Mary Beth Fisher and Bubba Weiler. (Photo: Liz Lauren) Swing State By Fern Siegel Sad, lonely, desperate people provide ample fodder for drama. That’s true for Swing State, now off-Broadway at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre. Its four-person cast populates a small town in Wisconsin, where playwright Rebecca Gilman examines the tensions and traumas…
Christina Kirk (Photo: Ahron R Foster) Infinite Life By David Schultz The sold-out run of Annie Baker’s latest is once again a polarizing experience for audiences. All her usual signature touchstones are on display. As director James Macdonald noted in a recent interview, “She’s a high priestess of silence and stillness.” He’s in tune…
Jeffrey Bean, Andrea Syglowski, Triney Sandoval (Photo: Justin Swader) Dig Reviewed by Julia Polinsky Is Theresa Rebeck’s new play, Dig, a terrific character study of troubled people, asking if anyone is beyond saving? A heart-rending meditation on truth and honesty? Is it “…tragical-comical-historical-pastoral?” Yes, and yes, and yes, and quite, quite wonderful. Under…
Colin Donnell, Ian Shaw, Alex Brightman (Photo: Matthew Murphy) The Shark Is Broken By Fern Siegel The Shark Is Broken is a literal reference to the mechanical shark in Jaws, directed by a young Steven Spielberg. The play rests on a slim premise — three men in a boat — discussing life, art and…
Laura Bell Bundy, Eric McCormack (Photo: Joan Marcus) The Cottage By Fern Siegel “Take charge, you said,” Sylvia tells Beau, as she holds up a short, leather whip. “Context, darling.” The laugh line, which accompanies one of the many physical jokes in The Cottage, is delivered in an arch manner, befitting a sexual romp…
Christiana Clark and the cast of Flex (Photo: Marc J. Franklin) Flex By Julia Polinsky In Candrice Jones’s marvelous Flex, on the stage at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse theater, it’s 1997. The WNBA has just become a reality. Five teenage girls in Plainnole, Arkansas, are drilling, passing, shooting baskets. Sharpen your senses;…
Arielle Jacobs and Jose Llana. (Photo: Billy Bustamante, Matthew Murphy, and Evan Zimmerman) Here Lies Love By Cammy Paglia The story of Imelda Marcos is taking Broadway by storm in the musical Here Lies Love. This show is a spectacle like none that has gone before. The concept, music and lyrics of…
Juliet Stevenson (Photo: Stephanie Berger) The Doctor By Deirdre Donovan Of all the productions that have arrived in New York this summer, The Doctor may well be the most memorable. Written and directed by Robert Icke, and starring the superb Juliet Stevenson, this play invites theatergoers to take a fresh and clear-eyed look at…
Marie Mullen (Photo: Carol Rosegg) The Saviour By Julia Polinsky Who saves whom? And from what? Mothers tend to say that there are some topics unsuitable for polite conversation. In The Saviour, Deirdre Kinahan’s marvelous play currently running at the Irish Repertory Theater, the formidable Maire hits on most of them, chiefly religion and sex….
Kelli O Hara and Brian d Arcy James (Photo Credit: Ahron R. Foster) Days of Wine and Roses By David Schultz This haunting chamber musical is perfectly suited for composer Adam Guettel (Floyd Collins, The Light in the Piazza). The complex contrapuntal stylistic music is Guettel s signature calling card. Sweet, simple melodic…