“I like being able to define my species. And so I guess for the Seagull I don’t know anything, I’m an outside observer, but I think They found the beauty in being outside They made a place where they could define themselves.” Aisha/Nar The thirty-something Jewish Bohemians in “The Place We Built,” currently running at the Flea Theater, who in…
The New Group has announced four productions for its 2016-2017 Season. The company’s new season begins in Fall 2016 with the musical “Sweet Charity,” with choreography by Joshua Bergasse, directed by Leigh Silverman and featuring two-time Tony Award winner Sutton Foster in the title role. The New Group’s season continues in January 2017 with the U.S. premiere of Wallace Shawn’s “Evening at the Talk House,” directed by Scott Elliott; followed by the…
Currently running at 59E59 Theaters as part of the Brits Off-Broadway Series, Richard Bean’s 1999 “Toast” slices its way through layers of delicious intrigue to a tasty core of surprises that make the journey more than worthwhile. This is drawing room farce sans the drawing room. The swinging doors here connect the unseen bakery to the break room where the…
Armed with the promise of her therapist’s willingness to offer phone support and clutching a bottle of sedatives from the same therapist, Hiro (played with a steely vulnerability by Satomi Blair) flies from New York to Kentucky to convince her younger sister Sophie (played with a charming but confident core by Sasha Diamond) not to marry Da’Ran (played with exquisite…
The main issue with playwright Justin Kuritzkes’ new work “The Sensuality Party” is that it seriously lacks sensuality and it certainly is no party. In fact, perhaps the young author needs to get out more, see a few things, interact and experience what might be happening since the earlier sexual revolution that he (through Speaker’s words) actually claims to not…
The current offering from The Director’s Company at the Duke on 42nd Street is a world premiere penned by Australian playwright Wendy Beckett entitled “A Better Place.” It turns out to be an urban synonym for the old suburban aphorism “the grass is always greener.” Only in this case, rather than a healthier lawn, it is a larger apartment in…
The only barrier between immersing oneself in Ramesh Meyyappan’s brilliant “Butterfly” is attempting to connect the wordless well-choreographed “dance” of love, betrayal, and redemption with its namesake “Madame Butterfly” or with the interesting connections to the lepidopterist Vladimir Nabokov. One needs to grapple with the piece itself and accept it as a unique piece of experimental theatre replete with stunning…
Officially the last production of the 2015/16 season, “Shuffle Along” is the much anticipated not– quite -revival starring Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. The full title is “Shuffle Along: The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed,” and indeed, it tells the story of a Broadway show that was the first to star an all-black cast. In other words, this is not…
I confess that my mind started wandering about three hours into this one, but soon enough, the words, and those reciting them, pulled me back in. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is arguably Eugene O’Neill’s most famous– and most harrowing– work. Unlike Arthur Miller, whose family angst was often searinglyrepressed or unspoken, O’Neill put it all out there. In this revival, a Roundabout production at the American Airlines Theatre,…
For those who need reminders, this musical has a long history, both behind and in front of it. (Stay with me here) It all began as an East European play, apparently, but for most of is, it started as a beguiling 1940 movie called “The Shop Around The Corner,” starring Jimmy Stewart and Maureen Sullivan as sparring co-workers at a…