OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

For the past five holiday seasons in a row, savvy New York playgoers have been filling the upstairs parlor of East 4th Street's Merchant's House Museum for a warm and intimate evening of Christmas cheer; Summoners Ensemble Theatre's delightful production of actor John Kevin Jones recreating Charles ...

Simply stated, don't miss it. The highly anticipated world premiere of 'The Hello Girls' is now being performed at 59E59 Theaters through December 22....

Since family-friendly entertainments tend to dominate the holiday performing arts scene, it's especially cheery that for the past nine years that scandalous crew called Company XIV has been offering grownups an option that's decidedly more naughty than nice....

There's a distinctive play being performed at 59E59 Theaters. Vivian's Music, 1969 is a two-hander that tells a compelling story about the struggle of African Americans living in the segregated Midwest in the late '60's. Inspired by real events, the play is written by Monica Bauer, directed by Glory...

'If you have to choose between family and flying, I hope you would choose the flying,' a father tells his children as the lesson behind a bedtime story involving an angel and a woodcutter. 'And don't tell mommy I said that,' he's quick to add....

Yes, in the world of Tom Stoppard, post-coital pillow talk can be a debate about human consciousness and whether or not altruism truly exists.  After all, nobody said anything about THE HARD PROBLEM was going to be easy....

'Bernie and Mikey's Trip to the Moon' is now onstage at 59E59 Theaters through December 2nd. Written by actor and playwright, Scott Aiello, this is his first full-length play. The production enjoys outstanding direction by Claire Karpen and a top-notch cast that brings Aiello's finely written story ...

The lack of permanence that allows new artists endless chances to bring their own interpretations to classic material is the most significant aspect that separates live theatre from movies and television. But in musical theatre, it's sometimes the case that a director/choreographer such as Jerome Ro...

The Enchanted Revolution -- written, directed by and featuring the multifaceted creative enchantress, Charlotte Lily Gaspard for Midnight Radio Show -- is 80 minutes of magic, with a six-person cast creating a modern fairytale for the whole family from another dimension in a basement black box theat...

Not too often does an evening in the theatre take me back to the days of NYMF (New York Music Festival), when my brother Tom Kitt and his college friend/lyricist Brian Yorkey workshopped a little show with a small band called Feeling Electric into a fully-realized musical with tremendous heart....

No, director/designer John Doyle does not have Raul Esparza wearing a blonde wig when he delivers his climatic oratory at the close of CSC's revival of Bertolt Brecht's 1941 allegorical satire, THE RESISTIBLE RISE OF ARTURO UI, but listen closely to the chant of the crowd provided by sound designer ...

For those of us of a certain age, the phrase "good grief" has been a part of our vocabulary since childhood as simply an expression of exasperation, thanks to the influence of Charles Schulz and his Peanuts gang....

Steve Rosen and David Rossmer's pop rock musical charmer THE OTHER JOSH COHEN has been hitting the regional circuit a bit since its 2012 Off-Broadway production that picked up Drama Desk, Lortel and Off-Broadway Alliance Award Nominations for Best Musical.  It's great to have this very funny, very ...

'We are a great country,' presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assured his supporters in a speech given moments after winning the Democratic Party's 1968 California primary and moments before he was assassinated while leaving the celebration at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel....

'Cuddles the puppy had fallen into the 50 foot deep well and was trapped,' an unseen television anchor is heard reporting at the outset of Patricia Ione Lloyd's chilling and evocative EVE'S SONG. 'After 30 hours volunteers rescued Cuddles from near death,' she continues. 'Locals are demanding strict...

"There are many factors, grant and school board requirements that we need to fulfill with this piece," the director explains to the cast on the first day of rehearsal of a Thanksgiving play for children....

In a desolate land lies a stone, shaped by waiting for who knows how long to a stool. A sad dying tree with three branches undulates. And a dry tableau of firmament that matches the sky sets the stage for director Garry Haynes' Ireland's Druid Theater production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot...

For most New York playgoers, the words "Shakespeare In The Park" will immediately bring to mind the free performances at Central Park's outdoor Delacorte Theater, created decades ago by The Public Theater's visionary founder, Joseph Papp....

'I hate white people,' blurts out a diminutive, small-voiced white teenager, trying to convince the white activist she just met that she would be a valuable addition to his commune. 'I can't help it. I always have.'...

It was October 31st, 1926 when the world famous escape artist Harry Houdini succumbed to the one thing in life that's inescapable, and every year since, believers hold seances on Halloween night, anticipating his return....

"You're more afraid of looking like a racist than you are of being a racist," an African-American college student surmises when her white professor reacts with panic when it becomes clear that she intends to go public on social media with the content of the conversation they just had....

For the past five years the very fine actor John Kevin Jones has been drawing packed houses to East 4th Street's 1832 landmark Merchant's House Museum building for Summoners Ensemble Theatre's delightful recreation of Charles Dickens' public readings of 'A Christmas Carol.'...

Falling in love is the easy part. Functioning day to day as a couple can take work, especially when sexual incompatibility becomes an issue....

As the grand finale of their fourteen year residency at Christopher Street's Lucille Lortel Theatre, before moving to their brand new Hell's Kitchen digs, Manhattan Class Company brings in an encore engagement of Jocelyn Bioh's Lortel and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning drama from last season, th...

'I grew up in working class Toledo,' says the subject of Emily Mann's Gloria: A Life, arguably the most potent, informative, emotionally riveting and ultimately uplifting theatre piece currently playing in New York, 'and my biggest dream was to become a Rockette.'...