Joe Turner was real. Brother of the Tennessee Governor, he would swoop down on Black men in the early 1900s – gambling, preaching, just walking down the road – and keep them enslaved on chain gangs for seven years. “They tell me Joe Turner’s come and gone / Got my man and gone” – the women sang it, a blues…
Actor and comedian John Leguizamo makes his playwrighting debut at The Public Theater with “The Other Americans”, which may certainly be billed as a new American Tragedy. Although it may draw some similarities to “Death of a Salesman”, featuring a dominant patriarch and the disintegration of the American Dream, the comparison ends there. The head of the Latino family that…
“Our Town” by Thorton Wilder is recognized as a classic, and the revival now playing at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, directed by Kenny Leon is the perfect example of why it has achieved that status. It is timeless, appealing to a multi-generational audience, and allows each theatergoer to recognize their own connection to the content. Not only will…
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…