Eric Yang and Amy Kim Waschke. (Photo: Ahron R. Foster) The Far Country By Fern Siegel Immigration is a hot topic of debate. But the searing human cost is often lost in weaponizing it. Lloyd Suh’s The Far Country, now at the Atlantic Theater Company, reveals a tragic period in American history, the…
The Rat Trap By Marc Miller First, a bit of history. It’s 1918, and young Noel Coward is performing in other people’s plays while trying to write his own. Under these busy circumstances he concocts The Rat Trap, which, it is speculated, he conceives to star himself and his great friend, the celebrated young actress…
(l-r) A.J. Shively and Jim Parsons (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) A Man of No Importance By Fern Siegel “You love who you love,” Alfie Byrne, a middle-aged bus conductor in 1963 Dublin explains to a friend. Alfie is making a philosophical statement, but quietly underscores the “love that dare not speak its name.” Yet in his…
Francesca Carpanini,Austin Pendleton, Angelina Fiordellisi, Uly Schlesinger Photo by Emilio Madrid This Beautiful Future By Marc Miller This Beautiful Future could have been sweet. A World War II love story, and how many of those do we get anymore, where the nice young couple overcome cultural differences, grope toward greater understanding, and point their lives…
Between the Lines Review by Julia Polinsky “Enchanting” is not too strong a word to describe Between the Lines — especially since our heroine takes refuge in books from her overwhelmed, workaholic mother, her absent, detached father, and the general dreariness of life, and in this case, by reading and re-reading a children’s story. Based on a…
Nicholas Barasch (center). (Carol Rosegg) Francie Brady is an energetic, but ballistic teenager with a seemingly cheeky disposition. But behind the red hair and sparkling eyes lurks a troubled boy who claims: “They were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs. Nugent.” The Butcher Boy, a musical now at the Irish…
Anastasia Hille in Oresteia, Park Avenue Armory, 2022 Photo: Joan Marcus Oresteia By Deirdre Donovan Aeschylus’ Oresteia is the kind of work that makes most directors go weak in the knees. Not Robert Ickes. British writer-director Ickes has grabbed the bull by the horns and astonishingly reworked the tragic trilogy for contemporary sensibilities. His Oresteia, currently running in repertory with Hamlet at the Park Avenue Armory, is not only a successful realization of the…
Jonathan Hadary, C.J. Wilson, Heather Burns, Marylouise Burke and Omar Metwally star in Brian Watkins’ Epiphany. (Jeremy Daniel) Epiphany By Fern Siegel There are epiphanies and the Epiphany. One is a sudden realization of the essential meaning of an idea or event. The other is an often-forgotten holiday celebrated on Jan. 6 that…
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Jessica Hecht in The Orchard at the Baryshnikov Arts Center Photo: Maria Baranova The Orchard A Review by Deirdre Donovan Robots rule in The Orchard, the fascinating new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC). This new take on Chekhov’s masterpiece has the quality of soulfulness, not to mention a superb performance by Mikhail Baryshnikov as the old servant Firs….
Phylicia Rashad in Skeleton Crew Photos: Matthew Murphy Skeleton Crew by Deirdre Donovan Hat’s off to the Manhattan Theatre Club for bringing us Dominique Morisseau’s searing new drama, Skeleton Crew! With a superb cast led by Phylicia Rashad, this play about a tight-knit working family in uncertain times, is profoundly moving and altogether real. Set in Detroit, Michigan, during the economic recession of 2008, the play…