“Once you see, you can’t feign blind.” The line is courtesy of Stalin’s daughter Svetlana, commenting on perception and reality. Played to perfection by Dani Stoller, she is one of several compelling characters in Jonathan Spector’s This Much I Know, now off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters. Spector, who won a Tony for “Eureka Day,” a satiric…
Whip-smart, demanding, as aggressive and changeable as Rupert Murdoch himself, this new play by An Unnamed Source hits the highlights (and lowlights) of billionaire media mogul Murdoch’s mind. Heaven knows that may not be a comfortable place to visit. Jamie Jackson’s superb performance portrays a Medusa-like nest of snakes living inside Murdoch’s head. The media…
The first major Off-Broadway staging of The Wild Duck has winged into Polonsky Shakespeare Center for a brief sojourn, in a co-production of Theatre for a New Audience and Shakespeare Theatre Company. David Eldridge’s new version infuses fresh energy into the old play. Directed by Simon Godwin—making his debut with Ibsen—this production arrives with the…
Irish Repertory Theatre’s fourth staging of Conor McPherson’s The Weir, directed by Ciarán McPherson, proves why the play has become one of the company’s touchstones. What begins as an evening of pub banter deepens into a spellbinding meditation on memory, loneliness, and connection. The intimacy of the production, sensitively directed by Ciarán O’Reilly, is its…
She was, press agents were fond of asserting, “the most fascinating woman in the world.” Most critics, herself included, thought her not much of an actress, but she embodied a sensuality and glamour that virtually defined the Hollywood culture of the 1950s and the influence it exerted on everyday lives. And she capped that with…
Faced with the question, “Has feminism failed women?”, a group of elite private school boys set out to argue in the affirmative — fueling the fire of Emmanuelle Mattana’s audacious new comedy, Trophy Boys. As they prepare for a high-stakes debate against the girls from a rival girls’ school, the play exposes the smug entitlement…
In Angry Alan, directed with clinical precision by Sam Gold, John Krasinski plays Roger, a 45 year-old man from the Midwest, teetering on the edge of crisis. Reeling from a divorce, a demotion, and a growing sense that the world no longer makes space for him, Roger finds solace—and danger—in an online movement that promises…
In Lowcountry, playwright Abby Rosebrock delivers a razor-sharp romcom that dives headfirst into the emotional wreckage of modern love, and life on the margins of respectability. Under Jo Bonney’s clear-eyed direction, what unfolds is not just a first date gone awry, but a raw, often hilarious exploration of psychic pain in the age of dating…
Lisa Emery, Reed Birney (Photo: Joan Marcus) Lunar Eclipse By Marc Miller The 21st century theater has distinguished itself by consistently being a welcoming space for viewpoints that might have a hard time finding safe harbor elsewhere. Minorities-racial, sexual, whatever-can confidently assert their opinions and identities, with little fear of political opponents shouting them down…
Sarah Stiles, Mark Linn-Baker (Photo: Carol Rosegg The Imaginary Invalid By Fern Siegel Molière’s 17th-century comedy The Imaginary Invalid is a satirical send-up of doctors, hypochondriacs, lovers and con men. In its latest production off-Broadway at New World Stages, an excellent cast, a 21st-century adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, and director Jesse Berger keep the pace…