New York

FOR THOSE WHO THINK “RESCUE ME” AT JUKEBOX MUSICALS, “I KNOW A PLACE” WHERE A NEW 60s MUSICAL WILL CHANGE THAT “When you’re alone, and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown,” or to be exact you can always go to New World Stages, where the delightful, timely musical A Sign of…

YOUR GOLDEN TICKET TO HIGH ADVENTURE …AND HIGH TEA What could entice a typical New Yorker to get up fairly early on a Saturday or Sunday morning and make the trip to a narrow side street in the Lower East Side? The answer to this question is simple: The Order of the Golden Scribe, a…

FUNNY FIVE SENDS-UP SIX To the worldwide fanbase of the Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s Six, fear not — the new Off-Broadway parody Five pays loving homage to the girl-power musical sensation that brings the six wives of Henry VIII together for a competition to decide which one had it worse. In Six, each queen…

A STICKY SCRIPT Bees, those often annoying little creatures who have a knack for showing up at just the right time to ruin any number of outdoor activities, serve an important function. Namely, pollination — an act that is vital for our survival as human beings. So, like it or not, we need bees. However,…

WARRIOR THEATER It’s the beginning of  the Year  of  the Dragon, and one  of  the best ways to celebrate it is seeing a classic Chinese epic. The Pan Asian Repertory Theatre is presenting Warrior  Sisters  of  Wu, directed by  Jeff Liu, a delightful romantic comedy at A.R.T/New York Theatres. Nancy Ma, Kim Wuan The play takes place during the tumultuous end-years  of  China’s Han Dynasty; Lord…

THIS TOO TOO SOLID HAMLET RESOLVES ITSELF INTO A HIT It must be the Season of different takes on the Bard in New York; Greg Mullavey is appearing in a shortened King Lear, and Patrick Page’s All the Devils Are Here is an unforgettable solo voyage into Shakespeare’s abyss, and Suzie Eddie Izzard, at Greenwich…

A mysterious coming-of-age story that focuses on women’s sexuality, written and directed by two talented artists like Rachel Bonds  and  Danya Taymor, was unquestionably the reason I wanted to see Jonah, presented by Roundabout Theater. Sexuality is an important bio-psycho-social development that starts during adolescence and this story appropriately begins with young, bright Ana (Gabby Beans) attending…

ALIVE AND KICKING: MADDOW AND ZIMET AT PAC/NYC New York City, 1947: Julian Beck and Judith Molina found The Living Theatre, the oldest experimental group in the United States, giving life, with other artists, to Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater. 16 years later, director Joseph Chaikin leaves the group to co-found The Open Theater, where Ellen…

IRELAND’S GENTRY IS DISINTEGRATING IN FRIEL’S ARISTOCRATS, BUT SO IS THE DRAMA The mid-19th century, with its changing class dynamics, marked the decline of the power of aristocracy in Europe and Russia. Rural landowners, who owned large estates, saw their wealth, power, and mansions disintegrate generation after generation. Brian Friel’s  Aristocrats, playing at the Irish Repertory…

A KINGDOM DIVIDED Sam (Uly Schlesinger) is a bright, articulate and sincere young man. But he is also nervous, sensitive and bitter. In fact, he has recently attempted suicide. Actress Ruby Thomas’s first play, The Animal Kingdom, explores what family relationships might lead to such an act. The play, making its U.S. premiere at the…

LET’S RAISE OUR GLASSES AND CHEER DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES There is an old Irish proverb that goes “A man takes a drink, the drink takes a drink, the drink takes the man.” Based on a JP Miller’s 1958 play, and the brilliant 1962 film adaptation directed by Blake Edwards, Days of Wine and…

A MATTRESS THAT REVIVES AND RENEWS When Encores! announced Once Upon a Mattress as part of their season’s concert series reviving American musicals, my first thought: Does this nutty chestnut need reviving? After all, there have been numerous in-your-neighborhood productions (for decades, Mattress was one of the most-produced musicals in high schools, colleges, and community…