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…
Jamie Lloyd’s Broadway revival of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot finds Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter trading Bill and Ted’s comic banter for Beckett’s haunting silences. With Brandon J. Dirden and Michael Patrick Thornton rounding out the cast, Lloyd once again turns minimalism into a bold theatrical statement. Before parsing the current production, it’s worth…
The 2024 Sony Pictures release Saturday Night dramatizes, and I use the term loosely, the chaos and anarchy that preceded the launch of NBC’s Saturday Night (the Live didn’t happen till the second season) on October 11, 1975. While it illustrates the frantic tugs-of-war among cast members, producer Lorne Michaels, and the NBC brass, it…
At the turn of the 20th century, America grappled with its identity. Immigration, race, class and cries for social justice were challenging its promise as a refuge where all could succeed. That epic story is beautifully told in the musical Ragtime, based on E.L. Doctorow’s extraordinary novel about three families pursuing the American Dream. Now…
“This is what four thousand years old looks like when you moisturize!” So saith Holy Divine, one of the ancient three sisters in a rocking gospel-trio. And we’re off and running on another wild and wonderful Jordan E. Cooper adventure. You remember Cooper’s last mad caper called Aint No Mo’, don’t you, when the playwright,…