OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

When it comes to the annual Fringe Festival in New York City, everyone gets excited. Why? It's simple. New works! Erik Ransom's COMING: A ROCK MUSICAL OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS enjoyed a 2011 premiere and is now having its own second coming at Fringe. With humor that ranges from tongue-in-cheek camp t...

Genet's erotically intimate drama gets played for broad laughs in Benedict Andrews' production....

In New York City, summer and Shakespeare go hand in hand. For their 2014 Season the dell'Arte Opera Ensemble is producing 'A Summer of Shakespeare,' and they kicked off this season with a fully staged production of Henry Purcell's THE FAIRY QUEEN. While giving the show a modern twist, dell'Arte Oper...

I've come to embrace the idea that a life well lived is filled with its fair share of second chances and new beginnings. For Ted Shen's A SECOND CHANCE audiences were introduced to Dan and Jenna, both are living in crisis. A SECOND CHANCE opened to mixed reviews at the Public Theater, and now Ghostl...

Delacorte production more ritual than theatrical....

Stephen Adly Guirgis' new play offers crackling, streetwise dialogue and tension-packed drama....

Before Courtney Act was an absolute sensation on LOGO's RuPaul's Drag Race's sixth season, she was shaking things up in her native Australia. With decadent vocal talent, mesmerizing stage presence, charisma, charm, and looks for days, Courtney Act is touring her torrid, one-woman tell-all BOYS LIKE ...

The annual New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) is a fertile ground for quirky, offbeat musicals, giving invaluable exposure to new projects. When I first heard that ZOMBIE STRIPPERS would be performing at NYMF this year, I couldn't help but get excited. The title alone offers enough titillating...

A new comedy demonstrates a knowledgeable affection for the Ridiculous style but the evening never takes off into the kind of hilarity expected....

Bert Berns bio-musical has a swell cast, fun songs and a book that drags mercilessly....

In May 2014, FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: COMES OUT SWINGING opened to rave reviews at the Davenport Street Theatre. Audiences laughed until their sides ached at the latest incarnation through its sparkling closing performance on Sunday, June 20, 2014. Now, to fill the void until the next edition opens, DRG ...

Encores! Off-Center brings back one of Broadway's more surprising success stories....

Set in the present day on the porch of a swamp house in Mississippi, BAYONETS OF ANGST introduces audiences to a handful of old codgers who are partaking in their annual reunion. In fact, this is their 149th gathering, and each year the shrinking group gets together to relive their experiences durin...

A revival of the 1991 drag musical beauty contest spoof is a pleasing ninety minutes of good, clean fun....

First-time playwright Robert Boswell and first-time director James Franco deal with the issue of rape and miscommunication....

Last summer, The Public Theater, Michael Friedman, and Alex Timbers reunited to gift New York City with a free production of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Like their BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, the team used brilliant and inspired anachronisms to make the Shakespea...

Imelda Marcos is a ripe public figure for having a biographic musical written about her. Personally, I always expected a musical about her life would have that grand and epic cinematic sound of Andrew Lloyd Webber's EVITA. However, I couldn't be more pleased with David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's rich p...

Randy Newman's take on Goethe's opera is an enjoyable collection of songs with little dramatic context....

Daniel Waters' quirky and deliciously dark 1989 film Heathers is a beloved cult classic known for catchy one-liners and its wonderfully subversive humor. Naturally, HEATHERS: THE MUSICAL garnered a lot of interest because of the film's reputation. However, once the World Premiere Cast Album was rele...

Benjamin Scheuer's one-man musical is engaging, heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable....

While Rent is an explosion of youthful feelings of invincibility, tick, tick… BOOM! is a more introspective work and one of the best musicals to premiere in New York in this century....

Clever projections steal this revival of Jules Romains' satire of European colonialism....