection…
This moronic musical entertainment is a ludicrous debacle.
David and Joseph Zellnik's musical overlays a modern gay sensibility on a typical wartime crew to illustrate the sheer hell, internal and external, gay soldiers endured in WW II. As a tribut…
"Die Mommie Die!" is a revue sketch stretched way beyond its limits.
