Add “Wearing Black,” currently presented as part of NYMF at Theater 3, to the growing list of NYMF plays this week (number three) that deal with young adults dealing with the loss of a friend and a sibling in a frivolous and avoidable fatal car accident. In this play, a drug addicted twin brother drives his car off a bridge….
Conor McPherson’s “The Weir,” a haunting play of effervescent charm, finds a cozy home at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Directed by Irish Rep veteran Ciarán O’Reilly, the play bathes comfortably in old-country charm, fireside folk tales, and sepulchral gloom. The play centers around one night at a bar in rural Ireland. Excitement stirs in the placid village when Valerie, a…
Theatregoers have had a decent dose of the epic video game Super Mario Brothers (Nintendo) in the recent past. The Fringe NYC 2014 featured “Jump Man – A Mario Musical” which garnered the Fringe Excellent Award for Best Musical. And “Claudio Quest,” currently running at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, had its first incarnation at DC’s Fringe Festival in…
Perhaps I was already numb to the plot where young people are trying to cope with the death of a friend in an automobile accident, in which a surviving friend was driving, since I had endured the same theme in a show in a different festival the night before; however, I do not think that influenced my perspective as I…
Judah (Zal Owen) is convinced that his parents’ closest friend Mrs. Jordan (Robin Skye) is harboring a deep secret. Both Judah and Elizabeth Jordan have recently suffered loss: his parents both died tragically within the year as did her Broadway director husband Matthew. Zal returns to Mrs. Jordan’s home in the Hamptons where he spent a great deal of time…
One of the most difficult tasks in musical theater is the creation of a theatrical piece that appeals to children and adults alike, and that is also based on a wonderful, well received illustrated children’s book. The new musical “The Calico Buffalo” now playing at PTC as part of NYMF, audaciously confronts this daunting task and the results are what…
There is probably something important in Morgan Gould’s “Losing Tom Pecinka” currently running at the New Ohio Theater as part of this year’s Ice Factory but whatever that might be is buried beneath layers of self-effacing (and self-absorbed) puerile humor that resembles a mashup of the worst Saturday Night Live sketches and the dreariest of daytime soap operas both replete…
“Moses Man,” currently running at the New York Musical Theatre Festival, is based on the true story of writer Deborah Haber’s parents Kalman and Lily Haber whose nine-year journey from Nazi-occupied Austria throughout Europe, Cyprus, Palestine, and Africa finally – against many odds – leads to freedom and a new home in the United States. In “Moses Man” that survivor…
It is difficult to know precisely what playwright Jalila Baccar envisioned her award-winning play would look like on stage but it is doubtful it was anything like the disappointing production of her important drama currently running at the 4th Street Theatre in Manhattan’s East Village. This Horizon Theatre Rep production is overlong, overwrought, and depends too heavily on projections of…
It is difficult to imagine it getting any better: a group of talented a cappella singers (Broadway veterans and vocal band members), beatboxing, traditional American spiritual hymns, and a decent book about finding one’s voice and finding one’s way. All of that is featured in the new musical “Acappella” enjoying its weeklong run at the Pearl Theatre Company as part…