Alice by Heart
Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space

Alice by Heart, the latest theatrical adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s children’s classic, similarly shortchanges characterization and depth for gimmicky effects. Featuring a rock-tinged score by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater of Spring Awakening and a book by Sater with director Jessie Nelson, this musical places the Wonderland world in London during the blitz of World War II.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Daddy
Pershing Square Signature Center

There’s a lot going on in ”Daddy,” (sic) the new play by Jeremy O. Harris who burst onto the New York theatrical scene earlier this season with Slave Play, a similarly dense and intense work, presented at New York Theater Workshop. Like that wild and funny piece, ”Daddy” explores racial and sexual issues employing outlandish satire and elements of fantasy. Also like Slave Play, this new piece goes way over the top but has a lot going for it.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Noises Off
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

Farce traditionally is as its best when it’s presented seriously, which is why mainly the third act of Noises Off succeeds in making its entire audience laugh.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Mother, The
Atlantic Theater - Linda Gross Theater

French playwright Florian Zeller managed a rare feat in 2016: he made dementia a compelling topic for a Broadway play. After hit runs in Paris and London (the latter in an English translation by Christopher Hampton), Zeller’s The Father provided a stunning New York vehicle for Frank Langella as an elderly man slipping into senility, and Doug Hughes’s staging sleekly provided the realization of Zeller’s vision of a world gone mad as seen from the title character’s point of view.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Choir Boy
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

The tension is quickly spotted along with the glorious harmonies in this touching, beautifully written, Choir Boy, a coming-of-age play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, Academy Award winner for his screenplay, “Moonlight.” Presented by the Manhattan Theatre Club, Choir Boy is now a stunning production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater and McCraney is a welcome new playwright on Broadway.

Pharus Young, bright, charismatic and the outstanding singer at Charles R Drew Prep School for Boys, is chosen to sing for the current senior graduation class, a prestigious honor.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
December 2018
Big River
Todd Wehr Theater

First Stage takes audiences down the Mississippi River for an engaging, family-friendly production of Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is the world premiere of a co-production developed by Adventure Theater-MTC and the Lyric Theater of Oklahoma, in association with Rogers and Hammerstein Theatricals and First Stage.

Many of Mark Twain’s characters from his famous novel come vividly to life in this show, which is directed here by Marti Gobel.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Fifty Words
Lounge Theater

“The Eskimos have fifty words for snow. I wish there were fifty words to describe love,” says Jan, the distressed wife in Michael Weller’s two-hander, Fifty Words, now running at The Lounge Theater in Hollywood, directed by Shane Stevens.

It’s an apt remark, as Jan (Olga Konstantulakis) and her husband Adam (Eric Larson), experience just about every kind of emotion imaginable during a long night of confrontation in their Brooklyn brownstone, circa 2008.  The play could easily have been called “Long Night’s Journey Into Day.”

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Dutch Masters
The Armory

A playwright struggling to assemble one or more dissimilar personalities and keep them in contentious proximity can incarcerate his personae in a prison, a sanitarium, or a bunker under siege by hostile outsiders, but East Coast writers since the mid-20th century have displayed a fondness for the New York City subway system as the preferred metaphor for demographic diversity trapped within Stygian mystery.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
How to Live on Earth
Flatiron

Those travel advertisements asking us "Wouldn't you like to get away from it all?" inform MJ Kaufman's examination of the motives fueling the human propensity for venturing forth into unknown realms. While death still remains the defining "unknown realm" for most mortals, our author proposes an interplanetary fact-finding mission to Mars—a journey over a distance nullifying any prospect of a homecoming—as a literary construct likewise fraught with risk.

What kind of person chooses, literally, to reach for the stars?

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Black Super Hero Magic Mama
Geffen Playhouse - Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater

Clever idea for a play . . . on paper.  Putting it up on its feet was another matter. That’s my verdict on Black Super Hero Magic Mama, Inda Craig-Galvan’s comic-strip-influenced dramedy which is now running at The Geffen, directed by Robert O’Hara.

Craig-Galvan, a TV writer (“The Rookie”), was motivated to write her play by the ongoing tragedy of police violence in the USA:  trigger-happy white cops shooting down unarmed and innocent black boys.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Lackawanna Blues
Mark Taper Forum

”What took this show so long to get here?” is the question that popped into mind while watching Lackawanna Blues, a play written, performed and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson which is now running at the Mark Taper Forum.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Old Man and the Old Moon, The
Wallis Annenberg Center

The seven male members of the NY-based Pigpen Theater Company have been making shows together since meeting at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in 2007.  They are a multi-talented group:  they create plays together, act in them, write and sing songs, play instruments, do puppetry, and help design costumes, sets and lighting.  Their stage wizardry has won them slews of awards across the country, including best-play prizes two years in a row at the New York International Fringe Festival. 

In 2016, Sir Trevor Nunn invited Pigpen to join his first American acting company fo

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Man Who Was Thursday, The
Lifeline Theater

There's a lesson to be learned from G. K. Chesterton's Edwardian-era thriller, but if you spend too much time looking for it, you will likely bypass it completely and miss out on a lot of fun as well.

The year is 1908 and the London parks are teeming with self-styled social radicals proclaiming the virtues of shaking up the status quo.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Doubt
Steppenwolf Theater

The subtext of John Patrick Shanley's set-in-1964 written-in-2004 "parable" changes over the years—from suspicions of priestly sexual abuse, to the ecclesiastical subordination of women, to post-Vatican II teaching methods. Never before, however, has the underlying theme of power's intrinsically corruptive influence been more apparent than in this Gift Theater production, relocated from its remote storefront to the lakefront.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Potting Shed, The
Concordia University - Todd Wehr Auditorium

Celebrated 20th-century novelist Graham Greene turned his talents to playwriting for a brief period. One of these plays, the little-known psychological drama The Potting Shed, has been revived in an Acacia Theater production that is directed by Therese Goode,.

The play has been called an “intellectual detective story.” It's set in 1955 England. James Callifer (Dennis Lewis) is called to his father’s deathbed by a telegram sent by his niece Anne (Paige Landrum). However, he is turned away from seeing the old man once he arrives.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
For the Love Of
Kirk Douglas Theater

Welcome to the world of the Brooklyn Scalliwags, an all-female roller derby team fighting to hang together and win a league championship.  With names like Squeaky Mouse, Trauma Queen, Hot Flash and Maid of Metal, they are a colorful, profane, bawdy bunch of warriors on wheels.

For the Love, now being performed at the Kirk Douglas Theater as part of its Block Party Series (annual repeats of L.A. small-theatre productions), brings that world to life in a loud, swirling, in-your-face production directed and choreographed by Rhonda Kohl. 

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Best of Broadway, The
Music Box Theater

The Texas-sized excitement of our city’s annual Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo was just minutes away, but over at the nearby Music Box Theater, the chic cabaret’s popular cast of five is serving up annual excitement of its own with this year’s edition of The Best of Broadway. In the near-decade of this company’s success, that tight-knit and talented troupe of entertainers (Rebekah Dahl, Brad Scarborough, Luke Wrobel, Kristina Sullivan and Cay Taylor) have continued to keep the club’s popularity at the top of Houston-area entertainment listings with their numerous

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Too Much Sun
Odyssey Theater

Nicky Silver puts a wrinkle on The Man Who Came to Dinner in his 2014 play, Too Much Sun, which is now in a West Coast premiere at the Odyssey, directed by Bart DeLorenzo (who has directed another play, Hir, at the same theater).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
March 2019
Mamma Mia!
Hobby Center

Regular readers of this column may recall that when it comes to reviewing productions of the longtime Broadway hit musical, Mamma Mia!, this is not my first rodeo (to borrow a timely phrase during this current special three weeks in Houston.) In fact, I think I have figured out the every-four-years frequency formula that Theater Under the Stars may be using to schedule repeat productions of this ever-popular musical.

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
True West
American Airlines Theater

Sam Shepard’s True West is on the long list of American classics stars salivate to be cast in. Like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Long Day’s Journey into Night and A Streetcar Named Desire, this oft-produced slam-bang symbolic brother act affords the opportunity for actors to prove their dramatic chops by thrashing the scenery as well as chewing it.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Joy Wheel, The
Ruskin Group Theater

Today’s Red/Blue battle is fought out in Ian McRae’s black comedy, The Joy Wheel, now in a world-premiere run at the Ruskin, directed by “Seinfeld’s” Jason Alexander.

The conflict that divides the USA is encapsulated by McRae and takes place in a domestic arena, namely the mid-west household belonging to Frank and Stella Conlin, (Dann Florek and Gina Hecht), a seemingly typical American middle-class couple. 

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Lion, The
Lynn Redgrave Theater

Having missed seeing The Lion during its short run last summer at the New York City Center Stage II, its return has afforded me the opportunity to appreciate as well as embrace this emotionally effecting solo musical autobiographical journey written, composed and performed by Benjamin Scheuer.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2015
Cherry Docs
Florida Studio Theater - Bowne's Lab

The title of Cherry Docs refers to combat boots heavily rimmed with hard steel. With his, white gang leader Mike repeatedly kicked an older dark immigrant, killing him.  Danny, an ambitious Jewish lawyer must fulfill his commitment as a Legal Aid to prevent the legal death of Mike. Playwright David Gow has Danny take the lead in dyadic confrontations with Mike over how to make his case whereas each defends himself to us in serial monologues.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Maestro
The Duke

The life of Arturo Toscanini, perhaps the greatest conductor of the 20th century, would make a fascinating drama. In addition to collaborating with all the top names of the music world in his decades-long career, he bravely took a stance against fascism in his native Italy and in Nazi Germany, leaving Europe in the late 1930s to lead the NBC Orchestra and bring the classics into millions of American homes over the radiowaves.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Reckless
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

Essentially, Reckless dramatizes a woman who journeys from being a  magpie wife and mother to a self-referencing professional. It proceeds—as its title suggests—in a headlong (some would say hodgey-podgey) way from and to her happiness. That and some very humorous scenes make a comedy. But talented writer Craig Lucas typically makes it a dark one, with absurd activities and perhaps an irresponsible and puzzling ending.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Trial of the Catonsville Nine, The
Abrons Arts Center

As L.P Hartley stated in his novel, “The Go-Between,” “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” In off-Broadway’s The Trial of the Catonsville Nine playwright/adapter Jack Cummings III translates the unfamiliar people and events of previous decades by employing modern sensibilities and thus creating a fascinating portrait of America’s cultural, social, and political history. Daniel Berrigan’s 1971 work tells of the infamous civil disobedience action he and other eight others took against the Vietnam War.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark
Pershing Square Signature Center

As L.P Hartley stated in his novel, “The Go-Between,” “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” In her By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, playwright Lynn Nottage translates the unfamiliar people and events of previous decades by employing modern sensibilities and thus creating a fascinating portrait of America’s cultural, social, and political history.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
To Kill a Mockingbird
Shubert Theater

The good news is that Jeff Daniels is a terrific Atticus Finch—without diminishing the memory of the sterling Academy Award-winning performance of Gregory Peck in the 1963 film version. It is not surprising that Daniels brings a perspective that adds even more dimensions to this meaty role of a defender of a young black farmhand charged with raping a white girl.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Other Josh Cohen, The
Westside Theater

Okay, so you missed this terrific show during its brief Off-Broadway run in 2012 and then perhaps missed it again when it showed up at your regional theater. Well, don’t let this new opportunity to see this totally disarming musical entertainment pass you by. Why it remains relatively unknown beats me as it is a joyfully and artfully crafted musical play.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Choir Boy
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

Tarell Alvin McCraney's Choir Boy premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage II in 2013. It is now in revival with extensive rewrites (according to the press department) in a new and impressively staged production on MTC’s main stage at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Merrily We Roll Along
Laure Pels Theater

It has become a pleasure for me to look forward to performances by The Fiasco Theater, the company that created something like minimalist magic with Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and then with even more unpretentious inventiveness with the challenging Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods, each to wondrous results. I am not surprised that they have gone right back to Sondheim to tackle his difficultly structured 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along, but this time with the production resources of the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Requiem for a Heavyweight
The Artistic Home

Author Rod Serling once admitted to making the hero of his American tragedy, Requiem for a Heavyweight, an aging prizefighter in search of a personal dignity because, “I thought there was particular poignancy in having an ex-fighter begin this kind of quest [since] his background provided him with the least possible chance.” Written as a teleplay in 1956, and viewed on the then-innovative medium of television, those narrow options were echoed by thousands of real-life war veterans likewise struggling to find their place in a society offering them few opportunities for

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Chinese Lady, The
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stiemke Studio

Lloyd Suh’s play, The Chinese Lady, takes us on a journey with the first real-life Chinese woman to enter the United States. In 1834, Afong Moy (Lisa Helmi Johanson) was brought over from Beijing to America and put on display by U.S. distributors attempting to sell Chinese goods. The Milwaukee Repertory Theater takes this fascinating pearl of a play and examines each of its facets. Under May Adrales’ able direction, Suh’s characters raise questions about identity, cultural stereotypes, and ageism.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Lights Out
Geffen Theater - Gil Cates Theater

Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole is a musical portrait of the great pop ballad singer, centered around his national TV show which was aired for a season in 1957.  Despite Cole’s popularity with white audiences, the show’s chicken-livered sponsor (the Revlon Company) bowed out, on the grounds that a Negro could not sell cosmetics. Cole was prompted to remark: “Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.”

Lights Out is set in the TV studio where his last show is taking place before an unseen live audience.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
42nd Street
Crighton Theater

Even if you have not yet been a lucky audience member for Stage Right’s new production of the legendary Broadway musical, 42nd Street, perhaps you have heard the cheers and tap shoes now blowing the roof off the Crighton Theater in downtown Conroe. Better hurry if you want to get tickets for this one.

Director, Manny Cafeo, has spared nothing in creating this sensational musical blockbuster, and choreographer, Dinah Mahlman, must have magic powers of her own as evidenced by the stunning performance of her talented dancers.

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
True West
American Airlines Theater

What is it about Sam Shepard's True West that packs a wallop each and every time I see it—and that is four times, if memory serves? Thank goodness I have kept my journals and notes going back to the 1980s for an occasional reference or simply a nostalgic rainy-day trip down memory lane. The first time I saw it was in 1980 at the Public Theater. It was a troubled production that disturbed its author sufficiently for him to disassociate himself from it.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2019
Doll's House, A: Part 2
Steppenwolf Theater

There are three things you can count on theater audiences liking in 2019: husbands and wives bickering, elderly women in long dresses talking potty-mouth, and, if it's a Steppenwolf audience, anything uttered by company member Yasen Peyankov. These reliable motifs, when coupled with an A-List ethnically-diverse cast and a trendy stage picture featuring spectators seated in full view of the audience, makes it all too easy to mistake Lucas Hnath's sequel to Henrik Ibsen's groundbreaking social commentary on marital discord for a pilot episode of a modern television sitcom.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Witness Uganda
Wallis Center - Lovelace Studio Theater

Witness Uganda tells the true story of a young, white do-gooder, Griffin Matthews, who traveled to Uganda after graduating from Carnegie Mellon to help build a school for orphaned kids.  Matthews ended up starting his own non-profit aimed at making it possible for those orphans to get a high school or college education.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Fiddler on the Roof
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

The US national tour of the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof arrived in Milwaukee at the mid-point of the tour’s run. The cast offered a zesty, fresh-looking take at the familiar tale of Tevye, a poor milkman; Golde, his wife; and their five daughters. The show’s exuberant singing and newly designed dancing frame the musical’s quieter moments in a perfectly pitched presentation.

Fiddler returned to Broadway in 2015 for its 51st anniversary, under the direction of Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
February 2019
Glen, The
Shetler Studios

The Glen, written, produced, and directed by Peter B. Hodges is a “must see” play. Currently running through Saturday, February 16, 2019 at Shelter Studios’ intimate 60-seat theater, The Glen is one of those productions, due to its short run, that sadly disappears as quickly as it appears. Hopefully future mountings—its writing, direction, and acting are wonder-filled—will keep it alive and kicking.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
February 2019

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