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  Theatre in Review: Jaja's African Hair Braiding (Manhattan Theatre Club/Samuel J. Friedman Theatre)
"Well, thank you, ladies. I feel like I moved in for the day." So says one of the customers at the title establishment of Jocelyn Bioh's latest play, and you're likely to share the feeling if you make an appointment at the ...
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Theatre in Review: Purlie Victorious (Music Box Theatre)
Purlie Victorious is that rarest of things, a farce about race relations in America, and why not? In the view of the playwright, the late, great Ossie Davis, race relations in America are a farce. Subtitled A ...
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Theatre in Review: Golden Rainbow (York Theatre Company/Theatre at St. Jean's)
Show fans who have been yearning for the good old days of fun-bad musicals shouldn't miss this 1960s artifact, a star vehicle that had a decent run and then vanished, living on only in myth and legend. Time was when Broadway was loaded ...
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Theatre in Review: Doppelganger (Park Avenue Armory)
I write with some hesitation about this music-theatre performance piece, being not especially well-versed in classical music or the high-concept work of director Claus Guth. Yet Doppelganger is so stunningly designed ...
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Theatre in Review: Dig (Primary Stages 59E59)
Is there something in the air? Our playwrights -- some of them, anyway - are suddenly focusing on the deep unease underlining life in the American heartland. The just-opened Swing State, set in rural Wisconsin, takes on climate ...
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Theatre in Review: Mary Gets Hers (The Playwright's Realm)
If you've been looking for a lighthearted romp among medieval anchorites, Mary Gets Hers is just the thing. Still, even the play's stoutest enthusiasts must be aware that they are targeting a necessarily limited audience.
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Theatre in Review: Swing State (Audible Theater at Minetta Lane Theatre)
The best thing about Swing State is that it exists at all; at a time when so many younger playwrights are consumed with personal identity issues, Rebecca Gilman takes the long view, daring to wonder if the human ...
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Theatre in Review: Job (Soho Playhouse)
The playwright Max Wolf Friedlich doesn't waste time; Job begins with Loyd, a therapist, at bay in his office, staring at a young woman holding a gun. It's an attention-getter, all right; the play ends with a twist ...
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Theatre in Review: 9 Kinds of Silence (Playco/PS122CC)
Abhishek Majumdar's new play takes place in a kind of all-purpose hell, which, in a way, is the problem with it. It's a concrete bunker near the seaside, the floor covered with sand, with plastic where the windows should be. We ...
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Theatre in Review: Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors (New World Stages)
The spirit of Charles Ludlam lives again in this brand-new travesty of everyone's favorite creature of the night. I confess to attending Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors with a certain skepticism, wondering if anyone could ...
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Theatre in Review: No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh (ART/New York Theatres)
In her new play, Christina Masciotti places a captivating character at center stage, then leaves her stranded, dramatically speaking. The title of No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh -- an apparent allusion to St. Paul' ...
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Theatre in Review: The Lieutenant (York Theatre Company/Theatre at St. Jean's)
For the latest entry in its Musicals in Mufti series, York Theatre Company has taken a deep dive into the murky depths of musical theatre history, bringing back a fascinating cultural artifact. Is there a musical theatre fan not ...
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Theatre in Review: The Tempest (New York Shakespeare Festival/Delacorte Theater)
The isle is full of magic, along with a faint hint of sadness, in this musical production that bids farewell to the Delacorte Theater in its current form. (It is closing for an eighteen-month renovation; next summer, we must contend with ...
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Theatre in Review: How to Steal an Election (York Theatre Co./Theatre at St. Jean's)
In How to Steal an Election, Calvin Coolidge sings. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
First, the good news: In another sign of life returning to normal, York Theatre Company has brought back its popular Musicals in ...
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Theatre in Review: Pay the Writer (Pershing Square Signature Theatre)
As a novelist, Tawni O'Dell has scaled the best-seller list and been welcomed into the golden circle of Oprah's Book Club. As a playwright, she has a long way to go before similar accolades come her way. Her 2019 drama, When It ...
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Theatre in Review: The Shark is Broken (Golden Theatre)
To give you a sense of what Broadway is like these days, last week I saw back-to-back productions based on Steven Spielberg films; clearly, pre-existing IP rules. First up: Back to the Future (which SS executive-produced in 1985) ...
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Theatre in Review: Back to the Future (Winter Garden Theatre)
Back to the Future represents the state of Broadway today. Is that good or bad? It depends.
Even as Hollywood discovers that the shelf life of intellectual property may not last beyond the seventh or eighth sequel, ...
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Theatre in Review: The Half-God of Rainfall (New York Theatre Workshop)
The last time we encountered playwright Inua Ellams, the occasion was Borders and Crossings, a modest, but pointed and powerful, collection of poems, featured in an online presentation at the Under the Radar Festival in the ...
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Theatre in Review: The Cottage (Hayes Theatre)
Plays, like buildings, need solid foundations, the very thing The Cottage so obviously lacks. Playwright Sandy Rustin has concocted a farcical spoof of early twentieth-century British comedies, but she hasn't noticed ...
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Theatre in Review: Here Lies Love (Broadway Theatre)
An Off-Broadway hit in 2013, Here Lies Love has landed on Broadway, hugely expanded but with its gaudy, glittery, neon-lined heart thoroughly intact. David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's musical traces the rise and ...
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