Two men – one older, one younger – cross paths in the former Pennsylvania Train Station from 1963 until 1966. The older Joseph Lanzarone (Clyde Baldo) teaches American and British Literature at Xavier High School. The younger Paul Abbot (Matthew Pilieci) works on the crew contracted to demolish the iconic train station and is an amateur photographer. Each holds a…
The new musical “Trip of Love,” now playing at the 42nd St Theater, pays homage to some of the unforgettable hits of the sixties. It would be better described as a musical revue that is extremely well choreographed with lavish costumes and extravagant sets that together create an opulent psychedelic collage. It is neither thought provoking, nor particularly well structured,…
“If I ever hope to learn anything about myself and the things around me, I’ve got to stand completely on my own. That’s why I can’t stay here with you any longer.” (Nora to Torvald) Ingmar Berman’s “Nora,” the retelling (a reduction really) of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” is enjoying its English-language New York debut Off-Broadway at the iconic…
A long list of adaptations including those by Tennessee Williams (“The Notebook of Trigorin”), Emily Mann (“A Seagull in the Hamptons”), and Regina Taylor (“Drowning Crow”) have payed homage to Anton Chekhov’s 1986 “The Seagull” by retelling the story of the dysfunctional Russian family in a variety of creative ways. “Songbird,” currently running at 59E59 Theaters, continues the retelling tradition…
“Into each life some rain must fall/But too much is falling in mine/Into each heart some tears must fall/ But some day the sun will shine.” (Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots) “But into every life a little rain must fall.” (Queen) That unwelcome “rain” falls unexpectedly into the lives of the characters of Mark Gerrard’s scintillating new play in…
There is no fourth wall in Mark Thomas’s award-winning “Cuckooed” and there is no attempt to suspend disbelief. The standup, actor, journalist’s solo performance raises important questions about corporate deception, government collusion, and personal betrayal but is it theatre? It certainly is a solid university-caliber lecture that engages the audience and challenges the status quo. Perhaps what makes it more…
There have been a plethora of Beatles tributes on and off Broadway in the recent past but none honors the Beatles songbook better than “Lennon Through A Glass Onion” currently running at the Union Square Theatre. Conceived and Performed by John R. Waters, this complex and engaging musical focuses on the music of John Lennon through a “peeling back of…
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 It is a hard kind of love that haunts Hannah (Victoria Mack) and Zvi (Ian Kahn) as they attempt to navigate through their fractured relationship twenty years after their divorce. It is an issue of faith that apparently contributed to the…
“And I am like a deceiver, like a usurper who has reigned over a body which has ceased to be his own, like a person who owns merely the facade of his own house.” (Einar/Lili) A fascinating story unfolds on the small performance space at the 4th Street Theatre thanks to the InViolet Theatre Theater Company’s engaging current production. “Sommerfugl”…
Hugh Pugh (Peter Maloney) neither bathes nor opens his mail on any regular basis. He has not bathed in four years and his mail has been abandoned under the letter box “this decades.” Hugh succumbs to a bubble bath in anticipation of the visit from his ninety-one year old alcoholic brother. Hugh is ninety and is a small-time farmer living…