Ray (Alex Breaux) swims a lap in the pool that scenic designer Riccardo Hernandez (© Joan Marcus) By Rachel Goddard The play begins with Ray, played by Alex Breaux (The Real Thing) swimming the length of a plexiglass-walled pool which covers the entire front portion of the stage, the creative innovation of set-designer,…
Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter Keddy by Julia Polinsky For sixteen years, Scott Siegel has created, written, directed, and produced Broadway By The Year at The Town Hall. Decade by decade, year by year, songs from Broadway shows get special treatment by superb singers and the best “little big band” ever. The most recent,…
JOAN MARCUS Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi in a new production of “She Loves Me.” By Eugene Paul Swollen with pride after fifty years of producing practical product for Broadway—and rightly so – the Roundabout has restaged in sentimental ardor their first restaged musical of a sentimental delight, She Loves Me. And blew it…
(L-R) Susannah Flood, George Demas, Kati Brazda and Carter Hudson in ‘The Effect’ Courtesy of Matthew Murphy by Deirdre Donovan Lucy Prebble’s provocative new play The Effect, is a brain-teaser with a heart. Superbly directed by David Cromer, and under the aegis of The National Theatre of Great Britain’s North American wing, it’s…
By Ron Cohen The Royale is a taut, sometimes harrowing depiction of racism in America circa 1900, which unfortunately still resonates powerfully today. It’s also inventive drama, directed with élan and acted with incandescent fury. As a program note tells us, Marco Ramirez’s play is based on the life of Jack Johnson,…
by Deirdre Donovan The Actors Theatre Company (TACT) and the Gingold Theatrical Group (GTG) join hands and mount George Bernard Shaw first play Widowers’ Houses. Under the direction of the GTG’s Artistic Director David Staller, this is a rare opportunity to see Shaw’s maiden play staged with meticulous care. The program’s cover neatly…
Reed Birney, Jayne Houdyshell, Cassie Beck, Sarah Steele and Arian Moayed in The Humans. Photos by Joan Marcus by Deirdre Donovan Stephen Karam’s new play, which originated at the Laurel Pels Theater in 2015, has settled in snugly at Broadway’s Helen Hayes. And if you haven’t seen this gem, put it on your must-see list. …
Patrick Noonan, Jordan Ahnquist photos by Carol Rosegg by Judd Hollander Genre-bending hilarity is assured at Shear Madness at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages. Based on the 1963 German play Scherenschnitt by Paul Pörtner, the show is making its very long-awaited New York debut. The play opened in Boston in 1980 – where it continues…
By Michall Jeffers Hey kids, let’s get together and put on a show! This is the spirit of “Disaster!” A large part of the entertainment is that the actors on stage are having so much fun; we get the idea that they’ve known each other and worked together for a long time. Adding to…
Paul Schoefler, and cast Photos by John Vecchiolla By Eugene Paul There’s an apocryphal story that in 1960, Dale Wasserman, who wrote his non-musical teleplay “I,Don Quixote”, went to a fortune teller to advise him about allowing director Albert Marre to develop it into a musical for the stage. The fortune…