Jenny Lee Stern, Chris Collins-Pisano (Photo: Carol Rosegg) Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song By Deirdre Donovan The latest version of Forbidden Broadway is settling in just fine at Theater 555. Created, written, and directed by Gerard Alessandrini, this revue, entitled Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song, is 90-minutes of sheer theatrical fun….
Susannah Flood, Anthony Edwards (Photo: Joan Marcus) The Counter by Lydia Sue Keidel Meghan Kennedy’s The Counter, now at the Laura Pels theater, tells the story of an unlikely friendship unfolding at a diner in a small town in upstate New York where time appears to have stood still. The Counter starts slowly, establishing the…
Julia Brothers, Lukey Klein, Richard Brothers, Joy Avigail Sudduth (Photo: Maria Baranova) Sump’n Like Wings By Marc Miller Lynn Riggs, if he’s remembered at all today, is remembered as the author of Green Grow the Lilacs, a minor Theater Guild flop of 1931 that achieved unexpected immortality a dozen years later, when Rodgers and Hammerstein…
The Ensemble of The Big Gay Jamboree (Photo: Matthew Murphy) The Big Gay Jamboree By Fern Siegel Those who grew up on classic musicals will appreciate their send-up in The Big Gay Jamboree, now off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theater. Marla Mindelle, the show’s star and co-creator, gives an LGBTQ+ sensibility to the traditional musical, which…
The cast of Our Class (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) Our Class By Deirdre Donovan Those theatergoers who missed Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) last winter have a second chance to see the award-winning play at Classic Stage Company. Directed by Ukrainian-born, Jewish director Igor Golyak, and with many in the cast…
Biko Eisen-Martin, Michael Rishawn, and Kara Young in Table 17. Photo: Daniel J. Vasquez Table 17 By David Schultz Playwright Douglas Lyons gives this savvy modern-day update of a rom-com unexpected dimension and heft. In a mere 80 minutes, and with a superb three-member cast, Table 17 dissects a fractured romantic relationship with precision. With…
Max Wolkowitz, Marilyn Caserta. (Photo: Dorice Arden Madronero) The Sabbath Girl By Fern Siegel Romantic comedies work best when opposites attract. That’s the case for The Sabbath Girl. Finding love is hard — overcoming cultural and religious differences is harder. But as the new musical, now off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters suggests, love is the great…
The competition of all competitions is underway at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) this summer. Under the arrangement of the Really Useful Group, and the inspired direction of Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, a talented 23-member cast are strutting their stuff in Cats: The Jellicle Ball. This is a radical revisiting of the musical…
Chesney Mitchell and John Collins (Photo: Russ Rowland) It’s Not What It Looks Like By Deirdre Donovan With the dog days of summer settling in, it’s refreshing to visit John Collins’ thoughtful two-hander, It’s Not What It Looks Like at the SoHo Playhouse, the winner of its 2023 Lighthouse Series. Directed by Vincent DeGeorge,…
The cast of Empire, with Kaitlyn Davidson center in red (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Empire By Fern Siegel The Empire State Building, completed in 1931, is 102 stories high – and a stunning example of Art Deco architecture. The sheer majesty of the structure has awed generations. Lewis Hines famously shot photos of its construction…