OFF-OFF-BROADWAY THEATER REVIEWS

Ever wanted to sit on the floor during a Presidential nominating National Convention?  The opportunity is available in Brooklyn at the Irondale Center.  Danny Rocco's play immerses its audience onto the floor of the 1944 Democratic convention.  Roosevelt had already served four terms and was not ...

Written by Rachel Shaw, God of Marz"takes us out of the human mind and into the realm of the Almighty, who is quite the character and as beautifully human as we can imagine her to be; she is the way I envision God to be (and hope that she is). When two astronauts crash-land on Mars with a limited su...

Seven women choreographers and their companies share resources and collaborate for this one week festival of dance.  Each performance of Women/Create! contains four selections.  In addition to experiencing the enjoyment of varied works and styles, the choreographers spoke to the audience after the...

Earth, air, water, and fire - every vital element reaches critical risk level in Last Man Club, an engaging, dystopian mood piece from writer/director Randy Sharp at Axis Theater. This tense one-act historical drama blows in with gale force as Sharp and her creative team unearth the allure and agony...

There are no sure bets in theater.  That's the excitement and reality of live performance and creative risk taking.  There are, however, reliable pockets of extraordinary levels of sustained excellence.  One can presume a visit to the small Greenwich Village basement space of the Axis Company wil...

Megan Monaghan Rivas' Three Musketeers: 1941 is an evocative, thought-provoking new work that is imperative in today's political climate. The commissioned world premiere of this play promises an evening of strength, empowerment, and emotion. Three Musketeers: 1941 is a part of Project Y Theatre's ...

Ruth Stage and the 13th Street Reparatory Company's Lone Star feels like seeing two shows in one evening. This revival of James McLure's play consists of a mock country concert by the all-female band The Chalks in the first act with the action of the play occurring in the second act. The entire thin...

Absurd, engaging and frequently flat-out surprising, Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8 is a tasty mouthful of downtown theater. Genders bend, time warps, roles reverse and sobriety teeters in this contemporary and contemplative ghost story from the expansive imagination of playwright Alex Borinsky and dire...

It's hard to believe how much BUTTERFLIES manages to fit into a 90 minutes. This co-production by The Tank and Kairos Italy Theatre manages to deal with sisterhood, motherhood, bohemian versus traditional lifestyles, mental health, and terminal illness in less than two hours. It feels as rushed as y...

In the 19th century, Eliza Lynch made her notoriety when she traveled from her native Ireland and became the mistress-wife of the president of Paraguay's son.  She bore him six children and was considered 'an ambitious courtesan.'  Some believe she turned him into a bloodthirsty dictator.  Others...

When you enter the downstairs space at La Mama, multi-colored fluorescent lights illuminate a multi-level stage.  Asked to enter the theater in twos, your first stop is a few steps up to a level.  If you so choose, you can go inside the curtain to speak with the great ancestors.  The play Messiah...

Playwright Elise Forier Edie is often asked how much of The Pink Unicorn is true.  She answers 'all of it' and 'none of it.'  All of the events depicted happened to someone, including herself.  A high school refused to allow the formation of a Gay and Straight Alliance Club.  Transgender childre...

Written by David Greig, joined by MFA award-winning director Alice Cash and presented by Golden Shards Productions, 8000M encompasses such a wide range of dramatic feats - not taking into account the play's actual subject matter. From an exceptional script, which combines both characters' personal a...

The turntables spin gold in 'Original Sound,' a fresh and frenetic take on the promise and perils of guarding intellectual content in the music industry. Sebastian Chacon kills as Danny Solis, a talented amateur Nuyorican beat maker whose primary instruments are his computer, his confidence, and his...

Flesh Mob is a performance collective which created this interdisciplinary dance-theater work about sexual education.  From their website:  'sex is funny, stupid, gross, elevated and base, and we'll never stop being titillated or uncomfortable about it.'  MISEDUCATED: an oral history of sexual (m...

For two nights only, Wrong House Productions presented Sketchy Spring, an hilarious compilation of sketches with a wide berth of wacky topics covered. From Ted Bundy's charm, which has the ability to turn his jury into musical and horny high-schoolers, to a 30th birthday celebration not complete wit...

Marigold Page is a Tohono O'odham woman.  She is also an activist working with her tribe to resist a wall being built across their Nation.  She meets John Morales-Rio, a Native land surveyor working in the southern U.S. and Mexico.  He is smitten and charms her into a spontaneous picnic.  Why th...

In a tale as old as FaceTime, Electronic City pulses with potential as a dynamic dystopian mash-up where LED, KLM, EDM and 'news' of J-Lo's CVS H20 all vie for our short attention spans. Art imitates and pixelates life, and a co-dependency on little screens leads to big problems for Joy (Jeanne Laur...

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Based on Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi, with a book by Akiko Kodama and now celebrating its New York premiere under the direction of Takahiro, 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon' The Super Live held three performances at the Playstation Theater in Times Square from March 29th-30th. Featuri...

When taking a seat in the Paradise Factory Theatre downtown, the stage backdrop suggests a large scrapbooking canvas. Pictures of children and the wilderness. Happy, peaceful images. They are layered and have texture. Some of the edges are uneven around the borders reminiscent of photographs fro...

The 2.5D Phenomenon from Japan finally arrived stateside in Washington D.C. and NYC in March. With the remarkable and unprecedented success of 'Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon' The Super Live launching a new dimension of entertainment in the states, the question is not if, but when and where the next s...

A month ago I saw Austin Pendleton portray a teacher on Broadway in the fine play Choir Boy. Now he is the elderly Professor with a much younger third wife. They are visiting with Sonia and Uncle Vanya in this adaptation of Chekhov's play. Right from the start, the cast informs that LIFE SUCKS. i...

'These words might be more offensive now than they were back then,' ponders playwright/actor Ronnie Marmo in the guise of one of 20th Century America's most controversial artists in his (mostly) solo performance, I'M NOT A COMEDIAN... I'M LENNY BRUCE....

Based on a novella by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba is being presented in Spanish (with English supertitles) by Repertorio Español. A veteran of a Columbian civil war, the Colonel lives with his wife in a small village under martial law. They are ...