Past reviews, recommendations, profiles, and posts about arts and culture in New York City.
The Castillo Theatre and The New Federal Theatre’s joint production of the play In The Wine Time is a revival by Ed Bullins, an influential African American playwright. Set in the 1950s, In The Wine Time is a poignant portrait of the plight of African Americans at the time. It follows Lou, Cliff, and Lou’s[…]
Julie Taymor, the endlessly inventive magician of the theater, returns to the New York stage with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the inaugural production of Theatre for a New Audience’s new home in Brooklyn. The first production in a sleek new theater should feel celebratory, seminal, or at least alive.[…]
There are so many good shows in New York this November it’s hard to prioritize. Do not let this month go by without getting yourself to the theater as many times as possible and at the very least once. Here are the 13 shows we’re most excited about: Maxamoo’s November[…]
Written by Lucile Lichtblau and directed by Carl Wallnau, The English Bride, a new production at 59E59 Theaters, was inspired by real events. In April 1986, a man attempted to place a bomb on an El Al flight departing from London. The incident was nicknamed the Hindawi Affair, after Nezar Hindawi,[…]
Written in 1924 by the great Irish playwright Sean O’Casey, Juno and the Paycock at the Irish Repertory Theatre is the tragic tale of a poor family living in difficult times. Set during the bloody Civil War that ravaged Ireland in the 1920s, the play tracks the downward spiral of the[…]
The Flea Theater was founded in 1996 by director Jim Simpson, playwright Mac Wellman, and designer Kyle Chepulis — all renowned artists — with a mission to create “a joyful hell in a small space.” Nestled in the heart of TriBeCa, The Flea Theater is now an award-winning incubator for “non-institutional and resolutely noncommercial”[…]
Fresh from a super hot run at La MaMa, The Foundry Theatre transfers its production of the Good Person of Szechwan to The Public Theater. It stars Taylor Mac, the legendary actor, singer, cabaret performer, and performance artist and includes original, folky-indie-rock music from César Alvarez with The Lisps. Regarding the production at La MaMa, the New York[…]
One of the best ways to get discounted tickets to the theater in New York City is membership in the Theatre Development Fund (better known as TDF). Membership in TDF costs $30 for one year BUT with Maxamoo’s discount code for $5 off, you can join TDF for $25. The[…]
Bill Bowers is an acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist. His shows combine music, monologues, and mime. Bowers is performing his autobiographical one-man show Beyond Words as part of the 2013 All For One Theater Festival for solo performances. In a collection of vignettes from Bowers’ early life, Beyond Words combines mime, monologues, and sound effects to[…]
Praised by Time Out New York as “easily the most fun you can have Off-Off Broadway without being arrested for possession or assault”, Alice In Slasherland is a gory, geeky fairytale by Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company. This play tells the story of Lewis Park, a high school nerd, and his bloody adventure with[…]
UPDATE – December 3, 2013 If you missed Eric Dufault’s Year of the Rooster before it closed in November, we were gonna feel bad for you, but you’ve been given a second chance. This hilarious, aggressive, and moving new play is returning to Ensemble Studio Theatre on January 9th for an extended run[…]
Salesmen: a Meditation on Masculinity and the American REAL! by Theater Reconstruction Ensemble is presented as part of the 2013 SubletSeries at HERE Art Center. Amongst several talented performers, Salesmen features 2013 New York Innovative Theatre Awards winner Nick Smerkanich. With no explicit storyline, Salesmen assembles a group of eight men, whose identities and relationships[…]
LUCE, a play, is part of Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 program that produces “new artists for new audiences.” In the play, a teacher finds illegal fireworks in the locker of a charming, high achieving student. This leads to an uncomfortable parent-teacher conference and lots of hand-wringing. It does not lead[…]
Upon entering the performance space for The Downtown Loop at the 3-Legged Dog Art + Technology Center, you’re offered a hot dog (a vegetarian option is available) and beverage. That’s your first hint that this is not going to be a typical night at the theater. Then you climb a flight[…]
The Irish Repertory Theater presents an evening of three plays by Irish master Samuel Beckett – all of them short, all of them weird, and all of them decidedly geared toward the avant-garde among us. A Mind-Bending Evening of Beckett consists of “Act Without Words,” cleverly yet awkwardly performed with puppets,[…]
The Play Company is an Obie Award-winning theater production company known for producing adventurous new plays developed outside the United States. In The Play Company’s own words: PlayCo’s distinctive international programming links American theatre with world theatre, American artists with the global creative community, and American audiences with a whole world[…]
Every Fall the best and brightest of New York’s independent theater community gather to celebrate outstanding productions and the artists who create them. The ninth annual New York Innovative Theatre Awards were awarded on September 30, 2013. Independent theater in New York is a rich and vast world, with nearly 2,000[…]
Official Opening Update Fun Home is an emotional, beautiful new musical at The Public Theater. It is based on Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, a graphic memoir by and about Alison Bechdel. We’ve been champions of Fun Home since the workshop version last year. It opened to stellar reviews and the theater-going public loves it[…]
Directed and choreographed by internationally acclaimed artist and performer Maureen Fleming, B. Madonna receives its New York premiere at La MaMa this season. Meditating on miracle and loss, B. Madonna presents nine of Fleming’s new and repertory dance pieces, all solo performances. The production transcends cultural boundaries, incorporating aesthetic elements from[…]
John Grisham’s well-known novel, A Time to Kill, has shed its book cover for a turn in the limelight. The tale of a Southern community divided by a horrendous crime, A Time to Kill tells the story of Carl Lee Hailey, a black man on trial for taking the law into his own hands, and[…]