Off-Broadway Plays Archives

  • Quietly

    Declan Conlon, Robert Zawadzki and Patrick O’Kane                                                                                                                  By Eugene Paul   The Irish have kept records, daily records, of their day to day struggles killing each other.  If you want to look up who was killed on what day by what means you can do it. Pick a date significant to you and…

  • Two by Tennessee Williams – 27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Kingdom of Earth

    Judy Jerome and Michael Keller in a scene from KINGDOM OF EARTH Photo Credit: Hunter Dowell                                                            By Ron Cohen A bill of Tennessee Williams one-acts is always a noteworthy offering, even if, as here, the writing is not totally fulfilled. This production interestingly combines an early work that emerged in the mid-1940s when Williams’…

  • Simon Says

    Anthony Goes and Brian Murray                                photos by Maria Baranova   by Eugene Paul Simon is who James, (Anthony J. Goes) becomes when he’s channeling.  Channelers are those rare creatures who fascinate us by their capacity to go into trance states in order to contact individuals who have lived other lives in the past.  James had…

  • Good

    Michael Kaye                                              by Julia Polinsky                                    C. P. Taylor’s Good, as produced by the Potomac Theater Project, fails to evoke pity, or fear, or even unease, so much as confusion. So: not so good, as a play, a production, or a polemic. Set in Germany in the 1930s, and apparently intended as… Well,…

  • Wheelhouse Theater Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet

    Cary Donaldson (Romeo), woman is Rachel Mewbron (Juliet).   Photo Credit: Matt Harrington   Wheelhouse Theater Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet,                                                 By Nicholas Linnehan With its beautiful set and strong ensemble, it’s a shame this production only has limited success! The problem with doing a well-known play is simple, everyone knows it. Therefore,…

  • The Taming of the Shrew

                                             by Deirdre Donovan There’s nothing tame about Phyllida Lloyd’s new gender-bending production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Public’s Delacorte Theater in Central Park.  With an all-female cast, Lloyd takes Shakespeare’s early comedy about love and marriage and jazzes it up with a beauty pageant.  And with Janet McTeer and Cush Jumbo…

  • Hello, Dillie

     Michael Roulston and Dillie Keane. Photo by Carol Rosegg By Eugene Paul Cabaret queen Dillie Keane has been knocking them dead for 34 years in Britain and elsewhere ever since she invented her hit cabaret act, “Fascinating Aida”, the smash hit all girl group built around her ribald songs, words and music, based on the…

  • Confusions

                                 by Eugene Paul Alan Ayckbourn’s newest play, Hero’sWelcome, his 79th, in its premiere performance, is alternating in repertory with Confusions, Ayckbourn’s hit from forty years ago, during this, his sixth visit to 59E59 Theaters and I hope he makes it an even dozen visits.  Or two dozen.  Or more, now that he’s retired from…

  • O’Neill (Unexpected)

    Erin Beirnard and Kelly King                                    photo: Svetlana Didorenko                                                       by Marc Miller While the Tyrones suffer familial accusations, mistrust, and destructive love in the wrenching revival of Long Day’s Journey into Night at the American Airlines Theatre, a Eugene O’Neill of a very different sort is on display at the Metropolitan Playhouse.O’Neill (Unexpected) consists of two early one-acts, Recklessness from 1913 andNow I…

  • Indian Summer

                                              by Michall Jeffers Sand, soulfulness, and summer love Yes, that’s real sand setting the tone for Indian Summer, the final production of the splendid Playwrights Horizons season. Waves are crashing on the beach as Daniel (Owen Campbell) tries to pass the time. He wears a plaid shirt, khaki shorts, and sneakers, and sports long,…