New York

HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THEATER Some plays take time to come into their own but they’re well worth a wait. Twenty-five years after its Off-Broadway debut, Paula Vogel’s seminal wonder How I Learned to Drive is only now reaching full impact. That’s thanks, of course, to the consciousness-raising of #MeToo, among other seismic changes…

DOES GOD MAKE A CASE? I liked Samuel D. Hunter‘s A Case for the Existence of God. I didn’t love it, just liked it. Admittedly, I’m in the minority opinion on this one, as many people unabashedly love this well-executed production, currently performing at Signature Theater. Of course, what I like or love is immaterial…

SHOW-SCORE & TODAYTIX TO PARTNER WITH THE ENTERTAINMENT COMMUNITY FUND ON ‘PREDICT THE TONYS’ The Entertainment Community Fund  (formerly  The Actors Fund), alongside  Show-Score  and  TodayTix, announced today that they have partnered to celebrate theater’s biggest night and benefit the programs and services of the Fund. TodayTix and Show-Score’s newly launched  “Predict the Tonys”  experience invites theater lovers to cast votes for…

Follow the Drama Desk Awards at Drama Desk and @DramaDeskAwards on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates 2022 DRAMA DESK NOMINATIONS: (click links for Stage and Cinema reviews) Outstanding Play Cullud Wattah, by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, The Public Theater English, by Sanaz Toossi, Atlantic Theater Company Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, Manhattan Theatre…

LIKE A ROLLING STONE I imagine that some time back, the Theater Gods were sitting around talking. They had the idea to collaborate on a stupendous theatrical event. They thought to combine the best of film, stage and television production techniques with flawless acting, inspired direction, artful lighting and brilliant sound — all in support…

ANY WAY IS THE BEST WAY: JUST FIND YOUR WAY TO WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE Lick this play, lick its playwright Ana Nogueira, its director Mike Donahue, its cast and designers, and while you’re at it, lick MCC for this first-rate production. Ignore the Idina Menzel pre-show showtunes blasted so loudly that conversations were…

PLENTY OF RAINBOW BUT LITTLE COLOR In feminist Ntozake Shange‘s 1976 “choreopoem” (a term coined by the late playwright), the experiences of Black women in America are transformed into poetry, music, and choreography. Seven ladies in rainbow colors (Lady in Blue, Lady in Green, etc.) tell stories about joyful sexual awakening, but also about rape;…

NOT ONLY SHOULD THESE ACTORS BE ON BROADWAY, THEY CAN BE HEARD ON BROADWAY The faces of the actors featured in J.M. Synge’s two one-act plays at the reputable Irish Repertory Theatre are a delight to watch. With Artistic Director Charlotte Moore at the helm, her cast brings to life the rarely seen The Tinker’s…

AS  ¡AMERICANO! AS APPLE PIE The Merriam-Webster dictionary (remember dictionaries?) lists two definitions for the word dreamer. The first is simply “one that dreams.” The second definition is “a person living in the United States without legal status who arrived as the child of someone who did not have the documentation required for legal entry…

FINALLY IN THE LOOP A Strange Loop, the new Broadway musical that currently towers above the rest, is a Brilliant show. With book, music and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, this Brilliant show is also a Personal show. And a Troubling show. And a Pulitzer Prize-winning show. And a Thoughtful show. And a Silly show….

WALTZING AROUND AUNT SUSAN Aunt Susan & Her Tennessee Waltz by Toby Armour is one play in two acts that feels more like two, one-act plays on the same bill. The acts have little in common, other than being dramatizations of two early champions of Women’s Suffrage – Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Chapman Catt….

FUNNY, HOW IT KINDA WORKS On the Internet exists a theater-centered, YouTube channel called “Staged Right”. And there’s an episode on Staged Right called Fanny & Barbra and the Legacy of Funny Girl. This thirty-minute documentary explores the real Fanny Brice, how the original stage production of Funny Girl came to be and how the…

SINS I FELL FOR YOU Mae West, the sage and sybarite from Brooklyn, used to say, “Let joy be unrefined,” a point of view that also suits Austin McCormick, artistic director and choreographer of Company XIV. His latest extravaganza, the delightfully ribald Seven Sins, slathers us in the boisterous risk-taking revelry he’s known for: bare…

DON’T DOUBT IT; THIS SHOW’S ON FIRE Third time’s a charm. After a few preview performances, this $17 million musical, adapted from the hit film of the same name, shut down with all of Broadway due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Nineteen months later, as theater slowly began to reopen, Mrs. Doubtfire resumed previews in late…

NOT ENOUGH LAYERS IN THIS BIRTHDAY CAKE In playwright Noah Haidle’s new play Birthday Candles, currently running at the American Airlines Theatre, television star Debra Messing ages before our very eyes. When she first enters the stage, Ms. Messing is 17. Then she’s 18. Then she’s 38. We know that because it is in the…

THE MINUTES WILL LEAVE YOU SLACK-JAWED AND SPEECHLESS Superbly civic, the vast council chamber created by set designer David Zinn reeks of rectitude. Filling the stage at Studio 54 is a coffered arched ceiling with hanging strips of fluorescent lights. In the hallway outside this imposing space is a bulletin board with children’s art, while…