New York

PERICLES AT CLASSIC STAGE: A CLASSIC STAGING OF PERICLES Pericles by William Shakespeare is not a drama. Or comedy. It’s a Romance. A lovely romance that touches upon incest, forced prostitution, abduction by pirates, a murderous foster mother, a widowed young king, a shipwreck, famine, mental illness (arguably), grief, separation and  beheadings for not being able…

JELLY’S JAM IS JAMMIN’ THAT’S ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW Jelly Roll Morton was born Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe in New Orleans. Both his parents traced their Creole ancestry four generations back to the 18th century. He was a jazz and ragtime pianist, composer and bandleader who is regarded as the first arranger of jazz. Nicholas…

THE HUNT IS ON, BRUTAL AND UNMISSABLE The Jungle. Volcano. Life & Times of Michael K. In the last year alone, the venerable St. Ann’s Warehouse has hosted stunning theater from around the world. But last night came the most powerful, provocative theater imaginable. Not to be missed, the U.S. premiere of London’s Almeida Theatre…

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…