The Disappear, Erica Schmidt’s clever, talkative take on the marriage of tragedy, comedy, art, creativity, and, well, marriage, is now open at Audible’s Minetta Lane theater. As Schmidt directs the play, the intimate space emphasizes the claustrophobic nature of the lives of charming narcissist filmmaker Benjamin Braxton (Hamish Linklater) and his wife Mira (Miriam Silverman)….
Tartuffe, Moliere’s 17th-century farce about wealthy French people easily deluded by a religious hypocrite and moral reprobate, speaks to every age. Lucas Hnath’s new adaptation, now off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop, utilizes more modern language, but the message remains. It’s easy to swindle those blind to reality, even in the face of overwhelming proof….
St. Ann’s Warehouse revives Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Anna Christie with Michelle Williams inhabiting one of the most formidable roles in the American canon, under the assured direction of Thomas Kail. Set against the Brooklyn waterfront and supported by a distinguished ensemble including Tom Sturridge, Brian d’Arcy James, and Mare Winningham, this production reframes O’Neill’s…
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 had cataclysmic results — Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia — and unleashed the carnage known as WWI. The assassination was carried out by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, aided by fellow nationalists and members of the Black Hand. In Archduke, a dark absurdist comedy by Rajiv Joseph, now Off-Broadway at…
Initiative sweeps through four tumultuous years in a nowhere town on the California coast, where seven teenagers cling to one another as they stumble into friendship, first love, and the aching question of who they’re allowed to become. Guided with tender, clear-eyed direction by Emma Rosa Went, Else Went’s sprawling five-hour epic at The Public…
Sometimes, less is more. Theater aficionados know George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion as the inspiration for the Lerner and Loewe musical “My Fair Lady.” What’s less known is that Shaw based his work on a Greek myth. An artist prays for his marble sculpture to turn into a real woman — and Aphrodite grants his wish….
The highly regarded Irish theatre company, Druid, has returned to New York City with a limited run of Samuel Beckett’s Theatre of the Absurd classic, Endgame. In a rare coincidence, Beckett’s more famous Waiting for Godot is currently running on Broadway with a starry cast, drawing in huge crowds. This Off-Broadway play at the Irish…
If the words “climate-change thriller” make you wonder if you’ve heard wrong, you haven’t. Kyoto, now at the Mitzi E. Newhouse in a stylish, nearly-immersive production that makes great use of their almost-theater-in-the-round stage, is indeed thrilling—at times. Even if just thinking about climate change makes you want to nap, you likely won’t. That’s partly…
The issues of power and rule in Shakespeare’s Richard II, now playing at the Astor Place Theatre, feel painfully present and even prophetic. They are expressed urgently by Red Bull’s riveting revival, featuring a charismatic Michael Urie in the title role. Richard’s story (set in 1398) is both a compelling and a complicated one. In…
“Do you think it’s worth it to be here?” That is only one of the many probing, painful questions posed in Queens, Martyna Majok’s lacerating 2018 drama about immigrant women in crisis, now playing in an updated version at Manhattan Theatre Club. Set in the basement of a boarding house in Queens, the play gives…