“Bend in the Road” is a delightful character-driven musical lifted from the framework of the classic 1908 novel “Anne of the Green Gables” by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The musical – like those before it – closely follows the plot of the novel and includes all of the significant moments in Montgomery’s delightful story of Anne Shirley’s coming of age at…
Sachiko Ishimaru’s “Color of Life” chronicles the relationship between Rachel (Shino Frances) and Kazuya (Yasuhiro Ito) a young couple who meet on a flight to the United States from Tokyo. Kazuya is a young rising Japanese painter on his way to New York and Rachel is a half-Japanese lesbian young woman on her way back from Tokyo where she was…
Billed as an ‘Out-rageous Musical Revue,’ “Boys Will Be Boys” presented at the Studio Theater as part of the ongoing NYMF certainly lives up to its claim. Almost everything from concept, lyrics, characters, parodies and innuendos are completely over the top and as gay as one can possibly imagine. It is a fun romp very reminiscent in style to the…
“Dwight” is an ill-conceived new play about a group of unlikable LGBT friends (well, no one really knows Cash’s precise sexual status) who hang out in Cash’s BIN, recycle, create art from their recycled treasures, and grumble a lot, especially when Dwight is around – which is most of the time. They unfortunately mistake ex-gangbanger Lex as their enemy even…
Following in the footsteps of the likes of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Jean Genet, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Arrabal, Vaclav Havel and Edward Albee is a formidable task to undertake. Even to attempt to write a play in the absurdist genre is an impressive accomplishment. EJ Sepp introduced his new (and his first) play to…
“Longing for Grace” is a short play examining the misfortunes of Grace Kelly during her life as the fairytale princess of Monaco and after marrying Prince Rainier III whom she had met while attending the Cannes Film Festival. There are no surprises in the script of the all too familiar story which hailed major publicity about Grace Kelly’s private life…
Things are not always what they seem on the high seas or in the competitive world of finance. The high-flying team of Veley and Sullivan deliver a delicious convoluted plot in Charles Veley’s “The Pirates of Finance” currently running at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Charles Veley’s lyrics neatly complement…
The new jukebox musical at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theater, presented as part of NYMF, is aptly titled “Life Could Be A Dream” (lyrics from the opening musical number) and is a collection of songs from the late 1950’s Doo Wop era (rather than songs focused on one particular group). The musical numbers are so well integrated that they…
“And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair.” — From “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot Brian C. Petti’s “The Love Song of Sidney J. Stein” is an impressive retelling/re-imagining…
Bereavement is a lengthy and often painful process. Not only does the “next of kin” need to scramble through the thick underbrush of anger, denial, and bargaining – hoping to accomplish some degree of acceptance – but that person also has to cope with the unraveling of the social system of which he or she has been a part often…