By Ron Cohen The leading character is named Hester, she is a single mom, and she does tote the letter “A” on her persona. Suzan-Lori Parks’ Fucking A was, as the playwright has frequently said, inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s mid-19th Century novel, The Scarlet Letter. But beyond these salient facts, the play bears…
C.J. Wilson and Mary McCann star in Simon Stephens’s On the Shore of the Wide World, directed by Neil Pepe, at Atlantic Theater Company. (© Ahron R. Foster) By Ron Cohen “it’s really difficult, isn’t it?… Just, the whole business of, you know, being alive. Very complicated,” says a loquacious cab driver toward the close…
by Marc Miller Noni Stapleton, and this is meant as a compliment, makes a great cow. As the title character of the one-woman show she wrote, Charolais, a headstrong French heifer on an Irish farm, Stapleton sashays around the barn and pasture, sniffs, moves her head and body in uncannily bovine ways, and cheers…
Sarah Nicole Deaver & A.J. Shively. Photo by Richard Termine. By Marc Miller The Mint Theater Company thinks very highly of Teresa Deevy—“undoubtedly the most brilliant playwright whose work I will ever have the privilege of re-introducing to the world,” writes artistic director Jonathan Bank in his program notes. Maybe, but the brilliance…
Nancy Opel photos by Mathew Murphy by Julia Polinsky Bobby Goldman’s Curvy Widow tells the story of a fifty-ish widow’s search for sex after marriage in an enjoyable, sweetly sexual musical that won’t challenge your attention span, with a cast of seasoned pros, and terrific production values. The story is a simple…
David Lutken by Deirdre Donovan “Unless we do hear the work songs, war songs, love songs and dance songs of all the people everywhere, we are most apt to lose the peace, and this world right along with it.” That is a line from Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody…
Taylor Caldwell photos by Joan Marcus by Julia Polinsky Encores! Off-Center did a kids show? From the 70s? You could be pardoned for having visions of Sesame Street-level cuteness, updated with a multicultural cast with sass and attitude and pink feather boas. Well, that’s pretty much what you’d get, and it’s just…
Count Wilhelm (Clint Hromsco) and Kabarett Headliner Rosie Penn (Amy Londyn) by Julia Polinsky If you like junior high drama-club level musical theater, you’ll love Write Act Repertory Theater’s production of Michael Antin’s Lili Marlene, currently running at St. Luke’s, on 46th Street, Tuesdays through the October. The show has all the…
Annie (Peyton Ella) & Sandy (Sunny) Photos by John Vecchiolla By Ed Lieberman Annie, that lovable Depression-era orphan, has found a foster home at the Westchester Broadway Theatre through September 10th. Mary Jane Houdina, who was dance captain and assistant to the legendary choreographer Peter Gennaro in the original Broadway production, directs and choreographs…
Phylicia Rashad and cast photos by Joan Marcus By Arney Rosenblat There is no more perfect place than the open-air Delacorte Theater in Central Park with its woodland backdrop and Belvedere Castle turret to set the mood for Shakespeare’s Fairyland in Midsummer Night’s Dream where director Lear deBessonet has chosen to explore with…