Corsicana
Playwrights Horizons

At a recent Off-Broadway production, the gentleman behind me was complaining vociferously during intermission and occasionally during the show itself that he enjoyed “fun” shows like Company or Funny Girl, not the depressing dreck he was forced to sit through that particular evening. My first impulse was to turn around and tell him if he was so unhappy, he could just leave. But then I realized that plays like Corsicana can be challenging, but if one is patient and takes these plays on their own terms, their rewards are great.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Birthday Party, The
City Garage at Bergamot Station

Harold Pinter came to fame in 1958 with the production of his debut play, The Birthday Party. He went on to become one of the stalwarts of the modern theater, up there with Beckett, Ionesco, Osborne, and Albee. Now City Garage has revisited The Birthday Party in a splendid production that captures Pinter’s specialty as a playwright: grotesque naturalism wrapped around a core of menace and depravity.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Tanner, The
The Broadwater

The Tanner dramatizes what the movie “Braveheart” left out in its depiction of the battle between Scotland and England back in medieval times. “Braveheart,” in typical Hollywood fashion, was all about a swashbuckling hero (Mel Gibson as William Wallace) leading the Scots to glorious victory over the bad Brits. The Tanner deals with the same battle but in a non-glamorous, more truthful way.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)
The Broadwater

Thom Pain (based on nothing) is exactly the kind of play one hopes to see at a fringe festival. It’s offbeat, strange, unsettling, yet brilliantly original and compelling.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
What the End Will Be
Roundabout - Laura Pels Theater

Late in …what the end will be (sic), Mansa Ra’s combination sitcom and soap opera about three generations of gay black men, Keith Randolph Smith as the patriarch Bart Kennedy delivers an impassioned plea to his stubborn son Max to allow him to take the drastic step of assisted suicide to end his misery from Stage 4 bone cancer. The details are excruciating in their exactness, down to the feeling of pain and ache in every part of his body, even the fingernails. Smith does not overplay the horror but gives the speech with directness and simplicity.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
King James
Mark Taper Forum

The vicissitudes of friendship are explored by Rajiv Joseph in his latest play, King James, which is in a world premiere run at the Mark Taper Forum.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Funny Girl
August Wilson Theater

While the spirit of Shakespeare hovers over but does not smother the new off-Broadway musical, Fat Ham, the specter of Barbra Streisand haunts and suffocates the new Broadway Funny Girl. I was finally able to take in the first revival of the 1964 bio-tuner of legendary comic Fanny Brice after many delays due to COVID outbreaks among the cast.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Fat Ham
Public Theater

The premise sounds like a SNL sketch: Hamlet updated and set at a contentious African-American family’s barbecue. But James Ijames’s scintillating rift on Shakespeare’s greatest play doesn’t settle for easy laughs and obvious spoof. Fat Ham used the template of the Melancholy Dane’s tragedy as a jumping-off place for a bizarre, inventive, and complex portrait of parental expectations, youthful angst, toxic masculinity, the legacy of violence, and the quest for true identity.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Bedwetter, The
Atlantic Theater - Linda Gross Theater

As you might expect, any musical from the pen of the notoriously profane comedienne Sarah Silverman has more than its share of what we used to call dirty jokes. But The Bedwetter (Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater), the new musical based on Silverman’s memoir of her traumatic childhood, is also an insightful and moving depiction of dysfunctional family dynamics, a little girl’s triumph over insecurity and the healing power of comedy. It’s also pretty damn funny.… and dirty.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Tommy on Top
Pride Arts

We are in Hollywood, on the eve of the Academy Awards ceremonies, in a hotel room decorated in a pastiche of 20th-century glamor, where Tommy Miller—hitherto the cute-but-dumb star of giggly-gross teen-sex comedies, but tonight, a Best Actor nominee for his performance in a highbrow dramatic film—might just be on the brink of a new career as a serious artist.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Orchard, The
BAC/Jerome Robbins Theater

The prospect of the great ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and Jessica Hecht, one of our most versatile and expressive actresses, in a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic The Cherry Orchard was an exciting and irresistible prospect. But The Orchard, director-conceiver Igor Golyak’s sci-fi deconstruction of this beloved portrait of a Russian landowning family displaced by overwhelming change, has so much going on that the passions, humor, and sorrow of the original are almost obliterated. 

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Rock & Roll Reignited: With Not Fade Away
Florida Studio Theater - Court Cabaret

From Tribute Extravaganza to Four Piece Band, the musicians and vocalists ending a national tour at Florida Studio Theater’s Court Cabaret revive Rock & Roll classics for its stalwart fans and bring “sizzle” to create new ones. The show’s creators take center stage, adding narration to performance. Flanked by bass player on one side; drummer on the other, they do spread “reignited” sound.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Epiphany
Lincoln Center - Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

At a recent Off-Broadway production, the gentleman behind me was complaining vociferously during intermission and occasionally during the show itself that he enjoyed “fun” shows like Company or Funny Girl, not the depressing dreck he was forced to sit through that particular evening. My first impulse was to turn around and tell him if he was so unhappy, he could just leave. But then I realized that plays like Epiphany can be challenging, but if one is patient and takes these plays on their own terms, their rewards are great.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Call Me Elizabeth
Zephyr Theater

Call Me Elizabeth is the creation of Kayla Boye, a vivacious and gifted young actress who brings Elizabeth Taylor to life in a one-woman show which just closed at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Collected Stories
Redtwist Theater

Nobody ever lost money printing the legend instead of the facts. At what point, however, does one person's first-hand experience become another's second-hand recollection, and who has the right to engineer the transformation? Donald Margulies may have raised his questions in 1996’s Collected Stories, but the morality of hearsay as fodder for artistic confabulation continues to spark contention.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
West
Broadwater Second Stage

West is a Welsh drama which is noteworthy for its glorious use of language and its touching, true story of a marriage. Written by Owen Thomas and starring Gareth John Bale and Gwenllian Higginson, the play, which comes to Hollywood Fringe from a successful U.K. tour, opens in a rural area of Wales, where a shy, young  farmer (Bale) falls in love with a local lassie (Higginson). They marry and do their best to survive on the patch of land he inherited from his grandfather.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Hood
Asolo Rep - Mertz Theater

Robin Hood’s story has long been enjoyed by people of all ages. At Asolo Rep it’s modern and musical, performed for teens on up. Within scenic and fictional frames, Hood uses abundant staging elements, starting with an overall tiered cage holding musicians on sides and actions centrally, often lit for special effect. Huge puppets are characters. Tableaus designate places. Shadow theater sequences appear in traditional black and white or against shiny red backgrounds. The human actors come on as themselves.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Magnolia Ballet, The
The Den

Ignore the play's title. Ignore the publicity photo, too. In fact, you can ignore almost 15 of the 95 minutes (and exactly which 15 are up to you) that Terry Guest allots his self-described "ghost story" and still have enough provocative questions left over for three classical myths, two terpsichoric concerts, and half a dozen rounds of slam poetry.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Much Ado About Nothing
Marquette University

Centuries before television created “Seinfeld,” which was often called a comedy about nothing, something similar was written by William Shakespeare. Its title, Much Ado About Nothing, may indeed sound like an episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s TV comedy. But this comedy is among Shakespeare’s most-produced works, and its currently touring Wisconsin state parks by the established Summit Players Theatre.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Beowulf
Broadway Studio

John Heimbuch does a splendid job bringing the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf to life in a compact, exciting way. His solo show, now running at the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival, is a classic bit of storytelling, with the actor standing alone on a small, bare stage and weaving a theatrical spell with his charismatic vocal gifts.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Houses of Zodiac
The Broad

Is it a dramatic work, a dance recital, a cello concert, a film show? All of the above, and more, is the answer to that question.

Houses of Zodiac mixes various art forms to explore the intersection of mind, body, and nature. The ground-breaking, experimental production “brings word, movement, music, and image together to illuminate from within the verses of four poets: Pablo Neruda, Brenda Shaughnessy, Natasha Trethewey, and Anais Nin,” the creators explain in a helpful program note.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Belfast Girls
Irish Repertory Thaeter - Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage

I am always amazed by the work coming out of the Irish Repertory Theater, be it the acting, directing, plays that they chose to mount, or the ultra-savvy utilization of their two stages, whether with casts of one or two or ensembles of twenty. After making a goodly number of wonderful plays available via live streaming during COVID, the Rep made a perfect choice to return to live theater with Ken Barry’s Autumn Royal, The next, Belfast Girls, proves another sure-fire winner.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Ruskin Theater

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner still packs a punch. It might not be as powerful as it was back in 1967 when the movie first came out, but it hits hard enough as a stage adaptation to register strongly.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Ring of Fire
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz

How fitting that the fixed part of Florida Studio Theater’s set for Ring of Fire is of Cinnamon Hill, a station. It symbolizes the long life’s journey of Johnny Cash, both personally and as creator, director, and performer of song. With guitars and bass on its posts and also instruments—many unconventional—on levels of platforms, leading to a wide proscenium, the variety of Cash’s music gets matched along with renderings of it.  

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Seven Days at Sea
Edge Theater

A story set aboard a lesbian cruise ship in 1995 might suggest a madcap romp featuring svelte Sapphites in scanty undies slamming doors and brandishing sex toys or, perhaps, a "woke" sitcom about matched Jills and Joans beset by interruptions from family members unaware of the matrons' long-awaited wish for privacy. In Seven Days at Sea, however, first-time playwright Martha Hansen is not content to recycle centuries-old tropes of bedroom farce (although a dainty crayola-hued vibrator makes a brief appearance).

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Rockefeller and I: Part 1
La MaMa ETC (outdoors)

Rockefeller and I — Part 1 is a solo performance presented on the sidewalk in front of the theater, La MaMa, NYC. The actor is John Maria Gutierrez and he’s directed by Uwe Mengel. Both take credit for writing the script.

The script is 20 minutes long. Mr. Gutierrez repeats it twice — verbatim — to create an hour-long performance.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Seagull
Steppenwolf Theater

The final test of success for any undertaking lies in how well it accomplishes its intended purpose. The undertaking, in this case, is the addition to the Steppenwolf Theater compound of the new Ensemble Theater in Honor of Helen Zell (less formally, the "Ensemble Theater"), and the occasion of its unveiling is Chekhov's classic portrait of the idle classes in fin-de-siecle Russia, freshly translated and directed by Steppenwolf company member Yasen Peyankov, in a production of (The) Seagull that reunites several of the legendary troupe's distinguished alumni.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Man of God
Geffen Playhouse - Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater

The power that patriarchal Christianity has over its believers is the subject of Man of God, Anna Ouyang Moench’s new play which just opened in the Geffen Playhouse’s small space.

Actually, this is the second Geffen opening for the play, as it premiered in 2020 and ran for nine performances before COVID shut it down.  Kudos to the Geffen for bringing it back in a nifty, scintillating production that captivates from beginning to end.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Chinese Lady, The
Theater Wit

It began in 1834 as an advertising gimmick: In order to promote sales of their Far East Oriental imported goods, the Carnes Brothers procured for their company a real-life spokesperson. This was the teenage Afong Moy, known to her New York viewers only as the "Chinese Lady"—a rarity in North America at that time—whose duties were to, well, be her own sweet Cantonese self. That involved demonstrating the techniques of eating with chopsticks, drinking green tea from cups without handles and strolling her dollhouse stage on cosmetically crippled feet.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Shubert Theater

Two over-the-top comedies now on Broadway illuminate the differing styles of their respective decades of origin. They also offer pointed observations on serious subjects such as the struggle for civilization amidst natural and man-made disaster and the absurdity of our political system in a sexist, social-media-driven world.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Skin of Our Teeth, The
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

Two over-the-top comedies now on Broadway illuminate the differing styles of their respective decades of origin. They also offer pointed observations on serious subjects such as the struggle for civilization amidst natural and man-made disaster and the absurdity of our political system in a sexist, social-media-driven world.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
American Buffalo
Circle in the Square

Varying takes on toxic masculinity and dysfunctional families are on view in two Broadway reviews of powerful, late 20th century works. Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive focuses on a woman’s recollection of her relationship with a pedophile uncle. On the surface, David Mamet’s American Buffalo examines a botched robbery among three incompetent petty thieves, but if you dig deeper, you’ll find a brutal, but sympathetic look at a makeshift family. Both are given strong interpretations by their directors and cast.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
How I Learned to Drive
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

Varying takes on toxic masculinity and dysfunctional families are on view in two Broadway revivals of powerful, late 20th century works. Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive focuses on a woman’s recollection of her ambiguous, incestuous relationship with a pedophile uncle, while David Mamet’s American Buffalo takes a brutal but sympathetic look at a makeshift family.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Which Way to the Stage
Manhattan Class Company - Newman Mills Theater

MCC Theater’s production of Which Way to the Stage, running through Saturday, May 28, at Robert W. Wilson Theater Space at 511 West 52nd Street in Manhattan, is one of the most enjoyable plays of the season.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
God of Carnage
Odyssey Theater

In God of Carnage, playwright Yasmina Reza has a fiendish good time stripping her characters of their civilized veneer and revealing what remains of their neanderthal origins. That message is delivered in savagely comic fashion in the latest version of Reza’s 2008 Tony-winning play, which is now running as a visiting production at the Odyssey Theater. No serious L.A. theater-goer should miss it.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Mr. Saturday Night
Nederlander Theater

Mr. Saturday Night at the Nederlander is an old-fashioned musical comedy, with an emphasis on the latter. Based on the 1992 film starring and co-written by Billy Crystal, this hilarious and somewhat soapy tuner has all the elements for a long run on Broadway: laughs every couple of seconds, slick, efficient staging by John Rando, a marquee name in Crystal, and just enough sentiment to balance the schtick. 

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Macbeth
Longacre Theater

You know you’re in trouble at a production of Macbeth when the three witches look like they’re about to start a cooking class at a suburban shopping mall. That’s what greets audiences at the Longacre Theater in the half-hour before Sam Gold’s bizarro interpretation of the Scottish Play. This highly-touted staging starring Daniel Craig (the big screen’s most recent James Bond) and the acclaimed Irish-Ethiopian actress Ruth Negga, doesn’t seem to trust the audience to take Shakespeare straight.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Strange Loop, A
Lyceum Theater

A Strange Loop is, indeed, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and counts as producers such luminaries as Alan Cumming, Mindy Kaling, and Jennifer Hudson. But it is not, as touted, "Something for everyone." I'm a straight, white, middle-aged, woman from Westchester, and even after a life in (and out) of the theater, this show was a bit much to take. 

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Golden Shield
City Center - Stage 1

Anchuli Felicia King’s Golden Shield at Manhattan Theater Club’s City Center Off-Broadway space examines connections and communication in a complex but plot-heavy way. A lawsuit against a multinational corporation is the main strand in Shield’s tapestry of a plot, but several other threads get woven in.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Case for the Existence of God, A
Pershing Square Signature Center

When I saw the poster advertising the Signature Theater production of Samuel D. Hunter’s latest work, I joked to a friend, “This will be about lonely people in Idaho being miserable.” After having seen the show in question, A Case for the Existence of God, which has won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the 2021-22 season, I realize it was an unfair generalization of a gifted author’s oeuvre.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022

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