Off-Broadway

“Collision” at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Through February 17, 2013)

In the online poetry dictionary “Toto Poetry,” one posted rondelet defines ‘collision’ in this way: “Cause motions, /assume the ready position. /Cause emotions, parasitic oscillations. /To go into operation, /strike with disgust or revulsion. /Cause emotions.” In the Amoralists Theatre Company’s World Premiere of “Collision” currently running at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Grange collides with his new roommate Bromley, Professor Denton…

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“The Truth Quotient” at the Beckett Theatre

January 27, 2013 | Off-Broadway, on beckett > | Tags:

Fiction with themes of artificial intelligence and the manufacture and sale of androids is not a new genre. On that surface level, Richard Manley’s “The Truth Quotient” is not unique. What becomes unique is the play’s focus on the more subtle theme of motivation: the motivation of the manufacturer of the androids and the motivation of those who purchase the…

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“Bethany” at New York City Center Stage II

In Laura Marks’ “Bethany,” currently playing at the New York City Center Stage II, protagonist Crystal faces a series of important and life-changing decisions as she attempts to regain custody of her five-year-old daughter Bethany who has been taken from her after Crystal lost her job, her home, and was living with Bethany in her car. Bethany is Crystal’s child’s…

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“Midsummer [a play with songs]” at The Clurman Theatre

January 17, 2013 | Off-Broadway > | Tags:

After tackling the problem of evil in his successful 1978 “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” Rabbi Harold Kushner addressed existentialism, particularly the meaning of life, in his 1986 “When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough: The Search for a Life That Matters.” This latter title could easily be the subtitle of Daniel Grieg’s “Midsummer” currently playing at The…

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“The Wonderful Wizard of Song” at St. Luke’s Theatre

January 13, 2013 | Off-Broadway > | Tags:

There is no doubt that it is fitting to pay tribute to and celebrate Harold Arlen one of the most influential and important composers of the Great American Songbook. His unique and interesting expressive style has graced stage and screen for decades. Arlen’s collaboration with some of the best lyricists created a phenomenal range of songs that continue to pay…

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“City Love Song: Home” at 59E59 Theaters

January 11, 2013 | Off-Broadway > | Tags:

Storyteller Jack Finnegan begins his travelogue with a rhetorical snapshot of a few minutes outside his building in New York City. This image, he claims, glorifies the interconnectedness of cultures and values extant in his neighborhood and reflects the common character of the people who love this urban home as much as he does. He uses this story as a…

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“The Chess Lesson” at the IRT Theater

January 9, 2013 | Off-Broadway > | Tags:

Sari Caine’s “The Chess Lesson” is a delightful trope for humankind’s inveterate attempt to understand “how things came to be.” Was there a creation? If so, was it a “big bang” or a divinely orchestrated event? Were there rules governing that creation? Did humankind “disobey those rules? Whose rules were/are they: those of some divine being or rules created by…

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“P. S. Jones and the Frozen City” at the New Ohio Theatre

December 22, 2012 | Off-Broadway > | Tags:

What would result from collaboration between William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, the multiple authors or sources behind the Pentateuch, Julie Taymor, the Trinity, John Wayne, Cain and Abel, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, a host of other luminaries, and the genius of Robert Askins and Jose Zayas? None other than the winning offering from the terraNOVA Collective “P.S. Jones and…

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“Soldier” at HERE

December 22, 2012 | big gay, Off-Broadway, you will die > | Tags:

Recent Williams College graduate Jonathan Draxton tackles weighty matters in the world premiere of his “Soldier” in New York City at HERE. This tightly wound fifty minute production challenges the audience to question when one who has committed heinous crimes against humanity has demonstrated the level of remorse that warrants forgiveness and reconciliation. These are perhaps questionably attainable qualities for…

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