Dmitry Zvonkov

CHILD’S PLAY Adapted by Jeremy Bloom from J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy and A Little White Bird, Peter/Wendy, which Mr. Bloom also directs, is a charming, semi-interactive theatrical experiment in which a group of delightful young performers in pajamas play out a retelling of the story of Peter Pan (John Charles McLaughlin) and Wendy…

A CURE FOR INSOMNIA Dan Frost’s evocative performance as the artist Roger Hilton isn’t enough to save Botallack O’Clock, written and directed by Eddie Elks and currently being performed as part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, from being an excruciatingly boring and drama-free 70 minutes. According to legend Hilton hardly left his bed during…

SKETCHY BLUEPRINT The great John Turturro stars as the architect Halvard Solness in David Edgar’s translation of Ibsen’s enigmatic chef-d’oeuvre The Master Builder, which is currently being performed at BAM’s Harvey Theater under the direction of Andrei Belgrader. Mr. Belgrader chooses to take what might be called a more traditional approach to staging the work,…

A PLAY CANNOT LIVE ON CONCEPT ALONE Nicole Pearce’s lighting and Katie Down’s sound design and musical compositions, which are works of art in themselves, go a long way in helping make The Play Company’s production of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s The Golden Dragon (translated by David Tushingham) a dynamic and exciting, if not completely satisfying, spectacle….

WHAT MAKES A FAMILY What makes a family? What keeps one together? And what do you do when you’re stuck in one that doesn’t fit in with how you want yourself or your life to be? These are the questions Bob Glaudini appears to be trying to answer with his slice-of-life drama A Family for…

THE RIGHT GIRL IN THE WRONG VENUE Created by Neil Bartlett and Jessica Walker, The Girl I Left Behind Me – which is part of the Brits Off Broadway festival – is a tribute to British and American male impersonators of decades past, in which Ms. Walker, dressed in tails and switching out hats and…

WHITE-COLLAR BULLYING Mike Bartlett’s play Bull begins with a team of three white-collar salespeople, Tony (Adam James), Isobel (Eleanor Matsuura) and Thomas (Sam Throughton) awaiting the arrival of Carter (Neil Stuke), their supervisor, who will interview each of them and then decide which one he will let go. What ensues is Tony and Isobel’s systematic…

ALMOST MAGIC Although the magic tricks in Bullet Catch are not so much ends in themselves as they are tools used to help explore the show’s themes, the effectiveness of the play  – named after the occasionally fatal trick first developed in the 17th century, in which the magician attempts to catch a bullet fired from…

SEEING ISN’T FEELING Blythe Duff and Andrew Scott-Ramsay deliver rich, convincing performances in David Harrower’s worthwhile if not completely satisfying play Good with People. Part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, currently at 59E59 Theaters, this two-person show concerns itself with the interaction between Helen (Ms. Duff), the middle-aged manager of a small hotel in…

A SHOWCASE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS When watching Artistic New Directions’ presentation of An Eclectic Evening of Shorts: Boxers and Briefs VI, a collection of six ten-minute plays, plus three short improvisational pieces, one must keep in mind that these are not so much completed works as they are works-in-progress, exercises that give playwrights, directors and…

SUGAR RUSH An adorable piece of clever and very funny fluff, Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike takes spoonfuls of ingredients from Chekhov’s plays and mixes them into an American-comedy batter. The result is a very sweet, sugary desert: exhilarating and tasty but innutritious. Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and Sonia (Kristine Nielsen)…

THE BEAUTY OF MAKESHIFT THEATER Even with all its flaws Bedlam’s revival of George Bernard Shaw’s masterpiece Saint Joan is an immersive and ultimately gratifying theatrical experience. Under Erick Tucker’s breathless direction the three-hour play, which tells the story of the last two years or so of Joan of Arc’s life, whizzes by, with the…