Much Ado About Nothing
Marquette University

Centuries before television created “Seinfeld,” which was often called a comedy about nothing, something similar was written by William Shakespeare. Its title, Much Ado About Nothing, may indeed sound like an episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s TV comedy. But this comedy is among Shakespeare’s most-produced works, and its currently touring Wisconsin state parks by the established Summit Players Theatre.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Beowulf
Broadway Studio

John Heimbuch does a splendid job bringing the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf to life in a compact, exciting way. His solo show, now running at the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival, is a classic bit of storytelling, with the actor standing alone on a small, bare stage and weaving a theatrical spell with his charismatic vocal gifts.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Houses of Zodiac
The Broad

Is it a dramatic work, a dance recital, a cello concert, a film show? All of the above, and more, is the answer to that question.

Houses of Zodiac mixes various art forms to explore the intersection of mind, body, and nature. The ground-breaking, experimental production “brings word, movement, music, and image together to illuminate from within the verses of four poets: Pablo Neruda, Brenda Shaughnessy, Natasha Trethewey, and Anais Nin,” the creators explain in a helpful program note.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Belfast Girls
Irish Repertory Thaeter - Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage

I am always amazed by the work coming out of the Irish Repertory Theater, be it the acting, directing, plays that they chose to mount, or the ultra-savvy utilization of their two stages, whether with casts of one or two or ensembles of twenty. After making a goodly number of wonderful plays available via live streaming during COVID, the Rep made a perfect choice to return to live theater with Ken Barry’s Autumn Royal, The next, Belfast Girls, proves another sure-fire winner.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Ruskin Theater

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner still packs a punch. It might not be as powerful as it was back in 1967 when the movie first came out, but it hits hard enough as a stage adaptation to register strongly.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Ring of Fire
Florida Studio Theater - Gompertz

How fitting that the fixed part of Florida Studio Theater’s set for Ring of Fire is of Cinnamon Hill, a station. It symbolizes the long life’s journey of Johnny Cash, both personally and as creator, director, and performer of song. With guitars and bass on its posts and also instruments—many unconventional—on levels of platforms, leading to a wide proscenium, the variety of Cash’s music gets matched along with renderings of it.  

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Seven Days at Sea
Edge Theater

A story set aboard a lesbian cruise ship in 1995 might suggest a madcap romp featuring svelte Sapphites in scanty undies slamming doors and brandishing sex toys or, perhaps, a "woke" sitcom about matched Jills and Joans beset by interruptions from family members unaware of the matrons' long-awaited wish for privacy. In Seven Days at Sea, however, first-time playwright Martha Hansen is not content to recycle centuries-old tropes of bedroom farce (although a dainty crayola-hued vibrator makes a brief appearance).

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
June 2022
Rockefeller and I: Part 1
La MaMa ETC (outdoors)

Rockefeller and I — Part 1 is a solo performance presented on the sidewalk in front of the theater, La MaMa, NYC. The actor is John Maria Gutierrez and he’s directed by Uwe Mengel. Both take credit for writing the script.

The script is 20 minutes long. Mr. Gutierrez repeats it twice — verbatim — to create an hour-long performance.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Seagull
Steppenwolf Theater

The final test of success for any undertaking lies in how well it accomplishes its intended purpose. The undertaking, in this case, is the addition to the Steppenwolf Theater compound of the new Ensemble Theater in Honor of Helen Zell (less formally, the "Ensemble Theater"), and the occasion of its unveiling is Chekhov's classic portrait of the idle classes in fin-de-siecle Russia, freshly translated and directed by Steppenwolf company member Yasen Peyankov, in a production of (The) Seagull that reunites several of the legendary troupe's distinguished alumni.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Man of God
Geffen Playhouse - Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater

The power that patriarchal Christianity has over its believers is the subject of Man of God, Anna Ouyang Moench’s new play which just opened in the Geffen Playhouse’s small space.

Actually, this is the second Geffen opening for the play, as it premiered in 2020 and ran for nine performances before COVID shut it down.  Kudos to the Geffen for bringing it back in a nifty, scintillating production that captivates from beginning to end.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Chinese Lady, The
Theater Wit

It began in 1834 as an advertising gimmick: In order to promote sales of their Far East Oriental imported goods, the Carnes Brothers procured for their company a real-life spokesperson. This was the teenage Afong Moy, known to her New York viewers only as the "Chinese Lady"—a rarity in North America at that time—whose duties were to, well, be her own sweet Cantonese self. That involved demonstrating the techniques of eating with chopsticks, drinking green tea from cups without handles and strolling her dollhouse stage on cosmetically crippled feet.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
POTUS or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Shubert Theater

Two over-the-top comedies now on Broadway illuminate the differing styles of their respective decades of origin. They also offer pointed observations on serious subjects such as the struggle for civilization amidst natural and man-made disaster and the absurdity of our political system in a sexist, social-media-driven world.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Skin of Our Teeth, The
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

Two over-the-top comedies now on Broadway illuminate the differing styles of their respective decades of origin. They also offer pointed observations on serious subjects such as the struggle for civilization amidst natural and man-made disaster and the absurdity of our political system in a sexist, social-media-driven world.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
American Buffalo
Circle in the Square

Varying takes on toxic masculinity and dysfunctional families are on view in two Broadway reviews of powerful, late 20th century works. Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive focuses on a woman’s recollection of her relationship with a pedophile uncle. On the surface, David Mamet’s American Buffalo examines a botched robbery among three incompetent petty thieves, but if you dig deeper, you’ll find a brutal, but sympathetic look at a makeshift family. Both are given strong interpretations by their directors and cast.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
How I Learned to Drive
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

Varying takes on toxic masculinity and dysfunctional families are on view in two Broadway revivals of powerful, late 20th century works. Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive focuses on a woman’s recollection of her ambiguous, incestuous relationship with a pedophile uncle, while David Mamet’s American Buffalo takes a brutal but sympathetic look at a makeshift family.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Which Way to the Stage
Manhattan Class Company - Newman Mills Theater

MCC Theater’s production of Which Way to the Stage, running through Saturday, May 28, at Robert W. Wilson Theater Space at 511 West 52nd Street in Manhattan, is one of the most enjoyable plays of the season.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
God of Carnage
Odyssey Theater

In God of Carnage, playwright Yasmina Reza has a fiendish good time stripping her characters of their civilized veneer and revealing what remains of their neanderthal origins. That message is delivered in savagely comic fashion in the latest version of Reza’s 2008 Tony-winning play, which is now running as a visiting production at the Odyssey Theater. No serious L.A. theater-goer should miss it.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Mr. Saturday Night
Nederlander Theater

Mr. Saturday Night at the Nederlander is an old-fashioned musical comedy, with an emphasis on the latter. Based on the 1992 film starring and co-written by Billy Crystal, this hilarious and somewhat soapy tuner has all the elements for a long run on Broadway: laughs every couple of seconds, slick, efficient staging by John Rando, a marquee name in Crystal, and just enough sentiment to balance the schtick. 

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Macbeth
Longacre Theater

You know you’re in trouble at a production of Macbeth when the three witches look like they’re about to start a cooking class at a suburban shopping mall. That’s what greets audiences at the Longacre Theater in the half-hour before Sam Gold’s bizarro interpretation of the Scottish Play. This highly-touted staging starring Daniel Craig (the big screen’s most recent James Bond) and the acclaimed Irish-Ethiopian actress Ruth Negga, doesn’t seem to trust the audience to take Shakespeare straight.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Strange Loop, A
Lyceum Theater

A Strange Loop is, indeed, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and counts as producers such luminaries as Alan Cumming, Mindy Kaling, and Jennifer Hudson. But it is not, as touted, "Something for everyone." I'm a straight, white, middle-aged, woman from Westchester, and even after a life in (and out) of the theater, this show was a bit much to take. 

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Golden Shield
City Center - Stage 1

Anchuli Felicia King’s Golden Shield at Manhattan Theater Club’s City Center Off-Broadway space examines connections and communication in a complex but plot-heavy way. A lawsuit against a multinational corporation is the main strand in Shield’s tapestry of a plot, but several other threads get woven in.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Case for the Existence of God, A
Pershing Square Signature Center

When I saw the poster advertising the Signature Theater production of Samuel D. Hunter’s latest work, I joked to a friend, “This will be about lonely people in Idaho being miserable.” After having seen the show in question, A Case for the Existence of God, which has won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play of the 2021-22 season, I realize it was an unfair generalization of a gifted author’s oeuvre.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Eureka Day
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theatre

Diverse board members of “Eureka Day,” a private school devoted to and welcoming of cultural and racial diversity, meet to face a  challenge: What will they do as an outbreak of mumps affects the school and their children?  Board chairman Don, the eldest, as an experienced professor and administrator, asks them to consider if the school might require vaccinations. Diversity explodes into division.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland
Milwaukee Repertory Theater

The most surprising thing about this Judy Garland tribute is that the Milwaukee Repertory Theater has taken so long to bring this show to Milwaukee. Get Happy: Angela Ingersoll Sings Judy Garland is a jolly trolley ride from start to finish – at least when “Judy” is singing her hits onstage.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2021
Tambo & Bones
Kirk Douglas Theater

Tambo & bones hits L.A. with stunning blast of Black energy, wit and cheekiness. The show features two hard-working, remarkable African-American actors, W. Tre Davis and Tyler Fauntleroy, who deliver Dave Harris’ dialogue and song in a variety of comic settings ranging from a mock meadow and a rap-concert stage to a futuristic dreamscape (occupied by two white robots).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
From Birmingham to Broadway & Float Like a Butterfly
Westcoast Black Theater Troupe - Donnelly Theater

As the pandemic raged, the authors of From Birmingham to Broadway and Float Like a Butterfly took advantage of Westcoast Black Theater Troupe’s shutdown to give it a program to start up with. May 2022’s opening double bill prominently features the kind of music that’s always strongly attracted audiences to WBTT. It doesn’t disappoint.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Tragedy of King Christophe, The
Chopin Theater

The name in the title might lead us to anticipate a historical drama recounting the short (barely fifteen years) reign of Henri Christophe as monarch over the Caribbean island of Haiti, but the word "tragedy" points us toward the classical heroes of Sophocles and Shakespeare—that is, fundamentally good men inclined to make bad decisions in times of crisis.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Spring Awakening
Ruth Page Arts Center

As long ago as 1891, playwright Frank Wedekind apprised us of the destruction engendered by denying children sex education—not metaphorical tales of storks and angels, but blueprint-explicit depictions of human reproduction and the biological, behavioral, psychological, and social applications associated therewith that continue to exercise intractable power over youths whose pubescent bodies betray even those lucky enough to have free access to doctor dad's medical books.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Minutes, The
Studio 54

It's a rare treat to get to see so many fine actors together on the stage. Tracy Letts has written The Minutes, a rather disturbing drama which, at times, is downright funny. Letts appears as Mayor Superba, who is chairing a meeting of the local school board.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
May 2022
Tootsie
Dolby Theater

The musical Tootsie comes to the Dolby Theater after enjoying successful and prize-winning runs in Chicago and New York. Based on the 1982 film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Dustin Hoffman, it once again tells the story of a frustrated  New York actor who dresses as a woman in order to find professional work, only to learn he’s a better person female than he ever was male.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Hadestown
Ahmanson Theater

Hadestown is a musical that lives up to its hype. After sold-out runs—and numerous awards—in London and New York, Hadestown comes to L.A. (and Costa Mesa later) in a snazzy, brash production that casts a hypnotic spell.

The creative genius behind the show, Anais Mitchell, has written a wall-to-wall musical score in which all dialogue is sung, not spoken. Her jazzy songs are delivered by an 18-person cast that also dances spiritedly and pulsatingly (as choreographed by David Neuman) in non-stop fashion.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Middle Passage
Lifeline Theater

Passengers traveling on ocean vessels are, literally, unmoored, rendered utterly bereft of any fixed point by which to orient themselves (unlike the illusion of equilibrium an airplane's floor offers). When every perception, waking or sleeping, becomes unfamiliar and, therefore, fraught with possibility, those struggling for a foothold in the nebula of nature's uncertainty can come to accept phenomena unimaginable on land—an ancient tribe of African sorcerers, for example, or a mysterious deity capable of blasting the senses of mortals.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Harmony
Museum of Jewish Heritage

Harmony, the long-gestating musical about the Comedian Harmonists, a real-life German singing group destroyed by the Nazis, isn’t exactly harmonious. There are several revelatory moments when Warren Carlyle’s inventive staging combines with the clever, moving score by pop icon Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman to create new reactions to the oft-told tale of genocidal horror. But there are also overbaked melodramatic turns. Fortunately, the startling and innovative outweighs the cliched in this tuneful and harrowing musical.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
To My Girls
Tony Kiser Theater

Second Stage is currently offering a fascinating dual perspective on the gay experience in America. Broadway has a powerful revival of Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out, while off-Broadway, at the Tony Kiser Theater, a totally different view of the gay scene is presented with J.C. Lee’s To My Girls, a comedy about a group of friends sharing a Palms Springs AirBnB after the devastating COVID crisis and sexual betrayal. The former play is a complex chronicle of our attitude towards gayness, sports, masculinity, and even religion.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Take Me Out
Hayes Theater

Second Stage is currently offering a fascinating dual perspective on the gay experience in America. Off-Broadway, To My Girls is a silly sitcom of trivia stereotypes, but on Broadway, at the the company’s Hayes Theater, there is a powerful revival of Richard Greenberg’s 2002 Take Me Out, which focuses on a major league baseball player coming out of the closet. It’s a complex complex chronicle of our attitude towards gayness, sports, masculinity, and even religion.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Mrs. Doubtfire
Stephen Sondheim Theater

I have a confession to make. I liked Mrs. Doubtfire a lot, but Daniel Hillard, not at all. It just isn't funny to see a grown man with three kids, and a marriage going down the tubes, act like an idiot, and then not understand why the judge doesn't see him as a fit father. That Rob McClure brings both these characters to life so capably says everything good about his acting ability.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Birthday Candles
American Airlines Theater

Noah Haidle’s new play Birthday Candles (Roundabout Theater Company at the American Airlines) feels like its been on the bakery shelf a bit too long. Starring Debra Messing of “Will and Grace” fame as an everywoman housewife-mother-dessert entrepreneur named Ernestine, this Thornton Wilder-lite diversion crams 90 years of living into 95 minutes with very little insight or depth.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
For colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf
Booth Theater

 In this theater season when African-American women playwrights such as Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morriseau, Antoinette Chinoye Nwandu, and the late Alice Childress are receiving major productions of their work, it’s appropriate that we are also seeing the first Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange’s 1976 choreopoem, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. First produced in a women’s bar near Berkeley, California, then Off-Broadway at the New Federal Theater and the Public, and on Broadway at the Booth where the revival is now playing, 

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Intimate Apparel
Northlight Theater

The tenants of Mrs. Dickson's boarding house for Colored Women may not be precisely destitute—most are employed, receive regular (if meager) income and many are pursuing specific goals, whether it be marriage, fame or independent prosperity—but this is 1905 and we are in New York City's Lower Manhattan district, where, as the widowed landlady observes, life is hard for immigrants who toil in solitary squalor far from home and kin.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
April 2022
Minutes, The
Studio 54

Dark humor pervades two new Broadway productions, Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen and Tracy Letts’s The Minutes, both delayed years by the COVID crisis and finally opening in an atmosphere of disquiet and insecurity. Both plays address injustice and political turmoil with satire and conclude we live in nasty times with little brightness to look forward to.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
April 2022

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