Editor
Julia Polinsky wrote, directed, produced, and starred in her first play when she was 7 years old. She’s been paying a lot of attention to theater ever since.
Alex Newell, Caroline Innerbichler, Kevin Cahoon, and Andrew Durand in Shucked. (Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman) Shucked By Julia Polinsky After a theater season of important work with a message, it’s a relief to sit in that incredibly expensive seat, and just let go and laugh. That rarity among Broadway shows, a…
Sasha Diamond, Shannon Tyo, Sky Smith in Regretfully, So the Birds Are. (Photo: Chelcie Parry) Regretfully, So the Birds Are By Julia Polinsky Julia Izumi’s Regretfully, So the Birds Are turns cliches on their heads while poking hilarious fun at them. Considering that play’s premise comes straight out of a tabloid headline —…
The cast of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ By Julia Polinsky Dancin’ has chassed/jeted/moonwalked/shoulder-rolled – ok, danced into the Music Box Theater on Broadway, and that’s a deleriously good thing. Who needs antidepressants? We have Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Director Wayne Cilento, who was in the original Dancin’ 45 years…
Jessica Hecht and Zane Pais in Letters From Max. Photo by Joan Marcus Letters From Max, A Ritual By Julia Polinsky Sarah Ruhl’s Letters From Max, A Ritual at the Signature Theatre’s lovely Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, is a two-handed meditation on life, friendship, death. Ruhl, a MacARthur fellow, has a Spotlight Residency at…
Josh Radnor (Photo: Joan Marcus) The Ally By Julia Polinsky Itamar Moses’ new play at The Public, The Ally, offers some superb, heart-rending performances, excellent writing, and relentless consideration of arguably the most controversial flashpoints in politics today: Israel/Palestine, race relations, white privilege among them. But is it a handsomely mounted, beautifully produced play,…
Nancy Ma, Kim Wuan (Photo: Russ Rowland) Warrior Sisters of Wu By Julia Polinsky The tag line for Damon Chua’s delightful play, Warrior Sisters of Wu, is “Romance of the Three Kingdoms meets Pride and Prejudice.” Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a classic Chinese epic and billions of people have known and loved this…
Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany in The Collaboration. Photo by Jeremy Daniel The Collaboration By Julia Polinsky Anthony McCarten’s The Collaboration, as directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah at the Old Vic in London, has been beautifully transferred to the Manhattan Theatre Club. Interesting, eye-filling, and talky, The Collaboration presents the manipulated collaboration and unexpected…
Ohio State Murders By Julia Polinsky It must be said: Audra McDonald is a force of nature, and her performance in Ohio State Murders is wrenchingly, devastatingly sublime. Those are fighting words, perhaps, but it would be hard to find another single actor who could drive a play about race, murder, failure, and success, while…
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins in Topdog/Underdog. Photo: Marc J. Franklin Topdog/Underdog Review by Julia Polinsky Topdog/Underdog tells the story of two brothers — Black men — endlessly vacillating between contempt and admiration for each other; affection and anger; conflict and cooperation; who’s winning, who’s losing. Named for an American president and his assassin,…
Review by Julia Polinsky Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt weaves a tale of family, place, time, and identity. The family is Jewish, the place Vienna, the time surrounds the Holocaust, and the question of identity is answered with a very hard kick. Leopoldstadt’s five acts, which occur in 1899, 1900, 1924, 1938 and 1955, take place in…