New York

THE RIGHT GIRL IN THE WRONG VENUE Created by Neil Bartlett and Jessica Walker, The Girl I Left Behind Me – which is part of the Brits Off Broadway festival – is a tribute to British and American male impersonators of decades past, in which Ms. Walker, dressed in tails and switching out hats and…

WHITE-COLLAR BULLYING Mike Bartlett’s play Bull begins with a team of three white-collar salespeople, Tony (Adam James), Isobel (Eleanor Matsuura) and Thomas (Sam Throughton) awaiting the arrival of Carter (Neil Stuke), their supervisor, who will interview each of them and then decide which one he will let go. What ensues is Tony and Isobel’s systematic…

ALMOST MAGIC Although the magic tricks in Bullet Catch are not so much ends in themselves as they are tools used to help explore the show’s themes, the effectiveness of the play  – named after the occasionally fatal trick first developed in the 17th century, in which the magician attempts to catch a bullet fired from…

SEEING ISN’T FEELING Blythe Duff and Andrew Scott-Ramsay deliver rich, convincing performances in David Harrower’s worthwhile if not completely satisfying play Good with People. Part of the Brits Off Broadway festival, currently at 59E59 Theaters, this two-person show concerns itself with the interaction between Helen (Ms. Duff), the middle-aged manager of a small hotel in…

A SHOWCASE FOR EMERGING ARTISTS When watching Artistic New Directions’ presentation of An Eclectic Evening of Shorts: Boxers and Briefs VI, a collection of six ten-minute plays, plus three short improvisational pieces, one must keep in mind that these are not so much completed works as they are works-in-progress, exercises that give playwrights, directors and…

GO ASK ALICE “Do you take dictation?” the gentleman asked as he gently closed the door to the study. Seated at an antique rolltop desk, I responded with an eager “Yes,” picked up a gold pen and began to write on the notepaper he placed in front of me. “Dear Alice:” This man, I realized…

SUGAR RUSH An adorable piece of clever and very funny fluff, Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike takes spoonfuls of ingredients from Chekhov’s plays and mixes them into an American-comedy batter. The result is a very sweet, sugary desert: exhilarating and tasty but innutritious. Vanya (David Hyde Pierce) and Sonia (Kristine Nielsen)…

A BREAKFAST THAT LEAVES YOU HUNGRY FOR MORE Richard Greenberg’s new theatrical adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany’s owes more of a debt to Truman Capote’s novella than to the iconic film starring Audrey Hepburn, but audiences will arrive to the Cort Theatre with certain expectations. In particular, one might expect a scene of Holly Golightly…

HIT THE WALL When Hit the Wall, Ike Holter’s new play about the 1969 Stonewall Riots, opened at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater’s Garage Rep last year, it quickly passed into theatrical mythology; reports from friends and fellow critics hyped a phenomenon. Holter’s play reimagines the Stonewall Riots from the firsthand perspective of the queer community who…

THE BEAUTY OF MAKESHIFT THEATER Even with all its flaws Bedlam’s revival of George Bernard Shaw’s masterpiece Saint Joan is an immersive and ultimately gratifying theatrical experience. Under Erick Tucker’s breathless direction the three-hour play, which tells the story of the last two years or so of Joan of Arc’s life, whizzes by, with the…

A LESSON IN CHARACTERIZATION Carol Kane’s magnetic performance turns Craig Lucas’s dramatically thin comic thriller The Lying Lesson into compelling entertainment. Ms. Kane plays Bette Davis (the movie star, in her November years), who arrives incognito to an empty house in Maine that she is the process of purchasing, a couple of days prior to…

AN OPERATIC DEATH IN VENICE A storm blackens the skies, casting a shadow on the land.   The citizens and soldiers of Venice sway with anticipation, waiting for their mighty general to triumphantly return. In the center of an impressive, multi-tiered wartime display embellished with cannons, hangs Jesus Christ on a crucifix, his light shrouded by…

ACTING ON THE POLITICAL STAGE “Another play about Chekhov?” I thought as I settled into my seat for Neva, written and directed by Guillermo Calderón.   Contemporary theater often seems plagued by insularity: artists write plays about other artists, which in turn attract an audience of artists. Rather than direct our attention to the world beyond…

NO RESURRECTION HERE While the snow is thawing and the flowers are getting ready to shoot out of the soil, the August Strindberg Repertory Theatre, a newly-formed company that’s dedicated to bringing Strindberg to American audiences, presents an ambitious production of Easter which is sure to get you reflecting on, and perhaps preparing for, the…

THE PRINCE OF PEARL Through ribald jokes and fiery speeches, spit flies during The Pearl’s solid and satisfying production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1. The second part in a tetralogy of history plays (encompassing Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V), Henry IV is a work of epic proportion, well…

GO TO THE DEVIL With his lanky limbs draped over a rocking chair, the Devil has an undeniable magnetism. This storyteller exudes a Southern, gentlemanly charm – but dark motives lurk behind his twinkling eyes. “Sit with me, friends,” he lures the audience in. “Let’s wait for somethin’ to happen.” The “somethin’” that follows is…

CALCULATING, BLUNT, DISTURBING AND INTENSE The name Amy Herzog seems to be on the tip of every theatergoer’s tongue lately. Hot on the heels of The Great God Pan, 4000 Miles and After the Revolution, New York Theatre Workshop brings us Herzog’s newest play Belleville – a disturbing domestic thriller. In a chic bohemian apartment…

THE PARADOX OF A CONTEMPTUOUS PLAY AND ITS AFTEREFFECTS Early in Act II of Paul Downs Colaizzo’s incisive new play Really Really, my theatergoing companion Liz let out an audible sigh of frustration at the same moment as I slouched in my seat and crossed my arms. All too predictably, this is where the drama…

THIS IS NOT YOUR TEXTBOOK BRECHT While productions of Brecht’s plays are often weighed down by theatrical theory and didactic political messages, The Foundry Theatre jolts the audience to attention with a fresh and vibrant production of The Good Person of Szechwan. The Foundry Theatre plays free and loose with this translation by John Willett,…