New York

THE LONG-PLAYING STEREOPHONIC SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE David Adjmi’s Stereophonic at Playwrights Horizons, directed by Daniel Aukin, has an excellent ensemble cast, a perfectly realistic set by David Zinn and pleasant, if derivative music by Will Butler. Unfortunately, that doesn’t quite make up for the verbosity and excessive length of the play. Eli Gelb and…

THE BLOOM IS SOON TO BE ON THE WHITE ROSE Based on the true story of young people bravely standing up to injustice, White Rose: The Musical , which begins its Off-Broadway debut   January 17, 2024, is a powerful new musical that follows the inspiring story of a courageous group of university students who stood…

DRAC-OOH-LA-LA Beware ladies and gentlemen and every other gender expression currently walking the planet.   There’s a new Dracula in town and he is HAWT! Looking much more like a young Dolph Lundgren than an old Bela Lugosi, the tall, blonde, Aryan ideal at the center of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors  is on the prowl for…

FINALLY, A MUSICAL THAT ISN’T GUTEN-FREE Those who saw Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells in The Book of Mormon have been looking forward eagerly to their return as a team in Gutenberg! The Musical!  They will not be disappointed. Scott Brown and Anthony King’s Gutenberg!, nimbly directed by Alex Timbers, is a blast from beginning to…

NO LONGER JUST ROLLING ALONG, MERRILY HAS LANDED WHERE IT BELONGS: BROADWAY It’s fitting that Merrily We Roll Along, which originally opened on Broadway in 1981 to mostly negative reviews, has been refurbished in the equally restored Hudson Theater. Both the theater and production make the perfect classy pair — stunning theater at its best…

SWING…AND MISS The Chicago Tribune review of Swing State, as advertised on the production poster, charged me with excitement in seeing Rebecca Gilman’s new play. “Perhaps the first of the great American plays of this decade. It blew me away!” Well, I wish I had that same experience. Mary Beth Fisher and Bubba Weiler The…

‘CAUSE YOU GOT TO HAVE FRIENDS Israeli playwright Anat Gov’s Best Friends comes to the 14th Street Y with an impressive history. Best Friends is the longest-running comedy in Israel and winner of the prestigious Israel National Theater Award for Best Comedy in 1999. It also had a sold-out run at Rattlestick Theater. Now, directed…

A VICTORY LAUGH Purlie Victorious, written by the late Ossie Davis, is a brilliant, funny, moving play that premiered on Broadway in 1961, with Mr. Davis in the title role. The initial production was a hit that ran for 261 performances before touring nationally (the 1970 musicalized version, Purlie, largely utilizing Davis’s play, ran for…

UNIQUE, DELICIOUS, ENTERTAINING, MAGICAL No matter how many times illusionists deceive our eyes and mentalists read our minds, we are always amazed by their feats. This is certainly true of Scott Silven, whose performances are especially stylish and smart. This fall for a limited run, Silven’s At the Illusionist’s Table returns for the fifth time…

A VICTORIOUS ROMP In Ossie Davis’s 1961 play Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch–which opened last night at The Music Box Theatre–all the black residents of contemporary Cotchipee county, Georgia, work on Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee’s (Jay O. Sanders) cotton plantation. They live on his land, in shacks that he owns, and owe…

THE CUBAN THEATRICAL PHENOMENON OF THE LAST DECADE ARRIVES IN NYC One of my favorite places to see plays in NYC is also NYC’s most prominent Latino theatre companies: Repertorio Espaí±ol. Performed in Spanish with easy-to-read supertitles in English, the plays are always original and thrilling. Now comes Farándula, which will premiere September 28–October 1,…