OFF-OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

How to describe the oratorically dense, frequently hysterical and mind-buzzingly creative The Invention of Tragedy?  How does Shakespeare sound to a young child?  'Let there be a dragon of trees and washing without wash cloths bags cats wardrobes bungle things and other things traps and twerps and...

When you are a very lucky theatergoer, a play can transport you to a different time and place and age. Decky Does A Bronco is one such experience. A heavy metal playground swing set is placed on a raised stage of green carpeting. On the walls there are chalk drawings. You can see and more import...

When I sat down to see The Chaos Theory of Now, I found the pre-show music selections to be quirky.  Barbara Mandrell's 'I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool.'  Thomas Dolby's 'She Blinded Me With Science.'  k.d. lang's 'Constant Craving.'  Turns out the song choices were spot on.  The author...

With the not so faint wisps of fascism blowing all around the world today, artists seem compelled to paint the future.  Prasad Paul Duffy has written and directed Revolutionary with Theo Grace composing the score and lyrics.  This show has been selected as part of Theater for the New City's Dream ...

Arriving at New York University's Skirball Center, I was handed two green cards.  The Oedipus card contained this quote from Sophocles:  'How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in truth.'  Heading down the stairs into the waiting lobby, the walls were adorned with inf...

Swipe, scan, pause, like. Swipe, scan, pause, like. Feel familiar? Part of the attraction and addiction to scrolling through social media is its mind-numbing repetition. A similar effect infuses the U.S. premiere of SEE YOU: a group of verbose 20-somethings vying for superior digital cultural status...

'I do not feel compelled by reason to accept this theory of evolution, nor the periodic table of elements, nor the theory of global warming, nor the supposed crimes against the Jews attributed to one Rudolf Hitler.'  Bad Penny and Sincerity Forever are Mac Wellman plays originally staged in 1989 an...

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the mental health condition explored in DC Fidler's play Boogieban.  Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Caplan is a veteran of the Vietnam War.  He now works for the military evaluating soldiers and their emotional fitness.  Specialist Jason Wynsky is his newest ...

Sure, it's a bit early in the game, but what might turn out to be the funniest scene to hit New York stages in this young theatre season occurs at the end of the first act in Jonathan Spector's sharp and empathetic social commentary, EUREKA DAY....

Written by a father-son team (the perfect combination of doctor and composer), EMERGENCY features book, music and lyrics by Jeff Foy and Jacob Foy and is directed by Jeremy Quinn. In association with Visceral Entertainment, the production recently concluded a three-performance run at Hudson Guild a...

Rita Donatella is a struggling wannabe actress working in a science lab and donning the white coat.  She's 'analyzing feces inside a rat' and declares 'I'm not loving that.'  Her agent calls and her dreams are finally realized.  She's going to star in a movie with an A-list actor.  Waiting For J...

Written and produced by Davide Ferrari and directed by Alexa Harris, a?oeSunday Dinnera?? debuts as part of the New York SummerFest Theater Festival. Originally conceived as a full-length production, Ferrari brings his audience to the table to enjoy some very entertaining Italian family antics....

The music from 2001: A Space Odyssey opens Sea Level Rise: A Dystopian Comedy.  Set in a future South Florida, this play considers a world where the ocean has risen two feet.  The low lying town of Sweetwater is feeling the pain.  Maria (Rebecca Smith) is on her cellphone trying to get help.  He...

This review is not about Monica Lewinsky. Monica: This Play Is Not About Monica Lewinsky, stars Caroline Kinsolving as the complex, archetype-defying quasi-Monica. This clever time-shifting one-act play succinctly captures the tension between holding on and letting go of one's identity in an era whe...

The New York Musical Festival presents a wide variety of new musicals in the form of readings, concerts, and full-scale productions. While previously scheduled to be the latter, Saturday afternoon audiences were treated to an intimate reading of Ladyship by Laura and Linda Good due to an illness in ...

A White Man's Guide to Rikers Island transports the audience from the privilege and prominence of a New Jersey golf club to the cacophony and brutality of New York's Rikers Island. Occasional moments of levity stand in stark contrast to the overall gravity of the violence-laden narrative, one that ...

Riker's Island is New York City's notorious jail complex.  85% of the inmates have not been convicted of a crime.  Unable to post bail, many defendants are incarcerated until their trial.  The rest of the population are convicted criminals serving short sentences.  Richard L. Roy tells his own s...

It's a time of change for the women of The Bachelor Girls-and that means swing dancing, ditching their corsets, and learning to be an independent woman in 1920s London. The Bachelor Girls was a part of the fourth annual She NYC Arts Festival, which strives to provide women writers, composers, and di...

According to the Bible, there was a prevailing Passover custom in Jerusalem which allowed a crowd to commute a prisoner's death sentence.  When Pontius Pilate asked, they chose Barabbas to be released.  Jesus of Nazareth was then crucified.  Playwright Will T. F. Carter's first play updates this ...

Kate Brennan's The Shoebox transports audiences back in time to high school and early adolescence. This is a time that many adults would consider simple, yet, as revealed through the plights of Brennan's characters, the viewer is reminded how complicated and tumultuous it felt in the moment. The Sho...

The tragicomedy Imminently Yours buoys some historically heavy subject matter with a contemporary lift, giving voice to the experience of multiple generations of African-Americans who thrive in a contradictory space where secrecy and support are both critical to survival....

Rabbit Hole, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, tells the story of a mother and father stricken with unending grief after the accidental death of their four year old son; theirs is a reality that isn't fair or deserved, but must simply be dealt with. With this play,Lindsay-Abaire carefully deconstruct...

Presented by NAATCO (National Asian American Theatre Company), the parentheses of the title [Veil Widow Conspiracy] hint at this play's structure.  The events to be unveiled center around a 1922 political murder mystery which occurred in Xinjiang, China.  It is also about a 2010 movie filmed on lo...

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club has programmed a month-long series called the Stonewall 50 celebration.  Coinciding with this weekend's World Pride event, 13 Fruitcakes arrives with a few instructive sentences about New York in 1964 when the World's Fair was opening.  The mayor orders the city's...

Straying from the traditional 'one playwright, one narrative' dramatic structure, the through line of this devised 60-minute show is a series of 20+ vignettes skimming the life and times of notable and troubled French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The individual scenes, which range from 'Nice Te...