Djembe! is a Disney-like journey through the history of the West African drum, a kind of “Around the Drum in 80 Minutes” diorama, and that’s OK. The intermission-less musical, in its US […]
Review: I Just Wanna Bang on the Djembe! All Day
Review: Shattered Globe’s Hannah and Martin, an Intellectual Romance and Ideological Battle
Hannah Arendt is having a moment. There’s renewed interest in this brilliant 20th century political philosopher, probably best known for her writing on the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel, published in her […]
Review: Cambodian Rock Band Mixes Joyous Cambodian Rock Music and a Genocide Story
Cambodia’s violent and genocidal past doesn’t sound like a story that will have you leaving the theater smiling. But Lauren Yee manages to create a small miracle with her brave, heartwarming and […]
Review: Holter’s Lottery Day Tells a Colorful Story of What’s Right and What’s Wrong with Chicago
Lottery Day is a party with a guest list of nine. Mallory (a sizzling J. Nicole Brooks) has invited them to her back yard to celebrate, but no one knows what the occasion […]
New York Review: The Cradle Will Rock, a Depression-Era Operetta That Creaks With Age
The Cradle Will Rock is a Depression-era operetta about union organizing, class tensions and anti-capitalist fervor in 1930s Steeltown. Classic Stage Company and director John Doyle have created a lively rendition of the […]
New York Reviews: Powerful Performances in The Mother, Julius Caesar, King Lear
The Mother at Atlantic Theater Company I sat down in my front row seat at Atlantic’s Linda Gross Theater in an old church in Chelsea. Fiddled with my coat and notebook. Looked up […]
Review: Family, Friendships and Lives on the Line in Goodman’s Stellar Staging of Sweat
If you go into a performance of Sweat, the two-act drama by Lynn Nottage on now at the Goodman Theatre, without knowing much at all about the plot or setting, you’d be […]
New York Review: At Lincoln Center Theater, John Guare’s Nantucket Sleigh Ride Takes His Audience on a Screwball Trip
An electrocuted lobster. A Magritte painting come to life. A child pornography ring. The book and movie, Jaws. A crossword puzzle clue. Roman Polanski, Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney back from the dead. […]
Review: A Bronx Tale Recreates the Classic Gangster Story With Music by Alan Menken
A Bronx Tale, based on the play by Chazz Palminteri, is the story of Calogero Anello (Joey Barreiro), his childhood growing up in the titular borough, and his coming of age as […]
New York Review: The Rise and Fall of a Dublin Family in O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock
The tragedy of Ireland’s civil war and religious separatism still haunts the country, its citizens and expatriates, wherever they may live in the world. It’s well to remember, after this jolly St. […]
Review: Little Shop Of Horrors Invades Mercury Theater
Little Shop of Horrors holds a special place in my heart. I first saw the 1986 movie adaptation when I was young, and it gave me a love for goofy, off-brand musicals that […]
New York Review: Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano in a True West That Flips the American Dream
True West, Roundabout Theatre’s staging of the Sam Shepard play, stars two fine actors—Ethan Hawke and Paul Dano. It’s a play that descends from brotherly rivalry to rage and chaos, amidst a […]
