OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

A one of a kind show is now in town. 'Beneath the Gavel' is being performed at 59E59 Theaters through April 9th. Devised by Bated Breath Theatre Company and written and directed by Mara Lieberman, this fascinating, fast-paced production is a rare glimpse into the art world....

As patrons enter the Mitzi Newhouse for Sarah Ruhl's newest clever and quirky comedy, HOW TO TRANSCEND A HAPPY MARRIAGE, they're greeted by set designer David Zinn's rendering of a smart and simply furnished living room, above which hangs the carcass of a slaughtered and skinned goat....

Who is she? Where did she come from? These are questions likely to pass through the minds of Off-Broadway's regular attendees while witnessing Jo Lampert's stellar performance as the title character of David Byrne's new musical, JOAN OF ARC: INTO THE FIRE....

White Guy on the Bus is now being performed at 59e59 Theaters through April 16th. Written by Bruce Graham, directed by Bud Martin and featuring an outstanding cast, this is a brilliant, poignant production....

At the beginning of The Debate Society's premiere production of THE LIGHT YEARS (written by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, developed and directed by Oliver Butler) we're told that Arcturus, the star that guided Christopher Columbus to what he thought was India, is precisely forty light years away from...

Five years ago, playwright/composer/lyricist/performer Ethan Lipton stood on the stage of Joe's Pub as the central character of his solo musical NO PLACE TO GO, explaining the choices he had to make when the company he worked for announced it was relocating to Mars....

Straight cisgender teenage boys looking to lose their virginity are generally accepted as a staple of coming-of-age comedies that make movie theatre box offices hum. But when it comes to the matter of young girls being eager to have their first sexual encounter, audiences tend to prefer a bit more d...

In association with Beth Morrison Projects and VisionIntoArt, The Aging Magician now celebrates its off Broadway premiere with The New 42nd Street at the New Victory Theater - a theater dedicated to providing children with quality (and usually fantastic) productions in the very heart of Times Square...

When Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's classic musical thriller Sweeney Todd: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET opened on Broadway in 1979, Harold Prince's production was of grand operatic proportions. Opera houses frequently produce the show in that manner, but New York's stage revivals seem to be...

It's not exactly a spoiler to note that the closing scene of Penelope Skinner's wonderfully absorbing and issue-oriented dramatic comedy, LINDA, has the title character, a successful marketing executive, addressing a group of colleagues in the year 2007, excited about how the anti-aging cream she pr...

A night out at David Mamet's tense and terse new play, The Penitent, now getting a hard-edged premiere by director Neil Pepe via Atlantic Theatre Company, isn't so much an observance of human behavior as it is a debate of moral issues....

'Kunstler,' a compelling portrayal of the high profile trial lawyer William Kunstler, is now being performed at 59E59 Theaters through Sunday, March 12th....

Listening to the original Broadway cast album of Jerry Herman's 1969 entry, DEAR WORLD, it's almost unimaginable to think you're hearing the score of a show that shuttered on Broadway after less than four months worth of performances....

You can't say that playwright/director Will Eno doesn't go out big with his new piece, WAKEY, WAKEY. Just before curtain calls, an extra-bright video montage, set to The Olivia Tremor Control's “Love Athena,” wreaks havoc with audience members' pupils. Once eyes are able to adjust, they'll not...

Though the brilliant musicals that composer John Kander created with his late lyricist partner Fred Ebb frequently tackled dark and violent issues (CABARET, CHICAGO, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN and THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS among them), they did so with a shiny, often cynical veneer of show-biz. Snazzy melo...

'We're dealing with some fairly old and ancient material, so maybe let's trust it to be really wise and meaningful, okay?' asks a character acting as a kind of host at the beginning of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' fun and breezy new play, Everybody....

When tragedy strikes a community, after the initial shock and the effort to neutralize the situation, there's always a strong desire to return to normalcy....

The hilarious, sexy, and surprisingly touching musical PRETTY FILTHY made a splash Off-Broadway in early 2015. Ghostlight Records' PRETTY FILTHY (Original Cast Recording) perfectly captures the humor of the show. Michael Friedman's often blunt but always-relatable lyrics are uncompromised on the rec...

It would be nice to be able take in The Wooster Group's intriguing docu-theatre piece, THE TOWN HALL AFFAIR, as a look at the grotesquely blatant brand sexism of nearly 50 years ago that we have since outgrown. Sadly, this glimpse at a carnival-like event disguised as a serious debate on the subject...

Those who have yet to have their fill of half-price post-Valentine's Day candy will be happy to discover that what looks like crudites when you step into Derek McLane's environmental set for Wallace Shawn's fascinating Evening at the Talk House are actually sugary treats such as marshmallows, Swedis...

Deceptively, little seems to happen in the first several scenes of Tracy Letts' riveting 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Man from Nebraska, now receiving a superb New York premiere at Second Stage....

When Nazis began publicly burning copies of his latest musical theatre piece, composer Kurt Weill took it as a hint that he might be better off sailing to America and writing for Broadway....

One would assume that Mark Twain would have been amused that his 1884 novel condemning America's history of enslavement of Africans, 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,' has occasionally been condemned itself as racist literature for its realistic use of a certain slur....

After establishing himself as resident doorman, stage manager and sex slave at the Caffe Cino, the historic Cornelia Street birthplace of Off-Off Broadway and America's gay theatre movement, Robert Patrick summoned up the courage to join the ranks of the venue's resident staff of playwrights (Lanfor...

In association with Playalinda Productions, playwright Dick Brukenfeld and Director Charles Maryan come together to present the World Premiere of The Big Broadcast on East 53rd, now in performances at the TBG Theatre (actually off of 36th Street), What I can only describe as one whirlwind of a show ...