Review: “The List” at the Players Theatre
“How many people have you had sex with, and what would they say about you?”
That’s the central question that’s asked repeatedly in the show The List, and it’s also the one which the show revolves around. The brainchild of photographer turned director Kirra Cheers, this production is based on the true stories of one man’s – referred to only as “K” in this show – past sexual partners in real-life, with the creator tracking each of them down, in the hopes of getting them to divulge their stories for a supposed artistic project. It’s a concept that only feels more and more strange, and also lost my attention as an audience member, over the course of its performance.
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Review: “There's Blood at the Wedding” at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
Of the many problems in America today, police brutality and racial discrimination have been some of the most toxic and recurring problems that have constantly plagued our society. While a number of highly-publicized incidents – and the subsequent Black Lives Matter movement – have helped draw more attention to these serious issues over the past decade, the reality is that they’ve been going on for much, much longer than that. It’s a reality that’s put on full display in There’s Blood at the Wedding, the latest production to be presented at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.
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Off-Broadway Review: “The Gentleman Caller” at the Cherry Lane Theatre
“The Gentleman Caller” was the predecessor of Tennessee Williams first successful play “The Glass Menagerie” which opened in 1944 in Chicago and happens to be the title of a new play by Philip Dawkins which is having its New York premiere at Cherry Lane Theatre, being produced by Abingdon Theatre Company. Perhaps Mr. Dawkins should have taken the hint from the playwrights he pays homage to and realize this present manifestation should be considered a precursor to a script that reveals the underlying pain and struggle of his characters to counterpoise the gay sexual farce that is currently being presented. Humor without substance or emotion can be nothing more than a manner to foist laughter, and there is enough risible physicality, references and one liners woven into this dialogue to undermine the essence at the core of his two characters.
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Review: Clare Barron’s “Dance Nation” Explores the Angst of Adolescence with Cathartic Wit
Separation-individuation is one of life’s most difficult passages: it is completed successfully by most; however, more than might be suspected remain in the mire of adolescence all their lives. Prepubescence is supposed to erupt in adulthood – adults emerging where clingy parent-dependent pre-teens once held sway. It is a passage equally traumatic to boys as it is to girls, but in “Dance Nation” currently running at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater, playwright Clare Barron chooses to focus on this process from the point of view of “pre-pubescent” girls. The trope chosen to immerse the audience in this time of trauma is the extended metaphor of the dance studio.
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Review: “Randy Writes A Novel” at Theatre Row
It’s Friday night, and as I am most days, I am spending my night at the theater. This time, rather than a show that involved the usual dialogue of sorts between humans, I was off to see a PUPPET SHOW! I have to say, although I knew from the beginning that tonight’s show I’d be reviewing would be a bit different, it turned out to be more different – and more hysterical – than I’d honestly been expecting from Randy Writes a Novel.
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Review: “The Spring Fling Chemistry” at F*It Club
As anyone who has ever attended or been part of a night of short one-act plays knows, these things can often be a mixed bag. Only occasionally do all of them shine. That’s been my own personal experience with these types of events, anyway. However, when I had the chance to see The Spring Fling, F*It Club’s annual series of one-act plays, I was thankfully treated to one of the better short play events that I’ve reviewed.
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Review: “Impossible But True” at Franklin 820
It’s Monday. You just got off work, after a stressful day. Maybe you need to do something to help you relax a bit, to help you get through the rest of your day. What do you do? Well, there are three things you can treat yourself to: A good drink, some musical theatre, and a trip back to the late 18th-century. Or at least, that would appear to be the suggestion of writer/composer Dan Furman, whose entertaining musical Impossible But True is now being revived in Brooklyn – and in quite a unique fashion – over the next month.
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Review: “The Fan” and “The Diplomat” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
So here we are: My last night of reviewing at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, (at least, until I provide my OnScreen review of the short films premiering at the beginning of May) and I once again found myself being treated to two shows for the price of one, so to speak. Both plays had relatively simple titles – The Fan and The Diplomat – but at least one of them proved to be a very deep and thought-provoking work of contemporary drama, and the other proved to be mildly entertaining – if not somewhat cliché – as well.
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Review: “Trash Talk” and “Sailing Stones” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
By the time I reached my next to last day of covering the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, I had seen a good mix of plays that were phenomenally good; plays which had potential, but perhaps needed further development; and at least one play that was straight-up bad. It truly was an eclectic mix here, as it is at many festivals, and I was left guessing what I’d be in for, as I awaited two more shows in the same time slot that night.
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Review: “Blood Orange” and “Mirrors” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
It was my fourth day of reviewing shows at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, and once again, I was treated to not one, but two, shows during the same performance slot. Not unlike the last time I was here, there was one play that was clearly better than the other, but that was not the only difference that I noticed on this night.
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Review: "Made to Dance in Burning Buildings" at Joe's Pub
Sexual assault has long been a major issue in society, but only recently – particularly in the wake of the #MeToo movement – has the media and pop culture been starting to pay as much attention to this topic – and the need to eliminate the culture that allows this to happen – as should have been given long ago. With this, there has been a great surge of art being created to speak out on these important issues, and Made to Dance in Burning Buildings by Anya Pearson is one of the most creative and visually stunning examples that I’ve seen recently.
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Review: “Past Perfect” at Manhattan Repertory Theatre
It’s not uncommon to see theatre explore issues concerning the LGBTQ community. Some of the best plays I’ve reviewed over the past year or so are the ones that do a superb job at doing exactly that. However, what I haven’t seen as often are plays which specifically focus of LGBTQ parents. Yet Past Perfect – a new full-length play written by Rita Lewis – attempts to do exactly that. Earlier in the year, I had been invited the review the show during its return to Manhattan Rep’s stage, and after a minor delay in this production’s return, I had the chance to get a glimpse this past weekend.
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Review: “The Diabolical Dr. Fiend” at the Producers Club
As some of our readers might remember, last month I had the chance to review a show called What’s New, Groovy Gang. It was my first introduction to the Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble, the long-running comedy group that has been thriving in the indie theatre scene for nearly a decade now. Recently, I had the chance to catch their next show of the season, and as much as I enjoyed their last show, this one proved to be even better.
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Review: “Switzerland” at Hudson Stage Company
Because James Fenton’s set design for “Switzerland” is so stunning, it takes several minutes to notice the antique weapons arrayed inside the beautiful, sleekly modernist study he’s fashioned. This collection of swords, daggers and pistols brings to mind crime thrillers like “Sleuth” and “Deathtrap,” which is apt since the room and the armaments in question belong to writer Patricia Highsmith, best known for novels and short stories that meld murder, eroticism and moral psychology. No doubt this small arsenal will figure prominently in the plot of “Switzerland.” That is to say, there will be blood, along with much speculation about what spilling it may mean.
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Review: “Strings” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
This tumultuous decade has largely been marked by a rise in racially motivated shootings, which often are followed up by the perpetrators walking away free without any consequences, even as such violence and bigotry continues to escalate. As a result, it makes sense that more and more people are waking up to issues of the criminal justice system in America, and in particular, how the system is biased against people of color. They are the same issues that Strings, which recently ran at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, explores in an unapologetically raw and honest way.
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Review: “45 Coffee Dates” at the Players Theatre
I love coffee. As do, I think it’s fair to say, the vast majority of us who work in theatre. Indeed, I often find myself surprised when I meet someone who says otherwise, in this industry. However, if there’s anything I love more than enjoying a good cup of coffee, it’s enjoying it with someone else. So I had a feeling that I’d probably enjoy watching a play that immediately seemed to revolve around that, and in the end, I got slightly more out of this story than I was expecting.
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Off-Broadway Review: “The Seafarer” at Irish Repertory Theatre
The latest offering of the Irish Repertory Theatre is the revival of “The Seafearer” by Conor McPherson, which opened on Broadway in 2007 and was nominated for a TONY award for best play that season. It follows the renowned style of the playwright, producing incredible natural dialogue, executed in somewhat ordinary life situations, with a collection of disreputable characters, and always providing a mysterious twist to maintain an interesting plot. In this case it is the story that revolves around the Faustian character “Sharky” who won a card game with the devil while in jail for murder, where the stakes were high: his soul or his freedom with the condition that if he won there could be a rematch at any time.
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Off-Broadway Review: “Mlima’s Tale” at the Public’s Martinson Hall
Mighty Mlima, “Kenya’s most famous elephant,” – the old, large elephant “with extraordinary tusks” – is murdered for those tusks by the Somali poachers Raman and Geedi. The story of that slaughter and how the magnificent tusks become part of the global illegal ivory trade is the subject of Lynn Nottage’s “Mlima’s Tale,” currently running in the Public’s Martinson Hall. This monstrous tale is relayed with exquisite detail and stirring magical realism from the killing of Mlima to the display of his intricately carved tusks in the new flat of nouveau riche Alice Ying in Bejing.
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Review: “Sublet” and “American Tranquility” at the Downtown Urban Arts Festival
There’s a simple fact about theatre festivals that I try not to mention quite as much, if only out of respect for all the artists who put up their work: Some of the shows that are produced there are truly brilliant; other shows have potential, but need further development; then, there are the ones that are just flat-out terrible. During my most recent visit to the Downtown Urban Arts Festival, I had the chance to see the two extremes on full-display, in the form of two one-acts that couldn’t possibly be more different from one another.
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