Fluent Forever is an innovative language learning app that targets language acquisition from a distinct perspective. Unlike traditional apps that focus on rote memorization, Fluent Forever a…
The advent of technology has made language learning a more accessible endeavor, thanks to the proliferation of education-focused applications. Here, we delve into the details and provide a c…
Language learning apps have become popular due to their accessibility and user-friendly approach. However, many users express disappointment when these apps fail to deliver the desired resul…
Some of what follows appeared here ten years ago. Hoping it stands up to a re-reading and amuses first timers.) Â As a struggling actor back in the day, I drove a cab, tended bar…the us…
I became an ardent fan of playwright Theresa Rebeck in 2007 with "Mauritius," her Broadway debut. About a disputed inheritance of that British colony's rare and extremely valuable 1847 posta…
Most actors will tell you they would rather play the villain than the hero. The bad guys are often more complex, sometimes amusingly so, and they dominate their scenes. The appeal may be inb…
There is some practical insight in "Colin Quinn: Small Talk," the actor/comic/writer's solo standup gig at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the West Village. Who knew, for example, that the key…
Most full-scale musical shows run several weeks of previews before submitting to critical evaluation; some even longer, with mixed results (cue "Spiderman"). The New York Gilbert & Sulli…
It is an unusual opening number for an orchestral jazz concert/revue: a strikingly evocative solo rendition of the legendary Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag."Â Even more unusual, the wonde…
You need not be closely familiar with William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" or with his personal life to enjoy "& Juliet." References to both are deployed liberally throughout, but th…
A "Shaggy Dog" story is one with a high-stakes build-up and much activity that comes to an anti-climactic conclusion, like an elongated joke with an unfunny punchline. A serious shaggy dog s…
My first Mike Birbiglia show was "Sleepwalk with Me" in 2008 at the Bleecker Street Theater, where some of the 199 seats were behind poles. The 80-minute self-written monologue recounted how…
Most solo shows are one act affairs that run about 90 minutes or less. "Walking With Ghosts" is just Gabriel Byrne, sharing memories and spinning tales for well over two hours in two acts. I…
If you want to know what a stage director does (or can do) for a play, you might want to first read Alice Childress's "Wine in the Wilderness" and then get yourself to Two River Theater in R…
On consecutive evenings last week, I saw what are likely the longest and shortest works, in terms of running time, currently on New York stages. The long one, clocking in at well over three …
As much as I admire and am entertained by fine classical acting " at Stratford and in Central Park, for instance " and by complete-package musicals ("The Prom" and "Into the Woods" come to m…
This piece is prompted by the current Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," which I am scheduled to see on October 12. Neither a review nor an analysis, it is just some …
"Strings Attached" is about three physicists, an American woman and two British men, on their way by train from Cambridge to London to see Michael Frayn's science-based play "Copenhagen." Ju…
An esteemed scholar once wrote about "Waiting for Godot" that "We all bring to Samuel Beckett's play whatever is uppermost in our minds." As tidy as that seems, my "Godot" experience has bee…
Mrs. Nugent should have quit while she was ahead. When she went to the Brady home to complain that her son Philip was being bullied by Francie Brady, Francie's ma was ready to punish him. Ye…
Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," reportedly his own personal favorite, has weathered so many revivals and revisions since its 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning premiere that allusions…
It is fascinating to imagine the processes that went into mounting the Broadway revival of "Into the Woods." Not only Stephen Sondheim's exquisite music and lyrics and James Lapine's unifyin…
As written for MediaNews Group in Michigan: However you define Power Couple, you will not find a more representative theatrical pair than actor Colm Feore and director-choreographer Donna Fe…
From 1968 to 1973, "SOUL!," America's first Black-hosted nighttime TV talk show, celebrated Black literature, poetry, music and politics, largely in interview formats. In 1971, prolific poet…
One of my favorite theater memories is of seeing Phil Silvers in "Do Re Mi" in 1960. In a scene where his character is producing a recording session, Silvers tells the six on-stage musicians…