Dane Laffrey

Video on Demand Review: Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” Starring Jefferson Mays (through January 3, 2010)

“Scrooge,” Noel Langley’s 1951 black-and-white film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” is perhaps the most celebrated version of the holiday classic. Notable among the several solo “A Christmas Carol” performances are those featuring Guy Masterson, Patrick Stewart, and Dick Terhune. But none of these matches the filmed version starring Jefferson Mays which is based on the acclaimed 2018…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Greater Clements” at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

After an economic downturn and the subsequent gentrification closes the mining industry in 2017 Clements, Idaho, the residents vote to unincorporate as a town. But mining continues to flourish in Samuel D. Hunter’s “Greater Clements” currently running at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater: not the mining of “silver, lead, zinc, copper, little bit of gold, some molybdenum,” but…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Lewsiton/Clarkston” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

There is quite an intriguing theatrical event occurring at the Rattlestick Theater, where two ninety-minute plays separated by a thirty-minute communal dinner break takes the stage to engage an audience of fifty, in two compelling dramas. The playhouse is stripped down to its original walls discovering weathered multi paned windows and worn wainscoting, wearing years of neglect, with some sections…

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Broadway News: “Once On This Island” at Circle in the Square Theatre to Close Sunday January 6, 2019

“Once On this Island” was certainly an enchanting and memorable visit twenty-seven years ago and that may in fact cloud the opinions expressed when recently returning to this island and commenting on what had changed. Some audience members may have experienced finding an unknown out of the way place that had a simple and charming ambience, with friendly locals that…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties” at MCC Theater’s Lucille Lortel Theatre

By agreeing to carefully examine the sex-role stereotypes attributed to women, five disparate women named ‘Betty’ cautiously approach self-acceptance and self-understanding in Jen Silverman’s “Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties” at MCC Theater’s Lucille Lortel Theatre. Their collective rage about their loneliness, their fears, their submission, and their dismissions by men is a welcomed examination of gender and sexual…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Peace for Mary Frances” at the New Group at Pershing Square Center’s Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre

There are many victims in the new family drama penned by Lily Thorne, but perhaps the audience is the most unfortunate casualty, having to suffer through this slow, protracted, insipid production for over two-and-a-half hours and wishing that “Peace for Mary Frances” would have come much sooner. The structure of the play is problematic: the series of short scenes ranging…

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Off-Broadway Review: Sensibility Reigns in “Summer and Smoke” at Classic Stage Company

Begun in 1945, and first produced in 1947, Tennessee Williams called “Summer and Smoke” a “drama of sensibility.” Rich in allegory, yet grounded in realism, the play explores the deep conflicts between body and soul and between the sacred and the profane and examines the themes of the marginalized and the results of having a poorly integrated sexuality. Currently running…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Picnic and Come Back, Little Sheba: William Inge in Repertory” at Transport Group Theatre Company at the Gym at Judson

“Picnic and Come Back, Little Sheba: William Inge in Repertory” at Transport Group Theatre Company at the Gym at Judson leaves one longing for more William Inge and more Transport Group – perhaps a trifecta that includes the 1955 “Bus Stop.” Inge’s themes of deep angst, “small ambition,” the search for identity and purpose, lost (or abandoned) youth, choices and…

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