New York

NOTHING CAN TAKE YOU FROM JEN TULLOCK’S PERFORMANCE We’ve all seen the headline flash on TV:  — New Book Tells All About Author’s Escape from Restrictive Religious Upbringing. It’ss a story that gets covered countless times, no matter what religion or community is involved. People love a tale of empowerment and escape from oppression. Throw…

MIND OVER MATTER: IDEAS TAKE CENTER STAGE IN JOHNATHAN SPECTOR’S INTELLECTUALLY COMPELLING THIS MUCH I KNOW When was the last time you made a choice? What went through your mind? Did you know what you were going to choose before you did it? The psychology professor (Firdous Bamji) who steps onstage at 59E59 Theaters at…

ANDRÉ DE SHIELDS THE REDEEMER André De Shields should be a landmark; for over six decades, he has towered over the worlds of theatre, film, and television with the kind of presence that cannot be imitated. So it is only fitting that he brings Molière’s Tartuffe to another historical New York institution: the House of…

RECONCILING WITH SHANLEY’S PAST In Italian American Reconciliation, playwright John Patrick Shanley, best known for Moonstruck and Doubt, returns to the Bronx of his youth where conversations required full hand choreography, and no emotion was considered too loud or hazardous. This love story is set in Little Italy in 1986, the year of the play’s…

A KNOCKOUT OF CONSCIENCE You always “step in,” says Jacob — that’s what you do when your mates are about to fight. Growing up in The Meadows, Nottingham, that lesson kept him safe (well, safer) than some. But now the loyalty that once protected him has undone him: a single punch, thrown in defense of…

SWEET LIES, STICKY MEMORIES, BITTER GUILT; THE HONEY TRAP STINGS AT IRISH REP In Northern Ireland, The Troubles only ended some 25-30 years ago, though their tensions and legacies reach far deeper into time. Today, Leo McGann‘s play The Honey Trap, now at the Irish Repertory Theatre, reminds us that it was never a tidy…

Justice without mercy becomes punishment, and mercy without justice becomes apathy. But how do we strike the balance when the system and the society behind it seem to have forgotten both? In And Then We Were No More, playwright Tim Blake Nelson invites us into a future so plausible it stings, in an unnamed state…

JOHN LEGUIZAMO’S THE OTHER AMERICANS IS RIFE WITH POTENTIAL THAT’S NOT ALWAYS REALIZED — MUCH LIKE THE AMERICAN DREAM ITSELF There are many kinds of Americans. Some were born here. Some emigrated here. Some were forcibly brought here. But whatever the mode of initial arrival, in time, we all eventually become Americans — enamored of…

LOU WALL SLAYS, AND THAT’S NO LIE Whether a comedian is obligated to tell the truth in their act comes up in mainstream discourse every once and a while. Plenty of comedians start a comedy bit with “You know, a funny thing happened to me on my way over here,” knowing full well it happened…

Years ago, all a magician needed was a top hat and a live rabbit. Magic has come a long way. Jamie Allan’s Amaze uses props, videos, projections and cell phones to do exactly what the title of his show predicts. But Allan does much more than simply overwhelm the audience with slights of hand and…

THE WILD DUCK TAKES FLIGHT: TRUTH, LIES AND QUACKING DELUSIONS While Shakespeare agonized over “to be or not to be,” Henrik Ibsen was more concerned with “why is everyone being so fake?” It’s existential dread versus emotional fraud, and I thought of these two drama kings because The Wild Duck, Ibsen’s play on delusion and…

THE FINE ART OF A THREE-MAN MASTERPIECE Yasmina Reza’s Art returned to Broadway last night starring Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden, and it is a tight, acidic joyride through ego and insecurity, wickedly funny. If you have ever done the silent math of friendship: who listens, who cares, who gives more, who…

THIS SOW BELONGS TO EVERYBODY There’s the actor’s nightmare, there’s nightmare productions, and then there’s Excorcistic: The Rock Musical which is nightmarishly twisted and sick. But don’t worry, it’s a good thing here. The horror musical genre is alive and well, from classics like Sweeney Todd to rock musical adaptations of horror films like Evil…