OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

Though the songwriting team of Robert Wright and George Forrest is best remembered by Broadway enthusiasts for adapting the music of Edvard Grieg into SONG OF NORWAY and similarly using the melodies of Alexander Borodin to create their score for KISMET, their greatest success came when director/chor...

59E59 Theaters is now presenting the US premiere of Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story. There's no other show like it. Compelling storytelling and outstanding music bring a stirring story of two people struggling against the odds to life....

Typically, the immediate attraction between Cinderella and the handsome prince is presented as simply a matter of physical chemistry, but in Company XIV's newest variation of Charles Perrault's classic, the true bonding between the two occurs because they're both captivating aerialists....

59E59 Theaters is currently presenting the NYC premiere of Hal & Bee written by Max Baker and directed by Sarah Norris. The play portrays the trials of a long-time married couple and reveals their conflicts. With a stellar cast and excellent staging, this entertaining dark comedy is very thought pro...

Innovative genius Norman Lear will forever be remembered for expanding the limits of what television comedy could do by bringing Archie Bunker, and his everyday brand of casual and not-so-casual bigotry, into American homes every week and hold him up to public ridicule....

Teaser:  There is a knockout of a surprise moment, cleverly devised and wonderfully played, contained within Pulitzer-winner Bruce Norris' mini-epic THE LOW ROAD, now getting a rollicking production at The Public, with a terrific ensemble of players guided by the talented hand of director Michael G...

'We take care homes,' a Polish immigrant living in New York's Borough of Queens bluntly explains to a young newcomer from Ukraine who has yet to get settled. 'Us kinds people, we take care house. Men, they build them and women, they clean them. Take care children. Rest this country handles rest t...

Historically, it hasn't been unusual for writers like Amantine Lucile Dupin (better known as George Sand) and Nelle Harper Lee (published as Harper Lee) to take on traditionally male or androgynous names to help advance their careers in a patriarchal world by allowing publishers and readers to make ...

'One of the few great musical comedies of the last thirty years.' - Howard Taubman' 'What a show! What a hit! What a solid hit!' - Walter Kerr' 'The best musical of the century.' - John Chapman'...

'Dip me in chocolate and throw me to the lesbians,' sings a young lady feeling the bright television lights on her face as cameras capture her every move for a national audience in Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee's outrageous, endearing and perceptive social commentary, JERRY SPRINGER -- THE OPERA....

'I have a friend - She's a liberal. I don't know if there are any liberals here...'...

It was nearly two years ago when The Public Theater opened the first major New York production penned by the relatively unknown Sarah Burgess. Her tersely scripted and aridly humored DRY POWER delved into the cutthroat world of corporate takeovers, and director Thomas Kail's bracing production match...

There are no live actors involved in with the Scottish theatre company Vox Motus' new storytelling attraction, FLIGHT, and though New York's theatre critics were invited to sample showings at the McKittrick Hotel, their creation can be more accurately described as an art installation....

The Dreamscape Theatre is currently presenting the NYC premiere of Pete Rex at 59E59 Theaters through March 3. Written by Alexander V. Thompson and directed by Brad Raimondo, it ingeniously melds modern and prehistoric themes. It is an affecting, yet entertaining show that features creative staging ...

With a name like BAR MITZVAH BOY, it should be no surprise that the current musical at the York is a coming of age story. What is surprising is that the composer of this intimate piece is Jule Styne, better known for brassy star vehicles like GYPSY and FUNNY GIRL....

"Do you have any idea who I am?," Eve Ensler asks the doctor who suggests radiation treatment of her vagina to prevent the resurgence of her cancer. "Do you have any fucking sense of irony?"...

It might be easier to pity the hardworking gentleman at the core of Martin McDonagh's new darkly comic drama, who loses his job when his employer eliminates his position, if it weren't for the fact that the function of his profession was to kill people....

When the subject of New York City Center Encores! comes up among musical theatre enthusiasts, the conversation almost invariably steers to what shows they should be presenting in their series of concerts. Although several of their productions, like the mega-hit revival of CHICAGO, have transferred, ...

In the second act of Terrence McNally's fact-based drama, Fire and Air, the legendary dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev privately examines the technique of a young dancer he may consider as a successor to his protegee-turned-international star, Vaslav Nijinsky....

In last season's GROUNDHOG DAY, the exceedingly charismatic Andy Karl was given the unenviable task of playing out a romantic comedy as a thoroughly despicable character. Now, in Greg Pierce's Cardinal at Second Stage, Anna Chlumsky's perfectly fine performance is similarly weighed down....

Sentimental stories of adults returning to their childhood homes to face the demons of the past after achieving success far, far away are a staple of popular entertainment, and though Ngozi Anyanwu's engaging contribution to the genre, The Homecoming Queen, adds nothing surprising, the elegant story...

Audiences and critics alike swooned over relatively unknown Leslie Uggams when she made her Broadway debut starring in Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Arthur Laurents and Jule Styne's progressively-minded 1967 Broadway musical HALLELUJAH, BABY!...

The famous Emily Dickinson poem reads, 'Hope is the thing with feathers--that perches on the soul--and sings the tune without words--and never stops--at all.' The idea of hope continuing on after tragedy is the very notion that resonates with the audiences after THE THING WITH FEATHERS by Scott Orga...

Directed by Clint Hromsco and produced by John Lant and Tamra Pica (in association with Write Act Repertory), Frankenstein boasts a book, music and lyrics by Eric B. Sirota, major contributions from Julia Sirota and also the help of Sharon Sudol and Cara London. Now in performances at the St. Luke...

With the past year bringing in a new administration with a new Secretary of Education, the national awareness of how overworked, undercompensated and financially burdened America's public school teachers are has fueled debate within discussions of federal budget restructuring and tax reform....