New York

AN ARTISTIC PLEA FOR CHANGE In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and the Blizzard Nemo, global climate change is increasingly palpable. As inclement weather infringes on our day-to-day activities, we should consider the human action that has propelled our world into these storms. Cynthia Hopkins’ sweeping multimedia musical work This Clement World is a mixed…

A DULL DESCENT INTO HELL The charisma and passion Ethan Hawke brings to the title role, Vincent D’Onofrio’s powerful stage presence, a gnarly set by Derek McLane, lovely songs by Latham and Shelby Gains, and evocative lighting (Jeff Croiter), sound (Shane Rettig) and costumes (Cathrine Zuber) all fail to save Jonathan Marc Sherman’s new play,…

FUNNY CONVERSATIONS ABOUT DEATH Hamish Linklater’s very funny, sharp and tender new play The Vandal begins on a cold winter night as a down-on-her-luck middle-aged woman waits for a bus on a deserted street. A skinny high-school boy appears and starts up a conversation. Precocious and lively, he quickly overcomes the woman’s reluctance to participate….

A GAMBLE WHICH DOESN’T ALWAYS  PAY OFF Flashing, fluorescent lights, glitzy blazers, showgirls galore, and an immodest display of drama and decadence are the background for… wait… is that Dean Martin?   No, the handsome and rakish would-be villain of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, played rapturously by tenor Piotr Beczala, is the Duke of a casino.   Set in…

If The Concert is any indication, than the contemporary musical theater scene is overwhelmingly characterized by pop rock stylings and a crazy high belt. Celebrating the launch of the Directory of Contemporary Theatre Writers, The Concert at Second Stage Theatre on Monday, January 21, presented an array of new musical theater songs performed by a…

A PLAYFULLY PROFOUND MASTERPIECE “Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re doing this. Okay :” Warm laughter of recognition spread across the audience. This thought had undoubtedly crossed all our minds more than a few times during Life and Times: Episodes 1 – 4, an eleven-hour theatrical event devised by the Nature Theater of Oklahoma…

THE ANTICHRIST IN A COLLEGE DORM The Amoralists’ staging of Lyle Kessler’s new play Collision, directed by David Fofi, is an admirable but flawed effort to explore the motivations of a young white middle-class cult leader and his followers. Featuring dialogue packed with popular philosophical notions and a main character who, in spirit at least,…

AS HARMLESS AS A PICNIC Roundabout Theater Company’s revival of William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Picnic is the perfect show to take your mom to. I know because I did. An excellent cast – which includes Ellen Burstyn, Mare Winningham, and Reed Birney – solid staging, topnotch stagecraft elements, and a well-crafted, thoughtful script full…

BREAKING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER The French expression “C’est du Chinois” means “It’s all Greek to me” – or, literally translated, “It’s Chinese.” The phrase is typically flippant and dismissive of cultural differences, marking a refusal to engage a linguistic barrier. Yet the play C’est du Chinois, conceptualized and directed by Edit Kaldor, creates a rather…

MULTI-DIMENSIONAL The virtuosic Fleur Elise Noble (performer, director, and set designer) constructs a world of artistic possibilities in 2 Dimensional Life of Her. Across a series of flat surfaces – the shadow of a woman standing atop a chair, large panels spanning the back of the theater and stage right, sheets and signs and crumpled…

NOTHING HOLLOW ABOUT IT Is it possible for a person of color to have a “neutral narrative”: A story untainted by race or gender, disentangled from the ghosts of the past, unaffected by theory and –isms? Is it possible for a person of color to have hollow roots, and if so, is an empty heritage…

ASSAULTED If you’re looking to experience the shell shock and the trauma that soldiers undergo during wartime and its aftermath, then head on down to the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University to see David T. Little’s operatic Soldier Songs.   But please heed the warning.   This multimedia event is not your garden-variety…

LAURIE METCALF BELONGS IN THE OTHER PLACE In The Other Place, Sharr White’s riveting and affective play, Laurie Metcalf delivers a poignant and masterfully crafted performance as Juliana, a neurologist and holder of a billion-dollar patent, whose life suddenly starts crumbing before her eyes. The show begins with her – confident, sophisticated, impregnable – lecturing…

A POWERFUL WATER BY THE SPOONFUL CONTAINS CONFUSION BY THE CUPFUL Quiara Alegria Hudes’ 2012 Pulitzer-Prize winning Water by the Spoonful is a bold and provocative drama that uses cyber technology to illustrate the woes of addiction.   Hudes – book writer for In the Heights – draws from true events and real-life family members to…

CHEKHOV REINVENTED, SORT OF The whimsical premise behind Kristen Kosmas’ brilliantly conceived and deftly executed creation There There is this: Christopher Walken, while touring Russia in a one-man show as Solyony from Chekhov’s Three Sisters, falls off a ladder and is unable to perform. When a proofreader named Karen (the dynamite Ms. Kosmas), is urged…

THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION MAY LACK RHYTHM, BUT THIS IS ONE HILARIOUS AND UPLIFTING BARBER If you’re looking to usher in the Holiday season with some good entertainment, then look no further than the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.   Following a traditional commedia dell’arte structure, this delightful French comedy is amusing…

WORKING TOO HARD The actors mingle around onstage dressing room tables as the audience takes their seats. The stage manager (Rebecca McBee) calls cues from a corner upstage. Even the band, led by the vibrant Alex Lacamoire, is partially visible atop a platform on the industrial set, designed by Beowulf Borit. It feels appropriate that…