Richard Termine News

When The Public Theater premiered Adam Guettel's Myths and Hymns in 1998 - under the title Saturn Returns - it was presented as a simple song cycle using chamber arrangements of pop, gospel and classical styles in a loose theme of exploring the human relationship to faith, utilizing traditional hymns and ancient myths.  In the new production presented by Prospect Theater Company, director Elizabeth Lucas, through snippets of connecting dialogue and short, silent scenes, gives the evening a bit of a narrative.  The result is too thin to add any dramatic heft, but not so intrusive as to distract from the poetry of the material and the tender and touching performances of her beautifully singing cast.

Mint Theater will present the 100th Anniversary production of Rutherford & Son by Githa Sowerby which runs now continue through April 1st) at the Mint's home in the heart of the theater district, 311 West 43rd Street. Opening Night is set for Monday February 27.

Call me envious, but the genre of plays that feature smart, educated, financially well-off characters screwing up their lives under the knowing smirks of the maid serves as a kind of comfort food for me.  And while the discomfort in class, racial and gender issues experienced by the LeVay family in Lydia R. Diamond's funny and quite heated family drama, Stick Fly, may seem a bit too familiar at times, director Kenny Leon and his terrific ensemble help deliver a lively evening.

While you probably wouldn't expect period recordings of 'Let's Do It' and 'St. Louis Woman' to be part of the pre-show soundtrack for a family friendly production of Snow White, director/choreographer Austin McCormick's Company XIV has never been a group to provide the expected.

STICK FLY stars Dulé Hill ('Psych,' 'The West Wing') as Spoon (Kent) LeVay, Mekhi Phifer ('ER,' 8 Mile) as Flip (Harold) LeVay, Tracie Thoms (Rent, 'Cold Case,' The Devil Wears Prada) as Taylor, Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Seven Guitars, Lackawanna Blues) as Joe Levay, Rosie Benton (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Accent on Youth) as Kimber and Condola Rashad (Ruined) as Cheryl. Get a first look at the production below!

Love's Labor's Lost, generally not regarded as a top tier Shakespeare effort, might get performed a lot more frequently if more productions were as fun and frisky as director Karin Coonrod's madcap mounting for The Public Theater's Public Lab series.

The Public Theater's performance of LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST will open Monday, October 31. The complete cast for LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST features Michelle Beck, Rebecca Brooksher, Reg E. Cathey, Jorge Chacon, Keith Eric Chappelle, Stephanie DiMaggio, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Francis Jue, Mousa Kraish, Hoon Lee, Steven Skybell, Robert Stanton, Nick Westrate, and Samira Wiley. Check out the production photos below!

Though he did have a brief - very brief - stint on Broadway before Lemon Sky premiered in 1970 at midtown's Off-Broadway Playhouse Theatre, Lanford Wilson was still at that point regarded as a downtown playwright.  One of the leading scribes of the crew consisting predominantly of gay men who created Off-Off Broadway at Caffe Cino, his career would seriously take off shortly after Lemon Sky's run with The Hot l Baltimore, Fifth of July, Talley's Folly (Pulitzer winner) and Burn This.

PAGE 73 PRODUCTIONS (Liz Jones & Asher Richelli, Executive Directors) will present the New York premiere of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's Lidless, recipient of a 'Fringe First' at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and winner of the 2009 Yale Drama Series Award and the Keene Prize for Literature (from the University of Texas, Austin). This Off-Broadway limited engagement at WalkerSpace (46 Walker Street) begins Tuesday, September 20th and continues through Saturday, October 15th only. Opening Night is set for Wednesday, September 28th.

There would be far fewer complaints about having too many revivals on Broadway if they were all done the way the Mint Theater Company does them.  Under artistic director Jonathan Banks, each piece mounted in their intimate space has an interesting story behind it, usually that of a forgotten playwright or a rarely-produced piece by someone few associate with writing plays.  Their productions define the most positive aspects of museum-quality theatre, with visuals and interpretations that take you back to the time when the play was contemporary, rather than dressing the play in a manner that forces it to relate to contemporary times.

The Drama Desk and OBIE Award-winning Mint Theater Company re-introduced Teresa Deevy to the world in the summer of 2010 with the production of her brilliant play Wife To James Whelan.

Though playwright Rachel Crothers was regarded as the toast of the town for many a Broadway season - she had 29 plays debut there in the years between 1906 and 1940 - she's scarcely know by 21st Century playgoers.  Fortunately, the Mint Theater Company has been doing its part to return her name to the limelight; first with their mounting of her clever take on religious fads, Susan and God, and now with a sweeter, more uplifting comedy/melodrama - one that was a finalist for the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama - A Little Journey.

The Drama Desk and OBIE Award-winning Mint Theater Company will present Rachel Crothers's comedy, A Little Journey, opening Monday June 6th at the Mint's home in the heart of the theater district, 311 West 43rd Street.

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company (Carl Forsman, Artistic Director/Wayne Kelton, Executive Director) today announced the cast for the 25th Anniversary production of Benefactors. Carl Forsman will direct a cast that includes Vivienne Benesch (appeared opposite Maggie Smith in the London revival of Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque; OBIE winner for Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives), Daniel Jenkins (Love Child, Mary Poppins, Tony nominee for Big River), Deanne Lorette (La Bete), and Stephen Barker Turner (Rinne Groff's Compulsion opposite Mandy Patinkin).

The world-premiere adaptation of LYSISTRATA by the renowned puppet artist, writer and director Theodora Skipitares - which mixes Aristophanes' ancient comic tale about a group of Greek women who withhold sex from their husbands and lovers with video and newsreel footage of actual modern-day international sex strikes -- will be presented by La MaMa ETC in association with Skysaver Productions, with previews starting February 3 prior to an official press opening February 6 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 E. 4 St.) in Manhattan.

Though I try to avoid pronouncing century-old plays as being as relevant today they were a hundred years ago, a little tweaking here and there - perhaps the mentioning of a critically acclaimed musical that fails at the box office while another that suffers from horrible pre-opening word of mouth nevertheless enjoys a healthy advance sale - would make Arnold Bennett's 1909 media satire, What The Public Wants, feel as though it were written last night.

Signature Theatre Company (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) presents the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, directed by Michael Greif. ANGELS IN AMERICA opens Thursday, October 28 at the Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street). The play began previews on September 14. Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, the two parts of ANGELS IN AMERICA, alternate in repertory. See below for a look at ANGELS on stage!

Miller Theatre at Columbia University opens its 2010-11 season with Maa: A ballet by Kaija Saariaho, the American Premiere of the composer's only ballet, with original choreography by Luca Veggetti and a performance by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

Miller Theatre at Columbia University opens its 2010-11 season with Maa: A ballet by Kaija Saariaho, the American Premiere of the composer's only ballet, with original choreography by Luca Veggetti and a performance by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).

Miller Theatre at Columbia University opens its 2010-11 season with Maa: A ballet by Kaija Saariaho, the American Premiere of the composer's only ballet, with original choreography by Luca Veggetti and a performance by International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE).