New York

POLITICS AS USUAL Given the nastiness of the recent Republican primary debates and a sense of even worse nastiness to come with the next election, it is no surprise that thoughts of reviving Gore Vidal’s The Best Man would be imminent. Vidal’s gimlet-eyed insight into the peculiarities of the Washington political scene and his trenchant…

A TRIUMPHANT TRAINWRECK If you’ve never applauded a trainwreck, be prepared to do so when you see Peter Quilter’s End of the Rainbow. I am not talking about the gossip-driven, hardly revelatory play about Judy Garland’s last days; I am talking about Tracie Bennett’s devastating portrait of a Ritalin-addled, vodka-soaked, emotionally greedy and equally needy,…

SIMON’S LOST IS FOUND The disappointing turnout for The Neil Simon Plays on Broadway in 2009 suggested that Neil Simon’s style of dysfunctional family comedy, a mainstay of The Great White Way, was suddenly passé.   Brighton Beach Memoirs barely drew an audience, closing within two months, and the planned companion production of Broadway Bound never…

MILES OF TALENT AT LINCOLN CENTER As a reviewer, I don’t like to pander in hyperbole, but since this year has been such a second-rate season in New York, I think it’s safe to say that 4000 Miles will be remembered as one of the best shows of the season. Upon its opening, fortunately, Amy…

MCC GETS CARRIE-D AWAY The myth that youth market musicals are a low-risk venture has gained strength over the last few years in New York City.   Short-sighted producers will overlook disasters  such as  Glory Days in favor of mounting the next potential Spring Awakening.   This phenomenon has never more clearly been on display than in Manhattan Class…

GOOD NEWSIES, BAD NEWSIES A few months ago, the New York theatre community was all abuzz with the announcement that the Paper Mill Playhouse production of Newsies was transferring to Broadway for a limited run.   Cynical insiders were convinced the move was solely for the benefit of Disney’s legal team who could finally control all…

A TAWNY STAR IS BORN Tawny Heatherton is the fictional drag persona created by David Drake, the star of My Tawny Valentine at The Laurie Beecham Theatre. As the niece of Joey Heatherton, Tawny is best known to the world as a one-hit wonder for her single, “Run, Crazy Man,” a song that was huge…

MINT ACTING IN RUTHERFORD & SON The Mint Theater Company’s mission is to “excavate buried theatrical treasures” and bring “new vitality to neglected plays.” No small task as plays usually go out of fashion for a reason; theatrical styles change, the zeitgeist renders them irrelevant, and the avant garde becomes the norm until it becomes…

ALL IN ZI FAMILY In Russian Transport, comedienne Janeane Garofalo expands her range by playing a wisecracking Russian-Jewish matriarch whose domineering attitude toward her daughter conceals a family secret.   The able cast is solidly directed by Scott Elliott in this slice-of-life coming-of-age story, but ultimately, by failing to convey the external pressures and dangers that…

THE NATURALIST THING TO DO In the late 19th century, Naturalism emerged as a viable theatrical style in response to the artifice that had earlier been in vogue.   It was almost inevitable that overly manipulated plots and histrionic acting styles would give way to something more genuine like Naturalism.   Seeing 3-D sets with actual running…

THE SOUND OF TWO BRITS KISSING Stationary sales executive Eddie and sexy casino worker Crystal fumble through their first weekend trip together in Robert Farquhar’s Kissing Sid James. This playful Brits Off Broadway production at 59E59 offers an endearingly awkward portrait of lonely longing and misfit romance. In an uncomfortable phone conversation that opens the…

OUR APOLOGIES FOR TELLING YOU TOO LATE Something is happening in New York theater. With their latest “ugly opera” Apologies (And Other Grey Areas), The Paper Industry explores the uncertainty of beginnings and the possibilities of the present through a compelling combination of design, music, and movement: a thrilling theatrical excavation of Schrödinger and Heisenberg’s…

ONE OF MANY GENESIS STORIES TO COME Creating a fresh twist on the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve is no small feat. Unfortunately, Larry Kunofsky’s The Myths We Need – or – How to Begin   stumbles about with 1920s flare, but with little original insight into what makes us human. Kunofsky casts Adam and…

UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS AT THE FLEA The Flea Theater is currently providing New York theater audiences an interesting illustration of the cultural gap between Asian-Americans and Asians from Asia. Not that I usually am so divisive — I generally feel that everyone has a lot more in common than they have differences — but this month, the…

BURNING BRADSHAW Post-modern theater has yet to live up to the hype.   Whether deconstructing established forms or employing historical eclecticism, American playwrights writing within a post-modern sensibility struggle to justify their dogged pursuits.   Coincidentally, they have yet to produce a single great American play.   Thomas Bradshaw, one of the shining stars in the post-modern constellation,…

THE FEEL GAY HIT OF THE SEASON If you’re pro gay marriage, come see this show.   If you’re ambivalent on the topic, come see this show.   And if you’re against gay marriage, come see this show and gain insight from an evening full of laughs and lessons for all. Collectively, this compilation of original one-act…

HORSEDREAMS AND NIGHTMARES A few years ago, Dael Orlandersmith made a splash with Beauty’s Daughter and Yellowman, winning an Obie Award and being a Pulitzer Finalist.   Her work was largely autobiographical and involved highly poetic language, direct address, and fearless, compassionate explorations into complicated aspects of race, gender, and class.   Basically, she was writing theater…

WAR, BUT NO PEACE John Andert so captivates the audience in Sinan Ünel’s play A Mad Person’s Chronicle of a Miserable Marriage that you don’t want the play to end.   Whether he is the deliciously mad chronicler or Sonya Tolstoy, tortured wife of Leo, or the great Tolstoy himself, he suffuses each character with the…