The cast of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ By Julia Polinsky Dancin’ has chassed/jeted/moonwalked/shoulder-rolled – ok, danced into the Music Box Theater on Broadway, and that’s a deleriously good thing. Who needs antidepressants? We have Bob Fosse’s Dancin’. Director Wayne Cilento, who was in the original Dancin’ 45 years…
The cast of Dear World at Encores! (Photo: Joan Marcus) Dear World By David Schultz The Encores! Spring season started in earnest with this brief look back on composer Jerry Herman’s rare misstep. This book-troubled tuner had a shockingly brief three month run circa 1969. Coming on the heels of his two blockbuster musicals,…
The cast of Parade. (Photo by Joan Marcus) Parade By David Schultz and Julia Polinsky Julia: In the achingly, throbbingly, beautifully sung revival of Parade now on Broadway, Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond sing their hearts and souls out. Parade tells the story of Leo Frank (Platt), a Jewish businessman from Brooklyn living in…
Okieriete Onaodowan and Jessica Chastain. Photo by Emilio Madrid. A Doll’s House By Deirdre Donovan It’s been almost a century and a half since Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House premiered in Norway in 1879. But this domestic drama is hardly “old stuff,” in playwright Amy Herzog’s new version, and under the astute direction of…
Cara Ricketts, Thomas Jay Ryan, and Tony Roach in Arden of Faversham. Photo: Carol Rosegg Arden of Faversham By Lydia Keidel Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Red Bull Theater presents a bloody, dark, comic Elizabethan noir thriller. Arden of Faversham is playing for a limited run (ending April 1st) at the Lucille Lortel Theater….
Jessica Hecht and Zane Pais in Letters From Max. Photo by Joan Marcus Letters From Max, A Ritual By Julia Polinsky Sarah Ruhl’s Letters From Max, A Ritual at the Signature Theatre’s lovely Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre, is a two-handed meditation on life, friendship, death. Ruhl, a MacARthur fellow, has a Spotlight Residency at…
Josh Radnor (Photo: Joan Marcus) The Ally By Julia Polinsky Itamar Moses’ new play at The Public, The Ally, offers some superb, heart-rending performances, excellent writing, and relentless consideration of arguably the most controversial flashpoints in politics today: Israel/Palestine, race relations, white privilege among them. But is it a handsomely mounted, beautifully produced play,…
Katie Holmes and Eddie Kaye Thomas in The Wanderers. (Photo by Joan Marcus) The Wanderers By David Schultz and Julia Polinsky David: Playwright Anna Ziegler’s overly stuffed The Wanderers has quite a lot on its mind. The comingling of past and present at first seems confusing, but the story does settle eventually with a…
Ben Steinfeld (Photo: Austin Ruffer) Pericles By Deirdre Donovan When Ben Steinfeld strolls out with a guitar to sing Gower’s Prologue in Fiasco Theater’s Pericles, you immediately feel that you’re in good hands. Steinfeld is wearing a troubadour’s outfit, and there’s a confident air in everything he does. His eyes scan the audience; his…
Matt de Rogatis, Courtney Henggeler, and Frederick Weller in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Photo by Ismaeel Skalli Cat on a Hot Tin Roof By Cammy Paglia Tennessee Williams grappled with his many demons, internalized homophobia and alcoholism being the most monstrous. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, for which…