Off-Off-Broadway Theater Reviews

Review: LET ME COOK FOR YOU: THE TRILOGY at Theaterlab
by Kristen Morale - September 19, 2022

Family is truly everything, regardless of who you are or where you happen to come from. Sunday dinner at home with loved ones, sharing an end of the workweek meal with friends, or even among complete strangers - perhaps those who happened to attend the same show one evening, seated beside you in an ...

Review: MEMORY EXAM at 59E59 Theaters is Compelling Theater
by Marina Kennedy - September 12, 2022

Now is the time to see a play that has great significance about people dealing with the aging process. The Memory Exam by the Oberon Theatre Ensemble will be performed at 59E59 Theaters through September 25th in Theater C. Get your tickets. The show is already selling out!...

Review: PANDEMONIUM at Theater For The New City
by Kristen Morale - September 09, 2022

Recently concluding its run at both the People’s Improv Theater (PIT) and Theater for the New City in New York City, Pandemonium is a new show written by Claude Solbik that, beneath its comical nature, questions whether our fate is truly written for us. A whimsical tale of swashbuckling pirates, tri...

Review: ONCE UPON A (KOREAN) TIME at LA MAMA COMES IN HOT, STIRS THE POT
by Derek McCracken - September 05, 2022

Presented by Ma-Yi Theater Company and directed by Obie-winner Ralph B. Peña, the world premiere of Daniel K. Isaac’s ambitious nested-narrative play, ONCE UPON A (KOREAN) TIME comes in hot and stirs the cultural pot, layering traditional Korean folk tales amidst a legacy of trauma, love, and endura...

Review: Get Ready to Experience THE PANIC OF '29 at 59E59 Theaters
by Marina Kennedy - August 03, 2022

'The Panic of ’29' is now being presented at 59E59 Theaters by Less Than Rent Theatre. Written by Graham Techler and directed by Max Friedman, it’s a production that our readers will find very entertaining. The show will be on the Upper East Side stage through August 20, 2022....

BWW Review: Downtown Urban Arts Festival Celebrates 20 Years This June at Theatre Row
by Kristen Morale - June 07, 2022

The Downtown Urban Arts Festival (DUAF) was founded in 2001 on this basis: to bring a collection of new American works that, in their words, 'speaks to a whole generation whose lives defy categorizing along conventional lines.' In its attempts to bring the spirit of real playwrights and characters t...

BWW Review: BUGGY BABY Zigzags Down A Humor-Horror Rabbit Hole at APAC
by Derek McCracken - June 06, 2022

Surreal and surreptitious, the comedy-horror BUGGY BABY centers on some displaced immigrants in London seeking normalcy despite the lunacy in their lives. Written by Josh Azouz and directed by Rory McGregor, the US premiere of this twisted tale also features a multi-talented toddler character and a ...

BWW Review: THE LUCKY STAR at 59E59 Theaters is a Compelling Drama in the Theater's VOLT Festival
by Marina Kennedy - May 06, 2022

We attended a poignant production of The Lucky Star produced by The Directors Company, that featured outstanding direction by Noah Himmelstein, and an excellent cast....

BWW Review: COSMICOMICS at The New Stage Theatre
by Derek McCracken - April 19, 2022

Thematically expansive within its intimate performance space, the paradoxical primordial soup swirling in COSMICOMICS blends the essential elements of earth, air, fire, and water with music, storytelling, ballet, and absurdist humor....

BWW Review: Peter Welch's LARRY AND LUCY A Work of Sheer Beauty at Theater for the New City
by Kristen Morale - April 14, 2022

A story of two people sets the stage for some wondrous things to happen. Each understands what the other is going through, and ultimately becomes what the other needs. The story of Larry and Lucy is such a story. An Uber driver jaded by life meets a teenage girl who has turned to drugs in her attemp...

BWW Review: HEARTLAND at 59E59 Theaters-A Powerful Story Excellently Presented
by Marina Kennedy - March 29, 2022

Live theatre is back, and we are so pleased to visit 59E59 Theaters and see Heartland, a production presented by Geva Theatre Center. This outstanding play is written by Gabriel Jason Dean, superbly directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh and features a top-notch cast....

BWW Review: SOMETIME CHILD: A RECLAMATION AND A REDEMPTION at Theater For The New City
by Joe Lombardi - March 18, 2022

On one side of the stage there is a tony law office with its desks, books and golf clubs.  The opposite side is a representation of a poor urban neighborhood.  Garbage litters the ground.  Stark contrasts between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' are on full display in the new play Sometime Child: a R...

BWW Reviews: The Conflicts of Fact, Fiction and Freedom in Solnik's THE UNAMERICAN
by Kristen Morale - March 18, 2022

Recently concluding performances at Theater for the New City, The UnAmerican questions the power that is supposedly given to those who believe they are above the consensus of the many. Directed by Joe John Battista, Solnik’s play follows the troubled triad of relationships between Marilyn Monroe, El...

BWW Review: THE LEMON GIRLS OR ART FOR THE ARTLESS at La MaMa
by Derek McCracken - March 16, 2022

These ladies don't lunch; they launch, twist, lurch, pop and topple. Meet Lorca, Topo, Nivea and Pinny: the more-sweet-than-tart troupe in LEMON GIRLS OR ART FOR THE ARTLESS. The comedic performance-art-within-a-play follows a group of New York City senior (70ish) girlfriends, all alumnae of Lemon E...

BWW Review: JANE ANGER at New Ohio Theatre Gets Even and Gets Laughs with a Shakespearean Twist
by Derek McCracken - March 14, 2022

Mixing history, mystery, sword play and word play, JANE ANGER takes a jab at right-sizing Shakespeare and does so with hilarious results. Billed as a “Jacobean feminist revenge Comedy,” the one-act play written by Talene Monahon provides ample opportunity for us to hate on the egotistical bard while...

BWW Review: ADDRESSLESS from Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is Interactive and Illuminating
by Derek McCracken - January 18, 2022

Imaginative, interactive and illuminating, ADDRESSLESS humanizes the plight of three homeless and nomadic New Yorkers who are forced to keep couch surfing, shelter hopping, street roaming and panhandling to survive winter and beyond. While the trio of actor-avatars encounter systemic barriers at the...

BWW Review: A Projection of Life's Little Journey in Takahashi's SHEEP #1
by Kristen Morale - November 13, 2021

SHEEP #1 is the third program of the Japan Society’s current season, which focuses on New York City - based, female theater-makers. The piece first premiered at The Tank three years ago, then caught Japan Society’s Artistic Director Yoko Shioya’s attention. Prior to its most recent engagement, Takah...

BWW Review: Cosplay and Camaraderie Are Magic at Dutch Kills Theater Company's THE ANTELOPE PARTY
by Derek McCracken - November 11, 2021

Brony-bonded and fully invested in cosplay camaraderie, the diverse ensemble of actors in Dutch Kills Theater Company's THE ANTELOPE PARTY at The Wild Project take playwright Eric John Meyer's prescient character-driven dramedy on a wild ride....

BWW Review: Game on! Cultures Clash in 1-2-3 MANHUNT at Theater for the New City
by Derek McCracken - October 14, 2021

Fists fly and cultures clash atop a tenement building in New York’s Lower East Side in playwright Tony DiMurro’ 1-2-3 Manhunt, where two outsiders on the edge of different generations pledge allegiance to a combustible mentorship to save what’s sacred....

BWW Review: A Thread of Happiness Unwinds In Crispino's THIS WOULD LOOK GOOD ON YOU
by Kristen Morale - October 05, 2021

THIS WOULD LOOK GOOD ON YOU is the experience - even a life goal - we have all been searching to fulfill. Directed by Liza Cassidy and written/performed by Crispino, this 50-minute production is a romp through Crispino’s life through the various pieces of clothing she has accumulated throughout the ...

BWW Review: The Haunted Tune of Nuance Theatre Co's CHAMBER MUSIC
by Kristen Morale - September 29, 2021

Within the attic of an insane asylum, in a time and place of little importance and for reasons unknown, eight women of history convene to discuss the business of their lives - shells of people who once embodied greatness, now pieced together by moments of nostalgia and hysteria. When all that was ha...

BWW Review: Never Losing Hope With SEX, SHOPLIFTING AND ROCK & ROLL at Theater For The New City
by Kristen Morale - May 28, 2021

Directed by JD Glickman, Sex, Shoplifting and Rock & Roll concluded its two-week run this past Sunday. Performed at this East Village icon and with COVID guidelines in check, audiences returned to the theater at long last to witness a show worth the wait....

BWW Review: FRAGMENTS, A LIVE AUDIO STORY is a Quiet, Yet Richly Introspective Experience
by David Clarke - May 07, 2021

It’s been a long road since March 2020, but the world is healing and Mandie Rapoza’s performance art piece, FRAGMENTS, A LIVE AUDIO STORY, is a welcomed and much needed breath of fresh air in a world where in-person art has been almost completely dormant....

BWW Review: Defeat the Chauvinist Monster in BLACK FEMINIST VIDEO GAME streaming online
by Joe Lombardi - May 01, 2021

A mixture of Zoom live action, audience interaction and an old school video game, Darrel Alejandro Holnes' Black Feminist Video Game is overfilled with levels.  There's light comedy, melodrama, politics, silliness, boldly underscored learnings and, yes, a two dimensional video game to conquer.  'Tru...

BWW Review: Claustrophobic angst in the outstanding FRANZ KAFKA'S LETTER TO MY FATHER at M-34
by Joe Lombardi - March 04, 2021

At some point during the outstanding live stream performance of Franz Kafka's Letter To My Father, yet another reference began swirling in my mind.  Lyrics from an old song from the late 1970's band Split Enz bizarrely came into focus.  'History never repeats / I tell myself before I go to sleep / T...