New York

CAUGHT BY THE TALE The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare is kind of a weird play. It’s a comedy because a pair of young lovers are united in the end but many awful things happen before these two, crazy kids can tie the knot. The King of Sicilia (Leontes) unjustly suspects his pregnant Queen (Hermione)…

EVERYTHING’S OK Douglas McGrath presents as a nice, well-put together, middle-aged man. Onstage, McGrath wears a nice button-down collar shirt, stylish blazer with a matching kerchief in the pocket, nice khakis paired with nice, comfortable shoes. His thinning grey hair, cut in a nice, flattering style, tops his clean-cut look. Had he walked off-stage mid-show…

AN EPIC JOURNEY TO HEAVEN AND HELL It is 1899 in Vienna, Christmas Eve to be exact, and two families, elegant and refined, are gathered together in what might be called joyous solemnity to celebrate the holiday. On Richard Hudson’s luminously dark set, candlelit to perfection by Neil Austin, they are like a painting stirred…

WHAT’S BEEN DONE TO DEATH What cache Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic Death of a Salesman has in terms of power and artistry, nuance, subtlety and insight, is buried by Miranda Cromwell’s ineffectual staging currently on display at the Hudson Theatre. Neither the director nor most of the cast demonstrate anything but the most superficial connection…

THE COST OF MISSING THIS RAVISHING SHOW Every week in the opening sequence of the eighties television series Fame, dance instructor Lydia Grant would state without irony, “…fame costs and right here is where you start paying – in sweat.” Sweat might be the least of what a person may be called upon to pay…

SEE THE LIGHT Illustrious lighting designer Jennifer Tipton will share an exhibit of light in Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater for three performances only, November 17-19, 2022. Our Days and Night is designed to show the relationship of the earth to the sun, tracing the origin and precarity of the sun’s support of life,…

CROSS-EXAMINING THE AFFIRMATIVE & NEGATIVE IN THIS DEBATE In 1965, at the Cambridge Union, Cambridge University, England, eminent social critic and author James Baldwin publicly debated leading American conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. The motion of their debate: “The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro”. In front of an almost all-white…

TITLE SONG RELEASED TODAY With music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, book by Emerald Fennell and lyrics by David Zippel, Bad Cinderella is a modern retelling of the classic fairytale is set in the exceptionally beautiful kingdom of Belleville. This Cinderella (played by newcomer Linedy Genao) is no longer the damsel in distress who needs saving….

JUMP TO AS YOU LIKE IT – IT’S A PEACH Frog & Peach Theatre Company, New York’s critically acclaimed and revolutionary Shakespeare ensemble, will return to the live stage with their long-anticipated comedy blockbuster, As You Like It. The production begins previews September 30 with an official opening on Thursday, October 6, 2022. If you…

ACE YOUNG TO HEADLINE CONTROVERSIAL NEW PLAY ABOUT SEXUAL ABUSE WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH Vatican Falls, the controversial play written by Frank J. Avella that closely examines the Catholic sex abuse scandal while telling real survivor stories and exploring the fictional journey of one particular survivor will make its world premiere this Fall in a…

SPILL YOUR MAGIC BEANS NOW; THIS SPELL ONLY LASTS ONE NIGHT Get all dead-dolled up and get your spook on for Broadway’s biggest Halloween event of the year: Jay Armstrong Johnson’s annual sold-out Halloween concert-meets-party, I Put a Spell on You, which returns LIVE at New York City’s Sony Hall  ( 235 W 46th St) on…

LaChanze & More to Join The Flea’s 2nd Annual House Party On Thursday, Sept. 29, 7:30pm until Midnight, The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street) is presenting its 2nd  Annual House Party entitled  Blooming: A Flea Shindiggity, a coming out celebration, presenting to the world a new found vision for the future of experimental art created by Black,…

OH, OUR MAN, I LOVE IT SO Does absolute power corrupt absolutely? Does America export democracy or expand empire? Can an idealistic young man maintain his ideals in the harsh reality of working in the field for the CIA? These are just a few of the questions posed in Mark Wilding’s new play Our Man…

A NEAR DISASTER HANDLED BY A MASTER Jones and Schmidt, the creative team behind one of Broadway’s longest running hits, The Fantasticks, also wrote another, lesser-know musical called Philemon. That show is about a destitute street clown who unwittingly becomes a rebel hero during the Roman persecution of the Christians – not exactly the most…

AS EVERYBODY WILL LIKE IT To the mind of an ordinary Elizabethan, a forest in France might conjur thoughts of fairies, whimsy, beauty and adventure. While there is a Forest of Arden in England and a long-ago Forest of Ardenne in France, the Forest of Arden in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” is as much…

EARTHA HAS MOMENTS, BUT COULD USE A REPAIR KITT From almost any angle, singer/actress Eartha Kitt was a fascinating person. Born in 1927 into poverty and abuse in the American Deep South, she overcame her hardscrabble early years to become an internationally recognized and lauded performer. She found success in motion pictures, on Broadway, the…

Ensemble Studio Theatre  (EST) has the  the lineup for the  38th Marathon of One-Act Plays, works from artists who identify as Black, Indigenous & People of Color (BIPOC). This year’s selection of eleven plays was curated by Co-Artistic Directors Mike Lew  (Teenage Dick) and  Colette Robert  (Behind the Sheet).  Ten plays will be presented across two different series from Sunday October 16,…

A BLOODY BUSINESS WHICH INFORMS “When shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning or in rain? When the hurley-burley’s done, when the battle’s lost and won…” These opening lines from Shakespeare’s Macbeth have probably been spoken by the witches in almost every production of this play since Shakespeare last sat in the back of…