Midtown International Theatre

Off-Broadway Review: “Mr. Toole” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at WorkShop Theater’s Main Stage Theater

“Do I dare/Disturb the universe?/In a minute there is time/For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.” T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” After a successful run at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, “A Confederacy of Dunces” is possibly heading to Broadway. John Kennedy Toole’s picaresque novel was published in 1980 eleven years after his…

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Off-Broadway Review: “In the Shadow of a Dream” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at WorkShop Theater’s Main Stage

Joey Miller’s (Nick Ryan) dream in college in 1985 is to play professional basketball after graduating. Ideally – like his favorite player Larry Bird – he would play for his favorite team the Boston Celtics. Although he could imitate Bird’s moves on the court, his 5’9” stature prevents him from reaching his dream. But it is not only his height…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Crusade of Connor Stephens” Searches the Soul at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at WorkShop Theater’s Main Stage Theater

Big Jim’s (James Kiberd) Baptist Mega-Church is expanding. More space is need for its growing congregation. That conservative congregation also seems to need a television studio and a gym with a basketball court for outreach and youth ministries. One of the church’s young recruits is Connor Stephens the teenager the church “took in and helped him and his mama get…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Either/Or” Misses the Mark at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at WorkShop Theater’s Main Stage Theater

In Dayle Ann Hunt’s uber-dysfunctional family play “Either/Or,” currently running at the Midtown International Theatre Festival, protagonist Deni Rutland (Courtney Bess) contemplates a way to escape the cycle of abuse and collusion extant in her nuclear family – a family that apparently has not made any effort to address the alcoholism of its head Herbert “Pop” Rutland (Joseph Rose) and…

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“Pearl” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the Davenport Theater (Closed August 2, 2015)

“There are two kinds of talent, man-made talent and God-given talent. With man-made talent you have to work very hard. With God-given talent, you just touch it up once in a while.” – Pearl Bailey Fame, family, devotion, race, relationships, cabaret, feminism and a voice: “Pearl” a new musical written by CB Murray, and performed at the Midtown International Theatre…

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“The Dinner” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the Davenport Theatre (Closed Saturday July 25, 2015)

“It was just a simple dinner,” is far from the truth of Darryl Reuben Hall’s “The Dinner,” a fiercely accurate drama involving race equality, the birth of white privilege, and media brutality in our nation. This play, given life thanks to the money-sharing Kickstarter, is a post-Civil War piece that tells the story of Booker T. Washington’s journey of becoming…

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“6 Actors in Search of a Character” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the Davenport Theatre (Closed Monday July 27, 2015)

A character is nothing more than imagination, a flick of a ballpoint pen from a playwright, and an actor who struggles to find their voice. “6 Actors in Search of a Character” attempts to be a comedy set out to prove the notion that there is no reality in theatre. But, instead, tells a random, un-relatable plot that twists and…

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“Good Company” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the Davenport Theatre (Closed Sunday July 19, 2015)

Goodness, rich people are nice. That is the lesson of S. Karlan’s “Good Company” when Leslie, a prostitute, is purchased by the wealthy Paul, an older man who keeps her in his house as a live-in friend. She quickly is enamored with the multimillionaire as he gives her everything her heart desires, but betrays him to her pimp because, well,…

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“Puzzle the Will” at the Midtown International Theatre Festival at the Davenport Theatre (Closed Sunday August 2, 2015)

“Who would fardels bear,/To grunt and sweat under a weary life,/But that the dread of something after death,/The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns, puzzles the will,/And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of?” – William Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act III, Scene I “Puzzle the Will” (part of Hamlet’s epic soliloquy…

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“Wearing Black” at the New York Musical Theatre Festival at Theater 3 (Closed Wednesday July 15, 2015)

Add “Wearing Black,” currently presented as part of NYMF at Theater 3, to the growing list of NYMF plays this week (number three) that deal with young adults dealing with the loss of a friend and a sibling in a frivolous and avoidable fatal car accident. In this play, a drug addicted twin brother drives his car off a bridge….

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