The new musical “Saturday Church” which is now playing at NYTW, is based on the 2017 film written and directed by Damon Cardasis, who also co-wrote the book for this production alongside James Ijames. This quasi-jukebox musical attempts to weave the music of Sia into the storyline, but it is also only quasi-successful in this endeavor. Too often the music…
Currently running at Playwrights Horizons and co-produced with Soho Rep, “Prince Faggot” is a story within a story within a story about a fictional British Prince George/Pips (a hapless John McCrea) who is queer and meets and falls in love with Dev (a riveting Mihir Kumar) a South Asian Brit from a colonized nation George meets at Oxford. Performers 1…
Currently running at the Hayes Theatre, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s “Purpose” joins the important pantheon of plays about families, dysfunctional families in particular. These plays, including Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s recent “Appropriate,” focus on the behavior patterns and the social practices that undermine and often destroy the integrity of family systems. Sometimes there is confession, forgiveness, and redemption in these narratives. Far too often…
The themes explored in Alice Childress’s “Wine in the Wilderness” currently running at Classic Stage Company include classism and economic struggles; the resilience and strength of communities and individuals navigating challenges in the economic, social and personal environments; identity; and the role of the arts in interpreting and influencing societal norms. And although these themes resonate in every community, Childress…
Dave Malloy’s “Three Houses currently running at Signature Theatre’s Linney Theater is a retelling/interpretation of the classic fairy tales “The Three Little Pigs” and “Red Riding Hood” (among other cautionary folklore narratives) in which The Big Bad Wolf appears. Stand-ins for Little Red Riding Hood and those Three Little Pigs are Susan (a manic and hedonistic Margo Seibert), Sadie (a…
“Some Like It Hot” a modern day, good old-fashioned musical has arrived on Broadway at The Shubert Theatre, and it delivers on all levels, making for a very enjoyable evening of musical comedy. It is based on the motion picture of the same title, but the book by Matthew Lopez and Amber Ruffin is clever, witty, and updated to reflect…
In the current 20th anniversary production of “Topdog/Underdog,” Suzan Lori-Parks reminds the audience that when one does not receive unconditional and nonjudgmental love and chooses to disconnect from one’s cultural and family histories, things can and will go terribly wrong. From the first scene of the play currently running at the John Golden Theatre, it is evident that there is…
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…
“Since its premiere at The Public in 1976 and its subsequent transfer to Broadway later that year, much has happened to continue to impact the lives of the women of color celebrated by Ntozake Shange in her choreopoem “for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf” currently running at the Booth Theatre for the second time…