Two deeply significant plays by Jeremy O. Harris – “Daddy” (Off-Broadway 2019) and “Slave Play” (Broadway 2021) – highlighted significant issues about the self-identity of young black gay and queer men and raised rich and enduring questions about the role of family, friends, culture, and “indifferent yet fetishizing white gays” in that process of discovery. This season, Michael R. Jackson’s…
Buried somewhere beneath the myriad sheets of plywood neatly lining the walls and covering the floors of Circle in the Square is the original sheer splendor, strength, and – yes – the overwhelming darkness of the original production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” Alas, that poor “Oklahoma!” is dead and is unceremoniously buried in Daniel Fish’s pretentious and overwrought “Oklahoma!”…
The familiar phrase “Everything old is new again” is a perfect way to describe the current production at the delightful Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. It is an old-fashioned musical comedy featuring music by the legendary Cy Coleman with a book written by the brilliant playwrights, Wendy Wasserstein and Christopher Durang, entitled “Pamela’s First Musical.” It is…