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…
You may have your quibbles about The Queen of Versailles—I know I do—but there’s no denying, in terms of professionalism, this show is off the charts. The new musical at the St. James boasts a big cast, a huge production, a Stephen Schwartz score, and a narrative that veers off in a couple of directions…
There’s a lot of star power on stage in the revival of Yasmina Reza’s ART, now at the Music Box. Bobby Cannavale, James Corden, and Neil Patrick Harris star in this revival, and at times, it seems like the audience clearly shows up to enjoy the cast more than the play. The three stars almost…
“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…
André De Shields presides over Tartuffe with a velvet-gloved authority that turns Molière’s satire into something intimate, hypnotic, and deliciously treacherous. Staged in the lavish library of House of the Redeemer, this candlelit production unfolds just feet from its audience, making hypocrisy feel both timeless—and uncomfortably close. Long before Tartuffe became a staple of the…
“I Invented Post-its.” Another cult classic has received the musical treatment, but was it worth it? Romy & Michele: The Musical, now playing Off-Broadway at Stage 42, transforms the 1997 comedy Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion into a neon-bright, campy spectacle, bursting with fabulous fashion and nostalgic moments, though it occasionally stumbles in execution….
For 30 years, Northern Ireland was plagued by “The Troubles,” a civil war between Protestant loyalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain in the U.K., and Catholic republicans (IRA) fighting for a united Ireland. The third combatant was the British Army. The civilian toll was terrible and when the Good Friday Agreement was struck in…
Feminism in the 1970s fought for recognition. And the issues — pay parity, better child care, economic equality and career advancement — remain. It’s thanks to those pioneering efforts, that many younger women take certain rights for granted today. But the women’s lib struggle, in Bess Wohl’s funny, smart, eye-opening play, is a potent reminder…
Don’t be misled by the title of Caroline, the remarkable new work by Preston Max Allen now playing at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. It refers to a nine-year-old who has chosen that name for her new identity – as a girl. She announces her choice to her mother in the play’s first…
Did You Eat?, the current offering from the Ma-Yi Theater Company’s residence at the Public Theater, belongs firmly in the realm of solo performances standing in for therapy, with an excellent performer but a difficult book. In Did You Eat?, Korean-American Zoë Kim, the playwright and performer, shepherds the audience through a lifetime – her…