New York

Years ago, all a magician needed was a top hat and a live rabbit. Magic has come a long way. Jamie Allan’s Amaze uses props, videos, projections and cell phones to do exactly what the title of his show predicts. But Allan does much more than simply overwhelm the audience with slights of hand and…

THE WILD DUCK TAKES FLIGHT: TRUTH, LIES AND QUACKING DELUSIONS While Shakespeare agonized over “to be or not to be,” Henrik Ibsen was more concerned with “why is everyone being so fake?” It’s existential dread versus emotional fraud, and I thought of these two drama kings because The Wild Duck, Ibsen’s play on delusion and…

THE FINE ART OF A THREE-MAN MASTERPIECE Yasmina Reza’s Art returned to Broadway last night starring Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden, and it is a tight, acidic joyride through ego and insecurity, wickedly funny. If you have ever done the silent math of friendship: who listens, who cares, who gives more, who…

THIS SOW BELONGS TO EVERYBODY There’s the actor’s nightmare, there’s nightmare productions, and then there’s Excorcistic: The Rock Musical which is nightmarishly twisted and sick. But don’t worry, it’s a good thing here. The horror musical genre is alive and well, from classics like Sweeney Todd to rock musical adaptations of horror films like Evil…

When I hear the name Pericles, I naturally think of the great Athenian statesman who helped shape democracy in the 5th century BC, a true hero of history. It is amusing that Shakespeare and George Wilkins borrowed the name for a completely different hero, reworking in 1609 the soapy medieval legend of Apollonius of Tyre…

WHEN CIVILIZATION CRASHES IN QUIET MODE Cellunova Productions‘ latest outing, Destination Undefined ventures into the future with a provocative premise that might make you reconsider your stance on artificial intelligence and the human-like robots that may be heading our way if playwright Changshuo Liu’s predictions prove prescient. Victor Gao, Lyra Lys, Jueun Kang, Tom Shane…

YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY WHAT YOU WILL While we are still grappling with questions of gender, identity, and societal roles like troglodytes, we need to remember that Shakespeare was exploring these human complexities with intelligence, nuance, and humor over 400 years ago. In Twelfth Night, written around 1601, he crafted a brilliant pastiche of mistaken identities,…

JOIN THIS TOP BANANA FOR THE RIDE OF THE SUMMER If you’re heading to the Nederlander Theatre expecting Jeff Ross to come out swinging with savage roasts about Charlie Sheen’s liver or Elon Musk’s social skills, that ain’t Take a Banana for the Ride. Written and performed by the actor, this is not your typical…

POLLUTION ISN’T THE ONLY PROBLEM IN SULFUR BOTTOM Playwright Rishi Varma sets out with noble intentions in Sulfur Bottom—to shine a light on environmental racism and the communities whose lives have been devastated by pollution and industrial encroachment. Yet despite its ambitious scope, the play’s non-linear family saga, spanning thirty years and three generations, offers…

AMAZE TURNS SLEIGHT OF HAND INTO SLEIGHT OF HEART; THE MOST DAZZLING TRICK IS MAKING YOU CARE Jamie Allan, the UK’s original technology magician, brings his new work Amaze to New York’s New World Stages after a successful run in London. Co-created with Tommy Bond and cleverly directed by Jonathan Goodwin, it is a personal…

ANIMATION, POLITICS, AND THE ART OF BEING HUMAN Cameron Darwin Bossert’s The Animals Speak closes his Disney-centered trilogy A Venomous Color (produced by Thirdwing) which began with The Fairest in 2021 and continued with Burbank in 2022. This final installment, now playing at The Wild Project, ventures far beyond the animation desks, landing on a…

TA-DA! AND OTHER QUEER MAGIC TRICKS For Josh Sharp, “ta-da!” is code for gay. As a twelve-year-old magician, it was his entrance line: “ta-da!” Yeah, totally gay. But growing up in the South, Sharp knew an even bigger magic trick—keeping that part of himself hidden until much later. Now, in his solo show ta-da!, he…