The new musical “The Visitor,” now playing at the Public’s Newman Theater, is based on the 2007 film sharing the same title, with a book by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Brian Yorkey, music by Tom Kitt and lyrics also by Mr. Yorkey. The story is the same but somehow confining it to the stage provides a better focus on the characters…
“I’m very scared. I’m very confused it’s very bright here please just tell me whether or not I am safe.” These are among the first words spoken by Charley McBride (an ethereal and impassioned Edie Falco) in Simon Stephens’s “Morning Sun” currently running at Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center – Stage I. Charley is surrounded by her…
The new musical “A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet” with music, book and lyrics by Ben Fankhauser and Alex Wyse, who also star in the Off-Broadway production now occupying the DR2 Theater is old. That’s a compliment and a good thing. It comes across as a good old fashioned musical comedy from decades ago with a present-day spin. The book…
Around the Sun, an episodic audio drama, created by Brad Forenza, has launched its first episodes via the Broadway Podcast Network. New episodes premiere each week, throughout fall 2021. The series features an all-star cast, including winners/nominees of every major performance award (Drama Desk, Emmy, Golden Globe, Grammy, Oscar, Screen Actors Guild, and Tony). It is available for streaming wherever…
If you were to sit in the dark in the Nederlander Theatre at the appointed hour, with the security screen lowered, you would eventually hear Candida Caldicot begin to play the stage-left piano. Soon after, voices are heard, and what easily could be the most engaging radio play begins. And you immediately become entranced, captured by what you hear: the…
Had the playwright, director, and creative team of “Chicken & Biscuits” taken a cue from their “Oklahoma” colleagues who occupied the same Circle in the Square Theatre space in 2019-2020, they might have inserted a break into their play’s overlong 120-minutes and served a small portion of chicken and biscuits to the members of the audience. This would have enhanced…
Bedlam’s 2016 “Sense and Sensibility” was fresh, buoyant, engaging, and richly authentic. Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s text was transformative theatre, groundbreaking theatre, immersive theatre, theatre not to be missed. Eric Tucker’s sparse and inventive staging exposed the pure joy of Jane Austen’s popular text. Jane Austen’s goal as a novelist was never to obfuscate; rather, her purpose was…
Since the controversy started about the destiny of so called “dreamers” and immigration moved to the forefront of the political spectrum, theatre has become a formidable platform, revealing the many obstacles that face these innocent victims. What has also developed is the now familiar phrase “sanctuary city.” A city that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents, to protect…
In Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s most recent iteration of “Pass Over,” two “brothers” Moses (Jon Michael Hill) and Kitch (Namir Smallwood) engage in an interminable exchange of escapist fantasy-dialogue in which they ask one another, “What kind of plans you got?” Moses’ His Promised Land Top 10 list includes “reaching his full potential,” “getting his ass off this block,” “a penthouse…
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival 2021 Main Stage Review: “How I Learned What I Learned” (Through Sunday July 11, 2021 By August Wilson Co-Conceived by Todd Kreidler Directed by Christopher V. Edwards Reviewed by David Roberts, Theatre Reviews Limited Looking carefully at the many windows looming upstage on Baron E. Pugh’s set for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival 2021 Main Stage production of “How I…