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  Theatre in Review: Guac (Public Theater)
The title of this piece -- which runs only through this week so, for God's sake, hurry -- is also the nickname of Manuel Oliver's son Joaquin, who, on Valentine's Day 2018, was shot four times with an AR-15 rifle while attending ...
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Theatre in Review: Ashes & Ink (AMT Theatre)
You will look a long time before you find a more put-upon heroine than Molly, the central character of Ashes & Ink. A widow, she is trying to complete the sale of the family sound-effects business. (In a clear case of fumbled ...
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Theatre in Review: Sunset Blvd. (St. James Theatre)
When Billy Wilder attended the opening night of Sunset Boulevard, the musical, in 1993, he was quoted as calling it "a very lush, very well-done production." He added, "The best thing they did was leave the script alone." Oh, ...
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Theatre in Review: Romeo + Juliet (Circle in the Square)
This Romeo + Juliet doesn't come alive until the bodies start dropping. It happens near the end of the first half, with the murder of Mercutio, a moment that finally injects some electricity into Sam Gold's wayward ...
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Theatre in Review: Drag: The Musical (New World Stages)
Drag: The Musical is the theatrical equivalent of Drag Queen Story Hour; underneath its sequined, bewigged, heavily made-up surface, it's all about love, hugs, and community. It is, you should pardon the term, a fairy tale ...
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Theatre in Review: Our Town (Ethel Barrymore Theatre)
Even in an uncertain production, Our Town's power remains undimmed; this is good news because Kenny Leon's Broadway revival of the Thornton Wilder evergreen can't quite make up its mind about several key matters ...
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Theatre in Review: The Big Gay Jamboree (Orpheum Theatre)
Stacey, the heroine of the new attraction at the Orpheum, wakes up one morning hung over and trapped in an Off-Broadway musical from which there is no escape. (I guess we've all been there.) Still, one has every right to feel skeptical ...
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Theatre in Review: Franklinland (Ensemble Studio Theatre)
Musical theatre fans know from 1776 that Benjamin Franklin was estranged from his son William, a British loyalist and Royal Governor of New Jersey. Hardcore musical theatre fans know from Ben Franklin in Paris that Ben (as ...
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Theatre in Review: The Counter (Roundabout Theatre Company/Laura Pels Theatre)
You can't say The Counter isn't efficient; like a crack short-order cook, it wastes no time in serving up its thoroughly unbelievable premise. It features Paul, a retired fireman and, inevitably, the first customer each ...
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Theatre in Review: Hold on to Me Darling (Lucille Lortel Theatre)
Kenneth Lonergan has long proved his mastery of contemporary tragicomedy, but he has never given us anything as purely hilarious as the unraveling of Strings McCrane. A massive country star and an action film draw -- think Morgan ...
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Theatre in Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (Brooklyn Academy of Music/Harvey Theater)
"Didn't they promise us some magic?/Yeah, they did," sings one of the disenchanted band of not-quite-young adults in Safety Not Guaranteed. It's a question audience members might similarly pose at this underpowered new ...
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Theatre in Review: Vladimir (Manhattan Theatre Club/City Center Stage I)
The name in the title of Erika Sheffer's play refers to Mr. Putin, although the Russian president never appears onstage. (Boris Yeltsin does, in a riotous opening scene covering his resignation speech, televised on December ...
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Theatre in Review: Sump'n Like Wings (Mint Theater Company/Theatre Row)
"Yer better let me outa here! I'll kick yer ole door down!" So says Willie Baker, the heroine of Sump'n Like Wings, who, as the play begins, is being held prisoner by her mother. (Actually, it's an act of gaslighting; the ...
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Theatre in Review: Deep History (Public Theater/Susan Stein Shiva Theater)
Deep History begins as a lecture and threatens to become a nervous breakdown. David Finnigan, a self-described "artist who works with researchers" and "a consultant with the World Bank on climate and disaster risk" is ...
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Theatre in Review: People of the Book (Urban Stages)
Plenty is going on in People of the Book -- sex, politics, racism, literary chicanery, and a full dossier of scandalous secrets -- but it rarely seems to matter, for two reasons. First, the plot is wildly overstuffed, its ...
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Theatre in Review: The Roommate (Booth Theatre)
I've never seen this before: The Roommate begins with a curtain call. Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone, the entire cast of Jen Silverman's prairie comedy, enter, their names projected on Bob Crowley's airy ...
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Theatre in Review: McNeal (Lincoln Center Theatre/Vivian Beaumont Theater)
"Everything is copy," the screenwriter Phoebe Ephron reportedly advised her daughter, Nora -- words taken to heart by Jacob McNeal, a respected novelist whose personal ledger is wildly out of balance. On the plus side, he occupies a ...
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Theatre in Review: Dirty Laundry (WP Theater)
In Dirty Laundry, Constance Shulman plays the most practical adulteress you've ever met. Referred to in the script as Another Woman, she is, more accurately, The Other Woman, and she provides much more than the usual ...
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Theatre in Review: The Hills of California (Broadhurst Theatre)
The Hills of California, which arrived riding a wave of critical praise, confirms that big ensemble dramas are back. Last season saw such big, rangy dramas as Appropriate and Stereophonic play to acclaim and ...
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Theatre in Review: Yellow Face (Roundabout Theatre Company/Todd Haimes Theatre)
It's one of the oddest comebacks I can remember: When David Henry Hwang premiered Yellow Face at the Public Theatre in 2008, directed by Leigh Silverman, it felt scattered, unsure of itself, tangled in the ...
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