Don’t let the title of Amy Herzog’s play 4000 Miles put you off. My first impression after hearing it was that it was probably another play about the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. But no, happily it refers to the bicycle journey young Leo (Gabriel Ebert) has made in order to visit his grandmother Vera […]
This time they’ve got a title of show – Now. Here.This.
In a New York time before mine, there was something called “The Round Table” and it consisted of scalawags and wits who bonded between 1919 and 1929; a group of bright wags who met daily for lunch at the Algonquin Hotel for nutritional sustenance and the sharing of commentary on the day.
An Iliad
Let’s face it, on entering the New York Theatre Workshop to see Dennis O’Hare’s adaptation of Homer’s Iliad, I was unprepared. All I remembered of my long ago quick read of a summary of the original was that it was an epic poem about the Trojan War. I had trouble remembering whether it was Athena […]
The Lady from Dubuque
Edward Albee has a lot of explaining to do. In the lobby of the newly opened Pershing Square Signature Center way out west on 42nd Street, there is a wall devoted to photos and quotes from the life of this prize winning playwright. They indicate his state of mind as his play The Lady From […]
Rutherford and Son
Jonathan Bank, the Producing Artistic Director of the tiny Mint Theatre in New York, has been offering us little remembered gems from the past for many seasons now. And he serves a dual purpose in doing so. Not only does he mount these once popular hits with impeccable taste and style, he also gives us […]
Carrie The Musical
Even the lower standards set for success in today’s musical theatre are hardly met by the currently reconceived revival of the musical Carrie. It’s always a pleasure to welcome back to the New York stage the golden throated Marin Mazzie, and in the character of “Margaret White”, the demon mother from hell, she has found […]
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (revisited)
I caught a matinee of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying this week, and as I watched young Nick Jonas prancing about as J. Pierrepont Finch in the current Broadway revival of the Frank Loesser-Abe Burrows master work, I suddenly had a revelation about the recent and current Broadway scene.
Wit
Margaret Edson is that rare bird, a playwright whose first play, Wit, earned a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. That alone makes her unique, but she becomes more so when we realize that she has never had another play produced and is “committed to teaching, now”, but unlike the heroine of her play, who as teacher […]
Porgy and Bess
The battle has begun. I’ve been reading followup columns from the critics of the New York Times and other prominent commentators admitting that some of their nitpicking reviews of the current revival of Porgy and Bess are not consistent with the reaction they have been receiving from their readers.
The Road to Mecca
Athol Fugard, South African playwright, had been writing plays for 20 years when The Road to Mecca was first mounted in 1988. Clearly a personal diatribe against the platitudes inherent in so much of organized religion, he should have known by the time he wrote this play that a debate between two opponents a play […]
Accidentally, Like a Martyr
I don’t usually take you along with me when I go trouping off/off Broadway, but I’m making an exception because last evening I stumbled on a special treat and as it will run through January 7th, you might just catch it if you plan to be in New York during this next week.
Close Up Space
David Hyde Pierce clearly likes to keep working, for which we are grateful. Ever since his long run as Frasier’s brother Niles on the sitcom “Frasier,” he has returned to his stage roots by appearing seasonally, showing us the range of his talents. For though the basic Pierce shines through in each of his characterizations, there […]