New York

GIMME MO, MO, MO What would happen if every African American in the United States left the country en masse? And not only would we leave physically but as we left, all of our contributions, innovations, inventions and influences that have benefitted American culture would leave with us. The disappearance of the African American presence…

RED BULL THEATER’S ALL-STAR BENEFIT PERFORMANCE OF YOUR OWN THING PLAYS THIS MONDAY DECEMBER 12 This Monday, December 12, 2022 at 7:30 at the Peter Norton Symphony Space — FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY — Red Bull Theater is set to rediscover the 1968 hit Off-Broadway rock musical Your  Own  Thing —   suggested by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night —…

NEIL DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH OK, we all know who Neil Diamond is. The singer/songwriter Neil Leslie Diamond born of Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn has released 39 albums, with 100 million records sold worldwide. He performed around the globe constantly wearing fringe and flashy sequins, and — of course — wrote an array of…

HEART AND SOUL, INDEED Forget Broadway, this is where the hits keep coming. One of the most vivacious revues to come along since Ain’t Misbehavin’, Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust Road is a smash. With the thin device of a group of friends who congregate at a roadhouse during WWII, you wonder — looking at the dozens…

DOES TIME HEAL ALL WOUNDS? It is not news to write that violence permeates all corners of modern society. Psychological, emotional, sexual and physical violence are rampant. And while violence anywhere is horrific, it can be even more so within a domestic living situation. To be the victim of such abuse or witness a loved…

GETT IN THE MIDDLE A Gett, as described in the program for The Gett, a new play written by Liba Vaynberg and currently running at Rattlestick Theater is described in part as, “A dated and witnessed document wherein the husband expresses his unqualified intention to divorce his wife and sever all ties with her under…

THIS RAT MAY BE A LITTLE SQUEAKY, BUT IT’S WORTH GETTING CAUGHT IN ITS TRAP Elizabeth Gray is perfect as Olive Lloyd-Kennedy, the kind insightful dry-witted writer who predicts disaster if her flatmate Sheila Brandreth (Sarin Monae West), a brilliant young author, marries Keld Maxwell (James Evans), an inferior but popular up-and-coming playwright in Alexander…

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION? Take a look at the  new production photos of Roundabout’s current Broadway revival of 1776, featuring  Kristolyn Lloyd, who joined the company October 25 as John Adams. While you’re doing that, I’ll give you my thoughts on 1776, one of my favorite musicals. You see, Jeffrey L. Page & Diane…

GIMME MO, MO, MO Ain’t No Mo began previews last night on Broadway (the official opening is Dec 1, 2022), having transferred from The Public Theater, where I caught it. It’s a must-see. Ain’t No Mo’ dares to ask the incendiary question, “What if the U.S. government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?”…

MADELINE SAYET LIFTS US UP WHERE SHE BELONGS Near the start of her solo show Where We Belong, currently playing at The Public Theater, playwright-performer-academic Madeline Sayet evocatively states, “Today’s story: is how I became a bird”. This Mohegan Indian performer says this after the first chapter of her story, which describes her experiences at…

CAUGHT BY THE TALE The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare is kind of a weird play. It’s a comedy because a pair of young lovers are united in the end but many awful things happen before these two, crazy kids can tie the knot. The King of Sicilia (Leontes) unjustly suspects his pregnant Queen (Hermione)…

EVERYTHING’S OK Douglas McGrath presents as a nice, well-put together, middle-aged man. Onstage, McGrath wears a nice button-down collar shirt, stylish blazer with a matching kerchief in the pocket, nice khakis paired with nice, comfortable shoes. His thinning grey hair, cut in a nice, flattering style, tops his clean-cut look. Had he walked off-stage mid-show…

AN EPIC JOURNEY TO HEAVEN AND HELL It is 1899 in Vienna, Christmas Eve to be exact, and two families, elegant and refined, are gathered together in what might be called joyous solemnity to celebrate the holiday. On Richard Hudson’s luminously dark set, candlelit to perfection by Neil Austin, they are like a painting stirred…

WHAT’S BEEN DONE TO DEATH What cache Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic Death of a Salesman has in terms of power and artistry, nuance, subtlety and insight, is buried by Miranda Cromwell’s ineffectual staging currently on display at the Hudson Theatre. Neither the director nor most of the cast demonstrate anything but the most superficial connection…

THE COST OF MISSING THIS RAVISHING SHOW Every week in the opening sequence of the eighties television series Fame, dance instructor Lydia Grant would state without irony, “…fame costs and right here is where you start paying – in sweat.” Sweat might be the least of what a person may be called upon to pay…