Off-Broadway Archives

  • Red Speedo

    Ray (Alex Breaux) swims a lap in the pool that scenic designer Riccardo Hernandez (© Joan Marcus)                                       By Rachel Goddard The play begins with Ray, played by Alex Breaux (The Real Thing) swimming the length of a plexiglass-walled pool which covers the entire front portion of the stage, the creative innovation of set-designer,…

  • The Effect

    (L-R) Susannah Flood, George Demas, Kati Brazda and Carter Hudson in ‘The Effect’ Courtesy of Matthew Murphy                                        by Deirdre Donovan Lucy Prebble’s provocative new play The Effect, is a brain-teaser with a heart.  Superbly directed by David Cromer, and under the aegis of The National Theatre of Great Britain’s North American wing, it’s…

  • The Royale

                               By Ron Cohen The Royale is a taut, sometimes harrowing depiction of racism in America circa 1900, which unfortunately still resonates powerfully today. It’s also inventive drama, directed with élan and acted with incandescent fury. As a program note tells us, Marco Ramirez’s play is based on the life of Jack Johnson,…

  • Widowers’ Houses

                            by Deirdre Donovan The Actors Theatre Company (TACT) and the Gingold Theatrical Group (GTG) join hands and mount George Bernard Shaw first play Widowers’ Houses.   Under the direction of the GTG’s Artistic Director David Staller, this is a rare opportunity to see Shaw’s maiden play staged with meticulous care. The program’s cover neatly…

  • Shear Madness

    Patrick Noonan, Jordan Ahnquist                    photos by Carol Rosegg                                    by Judd Hollander Genre-bending hilarity is assured at Shear Madness at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages. Based on the 1963 German play Scherenschnitt by Paul Pörtner, the show is making its very long-awaited New York debut. The play  opened in Boston in 1980 – where it continues…

  • Disaster

                                        By Michall Jeffers  Hey kids, let’s get together and put on a show! This is the spirit of “Disaster!” A large part of the entertainment is that the actors on stage are having so much fun; we get the idea that they’ve known each other and worked together for a long time. Adding to…

  • Southern Comfort

                                                by Eugene Paul   They’re going to have a bit of a problem over at Southern Comfort. Well, kind of a joyous one. And after all they’ve been through, well, why not:  who’s going to get the nomination for best leading actor?  That’s always fun.  That and best leading actress.  Fun, too. …

  • Man Of La Mancha

    Paul Schoefler, and cast Photos by John Vecchiolla                                             By Eugene Paul   There’s an apocryphal story that in 1960, Dale Wasserman, who wrote his non-musical teleplay “I,Don Quixote”, went to a fortune teller to advise him about allowing director Albert Marre to develop it into a musical for the stage.  The fortune…

  • The Goodbye Room

     Sarah Killough and  Ellen Adair              photos by Colin Shepherd                        by  Eugene Paul New  plays, new theatre companies, continue  to seek the limelight from one end of the country to the other, nowhere more generously than on New York City’s turf. Its name trailing martially bold Shakespearean allusions, the Happy Few Theatre Company, producers…

  • Verona Walls

     L-R:  Matthew Russell (The Bard), Ryan McCurdy (Mercutio), Christine Verleny (Mistress Quickly), Mick Bleyer (Ben).  Photo by Gerry Goodstein                                                           by Julia Polinsky Verona Walls, by the talented young playwright Laura Hirschberg, presents a back story for Romeo and Juliet. It focuses on Mercutio, whose tale of love and death plays out against a…