By Eugene Paul The healthiest, most American, brightest, most uplifting, most joyous, most American, most captivating, most inspiring, most American, goodest show in town thrilling audiences to their shouting beings, isn’t American, it’s Canadian. Isn’t that a kick in the heart… And coming at a time when our political capital is so sore,…
by Deirdre Donovan Tracy Letts’ Man From Nebraska is the opposite of a feel-good theater experience. But any theatergoer who misses the current mounting of Letts’ 2003 play at Second Stage Theatre, deftly directed by David Cromer, will be the poorer. This play is in the vein of many other Letts’ works (think…
Annaleigh Ashford and Jake Gyllenhaal Photos Credit Matthew Murphy Sunday in the Park with George By Jeanne Lieberman They bill it as a “Special Event” maybe because it is the first production in Broadway’s oldest theater, the painstakingly re- renovated 100 year old Hudson Theater. Its muted atmosphere a strange foil for a…
by Eugene Paul Over the years, the venerable Palace Theatre has witnessed towering egos trumpeting their treasured arts within its gilded splendors making it the perfect setting for the current explosion now waging battle for dominance on its great stage between two huge egos: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Glenn Close, neither of…
Joan Marcus From left, John Douglas Thompson, Michael Potts, Anthony Chisholm and Brandon J. Dirden By Ron Cohen One of the first things that may strike you in watching Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s lovingly directed production of Jitney is the joy his company of nine actors seems to bring on stage in performing August Wilson’s…
Photo by Joan Marcus, 2016 by Julia Polinsky With In Transit, director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall has worked theater magic. Marshall’s clear and accomplished direction transcends the expectations of much ensemble theater, which often blend into mush; this one leaves one indelible image after another. In Transit features a beatbox/vocal percussionist (Chesney Snow)…
A Review by Deirdre Donovan At the end of David Malloy’s Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, the titular comet descends from the flies and comes into twinkling view at center stage at the Imperial Theatre. It’s a stunning spectacle that is matched in grandeur only by the whole emotional impact of this…
Christian Borle, Anthony Rosenthal, Stephanie J. Block photos by Joan Marcus by Eugene Paul Somewhere you’ve heard that Theatre is the collaboration and fusion of hearts, minds, talents, money, good intentions, love, hate, egos, wisdom, beauty, ugliness, foolishness, brutality, compassion, hindsight, foresight and joy. Sorrow, too. And once in a blue moon, everything works….
George Salazar, Nick Blaemire, Ciara Renee photo by David Gersten By Eugene Paul Bearing unmistakable signs of Jonathan Larson’s original, passionate monologue depicting his delightfully awful struggle to do what he simply had to do: make words and music for the theater, Keen Company artistic director Jonathan Silverstein with the enormous help of David…
Liev Schreiber and Janet McTeer by Julia Polinsky Adapted from a French novel published in 1782, Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses sets the scene in France, in the 1780s. A pair of bored and jaded Parisian aristocrats, former lovers Marquise de Merteuil (Janet McTeer) and Vicomte de Valmont (Liev Schreiber), decide to entertain themselves with…