Thomas Antoinne

ONE HIT, TWO GUVNORS Once upon a time, you could attend theatre by Americans and watch actors who had worked together for decades.   Long rehearsal periods to explore classical texts were commonplace until Reagan cut the NEA.   Acting companies were devastated.   Today American audiences rarely get to see finely honed ensembles perform collaboratively developed classical…

MILES OF TALENT AT LINCOLN CENTER As a reviewer, I don’t like to pander in hyperbole, but since this year has been such a second-rate season in New York, I think it’s safe to say that 4000 Miles will be remembered as one of the best shows of the season. Upon its opening, fortunately, Amy…

MCC GETS CARRIE-D AWAY The myth that youth market musicals are a low-risk venture has gained strength over the last few years in New York City.   Short-sighted producers will overlook disasters  such as  Glory Days in favor of mounting the next potential Spring Awakening.   This phenomenon has never more clearly been on display than in Manhattan Class…

GOOD NEWSIES, BAD NEWSIES A few months ago, the New York theatre community was all abuzz with the announcement that the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Newsies was transferring to Broadway for a limited run.   Cynical insiders were convinced the move was solely for the benefit of Disney’s legal team who could finally control all…

A TAWNY STAR IS BORN Tawny Heatherton is the fictional drag persona created by David Drake, the star of My Tawny Valentine at The Laurie Beecham Theatre. As the niece of Joey Heatherton, Tawny is best known to the world as a one-hit wonder for her single, “Run, Crazy Man,” a song that was huge…

MINT ACTING IN RUTHERFORD & SON The Mint Theater Company’s mission is to “excavate buried theatrical treasures” and bring “new vitality to neglected plays.” No small task as plays usually go out of fashion for a reason; theatrical styles change, the zeitgeist renders them irrelevant, and the avant garde becomes the norm until it becomes…

THE NATURALIST THING TO DO In the late 19th century, Naturalism emerged as a viable theatrical style in response to the artifice that had earlier been in vogue.   It was almost inevitable that overly manipulated plots and histrionic acting styles would give way to something more genuine like Naturalism.   Seeing 3-D sets with actual running…

BURNING BRADSHAW Post-modern theater has yet to live up to the hype.   Whether deconstructing established forms or employing historical eclecticism, American playwrights writing within a post-modern sensibility struggle to justify their dogged pursuits.   Coincidentally, they have yet to produce a single great American play.   Thomas Bradshaw, one of the shining stars in the post-modern constellation,…

HORSEDREAMS AND NIGHTMARES A few years ago, Dael Orlandersmith made a splash with Beauty’s Daughter and Yellowman, winning an Obie Award and being a Pulitzer Finalist.   Her work was largely autobiographical and involved highly poetic language, direct address, and fearless, compassionate explorations into complicated aspects of race, gender, and class.   Basically, she was writing theater…

LOST IN THE LABYRINTH In Outrageous Fortune, Todd London’s seminal work on the current state of new plays in America, he writes that the challenge is finding a way to remain relevant to the American cultural conversation.   With the high quantity of work currently being launched, streamed, and broadcast on electronic media, and the average…

ASUNCION DESCENDING Conventional wisdom in Hollywood says that after you get an Oscar nomination, for the next five years everyone will return your phone calls.   It seems Jesse Eisenberg has decided to parlay his Oscar clout into a production of Asuncion, a play he wrote and stars in at the Cherry Lane Theatre produced by…

LOVE, FONTANA, COMPASSION One of the joys of seeing theatre in New York City Off-Broadway is that, every so often, you get to see a special star-of-the-future appear in the firmament and watch his wattage increase with each role. Santino Fontana’s performance as Joseph in the Roundabout Theatre’s production of Stephen Karam’s lovely new play…

IN OVERPRAISE OF YOUNGER PLAYWRIGHTS One approaches Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Lidless with high expectations.   The play has won the prestigious David C. Horn Yale Drama Prize as well as UT Austin’s Keene Prize where Cowhig received an MFA.   Blackburn finalist, commissions, fringe prizes, and residencies confirm Cowhig as a writer the American Theatre has anointed…

THE WEIGHT OF HIS ELOQUENCE Theatrical gimmicks are often a lot of fun.   The 39 Steps delivered them with panache, and Story Theater taught us never to underestimate the range of the audience’s imagination.   Currently, The New York Neo-Futurists are serving up a new theatrical gimmick in their production of The Complete & Condensed Stage…