persuasion

Off-Broadway Review: Bedlam’s “Persuasion” at the Connelly Theatre (Closed Sunday October 31, 2021)

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…

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Broadway Review: “The Rose Tattoo” at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway

Following in the footsteps of Maureen Stapleton in the original and first revival and Mercedes Ruehl featured in the second revival on Broadway comes Marisa Tomei as Serafina Delle Rose in the current production of “The Rose Tattoo” at Roundabout American Airlines Theatre. This rare tragic comedy by Tennessee Williams about a heartbroken, widowed, Italian American who shuts herself off…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Eddie and Dave” at Atlantic Stage 2

The present-day social climate in the theater world has fervently addressed non-traditional casting, gender identity, and diversity as part of an effort to be inclusive and accepting. When a production exhibits a little gender bending, there should be a valid explanation or reasoning behind the decision, whether it be historical, social, or dramatic persuasion. In the case of “Eddie and…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Light Shining in Buckinghamshire” Muses Successfully on Revolution at New York Theatre Workshop

In an October 17, 2015 “New York Post” article, Michael Goodwin raises the rich, albeit uncomfortable, proposition of James Piereson in his July 2015 book “Shattered Consensus: The Rise and Decline of America’s Postwar Political Order;” namely, “America is due for a revolution.” In the “Post” article, Mr. Goodwin summarizes Mr. Pierson’s argument thusly: “there is an inevitable “revolution” coming…

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“Riding the Midnight Express with Billy Hayes” at the Barrow Street Theatre (Closed Sunday November 30, 2014

October 10, 2014 | midnight, Off-Broadway, persuasion > | Barrow Street Theatre

In October 1970, on his fourth attempt to smuggle hashish from Turkey to the United States, “the blond hippie” Billy Hayes was apprehended and remanded to Sağmalcılar prison for a four year and two month sentence. Because of then President Nixon’s war on the smuggling of drugs into the United States and his pressure on countries like Turkey to stem…

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“Bronx Bombers” at Primary Stages at the Duke (Closed October 19, 2013)

October 8, 2013 | Off-Broadway, persuasion > | Duke on 42nd, Primary Stages

“The ghosts of baseball past serve up a feast for the soul in Eric Simonson’s BRONX BOMBERS!” Reggie Jackson (Francois Battiste) in Eric Simonson’s “Bronx Bombers” is spot on: much of his bombastic rhetoric in the meeting in a hotel room in the Boston Sheraton in 1977 with Yogi Berra, Thuman Munson, and Billy Martin is “a metaphor.” Indeed, Mr….

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“Bull” at 59E59 Theaters

May 23, 2013 | Off-Broadway, persuasion > | 59E59 Theaters

Lifeboat Ethics collides with and colludes with evolutionary theory’s “survival of the fittest” and places the audience adrift in a moral sea in Mike Bartlett’s “Bull” currently playing at 59E59 Theater B. On the surface, “Bull” seems to be about office downsizing drama. Tony’s (Adam James) team of two – Isabel (Eleanor Matsuura) and Thomas (Sam Troughton) – are a…

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