OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

Mid-January in New York City does not appear to be a particularly romantic or momentous time of year for The Big Apple. The Christmas decorations have come down (most of them at least) and the holiday revelers and hoards of tourists have retreated, getting on with their own lives for the start of a ...

After playing downtown's Lucille Lortel Theater last as year as part of Red Bull's season, director Erica Schmidt's psychologically intriguing Shakespeare adaptation titled MAC BETH moves north for a remounting for the Hunter Theater Project....

'Parenting is just guessing. Anyone who says different is lying and their children hate them.'...

The NYC premiere of 'BOOM,' is now thrilling audiences at 59E59 Theaters. This multi-media, musical and theatrical event is written, directed, and performed by the Dora and Gemini award-winner, Rick Miller....

Plenty of those who weren't nodding their heads in agreement reacted with incredulousness or perhaps a big guffaw three years ago when Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on 'Meet The Press' to defend White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's statements about the size of the crowd at Do...

'Europe was pushing against me, so I just kept pushing back,' writes Selina Thompson in her autobiographical solo drama of cultural discovery, salt....

Ireland's leading new play company Fishamble returns to 59E59 Theaters with the US premiere of Maz and Bricks, a must-see two hander. The play is written by Eva O'Connor, directed by Jim Culleton, and stars the playwright, Eva O'Connor along with Ciaran O'Brien....

Glimmers of hopefulness can be found in this unique theatrical event.  Disheartenment, however, permeates The Unknown Dancer in the Neighborhood.  This contemporary dance theater piece is a commentary on individual lives amidst the ambiguously indifferent and disconnected mobs in a gloomy metropol...

Imagine a world where the Palestinian flag is planted on the moon.  In Amir Nizar Zuabi's play Grey Rock, one of his characters says 'its so preposterous, it's brilliant.'  Apparently this is my week for traveling into outer space, having just seen Or, An Astronaut Play, at the Tank.  Both plays ...

Born in 1901, Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist ?-dön von Horváth spent the latter of his 36 years warning against the growing threat of European fascist regimes before being fatally struck by a falling tree branch....

When you consider that the two best-known plays by American authors dealing with the AIDS epidemic, Larry Kramer's THE NORMAL HEART and Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA, are both decades old and set in the 1980s, it's no wonder if playgoers tend to think of the crisis as something of the past which ...

A world-famous director can suffer a creative block during a midlife crisis, an unsinkable ship can go under on its initial voyage and death can even take a holiday. These are just three examples of how, when penned by composer/lyricist Maury Yeston, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE THEATER....

As usual, the family-focused New Victory Theater was packed with kids the afternoon this reviewer took in the charms and delights of Cirque Mechanics' 42FT-A MENAGERIE OF MECHANICAL MARVELS, but you won't need the little ones around to have a great time at their display of strength, acrobatics and h...

'Absurd Person Singular,' the 1972 play written by Sir Alan Ayckbourn, is currently on stage at Theatre Row through December 29. Directed by John Cotgrave, this clever story is just right for the season. The humorous show is divided into three segments and tells of the changing lives of three unique...

If you're like this reviewer, you're a sucker for stories about young people loudly and aggressively voicing their rebellions through art. Three years ago, screenwriter/director John Carney's indie hit 'Sing Street' told of a beaten-down 1980s Dublin teenage lad who forms a rock band initially to im...

Love Actually?: The Unauthorized Musical Parody is the hilarious new show by Bob and Tobly McSmith, now in performances at the Jerry Orbach Theater. Bob and Tobly, who are also responsible for such productions as Friends! The Musical Parody and Full House! The Musical (starring Perez Hilton), can no...

Since its first publication in 1843, Charles Dickens' holiday classic, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, has been adapted countless times for various stages, screens and pages, but undoubtedly the most authentic presentations of the story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts who assist in his transformat...

There's real star power on the stage of 59E59 Theaters. The New York premiere of 'One November Yankee' starring Harry Hamlin and Stephanie Powers is being performed now through December 29th. Written and directed by Joshua Ravetch, this two-hander is the one to see....

At least once a year, this reviewer feels compelled to take to his keyboard and urge any representatives of the MacArthur Foundation to bestow one of their a?oeGenius Granta?? fellowships to Company XIV's founding artistic director Austin McCormick, who throughout this young century has conceived, d...

As played by Judith Ivey and Ken Narasaki in Samuel D. Hunter's touching and emotion-twisting drama Greater Clements, Maggie and Billy seem like the kind of couple who would have spent many happy decades together after being high school sweethearts, had Maggie's father, a World War II veteran who fo...

'We're going to bond, Alan, and that means you have to pay attention to everything I say,' the title character of George Eastman's HARRY TOWNSEND'S LAST STAND informs his son a minute or so into the proceedings....

Time stands still but life goes on might be one way of looking at Will Eno's charming and sweetly philosophical The Underlying Chris, receiving a fine premiere production directed by Kenny Leon at Second Stage....

In the musical Barnum, a song lyric compels you to 'join the circus like you wanted to, when you were a kid.'  In the family friendly new musical The Giant Hoax, a young farm girl named Emily will do just that.  She's heard about the Cardiff Giant and wants to see the amazing wonder for herself. ...

Everything is Super Great, written by Stephen Brown and directed by Sarah Norris is now being performed at 59E59 Theaters. This emotive, yet often humorous play is a portrait of people dealing with some of life's complex issues....

Roughly two months ago American Theatre announced that for the second time in the past three seasons, Lauren Gunderson has topped their list of the most-produced playwrights in the country, her 33 professional productions among the 385 Theatre Communications Group's member theatres easily surpassing...