“Kimberly Akimbo” may be one of the best new musicals to appear on the New York Theatre scene this season, glorified by the music of Jeanine Tesori, and enhanced with the unequivocal book and lyrics of David Lindsay- Abaire. It is not perfect, and some aspects can certainly be improved upon, but in its current incarnation it happens to be…
The question that remains in my mind is why anyone would attempt to create a musical based on the dated 1969 motion picture “BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE?” Granted the meant to be comedy written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker for the big screen ventured into uncharted territory with infidelity, the sexual revolution and wife swapping making…
“Soft Power” – the culture-bending, plot-twisting musical within a play currently running at The Public’s Newman Theater – challenges the notion that the only effective parameters of power are money, race, and sex. These constructs of “hard” power are the hallmarks of greed, systemic racism, and misogyny and, from Xue Xing’s (a sensitive and alluring Conrad Ricamora) point of view,…