Writer
Fern Siegel is a journalist who has written for MediaPost, Huffington Post, The New York Times and BBC Radio. She believes Sondheim and Gershwin make America great.
When The Whoopi Monologues opened in 1984 on Broadway, it showcasedWhoopi Goldberg’sacting and writing chops. In its revival at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, five actresses take on the challenge — and deliver an ensemble performance that veers between funny, insightful and heartbreaking. The roles are endlessly varied. From a 20-something junkie to a teen…
It’s no mean trick to take a Charles Dickens’ novel and distill it to its essence. But that’s the genius of the Guildford Shakespeare Company, which is presenting David Copperfield as part of 59E59’s Brits Off Broadway celebration. The semi-autobiographical novel charts the life of young David, from his opening line — “Whether I shall…
Elmer Rice wrote The Adding Machine in 1923, a play about the devastating effects of technology on employment. A bookkeeper with 25-years of dependable service is replaced by an adding machine touted as more efficient, without the need of skilled labor. Mr. Zero (Daphne Rubin-Vega), a cog in a corporate machine, will be replaced by a high…
Schmigadoon! is a triumph of choreography and the chorus are first-rate singers and dancers. The show, however, is musical lite. The premise: Two Manhattan doctors hope to salvage their troubled relationship at a Catskills retreat. Instead, a hike leads them across a bridge to Schmigadoon, an early 20th-century hamlet that eagerly breaks into song whenever…
In August 1972, a Chase Bank robbery gone wrong quickly turned into one of the biggest media circuses in New York City history. Although the vault was half-empty, the robbers, John (“Sonny”) Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile, did collect monies — until a teller tripped an alarm and the police arrived. The robbers then took eight…
As four sisters gather on the anniversary of their father’s death for a jesa, a Korean ritual to honor the dead, tensions mount. Their emotions run the gamut from reverence to regret, rage to resentment. After all, family harmony is often more myth than reality. For many, turmoil is just beneath the surface. It only…
The correlation between mental illness and art is an intriguing one. That’s especially true when the topic is Outsider Art, work created by a self-taught artist far removed from the mainstream. Henry Darger, the focus of Bughouse, may be the most famous Outsider artist in the world, with his paintings now commanding huge sums. It’s…
The premise of the off-Broadway musical Just Desserts: A Musical Bake-Off is simple: somewhere in the Midwest, there is a bake-off at the Jefferson County fair. The top bakers have been narrowed to five, a cross-section of townies: haughty reigning champ Mildred, self-effacing school nurse Jean, ambitious Emma, bubbly twice-divorced Brandy, and Brooklyn transplant Lou….
There is a price to pay when you speak truth to power. And none more horrible than the fate of Hans Litten, a lawyer who called Adolf Hitler to the witness stand in 1931 to prove his credo of political violence. The case, the Eden Dance Palace trial, involved four Nazi storm troopers who claimed…
Tartuffe, Moliere’s 17th-century farce about wealthy French people easily deluded by a religious hypocrite and moral reprobate, speaks to every age. Lucas Hnath’s new adaptation, now off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop, utilizes more modern language, but the message remains. It’s easy to swindle those blind to reality, even in the face of overwhelming proof….