New York

IRELAND’S GENTRY IS DISINTEGRATING IN FRIEL’S ARISTOCRATS, BUT SO IS THE DRAMA The mid-19th century, with its changing class dynamics, marked the decline of the power of aristocracy in Europe and Russia. Rural landowners, who owned large estates, saw their wealth, power, and mansions disintegrate generation after generation. Brian Friel’s  Aristocrats, playing at the Irish Repertory…

A KINGDOM DIVIDED Sam (Uly Schlesinger) is a bright, articulate and sincere young man. But he is also nervous, sensitive and bitter. In fact, he has recently attempted suicide. Actress Ruby Thomas’s first play, The Animal Kingdom, explores what family relationships might lead to such an act. The play, making its U.S. premiere at the…

LET’S RAISE OUR GLASSES AND CHEER DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES There is an old Irish proverb that goes “A man takes a drink, the drink takes a drink, the drink takes the man.” Based on a JP Miller’s 1958 play, and the brilliant 1962 film adaptation directed by Blake Edwards, Days of Wine and…

A MATTRESS THAT REVIVES AND RENEWS When Encores! announced Once Upon a Mattress as part of their season’s concert series reviving American musicals, my first thought: Does this nutty chestnut need reviving? After all, there have been numerous in-your-neighborhood productions (for decades, Mattress was one of the most-produced musicals in high schools, colleges, and community…

STAGED AT AN EMOTIONAL DISTANCE, OUR CLASS IS A HARROWING REMINDER OF ONGOING ANTISEMITISM At a recent viewing of Joshua Harmon’s Broadway play Prayer for the French Republic, French Jews no longer feel safe with the overt antisemitism in Paris and ultimately ask themselves, “Why do they hate us?” In Our Class by Tadeusz SŠ‚obodzianek…

Directed by Obie-winner Chay Yew, the world-premiere of BATHHOUSE.PPTX by  Jesús I. Valles  is coming to The Flea March 19-April 22, 2024. BATHHOUSE.PPTX is an epic new play that follows Presenter, a gay Latino student, whose PowerPoint presentation on the history of cleanliness and bathing quickly starts to burst at the seams with appearances from the ghosts…

ADVANCE WARNING: THIS CABARET WILL BE THE HOTTEST TICKET ON BROADWAY I saw this production in London, so prepare yourself for the most emotionally raw production of Cabaret you will ever see as Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club — starring Eddie Redmayne as ‘The Emcee’ and Gayle Rankin as the toast of Mayfair ‘Sally…

THIS SHOW ISN’T A CRIME, BUT IT SOMETIMES FEELS LIKE PUNISHMENT Following his return from a decade in exile in Siberia as a dissenter against the Romanov order, Fyodor Dostoevsky intended his second novel, written as much to pay off gambling debts as to share a story, to be called  The Drunkards. It would depict how…

DEAD MEAT There is a notion floating around that critics get pleasure from bashing shows. I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s been my experience that most reviewers love the theater. Personally, I want every production I see to be good, to work, to have something: energy, theatricality, artistry, to be interesting, deep, funny, moving….

The death of childhood is the beginning of poetry. — Andrei Tarkovsky “This is a children’s show,” informed the Krymov Lab NYC stage manager after showing us where we could hang up our coats, “so please pick a child and take it with you into the theater.” She gestured towards an alcove full of “children”…

A SWEEPING MUSICAL PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN WHO CHANGED ART AND CULTURE FOREVER Lempicka, the musical about the Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka, will begin performances at Broadway‘s Longacre Theatre on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, ahead of an official opening night on Sunday, April 14 (info here, tickets here). Amber Iman, Beth Leavel, Andrew Samonsky…

“ARE WE SAFE?” In a world that foolishly brought back authoritarian regimes and fascist rhetoric, as if they didn’t do enough damage to humanity in the past, it is always wise to keep history in mind and “never forget” the atrocities we have committed. With Prayer for the French Republic, on Broadway at the Samuel…

Written, directed and choreographed by Luke Murphy from Ireland, Volcano — at St. Anne’s Warehouse as part of Under the Radar Festival — is a dance/theatre production you will not forget. Not only because it is presented as four episodes, each 45 minutes long, a very unusual format, but for the fluidity of its movements,…