Maurice Hines has been tapping through his prestigious career since he and his brother Gregory – at three and five years old – were discovered at Harlem’s iconic Apollo Theater while attending a performance of the Count Basie Band with singer Joe Williams. Mr. Hines begins his highly entertaining “Maurice Hines Tappin’ Thru Life,” now playing at New World Stages,…
“Isn’t that what we would have wanted from our parents?/the encouragement to be true to our own compass/the freedom to fall and get up/despite the fear of falling again?” – Staceyann Chin Like the “Star Wars” franchise, “Motherstruck” is best understood and appreciated as a complex set of extended metaphors, rich tropes for the important themes of nurturing, self-realization, unconditional…
Continuing the legacy of the late Lee Theodore who established the American Dance Machine on 1976, Nikki Feirt Atkins founded the American Dance Machine for the 21st Century in 2012 “to create a living and vibrant archive of classic and current notable music theatre choreography.” This remarkable archive is celebrated in AMD21’s current offering at The Joyce Theater through Sunday…
Stuart Ross’s “Forever Plaid” has been presenting its four-part guy group for decades and has maintained a successful presence in part because of its connection to the pleasing feelings of nostalgia summoned by the performances of hits from the past. And also in part because of the consistently superior quality of the voices and the vocal and musical arrangements of…
Imagine a Kingdom – not just any Kingdom – where the Leader is under a spell that renders him mute and cannot be broken until the “mouse devours the hawk.” The Leader has no voice therefore no power. Imagine. Wait, there is such a Kingdom, in fact several of them where the leaders seem to be under spells that prevent…
Think “The Gin Game” sans playing cards and nursing home and without the requirement of aging characters and ‘Bingo’ one discovers the delightful and charming “2 Across” currently enjoying an open-ended Off-Broadway run at Manhattan’s St. Luke’s Theatre. In Jerry Mayer’s new play Janet (Andrea McArdle) and Josh (Kip Gilman) meet on an early morning BART train from the San…
Adapting a novel for the stage comes with considerable risk. The adaptor needs to be as true as possible to the original dense text – especially in the case of C. S. Lewis. The adaptor also has to delineate the characters with honesty and believability and present their conflicts and the plot they drive with the authenticity inherent in the…
Depending on the point of view of the audience member, Jane Martin’s striking and deeply moving “H2O” can be viewed as either a play within a play or a remarkable retelling of the “Tragedy of Hamlet.” After its successful world premiere at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the play is currently running at 59E59 Theaters in…
“I’m too old — they say — for more memories./No walking along the park in some darker breeze./You’re no city for dreamers, only lovers you leave behind./Oh, New York, do not waste my time.” (Burt Bacharach/Steven Slater) “Life is a Cabaret, old chum.” (“Cabaret”) It is New York City 1995. It is another time with different rules, a disparate energy,…
“I’m thinking unnecessary thoughts. I always keep busy, but what can I do? I can’t go to early morning mass. The reporters sit in nearby pews whispering their queries. I can’t take my daily walk on the golf course either. The photographers and the gawkers follow me even there.” – Rose Just a few days after her only surviving son…