New York

THIS ONE’S A BEEPER Richard Saudek’s one man show beep boop begins with a man struggling to break through an elastic translucent membrane. He succeeds and is born — spit out of a womb — emerging dressed like a Brooklyn millennial and holding a smartphone. What follows is a brilliant display of mime and clown…

EVERYTHING’S FINE, BUT WHAT IF WE HAD ALSO BEEN AFRAID? Starting out as a parody of Edward Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Kate Scelsa’s Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf is a whimsical and witty feminist attack on what the play views as the failings of male dramatists. An abundance of quips, clever remarks, and…

YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART Here’s the thing: This solo show written and performed by John Lithgow, the endlessly talented star of more movies, TV shows, and plays than there are stars in the heavens, is downright delightful. Few performers possess the charisma and, frankly, the chops to straddle a stage alone and draw you in…

NOT JUST HORSING AROUND After watching Paul Calderon’s quite gripping tale of thugs and scammers trying to grift a deal whatever way they can, you’ll start to wonder, “Um, wouldn’t it be easier to just get a real job?” I mean, a scam is fun, I get it – I’m a theater critic and we’ve…

LET THERE BE DARK A group of campers sits around the warm glow of campfire embers and tries to retell a favorite episode of  The Simpsons. One man excitedly recalls and performs “Cape Feare” with entertaining accuracy. Others chime in with a few lines and impersonations, goading on his storytelling when he falters. No doubt some…

A REY OF SUNSHINE ENDS UP CLOUDY Director Chay Yew mounts a spectacular production of Luis Alfaro’s Oedipus El Rey, a reworking of Sophocles’ tragedy set in the Barrio of present-day Los Angeles. Energetic performances, excellent use of a spare but effective set, dramatic lighting and music all make a powerful impression. This in spite…

FULL MEASURE More often than not, stagings of Shakespeare plays turn into dull, tedious exercises. The reasons for this vary but the one problem that always seems present is the lack of an artistically significant personal and urgent connection between material and interpreter. To put it another way, one often gets the sense of productions…

UNDER INSPECTION Michael Urie pops and sparkles as Ivan Alexandreyevich Hlestakov, a foppish but penniless out-of-work clerk who gets mistaken for the Czar’s inspector by the corrupt officials of a Russian backwater in Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s Revizor. Reimagined by Mr. Hatcher as an out-and-out farce and directed as such by Jesse Berger,…

ROOM TO GROW In a way Scott McPherson’s Marvin’s Room is a perfect play. It’s like a well-ordered house, comfortable, professionally decorated, where everything works. The story is straightforward, told simply, about real people with real problems. We empathize with the characters and sympathize with their plight. Anne Kauffman’s tempered direction for Roundabout Theatre Company…