Writer
Carol Rocamora, Ph.D., is an educator, author, and theatre critic. She is the author of 9 publications, including translations of the complete works of Anton Chekhov. She served on the faculty of NYU Tisch School of the Arts (1993-2023) and also at the Julliard School. She is a member of Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and the American Theatre Critics Association
Manhattan Theatre Club has burst onto the stage in this new season with a hyper-energetic, entertaining play, inspired by a true story with a warning that needs to be heeded. School Girls: or, the African Mean Girls Play is called a comedy, but its implications are far from humorous. It dramatizes a malaise familiar to…
The ultra-violent Titus Andronicus is now enjoying (if you can use that word) a splendid revival at Signature Theatre, in the skillful hands of the Red Bull Theatre Company. And oh, is it sensational! Prepare yourself for the horrific story. Titus Andronicus (Patrick Page) is a Roman general who has returned after a ten-year war…
The walls of the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway are shaking, as the overpowering revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman takes the stage. Directed by Joe Mantello, featuring a formidable ensemble, this landmark production reminds us why critic Kennth Tynan called it the greatest American play ever written. This cavernous Broadway theatre is…
It’s a rare occurrence when you sit in a theatre and hear audible gasps from audience members around you, in response to what’s happening onstage. Such was my experience at the end of the first of act of Giant, the devastating new award-winning import from London now on Broadway. The gasps of horror came in…
The scene is Rome; the time is the fourth century BC. But its themes of war, power, and leadership resonate painfully and urgently today. Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1605), in a compelling revival at the Theatre for a New Audience, tells the story of a fiery, fanatical warrior named Caius Martius (played by McKinley…
The scene is an empty, nondescript room, with fluorescent lighting and a pile of random items (painting, furniture). It could be anywhere (someone’s basement, a room in an office building, a school?). One by one, a number of women enter, apparently preparing for a meeting of some kind. First to arrive is Jane (April Matthis),…
The issues of power and rule in Shakespeare’s Richard II, now playing at the Astor Place Theatre, feel painfully present and even prophetic. They are expressed urgently by Red Bull’s riveting revival, featuring a charismatic Michael Urie in the title role. Richard’s story (set in 1398) is both a compelling and a complicated one. In…
“Do you think it’s worth it to be here?” That is only one of the many probing, painful questions posed in Queens, Martyna Majok’s lacerating 2018 drama about immigrant women in crisis, now playing in an updated version at Manhattan Theatre Club. Set in the basement of a boarding house in Queens, the play gives…
Don’t be misled by the title of Caroline, the remarkable new work by Preston Max Allen now playing at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. It refers to a nine-year-old who has chosen that name for her new identity – as a girl. She announces her choice to her mother in the play’s first…
“This is what four thousand years old looks like when you moisturize!” So saith Holy Divine, one of the ancient three sisters in a rocking gospel-trio. And we’re off and running on another wild and wonderful Jordan E. Cooper adventure. You remember Cooper’s last mad caper called Aint No Mo’, don’t you, when the playwright,…