Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Caroline Grogran (Photo: Ashley Garrett) Arcadia By Fern Siegel Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia is a lively meditation on the importance of “wanting to know” how the world operates – from carnal to artistic pleasures. The British playwright is famous for creating plays of intellectual vigor, and Arcadia, now off-Broadway at the West End Theater,…
Raffi Barsoumian and Mary Wiseman (Photo: Carol Rosegg) Translations By Fern Siegel British rule in Ireland has been long and contentious, and Ireland did not become a fully independent nation until 1949. But the colonial legacy left by its former rulers was pronounced, especially in the context of language. That point underscores…
John Turturro (Photo: Monique Carboni) Sabbath’s Theater Reviewed by David Schultz The first thing you hear as the lights dim are a couple in the throes of ecstatic sex. The final image at the end of this one act play is seeing 64-year-old Mickey Sabbath (John Turturro) naked as a jaybird swathed in…
Harmony ensemble: Blake Roman, Steven Telsey, Zal Owen, Danny Kornfeld, Eric Peters and Sean Bell. (Julieta Cervantes) Harmony By Fern Siegel Harmony, the new musical by Barry Manilow (music) and Bruce Sussman (book and lyrics) strikes a beautiful, yet mournful chord. The true story of the famed Comedians Harmonists — and…
Ray Anthony Foster, Danny DeVito, Lucy DeVito (Photo: Joan Marcus) I Need That! By Julia Polinsky A bright and cheerful, three-character, 100-minute/no-intermission play starring a famous tv/movie actor: sounds like a formula for a hit. The audience for the Roundabout Theatre’s new production of I Need That responds as it should, laughing…
Patrick Page (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) All the Devils are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain By Deirdre Donovan Those theatergoers who are searching for a show that is both intellectually stimulating and incredibly entertaining need look no further than All the Devils are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain. Written and performed by Broadway…
Alexis Fishman (Photo: Richard Rivera) Anne Being Frank Reviewed by Julia Polinsky The Diary of Anne Frank: who has not heard of it? Who doesn’t know the story of the hidden Jewish girl who memorably thought that people were good at heart, yet died in Bergen-Belsen? Who has not wondered what might have been? Well,…
Dominique Thorne; Some Kakoma (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Jaja’s African Hair Braiding Reviewed by Julia Polinsky On a hot summer day in 2019, a pre-pandemic time that now feels almost unimaginably remote, a group of women gather in a hair braiding shop in Harlem, a salon as brightly hot-pink and lively as scenic…
Gene Gillette, Sara Haider, Joshua Echebiri (Photo: Todd Cerveris Photography) Partnership Reviewed by Marc Miller The Mint Theater Company appears unable to make up its mind these days: Theater Row or City Center? Theater Row or City Center? Its latest revival, Elizabeth Baker’s Partnership, switches back to Theater Row, but what never changes…
Leslie Odom, Jr., Kara Young (Photo: Marc J. Franklin) Purlie Victorious A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch Reviewed by Julia Polinsky Director Kenny Leon and the company of Purlie Victorious have brought to vivid life this in-your-face revival of Ossie Davis’s sixty-year-old play. Written in 1961, a century after the Civil…