Paola Bellu

JUST AS PROMISED, IT’S BIG! IT’S GAY! IT’S JAMBOREEING! Yes, there is a way to escape the post-election blues for 90 minutes: The Big Gay Jamboree at the Orpheum Theatre is the sublimely ridiculous remedy we need. Marla Mindelle — who co-wrote the book with Jonathan Parks-Ramage and the songs with Philip Drennen — definitely has a…

A NEOLITHIC AND LEAN LEAR Shakespeare’s works can be read in many ways and I have witnessed so many diverse stage interpretations that I never know what I am about to see when I venture towards one of his plays. This time it was King Lear, which opened tonight at The Shed, directed by Rob Ashford, Kenneth Branagh,…

THE ZZZZzzz TEAM The Z Team, currently playing at Theatre Row, is a new work by father-and-son team Jeff and Jacob Foy. Directed by Jeff Whiting, it’s advertised to be uproarious: “If The Office and The Bad News Bears had a baby, it would be The Z Team.” Times like this call for lighthearted comedies, so…

OUR SHOCKING HEALTH CARE SYSTEM Rawshock, a new drama by Rita Lewis which opened last night for a limited run by Manhattan Rep at the Chain Theatre, is set in a psychiatric hospital. As is often the case in this genre of plays and films, the people outside the mental health facility are more disturbed…

EVERYTHING ABOUT KAFKAESQUE!, INCLUDING THE COCKROACH, PROVES THAT JAMES HARVEY HAS A HISS, I MEAN, HIT, ON HIS HANDS Full-time lawyer by day, prolific author Franz Kafka wrote at night and died from tuberculosis when he was only 40 — after having burned 90% of his work due to his depression — without having achieved…

LET’S BE FRANKLIN Were our Founding Fathers good fathers to their children? Lloyd Suh‘s play Franklinland, directed by Chika Ike, now having its world premiere at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, concerns one of the greatest polymaths of all time. The only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris, peace with Britain, and…

AN ASTOUNDING CAST CAN’T HELP TO SHAKE THE FEELING THAT WE’VE WITNESSED THIS BEFORE Pedro Antonio Garcia, a criminal defense attorney and a playwright, must have written The Witness Room as a hyper-realistic example of how corrupt our criminal justice system is, but he ends up with what looks like a good episode of Law…

SOMETIMES THINGS HAVE TO GET VERSE TO GET BETTER Medea: Re-Versed, a Hip Hopera by  Luis Quintero, has landed at the Frank Shiner Theatre  and  it  is, without doubt, a memorable experience. Old-school hip hop, the one used for social commentary  in the early 80s,  is the beat throughout the piece — familiar-sounding music created by Quintero to smoothly deliver his…

I’D LOVE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU WANT ME TO SEE It is extremely hard to translate the work of  writers  as ingenious and imaginative as  RyŠ«nosuke Akutagawa, the father of Japanese short stories, into plays or films without falling into flat versions of the complex originals; very few artists have succeeded although many have tried. Presented at…

RESPLENDENT ISLAND Sri Lanka is the epitome of a tropical paradise with golden sand beaches and luxurious palm trees, regal elephants and sexy leopards, the Pearl of the Indian Ocean once known as Ceylon. Its history goes back to at least 125,000 years, before the Europeans came knocking and mayhem started, but very few of…

A FASCINATING SUBJECT BOTH MOLD AND NEW In 2019, antibiotic resistance contributed to almost 5 million deaths globally affecting everyone, no matter what age, race or financial status. Here in the States, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year and more than 35,000 people die as a result. You would never think that…

A DOWNSIZED HURRICANE Hurricane Season at Theatre Row is an experimental play where it’s difficult to understand what is happening, and why, from the beginning to the very end. Produced by Atlanta-based company Vernal & Sere Theatre, written and directed by the talented Sawyer Estes — who uses a lyrical language, abstract movements, and a…

MATTRESS HOLDS THE BREW THAT IS TRUE After 25 years,  Once Upon a Mattress is back on Broadway at the  Hudson Theatre, with a new adaptation by  Amy Sherman-Palladino (creator of  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), directed by Lear deBessonet, and it is a riot. Composer Mary Rodgers, lyricist Marshall Barer, and writers Jay Thompson and Dean Fuller, who created…

IF ONLY THIS MUSICAL WAS CONSTRUCTED WITH THE SAME EFFICIENCY AS THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING Empire, at  New World Stages, is unquestionably a musical created with an adult public in mind, particularly tourists. Considering that it is about the construction of the Empire State Building, you would expect acrobatics on steel beams and creative scenery to…

A MEETING THAT’S TOUGH TO INTERPRET Four months before the  November 2016 presidential elections, a crucial  meeting  took place at Trump Tower between Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.; Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort; British publicist Rob Goldstone; Ike Kaveladze, who worked for Russian oligarch Agalarov; Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet counterintelligence officer; and Russian…