Julia Brothers, Lukey Klein, Richard Brothers, Joy Avigail Sudduth (Photo: Maria Baranova) Sump’n Like Wings By Marc Miller Lynn Riggs, if he’s remembered at all today, is remembered as the author of Green Grow the Lilacs, a minor Theater Guild flop of 1931 that achieved unexpected immortality a dozen years later, when Rodgers and Hammerstein…
The Hills of California, to begin with, isn’t about California, or even hills. The title of Jez Butterworth’s great big Broadway play refers to some mid-20th century Johnny Mercer pop ballad, not a famous one, that receives several renditions here, along with Rodgers and Hart and other American songbook standards. At once a searing look…
The Ensemble of The Big Gay Jamboree (Photo: Matthew Murphy) The Big Gay Jamboree By Fern Siegel Those who grew up on classic musicals will appreciate their send-up in The Big Gay Jamboree, now off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theater. Marla Mindelle, the show’s star and co-creator, gives an LGBTQ+ sensibility to the traditional musical, which…
Part backstage comedy, part political satire, part based in fact and part pure fiction, David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face is by turns hilarious, touching, and disturbing. It’s been suggested that we might appreciate the gift to see ourselves as other see us. But we might not. Yellow Face pokes hard at identity politics, as it…
It’s beyond unusual to start a show with the stars taking a bow. But Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone wield such theatrical clout that, as they walk onstage in The Roommate at the Booth Theatre, winding through designer Bob Crowley’s suggestive, minimalist stage, they get a round of applause, then walk off. And then the…
The cast of Our Class (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) Our Class By Deirdre Donovan Those theatergoers who missed Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek’s Our Class at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) last winter have a second chance to see the award-winning play at Classic Stage Company. Directed by Ukrainian-born, Jewish director Igor Golyak, and with many in the cast…
Biko Eisen-Martin, Michael Rishawn, and Kara Young in Table 17. Photo: Daniel J. Vasquez Table 17 By David Schultz Playwright Douglas Lyons gives this savvy modern-day update of a rom-com unexpected dimension and heft. In a mere 80 minutes, and with a superb three-member cast, Table 17 dissects a fractured romantic relationship with precision. With…
Theatergoers can now rendezvous with Mary Todd Lincoln at the Lyceum Theatre as Cole Escola’s hit comedy Oh, Mary! transfers from its downtown digs to the Great White Way. Brilliantly directed by Sam Pinkleton, and starring Escola in the eponymous role, it is an uproariously funny show that delivers a wild and wooly version of…
The new Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress, starring Sutton Foster, stacks up to two hours of pure theatrical fun. Deftly directed by Lear deBessonet, this production arrives on the heels of its popular run at New York City Center’s Encores!, retaining some of its original cast members and adding a few fresh faces….
Max Wolkowitz, Marilyn Caserta. (Photo: Dorice Arden Madronero) The Sabbath Girl By Fern Siegel Romantic comedies work best when opposites attract. That’s the case for The Sabbath Girl. Finding love is hard — overcoming cultural and religious differences is harder. But as the new musical, now off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters suggests, love is the great…