Primary Stages current offering is Theresa Rebeck’s new play entitled “Dig.” Now playing at 59E59 theatres, the play revolves around the situations that develop in a small plant shop that has its name “dig” stenciled on the glass window of the front door. The playwright takes every possible opportunity to utilize a plant or horticultural metaphor to translate or foreshadow…
“The Gospel According to Heather” a new musical which is now playing at Theater 555 fails to deliver any clear message let alone a gospel, constantly being sidetracked by insignificant subplots and ridiculous situations that try to reflect on the present socio-political turmoil. Just when the audience thinks it may get a grip on the proceedings, the musical switches gears…
Chatillion Stage Company’s “Tech Support,” currently running at 59E59 Theaters, begins with the play’s protagonist Pamela Stark (Margot White) frantically pacing around in her West Village well-appointed apartment as she remains on hold waiting for tech support for her malfunctioning printer. Pamela deals in antique books and when she finally reaches tech support, she tells Chip, “I need to pack…
Given the long-term relationship that existed between A.R. Gurney and Primary Stages, it is befitting that the prolific playwright requested his agent to send his newest one act play “Final Follies” to the theater company for production in 2017. It turned out to be ominously and aptly titled since he passed soon after, leaving this to be the last play…
Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish;/Come to the mercy-seat, fervently kneel;/Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;/Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.” (Thomas Moore and Thomas Hastings/Samuel Webbe) Sometimes the brokenhearted are aware on some non-conscious level of the impending inconsolable, melancholic, or woebegone event(s) about to befall them. They might find themselves not associating with…
Margery Kempe was an English Christian Mystic during the 14th and 15th centuries who was tried for heresy multiple times but never convicted. During the late Middle Ages, the task of interpreting the Bible and God was restricted to ordained priests but interpretation through the senses and body became the dominion of woman mystics. Kempe’s autobiography is the first written…
Members of the Primary Stages staff, prior to curtain, passed through the audience asking members to “select a button” based on who we thought would “win” the discordant discourse: Jefferson, Dickens, or Tolstoy – the three characters appearing in Scott Carters “Discord” currently running at Primary Stages. Further instructions included the option to change one’s mind after the play and…
There have been several media depicting the life of the famed piano virtuoso Liberace; including, novels, documentaries, film, television, interviews and now, following the attempted effort of the stage musical “All That Glitters,” comes “Ben, Virginia and Me: The Liberace Musical” currently running as part of the NYMF Festival. This endeavor concentrates mainly on the relationship between the celebrated showman,…
“The thing was, I was really good at it. And I loved it. I just loved being able to . . . I don’t know . . . make someone more comfortable. Make some of their pain go away. And it wasn’t just because it was someone I loved. It was . . . the fact that I was in…