OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

Thomas Kail's athletic and inventively theatrical directing chops (In The Heights, Lombardi, Magic/Bird) prove a perfect match for Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens' Caribbean story-theatre musical Once On This Island. The beguiling new production gracing the Paper Mill stage is full of vibrant perf...

When I first heard the title Potted Potter – The Unauthorized Harry Experience – A Parody by Dan and Jeff, my American mind immediately thought of the slang term we use for inebriated and figured Jefferson Turner and Daniel Clarkson's two-person, 70-minute presentation would be some kind of irre...

“Mensch” is not a word you might immediately think of to describe Frank Sinatra, but the label seems to fit Cary Hoffman quite snugly.  And though his solo musical, My Sinatra, has the nice Jewish guy from Long Island singing fifteen Sinatra hits (“One For My Baby,” “”Summer Wind,” �...

Snooty Manhattanites such as I generally have a short list of offerings that would lure us all the way out to Brooklyn.  For some it's a steak at Peter Lugar.  For others, it's the Rodins at the Brooklyn Museum.  But the quickest way to get me aboard a Gowanus-bound F train is to say that directo...

The admirable mission of Gigi Naglak and MeghAnn Williams, writer/performers of Chlamydia Dell'Arte: A Sex Ed Burlesque, is to remove some of the awkwardness in open discussions about human sexuality by treating intimate issues with humor.  Their modestly produced show, which just completed a week-...

APPLE CORE THEATER COMPANY (ACTC) is pleased to present the world premiere production of Israeli-American playwright, Ken Kaissar's new satire - A MODEST SUGGESTION. Directed by Walter J. Hoffman, A MODEST SUGGESTION is in the midst of a limited engagement at the Studio Theatre at Theatre Row (410 W...

You may think you know everything about the tango after using up a 10-class punch-card at your local dance studio and DVRing every critique from Bruno, Len and Carrie Ann on "Dancing with the Stars." Oh, but you've never seen tango quite like this. At the New Victory Theatre, Brenda Angiel Aerial Da...

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Ultimately, this was a series of hits and misses. Half the characters and plot points weren't really needed. Nonetheless, when you boil it down, "Pratfalls" is a great relationship piece. "Pratfalls" is presented by Ground Up Productions at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex's Dorothy Strelsin Theat...

The lunatics, lovers and poets merrily charge onto the stage in full force in Classic Stage Company's raucous and witty, sexy and sensual mounting of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Director Tony Speciale's playfully romantic staging of Shakespeare's tale of earthbound lovers fleeing to the woods to es...

Cary Hoffman's show My Sinatra is part karaoke, part cabaret show, part one-man jukebox musical, and all self-indulgent personal therapy session. It's also a surreal, seriously flawed, yet strangely poignant and compelling piece of performance art that true Ol' Blue Eyes aficionados will either love...

"I'm just a stupid mom....who would want to hear me sing?" griped one band member before shedding her soccer mom image and launching into international rockstar success. In MoM: A ROCK CONCERT MUSICAL, five suburban 40-something moms form a rock group and learn how "rock and roll saved [their] sorr...

In the Flea Theater and the Civilians' YOU BETTER SIT DOWN: TALES FROM MY PARENTS' DIVORCE, four actors sit side by side in varying styles of chairs and play their parents, answering questions from actual interviews in one large confessional theater space. We go on a relationship journey of how eac...

Kids today. You're lucky if you can pry their attention away from the television, computer, tablet or phone. It would take a miracle to get them to sit through a musical, let alone a show where spoken words are scarce and the real delights are visuals, tricks and physicality. If you want to show you...

Maja Lieberman cannot tell a lie, and unfortunately, neither can I. Mario Fratti's OBAMA 44, now playing at the La MaMa Theatre, inherently lacks the necessary appeal to enable the audience to sympathize with any of its bizarre and one-dimensional characters, thus rendering an uninspiring and overa...

La MaMa, in association with Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, presents the World Premiere of Urban Odyssey. Conceived by Federico Restrepo and Denise Greber, Urban Odyssey depicts the experience of immigration to America through movement and visual theatre. A part of La MaMa's 50th Anniversary s...

Despite the loveable antics of those hard-working ladies from Texas, Broadway musicals have always been a little awkward around prostitutes.  The book of New Girl In Town (based on Anna Christie) gets tongue-tied when trying to be honest about its title character's former profession and the creator...

Inspired by true events that let to a 1969 race riot in author Monica Bauer's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, 'My Occasion of Sin,' is a study on the power of music to unite and racism to destroy and is running at Urban Stages until April 15....

In the years between the fall of vaudeville and the rise of Comedy Clubs, Americans looking to enjoy some live stand-up would frequently gather at their local jazz venue, where rising stars like Lenny Bruce and Mort Saul would offer their observations in a rhythmic style that many would say mimicked...

Once upon a time, there were disgruntled parents who were bored with their children's mindless entertainment. Whatever were they to do? How could they enrich their children's lives with the wonders of live theater without becoming grumpy, sleepy, or dopey? The answer: the toe-tapping, fluffy Lucky D...

With its funny, sexy and sentimental book by master craftsman George Abbott and a catchy and clever score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, Damn Yankees is a textbook example of the kind of big and brassy musicals that made Broadway's Golden Age glitter.  Paper Mill's terrific new production is pack...

Every once in a great while, a person comes across a play, musical, cabaret, or other production that is so inspiring, so magnetic, so unique, with a passionate performance, stellar direction, beautiful music, and ingenious sets that truly leaves the audience both captivated and inspired. My Life w...

About ten years ago, Tommy Tune was starring in an Off-Broadway revue; a nightclub-style act he had been performing in Las Vegas.  I hadn't seen the show yet, but one night I was browsing through a theatre chat board and read a comment by someone who had just seen a preview.  The writer was very e...

Actress, owner and artistic managing director of Stage Left Studio, Cheryl King, performs the one-woman play, Grapefruit, about the life of late opera singer and playwright, Sally Lambert, who was to appear in the show herself until unfortunately succumbing to cancer shortly prior to its opening. W...

Sidney Goldfarb's Hot Lunch Apostles might have been quite the shocker when The Talking Band's original production, with its run-down carnival setting that has strippers trying to spice up business by presenting religious tableaus, premiered at La MaMa in 1983.  But if director Paul Zimet's spirite...