If the cacophony on stage during the Vineyard Theatre’s “Dot” even remotely characterizes the “noise” inside Dotty’s head, it is easy to understand the severity of her Alzheimer’s disease and just how far it has progressed. Colman Domingo’s new play tackles the horrific details of one family’s struggle to cope with the deterioration of their mother and how her mental…
Plays about the making of plays or the making of movies ought to adhere to the conventions of the genre being dramatized. Playwright Mike Bencivenga fails to accomplish this important writer’s task in his new “Billy and Ray” currently running at the Vineyard Theatre. This play about the collaboration between Billy Wilder (Vincent Kartheiser) and Raymond Chandler (Larry Pine) on…
“All the world’s a stage, /And all the men and women merely players:/They have their exits and their/entrances; /And one man in his time plays many parts.” – Jacques in “As You Like It” Act II, Scene VII (William Shakespeare, 1600) In Shakespeare’s “As You Like It,” Jacques solves the eternal question of whether art imitates life or life imitates…
Channeling a more introspective and agonized June Cleaver, Sara Jane (Alexandra Silber) has an on-the-surface pleasant dialogue with all that is beyond theatre’s conventional fourth wall. In “Arlington,” currently playing at the Vineyard Theatre, that includes directly engaging the audience and the Pianist (Ben Moss) who appears behind an upstage scrim and not only accompanies Sara Jane’s non-stop singing but…
“There’s a big boat with a long rope and the tide has turned/pull the long rope to stop the big boat/and all that happens is your hands get burned.” – Collin “The Landing” is a smart new musical that frames three short tales. Each – “Andra,” “The Brick,” and “The Landing” – has unique characters with unique conflicts; however, the…