Seating Arrangements - Reviewed by DAVID A. ROSENBERG

Before it descends into solipsism, Seating Arrangements is an earnest homage to Babette's Feast, the great Oscar-winning Danish film based on an Isak Dinesen story. But by the time the actio…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Philoktetes - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

John Jesurun's theatrical meditation on mortality, cruelty, abandonment, and memory unfolds compellingly, but the auteur director has directed his cast to favor his glorious poetry over dram…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

The Oxford Roof Climber's Rebellion - Reviewed by KARL LEVETT

The first thing that you should know about this play by Canadian Stephen Massicotte is that it glows with an uncommon intelligence. These 95 minutes are among the most sophisticated and abso…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

A Glance at New York - Reviewed by HARRY FORBES

"A Glance at New York" was purportedly a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. On home turf, this virtual time machine should find audiences just as welcoming.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

War of the Worlds - Reviewed by A.J. MELL

RadioTheatre's production of the H.G. Wells' classic is a typically spirited offering, done with real affection for the source material and completely untainted by camp.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

A Feminine Ending - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

"A Feminine Ending" by Sarah Treem has a lot going for it, as does the playwright. She writes funny, surprising characters, and her play is self-assured and smart.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

A View From 151st Street - Reviewed by DAVID A. ROSENBERG

Under Peter DuBois' driving direction, the actors -- especially Craig "muMs" Grant as the crazed Delroy -- unerringly draw us into their characters' rarefied lives.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Pygmalion - Reviewed by DAVID SHEWARD

Director David Grindley's production for the Roundabout Theatre Company is a crackling confrontation of wills and wits.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

<cite>Backstage</cite> review by Gwen Orel

A Feminine Ending by Sarah Treem has a lot going for it, as does the playwright. She writes funny, surprising characters, and her play is self-assured and smart.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

David Burnham - Reviewed by DAVID FINKLE

David Burnham arrived on the Metropolitan Room stage for his one-off performance as if he were Tom Cruise itching to tell Oprah about his unbounded passion for Katie Holmes.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Job - Reviewed by RON COHEN

In this thoughtful production by the Storm Theatre, Karl Wojtyla's play, written in 1940, some six months after Germany invaded Poland, emerges as a vivid example of religious drama aiming t…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

None of the Above - Reviewed by MARC MILLER

There's potential here for a) a trenchant study of the college entry process, b) an offbeat romantic trifle, or c) both, but Jenny Lyn Bader's clichéd play remains d).

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Mysteries and Smaller Pieces - Reviewed by PAUL MENARD

This Living Theatre production is a legendary piece of experimental theatre first performed in 1964. Watching it today, one can't help but wonder what happens to the revolutionaries once the…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Kosher Harry - Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER MURRAY

The lesson of "Kosher Harry" is exceedingly timely and apt: Hatred is most dangerous when embedded and normalized into the daily rituals and conversations of our lives.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Love of a Pig - Reviewed by NICOLE VILLENEUVE

On the surface, "Love of a Pig" is the theatrical equivalent of a feel-good chick flick. But "Love of a Pig" isn't just feel-good - it is good.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Sophocles' Electra - Reviewed by GWEN OREL

If you approach the National Theatre of Greece's production of "Sophocles' Electra" at City Center with the patient attention needed for other classical forms, such as ballet, opera, or symp…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Mercy Thieves - Reviewed by A.J. MELL

Connoisseurs of cutting-edge crime fiction should have a swell time.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Naughty Marietta (In Concert) - Reviewed by MARC MILLER

Musicals Tonight! has an encouraging track record with operetta, but "Naughty Marietta"'s lyrics and libretto are of such inanity even Victor Herbert can't entirely rescue them.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Kinderspiel - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

The press material for Kiran Rikhye's "Kinderspiel" promises a "taboo theatre" experience and a "kinky and playful period piece," but the show offers more philosophical ponderings on art's p…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Good Heif - Reviewed by ANDY PROPST

Maggie Smith's imagery for her tiresome new play is as obvious as her tale and conceit, which is easily absorbed within the piece's first five minutes.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Vengeance - Reviewed by CHRISTOPHER MURRAY

This past summer, enterprising Stagefarm commissioned 10-minute plays on the theme of vengeance from five talented playwrights as a response to "the heightened climate of retribution in this…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Start Up - Reviewed by A.J. MELL

The piece has its bemusing moments as well as its occasional longueurs, but it wins you over with its formal adventurousness, charming performances, and sweetness of spirit.

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

When the Messenger Is Hot - Reviewed by JERRY PORTWOOD

I'm unfamiliar with Elizabeth Crane's short stories, but playwright Laura Eason has made me want to go out and read every one by adapting them into this honest, humorous, fantastic, insightf…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Hotel Cassiopeia - Reviewed by ADAM R. PERLMAN

In a modest house on the fantastically named Utopia Parkway, the artist Joseph Cornell arranged the everyday into the enchanting. At the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the fantastically named …

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑

Iphigenia at Aulis - Reviewed by ANDY PROPST

Wiodzimierz Staniewski's adaptation and flamboyant ceremonial staging of Euripides' play, created for his theatre company Gardzienice in Poland, offers moments of great beauty and passion as…

SOURCE: Backstage at 5:58pm on May 25, 2015☆⚑