Cast of Gloria. Photo: Joan Marcus By Fern Siegel Gloria Steinem is probably the most recognizable feminist in America. Her impact on politics and culture is profound. So it’s only fitting that her remarkable life be transformed into a play. After all, her story parallels the dramatic fight for women’s rights. The poignant and…
Zonya Love, Matt Servitto and Ilana Becker in ‘Emma and Max’ photos Joan Marcus Emma and Max By David Schultz The Flea Theater has the honor of producing underground filmmaker Todd Solondz’s first foray into playwriting. This subversive filmmaker has many fans that crave his dark, snarky vision of humankind. An acquired taste for…
Glenn Close and Grace Van Patten photos by Joan Marcus By Ron Cohen The story of Joan of Arc has been told many times, many ways, but playwright Jane Anderson and Glenn Close bring a new and vital dimension as well as sublime emotional depth to the tale in the drama Mother…
DeWanda Wise, Khris Davis Photo: Ahron R. Foster By Fern Siegel Set in September 1963, Fireflies posits the searing personal sacrifices in the struggle for civil rights. This powerful two-hander, with a stunning performance by DeWanda Wise as Olivia, the wife of a reverend and major civil-rights leader, takes a deep dive…
Denny Dale Bess, Nathan James, Bjorn DuPaty by Edward Medina Travisville is a good play. An extraordinarily good play. The acting is stellar. The script is insightful. The direction is spot on. The production values are top notch. Travisville must be seen in this incarnation and in any other production that will inevitably…
Sullivan Jones (Credit: Carol Rosegg) By Ron Cohen He was a genius scientist whose dream of space travel sent an American to the moon. He was a genius scientist whose dream of space travel created the rockets for Nazi Germany that rained death and destruction on London and Belgium during the final year…
Jay O. Sanders by Arney Rosenblat The initial offering of the Hunter Theater Project, and a Richard Nelson imprint production, brings Chekhov to life for contemporary audiences. Seeing and connecting, and connect you likely will as the characters frequently speak directly to the audience, will make you feel like a voyeur to the…
By Julia Polinsky Brian Katz’s adaptation of Mother Night is, by turns, a labor of love, a time-blending story centered on the consequences of WWII, and a mess. It shrieks of being the product of years of careful study and involvement with the Vonnegut book. The problem is: the Vonnegut book. The…
By Ron Cohen Final Follies, with its prophetic title, was the last play written by prolific and well-applauded playwright A. R. Gurney, who died in June 2017. The one-act work further cements Gurney’s already rock-solid reputation as the wit-filled chronicler of the diminishment of the human species known as Wasp. In case you’ve…
Photos by Monique Carboni by Julia Polinsky As written by James Hindman and directed by Christian Borle, Popcorn Falls is a mile-a-minute silly experiment in loopy absurdity, with some laughs, some wincing, and the hardest working two-man cast ever. Welcome to Popcorn Falls, where the forces of commerce and greed sweep away…