New York

SMART SELLS IT Jean Smart is a phenomenal stage actress of great depth and specificity. Not exactly news but since she’s possibly best known as the warm-hearted and slightly naïve “Charlene Stillfield” on the iconic television sitcom Designing Women, it might bear repeating. Currently starring at Studio 54 in the riveting new play Call Me…

EVENTUALLY, EVERYTHING COMES OUT IN THE WASH Woodie King Jr.’s New Federal Theatre has found a new home, relocating from the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side’s WP Theater. Their second offering, The Wash by Kelundra Smith, opened tonight—an earnest, history-minded drama recounting the overlooked 1881 labor strike by Black laundresses in Atlanta,…

COLORISM, CRUISE SHIPS, AND COSMIC RECKONING Black myth meets modern identity in Aishah Rahman’s last work. The glossary page of Britain’s National Gallery website describes the concept chiaroscuro as, “…an Italian term which literally means ‘light-dark’. In paintings the description refers to clear tonal contrasts which are often used to suggest the volume and modelling…

BUZZARDS, BOOTY, AND BECOMING NSangou Njikam’s A Freeky Introduction soars with swagger, satire, and sacred disruption. “An eagle was born in a nest of buzzards,” proclaimed playwright and performer NSangou Njikam in the comical opening monologue of A Freeky Introduction, his new work that opened tonight at Atlantic Stage 2. As Freeky Dee, he embodies…

THIS LUNAR ECLIPSE SHINES WITH QUIET GRACE The seven stages of a lunar eclipse unfold on the Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center, produced by Second Stage. This New York premiere of Donald Margulies’s newest play, which opened tonight, mirrors the structure of a lunar eclipse. Told in seven scenes with titles…

A FORGOTTEN CHAMPION RECLAIMED Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival, an annual showcase of contemporary European theater, is unfolding under the banner of Perseverance at Bohemian National Hall—a charming all-purpose venue on the Upper East Side with a pull-out proscenium stage at one end. While the space lends itself well to intimate storytelling, be advised:…

CHEKHOV WITH TEETH For those who’ve never bought the notion that Chekhov’s The Seagull is simply about broken hearts, director Alexander Molochnikov’s take on the play offers a thrilling, subversive vindication. His Seagull: True Story, now showing at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre, is no conventional revival. Brilliantly written by Eli Rarey, it is part…

A WELL-INTENTIONED LOOK AT MENTAL ILLNESS Dream Big World Theatre, Inc. opened Gail Kriegel’s Cracked Open tonight at Off-Broadway’s Theatre Row, tackling the complex and often stigmatized subject of mental illness—especially in young adults. The play approaches this sensitive topic with sincerity and directness, portraying the heartbreak and helplessness that can ripple through a family…

GODDESS ISN’T JUST A SHOW, IT’S A CALLING. ANSWER IT. Goddess, which opened at The Public Theater tonight, doesn’t just arrive onstage like any musical—but like a warm and joyful jazz riff. Loosely inspired by the legend of Marimba, the African goddess who turned heartbreak into healing music, it succeeds in blending folklore with funk,…