Joan Marcus

Off-Broadway Review: “The Ally” at the Public’s Anspacher Theater (Through Sunday, March 24, 2024)

Asaf and the members of the audience are the unwitting protagonists of Itamar Moses’s “The Ally” which is currently running at the Public’s Anspacher Theater. Asaf Sternheim (a well-meaning but uncommitted Josh Radnor) is Jewish, a writer, and an adjunct professor of writing at a prestigious American University in a struggling American city where his Korean American wife Gwen Kim…

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Broadway Review: “Appropriate” at the Hayes Theater (Currently On)

According to the dictionary, there are several definitions of the word ‘appropriate,’ but there may possibly be one that could be added, that being “a brilliant play by Brandon Jacob-Jenkins.” which is now having a stunning production mounted on Broadway by Second Stage Theater. Aptly titled “Appropriate” follows the ultra-dysfunctional Lafayette clan back to their family plantation home in Southeast…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Jonah” at Roundabout Theatre Company (Through Sunday, March 10, 2024)

The time “Jonah,” currently running at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre, takes place is described in the program as “The past and the present. But everything is slippery.” ‘Slippery’ is the operative word here. Everything is slippery in “Jonah” in addition to the time: the series of bedrooms in Wilson Chin’s cerebral and surreal design; the changeability and moodiness…

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Broadway Review: “Days of Wine and Roses” at Studio 54 (Currently On)

Since the Atlantic Theater Company first announced that Brian d’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara would lead the cast of the new musical “Days of Wine and Roses” based on the book by JP Miller, it was evident why theater goers would rush to buy tickets. Add to that fact, the music and lyrics were written by Adam Guettel, who once…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Hell’s Kitchen” at the Public’s Newman Theater (Through Sunday, January 7, 2024)

Immediately after the first number in the new musical “Hell’s Kitchen” which is a loosely based auto biographical story about musician Alicia Keys growing up and coming of age during the late nineties in the New York City neighborhood which the show is named after, you get the feeling this might be headed to Broadway. That assumption would be right…

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Broadway Review: “The Cottage” at the Helen Hayes Theater (Through Sunday, October 29, 2023)

The familiar post-TONY lull that usually occurs during the summer months of July and August, when everyone takes a break to flee the city for a bit of ocean breeze, doesn’t seem to be happening this theater season. So those theater going tourists and local homebodies can partake in a few new openings on Broadway, with the latest being “The…

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Broadway Review: “Camelot” at the Vivian Beaumont in Lincoln Center Theater (Closed Sunday, July 23, 2023)

In the “Camelot” now on the stage of The Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, magic has been replaced with science, wizardry replaced by wisdom, romance replaced by practicality, and fantasy is overcome by reality. This all falls at the hands of Aaron Sorkin who penned this new book based on the original by Alan Jay Lerner, in an attempt…

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Broadway Review: “Parade” at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (Currently On)

The musical “Parade” opened on Broadway in 1998 and was subject to a short run, closing in February of 1999 before eventually winning two TONY awards for Best Book of a musical by Alfred Uhry and Best Original Score by Jason Robert Brown. This original production received critical acclaim but was received poorly by audience members, sighting the subject matter…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Harder They Come” at the Public’s Newman Theater (Closed Sunday, April 9, 2023)

Currently running at the Public’s Newman Theater, “The Harder They Come” is based on the 1972 film by the same name produced and directed by Perry Henzell and co-written with Trevor Rhone. The first paragraph of David Katz’s guest essay added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 2020 summarizes the film perfectly. “The Harder They Come” is a landmark of Caribbean…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Dark Disabled Stories” Sadly Disappoints at the Public’s Shiva Theater (Closed Sunday, April 2, 2023)

I am an LGBTQ+ able-bodied and hearing person walking into the lobby of one of my favorite venues: The Public Theater.  There is a notice on the door to mask up before entering. I am early and after masking up and picking up my ticket, I lean up against one of the columns in the lobby and check out my…

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