“A good review is never good enough . . . a bad review is devastating . . .” Critical Mass (written by Joanne Sydney Lessner and directed by Donald Brenner) exposes a dirty little secret of reviewers: for some critics, reviewing is a bloodsport. For those critics who are out for blood, the review itself ... Read The Full Article...
Who would you bring to Othello? Someone you love? Someone you once loved? Summer. Not exactly the time of year a New Yorker wants to venture into Hell’s Kitchen on a Friday night. Tourists. Bad smells. Bad-smelling tourists. Every out-of-towner at this time of year wants to get drunk, screw one another, and go to ... Read The Full Article...
Can you die from too much beauty? Probably not. But if you could, I came close to doing so as I watched Company XIV “A mixed media Neo-Baroque dance-theatre company” spin Le Cirque Féerique (The Fairy Circus) into being in front of my dazzled eyes last weekend. The show consists of a series of fairy tales ... Read The Full Article...
Harlem by Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? ... Read The Full Article...
There’s a lot of promise in a show entitled “The Mark Twain You Don’t Know” – the expectation of an evening of eye opening hidden gems, new facets to an old chestnut like Twain, and deeper burrowing into the stories that have been given such broad brushstrokes over the years that we think we know ... Read The Full Article...
The Ohio Theatre, a pillar of New York’s downtown theatre scene for 29 years, will close on August 31, 2010. The new landlord has issued official notice and no further negotiations are scheduled. Located at 66 Wooster Street, The Ohio Theatre was one of Soho’s pioneering performance spaces and is now one of the last ... Read The Full Article...
Master collagist Charles Mee celebrates love, sex and the joie de vivre in Fetes de la Nuit, this time presented by WeildWorks at The Ohio Theater. Mee is no stranger to plays about relationships and how culture molds the different ways we approach love, loving, and being loved. For example, in his play Big Love, ... Read The Full Article...
I cannot believe it’s been a year since the last time I brought news of Off-Broadway’s great 20@20 discount. But hey, that’s how it is with seasonal things. Anywhoo … here we are again, at TWENTY @ TWENTY season which is possibly the best time of year to go see a great Off-Broadway show. As ... Read The Full Article...
I’m not as concerned with the persistent presence of fear and ridicule as I am with the conspicuous absence of understanding and respect, particularly in communities of color. – Chisa Hutchinson Most of us wake up in the morning wondering if we’re going to do anything that day … or any day … that will ... Read The Full Article...
Let’s just get the mystery out of the way – Meg’s New Friend is black. But really, in The Production Company’s latest play, written by Blair Singer and directed by Mark Armstrong, everyone gets a label, so no one feels left out. For instance, Meg (Megan McQuillan) begins the play by labeling her boyfriend Sam ... Read The Full Article...
Victor L. Cahn’s new play Embraceable Me at Theatre Row’s Kirk Theatre is attempting to be a tennis match of the sexes where Allison (Keira Naughton) is your egocentric, focused, determined woman, whilst Edward (Scott Barrow) is shy, mousy, and amazing at what he does, which Allison uses to further herself during college and ever ... Read The Full Article...
Going to see The Temperamentals at the end of Pride Month was as deeply stirring as watching a reenactment of the signing of the declaration of independence on July 4th, if not more so. Because, while the history of how America fought and won its independence is a story that is well worn, the story ... Read The Full Article...