Past reviews, recommendations, profiles, and posts about arts and culture in New York City.
Every Day A Visitor, originally a short story by Richard Abrons that won a National Magazine Fiction Award in 1981, comes to Theatre Row in a new production by New Federal Theatre. Adapted for the stage by the same author, Every Day A Visitor is set in a Jewish retirement home filled forgotten parents and[…]
Murder for Two is a fast and silly new musical now playing at New World Stages, straight from its acclaimed and sold out run at Second Stage Uptown. It’s a classic campy murder mystery (think Clue) with lots of broad performances, har-dee-har one-liners and an enormous line-up of suspects. Familiar,[…]
The Landing, written by musical theater giant John Kander (Chicago, Cabaret) along with lyricist Greg Pierce, consists of three one-act musicals, each rather different in nature. The most notable piece is the third, also the show’s namesake The Landing. It is about a gay couple adopting a young teenager. Everything goes well[…]
Since its award-winning premier in the late 1990s, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a rock musical by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, quickly developed a loyal cult following, which grew further when Mitchell created an award-winning film version in 2001. It’s the story of Hedwig, an East German transgender rock singer who[…]
After winning every imaginable honor for his last play, Clybourne Park (Pulitzer and Tony included), playwright Bruce Norris returns with a new project commissioned by Lincoln Center. Domesticated explores the intersection of sex, politics, and gender roles as renowned actors Jeff Goldblum and Laurie Metcalf play Bill and Judy Pulver[…]
Rock of Ages, the popular 1980s-hits musical, has been performing in New York’s theater district for more than four years now. It was (and is) a New York Times critics’ pick. It toured the country, became a star-studded movie, and is currently in-residence at the Venetian casino in Las Vegas.[…]
Pipeline Theatre Company presents BYUIOO, a wild, energetic tale that takes place in the future when nature has overwhelmed New York City, food and resources are scarce, and the few humans remaining have separated into “packs” in order to survive. BYUIOO follows one particular group–The Pack–as a string of terrible events[…]
Conceived in 2000 by Qui Nguyen and Robert Ross Parker, then grad students at Ohio University, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company is now a full-fledged, New York based, artistic theater company widely-recognized for its original aesthetic that combines anime, graphic novels, sci-fi, and Hollywood action thrillers. Praised by The Village Voice as an “Army of Geeks,” the company takes[…]
Ground UP Productions is an artistic theater company, based in New York, with a mission to break ground with new plays and reconstruct and restore old favorites. Since 2005, they have produced more than 15 full productions, both revivals and new plays. Their work quickly met with critical approval, including two[…]
The ominous title of this play may seem like a funny gimmick to attract attention, but How to Make Friends and then Kill Them is actually an accurate description of this dark, dark comedy by Halley Feiffer at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Spanning many years, the play traces the unhealthy and[…]
Theatre for a New Audience has been a leading voice in New York City theater since 1979. Founded by Jeffrey Horowitz (who still serves as its Artistic Director), TFANA (pronounced in the theater biz as ta-fah-na) primarily performs Shakespeare and other classic plays, but also invests in contemporary playwrights and new works. TFANA has been[…]
Pippin is a revival of the classic 1970’s musical about a young prince seeking his place in the world. It won four 2013 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. With acclaimed director Diane Paulus at the helm (she won a 2013 Tony Award for directing this show), Pippin includes many fancy elements to convince[…]
Conceived by artists Tamila Woodard and Ana Margineanu along with producer Molly Morris, PopUP Theatrics was formally founded in 2012 and has quickly become a strong, new voice in independent theater. PopUP Theatrics’ work is site-specific/site-impacting and focuses on international collaborations all over the world. It has four ongoing projects: INSIDE,[…]
Part of the All for One Festival for solo performances, Those Who Can’t Do probes a touchy and controversial topic: how to teach sex education to teens. With the help of only a desk, a chair, and a chalkboard, versatile performer Erin Fleck takes on multiple roles–a stern principal, a nervous teacher,[…]
After Midnight is a celebration of Harlem’s Golden Age, centering around The Cotton Club, Harlem’s legendary nightclub. It features music performed by an orchestra of seventeen Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars, handpicked by artistic director and nine-time Grammy Award winning musician Wynton Marsalis, accompanied by an array of dance numbers, and Dule[…]
Disaster! is a crazy, fast-paced, musical that lovingly spoofs 1970s disaster movies. It features the greatest musical hits of the decade in hilarious, often literal interpretations. All-in-all it’s an unhinged fun-fest. In the summer of 1979, the first casino in Manhattan opens on a ship on the Hudson River. A wide[…]
The Apple Family Plays are a series of four plays by Tony Award winner Richard Nelson. The plays focus on the Apples, a fictional, liberal family in Rhinebeck, New York. Each play is set on a significant date* and is a conversation amongst the family members that touches on the[…]
We don’t want to be alarmist but we do want to inform you that tickets have gone on sale for Denzel Washington in A Raisin in the Sun coming to New York City. Now you might be thinking that sounds interesting and at some point in the future I’d like to get[…]
Musicals Tonight! is an OBIE Award winning New York City theater company dedicated to the revival of “neglected musicals.” Now in it’s 16th season Musicals Tonight! has revived over 70 musicals as staged concerts. Musicals Tonight! hosts staged musicals and a concert series called “At This Performance” at which standbys and understudies in currently[…]
Life on the Mississippi explores the life of Sam Clemens, a boy who wanted to be a steamboat pilot and grew up to become Mark Twain, one of America’s greatest writers. It is based on Twain’s memoir of the same name. The musical is set on the Paul Jones, a[…]