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• Spunk
• Based on the writings of Zora Neale Hurston
• Adapted by George C. Wolfe
• Music by Chic Street Man
• Directed by Ken Yatta Rogers
• Produced by Tribute Productions in association with African Continuum Theatre Conpany
• Reviewed by Stanley Stocker

Spunk is framed by a single question posed at the beginning and again at the end of the play: “How do you git to the git?”  What’s the git?  It could be thought of as an Eden, or at least a place where peace or satisfaction or love can be found. 

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• The Waverly Gallery
• By Kenneth Lonergan
• Directed by Christopher Carroll and Dana Edwards
• Produced by Didactic Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

In The Waverly Gallery, Kenneth Lonergan paints a subtle, honest, and exquisitely detailed picture of a family wracked by Alzheimer’s.  It is a family portrait because Alzheimer’s doesn’t attack the sufferer alone: it disrupts the lives of everyone who comes into contact with her. 

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• The Maids
• By Jean Genet. translation by Bernard Fetchman
• Produced by Scena Theatre
• Reviewed by Janice Cane

Have you ever seen that “Friends” episode where the gang watches the premiere of struggling actor Joey’s new TV show, “Mac and Cheese”? The show is so lacking in the quality department that the friends argue over who gets to compliment the lighting, because they cannot come up with anything else to say.

Where am I going with this? Well, let’s just say the lighting in Scena Theatre’s production of The Maids is well executed.

The set is pretty good, too.

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Interviews with Christiane Noll and composer Mark Baron

By Joel Markowitz

Frankenstein The Musical was one of the surprise favorites of the Ushers’ NYC weekend. and Joel didn’t want to leave town without learning more.

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The Helen Hayes Awards is accepting applications for volunteers willing to serve as adjudicators of the area’s professional productions. (more…)

• The Studio
• Written, directed and choreographed by Christopher d’Amboise
• Produced by Signature Theatre                                                             
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson
• The Studio is one of the most gorgeously enticing productions I’ve seen in ages.  In true tour-de-force fashion, Christopher d’Amboise, yes, son of renowned dancer, Jacques, wrote, choreographed, and directed the production that explores the interior creative process of dance.  What 33 Variations at Arena did for music, this one uses dance to illustrate the creative process, including all the emotional baggage that goes with it, showing how dancers submit their hearts and bodies to the cause.  It is sheer delight and breathtaking magic.

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African Continuum Theatre, which unexpectedly cancelled its Fall/Winter season, has suffered another setback with the resignation of its incoming Artistic Director, Benny Sato Ambush. As detailed in today’s Backstage.   (more…)

By Rosalind Lacy

It may have been raining on the streets of New York but the Broadway stagehands’ strike didn’t dampen our spirits. Troupers all, the theatergoers who followed Joel Markowitz to Broadway over Veteran’s Day weekend didn’t waste a minute of time before we all found alternatives in off-Broadway theaters, at the Lincoln Center, at the Met, at Radio City Music Hall, in the not-for-profit theater productions. And for me, even in the 42^nd Street subway station. (more…)

• Current Nobody
• By Melissa James Gibson
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

It’s a great premise - you take one of the literary wonders of the Western world, the Odyssey, switch the gender roles so the guy stays home as full time Daddy Daycare for years at a time, pining for his wife, while Mom takes to the sea to conquer the world, or at least Troy. Add a present day media fixation twist with hip retro-fitted language, a surly confused teenager, and camera crazed paparazzi turned Greek chorus, turned cast-off moochers and you’ve got a sure-fire hit, right? Not necessarily. (more…)

Interviewed by Joel Markowitz

Marc Kudisch, last seen here as Darryl Van Horne in Signature’s Witches of Eastwick, is now appearing in The Glorious Ones at Lincoln Center. The musical recounts the true beginnings of Italy’s gift to theatre, the commedia del arte, which has been feeding comedies from Shakespeare to Mel Brooks to Saturday Night Live. “Great art loves to fail”, he says, talking about the love of risk found in the improvisational art. “Life is glorious.” (more…)

 

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