Mark Shanahan (Walt Disney) and Stephen D’Ambrose (Igor Stravinsky)I Photo by Carol Rosegg By Eugene Paul Theater going is a joy unto itself, ramified by the thread of “Is this the one?” constantly running behind every visit even as each theater work has its separate world of creativity displayed for us to weigh,…
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…
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…
Ben Curtis, Kathleen Huber, Julie Campbell, and Jacques Mitchell (© Russ Rowland) by Deirdre Donovan Plays about gun shootings seem to be the rage on New York stages nowadays. Moss Dewey becomes the latest playwright to try his hand with this hot-button topic in his Crusade of Connor Stephens. Directed by Moss,…
Namir Smallwood And Karen Pittman. Photos By Jeremy Daniel. By Ron Cohen The words come at you like machine-gun fire in Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, and they are piercing, powerful and well-aimed. Morisseau has in her sight two deeply complex targets: the corroding educational pipeline with its failing inner city public schools and the…
Katy Sullivan and Victor Williams by Deirdre Donovan Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living at New York City Center Stage 1 isn’t light entertainment. But, as directed by Jo Bonney, this bi-plotted play can be an eye-opener for understanding how persons with physical disabilities cope with life. Under the aegis of Manhattan Theatre…