Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Off-Broadway Review: “Catch as Catch Can” at Playwrights Horizons (Closed Sunday, November 20, 2022)

Playwright Mia Chung intends to raise a rich and enduring question in her play “Catch as Catch Can” currently running at Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater: “What is inherent in our inheritance? What is universal?” Unfortunately, this question is not addressed nor answered in her character-driven play featuring Cindy Cheung, Jon Norman Schneider, and Rob Yang as Irish American…

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Off-Broadway Review: Clare Barron’s “Dance Nation” Explores the Angst of Adolescence with Cathartic Wit at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Clare Barron’s “Dance Nation” Explores the Angst of Adolescence with Cathartic Wit. Separation-individuation is one of life’s most difficult passages: it is completed successfully by most; however, more than might be suspected remain in the mire of adolescence all their lives. Prepubescence is supposed to erupt in adulthood – adults emerging where clingy parent-dependent pre-teens once held sway. It is…

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Off Broadway Review: “The Treasurer” at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Max Posner’s “The Treasurer,” currently running at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, is a play about Ida Armstrong’s (played with a fragile irascibility by Deanna Dunagan) youngest son (played with an equally fragile ego strength by Peter Friedman) whose siblings have placed him in charge of their mother’s bank account, her spending, her assets and her liabilities. This role of…

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Off-Broadway Review: “MotherFreakingHood! (Maternal Discretion Advised)” at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater

“MotherFreakingHood! (Maternal Discretion Advised),” currently finishing its run at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, celebrates “the mother you never thought you should be.” Apparently a riff on the sacred status of motherhood, the musical joins the ranks of movies that try to extol the virtues of the role by suggesting what it ought not…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Georama: An American Panorama on 3 Miles of Canvas” at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre

The Authors’ Note in the program for “Georama: An American Panorama on 3 Miles of Canvas,” currently running at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, claims that John Banvard the subject of their musical “[has] been entirely obliterated by history.” Although that premise is not entirely accurate – articles about Banvard exist in numerous scholarly…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Play Like A Winner” at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater

The new musical “Play Like a Winner” is based on the stage play “It’s All About the Kids” by Caytha Jentis which comically explores the dark side of competitive soccer moms vying for social status in upscale suburbia. The opening musical number “Sacrifice” is sung by the company surrounding the body of the coach lying dead, center stage impaled with…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Fourth Messenger” at the New York Musical Festival at the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row

In Tanya Shaffer’s and Vienna Teng’s “The Fourth Messenger,” currently playing at the New York Musical Festival at the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row, the journey of protagonist Sid Arthur (Nancy Anderson) counterpoints the journey of Siddhārtha Gautama the Buddha of the current age. “Mama Sid” – as the world-renowned spiritual leader is addressed by her devotees – is holding forth…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Numbers Nerds” at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater

One of the welcomed distinctions about the new musical “Number Nerds” is that its creation was prompted in response to the need for more female roles available for the high school, college, and community theater circuit. In that respect, it successfully targets that audience with lighthearted comedy, energetic music and a book that promotes good moral values. It is a…

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Off-Broadway Review: “The Body Politic” at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater

“The Body Politic,” currently running at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater chronicles the journey of Iphis (Samy El-Noury) a transgender young man from Kabul who emigrates to Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the height of the Afghan War. This new life is offered by Chris, an American Aid Worker, and Iphis leaves his mother…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Miss Blanche Tells It All” at the New York Musical Festival at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater

“These parting words, she left behind/These parting words she left behind/And I put them in your hands now/These parting words she left behind.” – The Nun Lee (Brian Charles Rooney) is the twenty-something female impersonator who graces the small stage at the Golden Lantern, an old bar – a joint – in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The small…

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