Joan Marcus

Off-Broadway Review: “Breaking the Story” at Second Stage’s Tony Kiser Theater (Closed on Sunday, June 23, 2024)

The newest offering at Second Stage’s Kiser Theatre is a production of a new play penned by Alexis Scheer titled “Breaking the Story” which centers around a war correspondent who is actively reporting from the front line. The production directed by Jo Bonney was a bit confusing for this audience member, finding the elements of magical realism not clearly defined….

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Lonely Few” at MCC Theater’s Newman Mills Theater (Closed on Sunday, June 2, 2024).

The most recent offering at MCC Theater is a new musical entitled “The Lonely Few” with music and lyrics by Zoe Sarnak and a book penned by Rachel Bonds. Basically, it can be considered a rom com musical with a simple plot that takes a bit too long to develop especially since the predictability level is very high. The length…

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Broadway Review: “Doubt: A Parable” at the Todd Haimes Theatre (Through Sunday, April 21)

“Doubt” can produce several similar congenial feelings such as uncertainty, suspicion, uneasiness, apprehension, distrust and confusion. Usually there is a situation or event that occurs that may be the cause, or possibly misinformation that may initiate speculation and accusation. The striking Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s riveting drama, rightfully titled “Doubt,” now playing at the newly named Todd Haimes…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Ally” at the Public’s Anspacher Theater (Closed Sunday, March 24, 2024)

Asaf and the members of the audience are the unwitting protagonists of Itamar Moses’s “The Ally” which is currently running at the Public’s Anspacher Theater. Asaf Sternheim (a well-meaning but uncommitted Josh Radnor) is Jewish, a writer, and an adjunct professor of writing at a prestigious American University in a struggling American city where his Korean American wife Gwen Kim…

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Broadway Review: “Appropriate” at the Hayes Theater (Currently On)

According to the dictionary, there are several definitions of the word ‘appropriate,’ but there may possibly be one that could be added, that being “a brilliant play by Brandon Jacob-Jenkins.” which is now having a stunning production mounted on Broadway by Second Stage Theater. Aptly titled “Appropriate” follows the ultra-dysfunctional Lafayette clan back to their family plantation home in Southeast…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Jonah” at Roundabout Theatre Company (Closed Sunday, March 10, 2024)

The time “Jonah,” currently running at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre, takes place is described in the program as “The past and the present. But everything is slippery.” ‘Slippery’ is the operative word here. Everything is slippery in “Jonah” in addition to the time: the series of bedrooms in Wilson Chin’s cerebral and surreal design; the changeability and moodiness…

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Broadway Review: “Days of Wine and Roses” at Studio 54 (Closes Sunday, March 31, 2024)

Since the Atlantic Theater Company first announced that Brian d’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara would lead the cast of the new musical “Days of Wine and Roses” based on the book by JP Miller, it was evident why theater goers would rush to buy tickets. Add to that fact, the music and lyrics were written by Adam Guettel, who once…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Hell’s Kitchen” at the Public’s Newman Theater (Closed Sunday, January 7, 2024 and Opens on Broadway Saturday, April 20, 2024)

Immediately after the first number in the new musical “Hell’s Kitchen” which is a loosely based auto biographical story about musician Alicia Keys growing up and coming of age during the late nineties in the New York City neighborhood which the show is named after, you get the feeling this might be headed to Broadway. That assumption would be right…

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Broadway Review: “The Cottage” at the Helen Hayes Theater (Through Sunday, October 29, 2023)

The familiar post-TONY lull that usually occurs during the summer months of July and August, when everyone takes a break to flee the city for a bit of ocean breeze, doesn’t seem to be happening this theater season. So those theater going tourists and local homebodies can partake in a few new openings on Broadway, with the latest being “The…

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Broadway Review: “Camelot” at the Vivian Beaumont in Lincoln Center Theater (Closed Sunday, July 23, 2023)

In the “Camelot” now on the stage of The Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center, magic has been replaced with science, wizardry replaced by wisdom, romance replaced by practicality, and fantasy is overcome by reality. This all falls at the hands of Aaron Sorkin who penned this new book based on the original by Alan Jay Lerner, in an attempt…

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