PTP/NYC’s thirty-second season includes two plays by the company’s “usual suspects.” The double bill, currently running at Atlantic Stage 2, includes four of the ten short plays in Howard Barker’s 1987 “The Possibilities” and Caryl Churchill’s 1977 “The After-Dinner Joke.” Both offerings invite the audience to grapple with provocative content that often seems elusive and controversial and that raises numerous essential, enduring questions.
Read MoreBeartrice Albans (a resolute and Machiavellian Lynda Gravátt) spent her life under the oppressive laws that governed people of color in the colony of Louisiana. Specifically, she was Lazare’s placée a status that allows her as a woman of color to set up common law households with a white man to circumvent legal prohibitions. Beartrice’s mother signed the papers that placed the young woman into this form of indentured servitude. Lazare, of course, was married to a white woman although he and Beartrice had three daughters together. In “The House That Will Not Stand” at New York Theatre Workshop, Marcus Gardley examines what happens to Beartrice and her daughters when Lazare dies (mysteriously) and new American laws – post Louisiana Purchase in 1813 – threaten to leave them homeless and living in poverty. Is there any chance of survival for the house Beartrice “built” during her time with Lazare?
Read MoreUnder Lila Neugebauer’s exquisite direction, the actors playing Mary Page each give intriguing performances that focus on the pastiche of one “ordinary” American facing the dangers inherent in leaving “the crib” and separating and individuating from the nuclear family.
Read MoreThere are several people out there who are dealing with some sort of eating disorder, which is having a significant impact on their health and their day to day lives. Chances are, even if you don’t have an eating disorder yourself, there’s a strong chance that you know someone who does. It’s just like any other mental illness, and deserves far more attention and discussion than it is currently getting from society. Thankfully, The Ugly Kids – one of several outings at this year’s Fresh Fruit Festival – is here to try and shine some light on the effect this issue is having on young people.
Read MoreIf there’s anything that should be apparent to most theatergoers by now, it is the fact that bigotry is alive and well in the United States. Despite the progress made for LGBTQ rights over the past decade, it’s clear that there’s still more that needs to be done, to ensure that everyone in our society is treated fairly and equally. That is especially true, when it comes to people who are transgender, and as Sandy Gooen’s poignant new play Pass/Fail points out, not even places such as theatre or music classes are guaranteed as spaces where people can fully express who they are.
Read MoreThrown under the bus by her ex-husband Greg, a carping, selfish, completely self-centered Jodi Isaac (Idina Menzel) takes the red-eye from Los Angeles to New York City to “celebrate” her a self-assured father Elliot Isaac’s (Jack Wetherall) birthday. However, the real reason for her visit is that she “just, like couldn't physically be in LA knowing” Greg and his new twenty-four-year-old bestie Misty would be celebrating their engagement at a party where all her friends would be present. Jodi brings her twenty-year-old self-absorbed son Benjamin Cullen (Eli Gelb) along hoping a “family” birthday party will please Elliot and bring her some surcease from her angst over losing her fifty-year-old husband to a younger “more beautiful” woman.
Read MoreRinne Groff has created an engaging extended metaphor based on the 1911 fire that destroyed the iconic Dreamland on Coney Island. Counterpointing the event of the suspicious destruction by fire is the destruction by water by superstorm Sandy in 2012 and the “destruction” of Kate (Rebecca Naomi Jones) by the “lesser causes” of betrayal, self-doubt, and prevarication. “Fire in Dreamland,” currently running at The Public’s Anspacher Theater, explores that metaphor and its trove of rhetorical devices that bombard the senses and often places the audience in a surreal wonderland.
Read More“Brecht on Brecht” the theatrical collage of works by Bertolt Brecht first compiled by George Tabori in the early 1960s is appearing at Atlantic Stage 2 in repertory with “The Possibilities” and “The After-Dinner Joke” as part of PTP/NYC’s Season 2018. This is the Potomac Theatre Project’s thirty-second season in New York City. “Brecht on Brecht” features songs and scenes from Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Bertolt Brecht’s most famous collaborations, as well as first-hand accounts from Brecht himself and explores the socio-political and issues the playwright faced as an artist fleeing Nazism for exile in America.
Read MoreIt’s easy to forget that it was only recently – toward the beginning of this decade – that openly gay and lesbian soldiers were allowed to serve in the U.S. military, not to mention how the overall cultural shift in favor of LGBTQ rights is a relatively recent shift that largely began in the 21st century. So when looking back on World War II, when homosexuality was still largely seen by the broader public as if it were some sort of sickness, it’s worth wondering what it must have been like to be a gay, closeted soldier during that pivotal moment in history, and that’s exactly what the new play All My Love, Kate – written and directed by Joe Breen – explores at this year’s Fresh Fruit Festival.
Read MoreDeciding whether or not you and your partner do or do not want kids is a big factor, in terms of deciding whether or not you not only love someone, but whether or not you want to actually spend the rest of your life with that particular person. Particularly when it’s a gay or lesbian couple, who have been planning with medical assistance to have a baby for awhile, then it can come as being hurtful, when one half of the couple suddenly decides – after months, if not years of planning – that they no longer want a child, even if the other passionately does. This is exactly the dynamic that is explored beautifully in Half Me, Half You, the new drama by Liane Grant that recently played at the Fresh Fruit Festival, and at this point, easily ranks as one of my favorite plays of the year.
Read MoreDavid Ireland’s “Cyprus Avenue” currently running at The Public’s LuEsther Hall sneaks up on the audience like a cat burglar armed with an AK-15 assault rifle. What one assumes will be lost is far less than the devastation left behind by the action in Ireland’s disquieting play. The detritus remaining after Eric Miller’s (Stephen Rea) violation of his wife Bernie (Andrea Irvine), their daughter Julie (Amy Molloy) and their granddaughter Mary-May is almost unbearable and not predictable. This all begins with Eric stepping onto the stage (after a considerable pause) and sitting on a chair in his living room in Cyprus Avenue, East Belfast. Bernie enters and asks, “What are you doing sitting there doing nothing?” Eric stares back dumbfounded. The next scene begins with Eric in the office of his psychotherapist Bridget (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo).
Read More“Another Op'nin', Another Show” at the always reliable Westchester Broadway Theatre. Though not Cole Porter’s peerless “Kiss Me, Kate” which WBT staged several seasons ago, the musical just launched in fine fashion is his shipboard lark “Anything Goes,” a show laden with hit songs and swells engaging in lyrical romance and silly hijinks.
Speaking of openings, this production starts rather inauspiciously with a desultory overture during which three couples dance to a few bars of the title song before the first scene begins. Director and choreographer Richard Stafford sticks to this pattern of having short, quasi-balletic interludes during scene changes—a boon for chorus members, even if it contributes to a choppy passage.
Read MoreThere is an interesting historical narrative in the life of Margery Kempe and her ambition to be recognized as a strong, viable female and not oppressed by the male domination of the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, in this revival, that profound persona is construed as lunacy all for the sake of humor.
Read MoreFor younger audiences, it can often be easy to forget the horrors of oppression and censorship that came throughout Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba. While some had hope for the revolution against the wicked Batista, it only was replaced by yet another regime that was so lacking in freedom of speech and expression, it forced many to flee and seek a more open society. It is exactly these reasons for fleeing to the U.S. that Petro Pan – one of several new outings being presented this year at the New York Musical Festival – seeks to remind theatergoers.
Read MoreNora’s Playhouse, a NYC-based women’s theatre collective dedicated to producing women-centric stories, brings to The Tank, whatdoesfreemean?, a world premiere work by Catherine Filloux, an award-winning playwright whose works focus on human rights and social justice themes. Sometimes “Theater with a Message” can be preachy or heavy-handed, but this show is far from that. Visceral and impactful, whatdoesfreemean? approaches incarceration with depth and candor and a bit of whimsy.
Read MoreThis ninety-five-minute adaption of the rarely revived “Carmen Jones” is tightly constructed by Mr. Doyle, with a remarkable cast of ten extremely talented and tenacious actors who embody their characters but also develop their souls. Purists may miss the values of a big Broadway production for which this was written but will certainly experience the intimate essence of a small chamber musical. The production is not perfect but do not miss this opportunity to see this obscure musical brought to life by this impressive cast.
Read MoreWhile doubtlessly conversant with the medium, those born after 1990 probably don’t appreciate the full extent of television’s influence on American culture. Prior to the advent of the personal computer, the Internet and cell phones, TV was how people got most of their information and entertainment.
Read MoreBoth upper-east-side resident Daisy Gamble (Melissa Errico) and psychiatrist Dr. Mark Bruckner (Stephen Bogardus) need clarity in their lives. Daisy lives in the Barbizon Hotel for Women and is applying for a job at Latimer and Latimer and has “until the afternoon” to quit smoking to meet the company’s policies. She is down to her “last month’s rent. Daisy does have a special knack with plants and seems to know when the phone is going to ring. Daisy’s friends Janie Preston (Caitlin Gallogly) and Muriel Bunson (Daisy Hobbs) would not object to some clarity in their lives either. Janie is not so good at plants and not only dates gay men but imagines she can “change” them. Muriel needs to trim three inches off her hips in two days. Muriel has had some success with Dr. Bruckner and invites Janie and Daisy to join her group to address their issues.
Read MoreI generally consider myself someone who has an appreciation of live music, in general. I always love discovering new musicians and bands from the current era, but also to learn more about and listen to artists from past generations who were before my time. So despite being a Millennial, and despite the stereotypes that I feel some people might have for people in my age range, I found myself being able to easily appreciate “Chicago Meets Motown”, the joint tribute music act that recently played at Broadway’s Town Hall this past week.
Read MoreEzra’s (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) stories about his father’s reaction to the news that Ezra was marrying Chris (Phillip James Brannon) and then, later, that they were going to have a baby serve as bookends for Jordan Harrison’s LGBTQ themed new play about “our origins” and how “denying our origins is not healthy nor is denying our children the right to discover who they are and how the will relate to the world.” Friends Jules (Dolly Wells) and Pam (Cindy Cheung) quickly “judge” Ezra’s father; yet, as the ninety-minute play moves forward, the audience – LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ – understands these two married couples are far from having grappled with the complexities of where they are, where they have come from, and where they are going as members of the LGBTQ community that barely understand their small niches let alone understanding “the other.”
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