Review - Revisiting Our Town

I had the immense pleasure of taking another visit to Grover's Corners, New Hampshire last week, via the fascinating David Cromer production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town that opened in February at the Barrow Street Theatre. Back then I wrote that the director's non-traditional take on the play - which remains completely faithful to the author's text and themes - was one of the most exciting theatre events of the season. On second look, with a mixture of new and old cast member, I'd say it's the best theatre production I know of currently playing in New York. (more...)

Review - Idiot Savant and After Miss Julie

Ladies and gentlemen. In the course of this evening's performance, the following physical objects will appear onstage: a boxing bag, four golf clubs, a newspaper, two small targets, an oversized golf ball plus snake, a bloody towel, a duck mask, a white spider with spots, a watering can, three boulders wrapped in twine, a yellow suit, two imitation row boats, one tray of fruit, one rolling table, six highball glasses, two white pillows, one large roll of plastic tape, a jeweled wristwatch, one package, gift-wrapped, one jeweled container, plus one blank container, three mirrors with numbers painted on the reverse side, two bows and arrows, one duck in a small cage, one stuffed small mouth plug. (more...)

Review - Memphis

Michael Dale's review of Memphis, the new Broadway musical. The verdict is positive: Memphis is bursting with gutsy story-telling, convincing performances and exhilarating moments that more than make up for a bit of predictability. (more...)

Review - Bye Bye Birdie

Michael Dale reviews Bye Bye Birdie and focuses on the positives in the production: dance ensemble numbers sparkled with real show-biz energy and livened up the production, Allie Trimm's solid performance, and Dee Hoty's presence. (more...)

Review - Oleanna & Circle Mirror Transformation

Michael Dale reviews Oleanna and Circle Mirror Transformation. In 1992, when David Mamet directed the premiere production of his controversial play, Oleanna, the name "Long Dong Silver" was still fresh in the minds of Americans who followed the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings. Susan Faludi's bestseller, Backlash, was urging women to stand up to "The Undeclared War Against American Women" while Camille Paglia criticized the feminist movement for teaching women to see themselves as victims. Take Back The Night rallies on college campuses encouraged women to publicly announce the names of men who have raped them, though the definition of what exactly constituted a rape was still being publicly debated. (more...)

Review - Avenue Q

No, that steady rumble you may hear and feel beneath your feet as you walk along 50th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues these evenings is not the A train making its way to Columbus Circle. It's the sound of laughing audiences having a swell time in the underground quintet of auditoriums called New World Stages. The former movie multiplex turned Off-Broadway house seems to be experiencing a happy renaissance, with its long-running anchor production, Altar Boyz, having been joined by laughter-inducing hits like The Toxic Avenger, Naked Boys Singing, My First Time and The Gazillion Bubble Show (which I haven't seen but I'm sure brings out many giggles from the youngsters). The hilarious Love Child, which previously ran at 59E59 will be moving in shortly, but first the welcome mat (and perhaps a red carpet) has been set for the center's new crown jewel as the Tony-winning Avenue Q completes its successful Broadway run and returns to its Off-Broadway roots. (more...)

Review - The Royal Family

In the 1920s, George S. Kaufman was one of the primary reasons New York was firmly establishing itself as the nation's capital of wit. Until his death in 1961, Kaufman could be called the quintessential New Yorker; continually working on Broadway as a playwright and director, reluctantly venturing out to Hollywood on occasion and regretting every moment of it and frequently quoted for his crackling cleverness ("I understand your new play is full of single entendres."). (more...)

Review - Hamlet

If you're a frequent theatre-goer who has seen a decent number of Hamlets, or just a decent number of contemporary Shakespeare productions, chances are you'll get that old feeling of déjà vu watching Michael Grandage's Donmar Warehouse import, now parked at the Broadhurst for a limited run. While the mounting has its highs and lows, several directorial choices - once considered edgy, now pretty standard - keep this Hamlet draped in familiarity. The evening is lean, professional, fast-moving and not particularly interesting. (more...)

Review - Superior Donuts & Wishful Drinking

The old cliché says that New York audiences will always bow in awe and rampage box offices whenever a play from Great Britain washes upon its shores. But in recent seasons it seems that type of grandiose reception has been reserved for productions that land on our stages by way of Chicago. I have no idea what the new black may be but I have a strong hunch Steppenwolf is the new Old Vic. (more...)

Review - A Steady Rain & Let Me Down Easy

If you take a whiff of air somewhere in the vicinity of the Schoenfeld Theatre these days and sense a slight essence of Mickey Spillane, it's undoubtedly due to the presence of Keith Huff's hardboiled police melodrama, A Steady Rain. A crackling good story told with potent language and a couple of terrific performances, this is a hearty plateful of good old fashioned meat and potatoes theatre. (more...)

FANTASY FOOTBALL:THE MUSICAL?

There's a good reason for the question mark that is included in the title of FANTASY FOOTBALL: THE MUSICAL? which was part of the New York Musical Theater Festival. It's a 90 minute show that meanders for a good half hour before it decides on what it wants to be-and even then it isn't quite certain. (more...)

Review - The Night Watcher: Don't 'Ah, Ma' Me

Michael Dale reviews Charlayne Woodard's new solo piece The Night Watcher. From Jess Goldstein's flowing and flattering wardrobe to Geoff Korf's embracing lighting to Obadiah Eaves' jazzy sound design to the soft images in Tal Yarden's projections, everything about the production surrounds Woodard in a sweet and pretty atmosphere, perfectly framing the already irresistible words and performance. (more...)

Review - Love, Loss and What I Wore

I can't say I've ever really associated important events in my life with what I was wearing. Oh sure, I remember the powder beige tux I wore to my 1977 senior prom (my date picked it out) but since moving to New York I think it's safe to just assume I was wearing black whenever anything significant happened. Not so for the ladies of Love, Loss and What I Wore, a show that my female guest assures me gives an accurate portrayal of how women tend to hold important memories in the stitches of their apparel. And though such sentiments may be foreign to my nature (or perhaps nurture) I found the ninety-minute evening warm, funny (often hilarious), cleverly written and terrifically performed. (more...)

Review - Vigil: The Long Goodbye

There's very little I can recommend from Vigil, Morris Panych‘s two-person play which I'll assume was meant to be darkly humorous and quirky, but ends up a rather dreary and frequently ugly ninety-five minute affair. (more...)

Review - Othello & Is Life Worth Living?

In his lengthy notes discussing the thought process behind his LAByrinth Theater Company/Public Theater mounting of Othello, director Peter Sellars explains how our view of Shakespeare's drama of an outsider Moor put into a position of power in an otherwise white society, must change in an era where Barack Obama can become President of the United States. His is an interracial Othello, with Latino John Ortiz (LAByrinth Theater co-founder) as the Moor, white actor (and longtime LAByrinth associate) Philip Seymour Hoffman as the underling Iago who tries to bring him down and an assortment of white, black and Latinos rounding out the company. (more...)

Carrafa Directs Kane, Boardman, Bridges & More In Maltz Jupiter Theatre's ACADEMY At NYMF 10/6-17

The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is excited to announce the all-star cast of Academy, part of the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF)'s Next Link Project. Originally part of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre's inaugural Emerging Artist Series in Musical Theater Playwriting, Academy will perform for six performances in New York from October 6 - 17, 2009 at NYMF. (more...)

Review - Scandalous People: a Sizzling Jazzical

The program notes for Scandalous People: a Sizzling Jazzical, advise us that Myla Churchill (book & lyrics) and Benny Russell's (music) new musical concerns Dewey Demarkov, a fictional black entertainer in pre-Depression Harlem who earned his song and dance chops playing demeaning stereotypes (sometimes in blackface) in white-run vaudeville houses and minstrel shows. As uptown Manhattan developed into a cultural center, Dewey formed an act with his future wife, Desiree Malinda, that evoked the kind of self-respecting class and sophistication the entertainers of the Harlem Renaissance became famous for. His innovative style made his speakeasy shows at The Do Drop Inn a top attraction. (more...)

Review - The Bacchae: Revenge With Music

I think it's important to report right from the outset that several times during The Public's outdoor production of Euripides' ancient Greek drama, The Bacchae, I looked down to discover that I was involuntarily tapping my toes to Philip Glass' new score. It's not that the master minimalist had peppered the centuries-old text with a collection of Jerry Hermanish showtunes, but that the tandem work of Glass' scoring for synth, brass and percussion and Nicholas Rudall's brisk, modern-sounding translation produced an irresistible give-and-take between speech and tone. No mere incidentals, Glass' airy, elongated pitches, frequently lush and at times strikingly accented, carry equal weight as the spoken words; echoing, answering back, subtextualizing and, most importantly, pushing the production toward its inevitable climax. If the composer's contribution is the 90-minute evening's most memorable, that's not to discredit the rest of director JoAnne Akalaitis' always interesting (if sometimes lacking for passion) production. (more...)

Review - Erotic Broadway: What's In A Name?

While calling the recent entertainment at The Triad Erotic Broadway may carry the same lack of appropriateness as expressed in the traditional arguments against the moniker Holy Roman Empire (It's really more "cute and sexy" than erotic and the material's ties to Broadway are sporadic at best.), the cheery and playful variety show directed and choreographed by Tricia Brouk offers bouncy fun for all (legal) ages. (more...)

Review - A Lifetime Burning: The Irrelevance of Being Earnest

I'll readily admit to letting out a quiet, though not exactly inaudible, "Wow," as I entered the main auditorium at 59E59 and took a first glimpse at Kris Stone‘s New York apartment set for Primary Stages' premiere production of Cusi Cram‘s A Lifetime Burning. The high-ceilinged collection of sharp angles, backed by exposed brick, colored in blue pastel and embellished by furnishings by Eva Zeisel (I had to look it up), immediately grabbed my interest and had me anxious to meet whomever it was who might be living there. (more...)

Review - All Singin', All Dancin' & The Columbine Project

The star of Town Hall's 3rd Annual All Singin', All Dancin', the traditional finale to the Scott Siegel-created Broadway Summer Festival, didn't take the stage until the end of curtain calls, but his vibrant presence was felt throughout the evening. (more...)

Review - Puppetry of the Penis: Look, I Made a Hat Where There Never Was a Hat

Let's get one thing straight right from the start. Men do not write monologues about their penises. They don't. Men don't say things like, "I'm worried about penises," and they don't require a context of other penises in order to understand this limb that dangles between their legs and jumps up like a puppy whenever it wants to play. We don't think of our genitals as a dark Bermuda Triangle; more like the sleek and powerful jet that's headed its way. (more...)

Review - Wildflower: Racing With The Plot

I suppose the cocktail conversation among certain factions of the Off-Broadway community this summer will be centered around whether the ending of Lila Rose Kaplan's Wildflower a) thoroughly ruined the play, b) logically brought all the play's diverse pieces together or c) was just another example of the evening's well-intentioned flaws. I lean toward the latter. (more...)

Review - Burn The Floor: So You Think You Can Sit Through This

The 2009-10 Broadway season began with a shirtless man and a bikini-clad woman posed dramatically under a spinning disco ball. Soon after, similarly underdressed performers danced their way up and down the aisles of the Longacre Theatre in displays that suggested over-caffeination more than artistry. (more...)