New York

GIRL, YOU IN DANGER: THIS WILL DEFINITELY SELL OUT Beginning March 15 (with an official opening on April 10, 2023), you can tune in to the epic and viciously funny new musical White Girl in Danger from Michael R. Jackson creator of Tony-winning Best Musical A Strange Loop (read Stage and Cinema‘s review). Director  Lileana Blain-Cruz  (The…

PRIMARY STAGES  is saddened to announce the passing of Artistic Director Andrew Leynse. Leynse passed on January 20, 2023, following a sudden illness. Statement from Primary Stages: “It is with endless sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Artistic Director, Andrew Leynse. We have lost one of the dearest, kindest, most devoted people we…

Cross-Eyed Bear Productions  will present  Harmony Hall  written and directed by multi-award-winning playwright  Duncan Pflaster.  The production will be presented as part of the  2023 FRIGID Fringe Festival  at  UNDER St. Marks  (94 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10009) with performances on Wednesday, February 15th at 9:50pm; Sunday, February 19th at 7pm; Wednesday, February 22nd at 9:50pm; and Saturday, March 4th at 2pm….

THE ART OF MAKING ART The Collaboration by Anthony McCarten is much more than, well, a collaboration. This riveting performance produced by Manhattan Theatre Club and currently playing at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater is also a conversation, a trip back in time, an art vs. commerce debate, an in-depth character study, a class war…

A PIANO PLAYED WELL NEEDS FINE TUNING There’s much to learn in August Wilson’s brilliant play The Piano Lesson. There’s no little old lady running scales but there doesn’t need to be. Because the piano itself and its circumstance – how it came to be, who suffered for it, who died because of it, who…

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…