Boleros for the Disenchanted
Florida Studio Theater - Keating Mainstage

Both a lively Spanish dance and its music, the bolero, came to Puerto Rico influenced by African rhythms and took on a Latin-American beat and romanticism to become distinctive. Boleros for the Disenchanted dramatizes, like that music, a soulful as well as sensual experience of love interchanged. Whereas dancers in Spain stay apart, they dance bolero together in Puerto Rico, just as lovers begin and end up in Jose Rivera's play.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Third Story, The
Lucille Lortel Theater

The Third Story is a trip to the strange pseudo-noir fantasy world of Charles Busch, the master of fairytale camp, and he, the writer, plays two roles: a Grande Diva and an old witch. His comic timing is impeccable - he's a master. And there's Kathleen Turner, a stylized full-blown Diva in a dominating role. Vocally she's Tallulah Bankhead; physically she's Harvey in "Hairspray." She's great.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
What Would Frankie S. Do?
Manhattan Repertory Theater

Dan Burkarth, in his noir play, What Would Frankie S. Do?, gives an energetic performance as a classic club owner in debt who is confronted by deadly danger.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Shipwrecked! An Entertainment: The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, as Told by Himself
59359 Theaters

"Are you ready to be astonished?" asks Louis de Rougemont, the English 19th century teller of tall tales, as portrayed by the talented, versatile and limber Michael Countryman. A clever and diverting family "entertainment" subtitled, "The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont" (as told by himself), this sublimely staged and performed narrative has more to offer than many a spectacle-filled theatrical.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Uncle Vanya
CSC Theater

Perhaps it is these uncertain and troubling times that are encouraging some extremely unsettling/unorthodox productions of tried-and-true classics of dramatic literature. Recently (on Broadway), the dispassionate, aloof production of Chekhov's The Seagull almost evaporated before my eyes in a glaze of indifference. The current, wildly skewed production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is almost saved by Mary Louise Parker's off-the-wall performance in the title role.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Third Story, The
Lucille Lortel Theater

The remarkable Charles Busch has concocted yet another fable with his latest offering, The Third Story, in which he also doubles in two of the major roles. This prolific playwright, noted for past triumphs such as Broadway's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest-running plays in Off-Broadway history (five-year run), here presents a complex, and hilarious, story of a mother and son screenwriting team and their creative struggles.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Shipwrecked! An Entertainment: The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont, as Told by Himself
59E59 Theaters

How odd for the highly skilled, realistic playwright, Donald Margulies, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends, also Sight Unseen and Collected Stories, all critically and popularly acclaimed, to turn to writing something with the above-named title.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Looking for the Pony
McGinn/Cazale Theater

One would hardly think that a play dealing with cancer would be an occasion for laughter.Yet playwright Andrea Lepcio has managed to pull off the feat of making such a subject entertaining as well as thoughtful and moving.

Two sisters, unusually close, are both struck a major blow when it is learned that Lauren (Deirdre O'Connell) has discovered a small lump in her breast. It should have been noticed earlier by the doctors, but the medics goofed. (Where have we heard this before?).

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush
Cort Theater

Those who can divorce themselves for 85 minutes from whatever feelings of rage and loathing they may have in regards to George W. Bush might find a chuckle or two in Will Ferrell's scarily accurate impersonation of the past United States President. The talented Ferrell, whose comical bits and skits on "Saturday Night Live" expanded to major comedy film roles ("Elf," "Blades of Glory," "The Producers") is once again collaborating with SNL writer Adam McKay (he directed Ferrell in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby").

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Bulrusher
New Village Arts Theater

I was hobbin with my apple-head thinking of burlap and bahl hornin' not to Charlie Ball just to hoot over her golden eagles.*

This is a sample of the Boontling dialect of the English language from Eisa Davis' intriguing play, Bulrusher, set in Boonville, California, home of Anderson Valley Brewing Company's legendary Boonville Beers, in Mendocino County.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Driving Miss Daisy
Point Loma Assembly

Playwright Alfred Uhry did not make it easy for a theater and its director to stage the charming Driving Miss Daisy. The play script is much more a film script. There appear to be over 20 scenes in the two acts; I lost count. Locations, locations, locations: Miss Daisy's sitting room, Boolie's office, the various cars, the nursing home, etc. The costumer has to create believable dress from 1948 to 1973. Finally, there is twenty-five years of adult aging.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Love/Stories, or, But You Will Get Used to It
Flea Theater

Notes on Love/Stories (or, But You Will Get Used To It)by Itamar Moses at The Flea Theater, performed by The Bats:

1. Inside the casting process - awfully good acting and directing (by Michelle Tattenbaum)
2. Office worker rejected - virtuoso performance by Maren Langdon.
3. Film buff and girl who just started living together - the angst and foibles of young relationships.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Our Town
Barrow Street Theater

The audience is integrated into the action in Chicago-based director David Cromer's staging of Thornton Wilder's classic play, Our Town. At one point, some are asked to be participants. The space at the Barrow Street Theater has been redesigned for the audience to sit on three sides of the playing area. A passage is created for the actors to move between the first row of seats on the stage level and the three rows of stadium seating. This not only creates a sense of intimacy but removes the feeling of them and us.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Enter Laughing
St. Peter's Church

The York Theater's production of Enter Laughing, the musical based on Carl Reiner's book, with book by Joseph Stein and songs by Stan Daniels, is a delightful romp - a simple, old-fashioned romantic comedy. It's beautifully staged by Stuart Ross, acted with great charm by a super cast of actor/farceurs, and graced by terrific choreography to give us the funniest physical comedy now on stage in New York next to The 39 Steps. Terrific set by James Morgan, great costumes by David Toser, and lighting by Chris Robinson, all lift the proceedings.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Becky Shaw
Second Stage Theater

Becky Shaw, by Gina Gionfriddo opens with a most irritating, fast-talking performance by David Wilson Barnes. It's a grating exhibition of repulsiveness as tedious reminiscences are shared with his faux sister with nothing happening, and the word "fuck" used as an adjective every other paragraph.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, The
Mint Theater

The Mint Theater gives us a beautifully executed production of a gem by D.H. Lawrence, The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd.

The play is quite elemental: an abusive husband, a lonely wife, a lonely neighborhood man who is gentle. It's the classic D.H. Lawrence triangle. The tensions of love and conflict are beautifully staged by director Stuart Howard, and a fight scene is masterfully choreographed by Michael G. Chin.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
This Beautiful City
Vineyard Theater

This Beautiful City, a play with music, deals with the growth of the evangelical movement in Colorado Springs.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Winter's Tale, The
Brooklyn Academy of Music

Both dramatic and mysterious, The Winter's Tale begins in Sicilia with King Leontes (Simon Russell Beale), for no apparent logical reason, taking it into his head that his pregnant wife Hermione (Rebecca Hall) has been unfaithful to him with his good friend Polixenes (Josh Hamilton), king of Bohemia, and that Hermione's unborn child is the result of that alleged liaison.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Defiance
GableStage

Defiance is John Patrick Shanley's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning Doubt. That one focused on ethical and hierarchical responsibilities at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964 on the cusp of Vatican Council changes. This one does the same for the U.S. military a few years later, in 1971 at Camp Lejeune.

Julie Calsi
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Connection, The
The Living Theater

The Living Theater lives! In 1960 I came upon The Living Theater, the premiere avant-garde theater in this country at the time. They were performing Jack Gelber's play The Connection. I worked there for three years, and it was quite a flashback to the past, theatrically and as a reality, to see the new production of that play resurrected and directed by Judith Malina. The play is a slice of sleazy life -a real jump back to a cigarette-filled theater with a bunch of doomed outcasts as they wait for their heroin connection -- plus a terrific jazz quartet.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Broadway By The Year: Broadway Musicals of 1924
Town Hall

Prohibition was in full swing, so that made "The Drinking Song" from The Student Prince a particular favorite in 1924. Another song that was auspiciously published that year and proved to be even more enduring was "Happy Birthday." In honor of that, Scott Siegel, the host-writer-creator of this invaluable series, asked if anyone in the audience was celebrating a birthday. A few shouted out "yes," and the Ross Patterson Little Big Band played it backed up by a chorus of 1500 voices.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
February 2009
Pal Joey
Studio 54

What a pleasure to see a musical with great songs. With music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, Pal Joey, just like in olden times, sends you out of the theater humming its unforgettable songs like, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," which is given a brilliant, stunning rendition by one of our finest actresses: Stockard Channing.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Blur
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Cook Theater

What did Melanie Marnich do with material for -- as well as the form of -- a novella or a cinematic scenario? Apparently, because she's a playwright, and a "hot" one at that, she made the play Blur . As such, it's got faults not entirely dismissed by attempts to be "quirky" or "original" but, happily for members and fans of FSU/Asolo Conservatory, it gives actors ample chance to show their stuff.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Bombshells
Miracle Theater

I flew to Miami to attend the world premiere of the new musical, Bombshells, book, lyrics and music by Jeannette Hopkins, and found a terrific show with a powerful theme: communion among women. The original stories are in the book, "Dish and Tell: Life, Love and Secrets," by the Miami Bombshells, a group of six women who met to interact and share their ongoing experiences. Hopkins took the tales and added sharp dialogue, lively original melodies, and lots of humor. The jokes range from chuckles to guffaws.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Relatively Speaking
PowPAC

Words, words, words...it's just how you string them together. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn, an accomplished wordsmith, can take a tired play form, farce, and delightfully string the words together to near perfection. Over the years, he has given us such gems as Absurd Person Singular, Bedroom Farce, and By Jeeves. Relatively Speaking, now almost 44 years old, still sparkles.

The words are just one factor. Timing in comedy is crucial, thus a talented director is necessary.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Occupant
Florida Studio Theater

Is Occupant a new dramatic species -- interview as drama? Is it a quirky take on a ghost story? Is it a tribute to Louise Nevelson's person and artistic work? Could it be Edward Albee's way of explaining an artist's need to become an artist? Like a staged "assemblage" (the word Nevelson used to describe her breakthrough sculptures), Occupant is all these things.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Leaves of Glass
Peter Jay Sharp Theater

Ahh those crazy Brits -- how they love the 3 D's in their theater: Depravity, Dysfunction, Death. Leaves of Glass, by Philip Ridley, at the Peter J. Sharp Theater on Theater Row, has all of them in abundance. There is no McDonough blood pouring off the edge of the stage, but there are ripped emotions, anguish, shreds of relationships pouring, bouncing, skittering, banging about.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Dresser, The
North Coast Repertory Theater

Ronald Harwood's The Dresser, currently at North Coast Rep, is a two-man play with a cast of seven. Placed in 1942 England, it is the story of a traveling troupe touring for months in the hinterlands. They go from city, town or village to the next, carting their meager props, flats and costumes by train.

We are offered the opportunity to view their life back-stage of a small town theater and in the dressing room of the star, Sir (Jonathan McMurtry). It is here that we meet Norman (Sean Sullivan), his dresser.

Robert Hitchcox
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Dig, The
Broadway Theater Center - Studio Theater

A world premiere of The Dig, by Milwaukee playwright Marie Kohler, opened recently at Rennaisance Theaterworks. Staged in the intimate, 100-seat Studio Theater, The Dig is a family mystery that holds the audience's attention until the final curtain.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
American Plan, The
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

It's difficult to guess what prompted The Manhattan Theater Club to revive Richard Greenberg's The American Plan after eighteen years. It was previously produced (rather well) by them in 1991. Judging by the average age of their audience, we can assume many of the subscribers have already seen it. Although it is a strange and baffling play, it has many moments to relish (while others make you cringe).

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
American Plan, The
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

Richard Greenberg's The American Plan is a complex psychological drama played out against the background of summer in the Catskills in 1960. A borderline psychotic girl (the lovely Lily Rabe) whose mother (the vividly dynamic Mercedes Ruehl) is a treacherous, over-protecting controller, meets a handsome guy (Kieran Campion) who is a poor, gay New England aristocrat.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Cherry Orchard, The
Brooklyn Academy of Music - Harvey Theater

Country doctor/playwright Anton Chekhov completed his last play, The Cherry Orchard, one year before his death, in 1904, at age 44, of advanced tuberculosis. In this new version by Tom Stoppard, directed by Sam Mendes, the play reverberates, as always, with poignancy and yearning, with lost love, lost hope. Yet it is infused with beauty and renewed hopefulness. It is tragic but has moments of comic relief.

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Hedda Gabler
American Airlines Theater

Mary Louise Parker makes Christopher Shinn's new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler the best, most exciting version of the show I have ever seen. Her every word, every gesture is fascinating, magnetic. Her essence is sensual, her beauty radiates, especially as gowned by designer Ann Roth. It's a brilliant, many-layered performance as she restlessly prowls the stage like a feral tiger imprisoned in a small cage.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Nightlife Awards (2009)
The Town Hall

If Rosie O'Donnell had really wanted a successful, entertaining, and fast-moving variety show, she would have put producer Scott Siegel and director Noah Racey in charge. A savvy and sophisticated audience filled The Town Hall on Monday evening, January 26, for the 2009 Nightlife Awards. They rewarded the winners and others with the kind of enthusiastic response they deserved.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
American Plan, The
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

In Richard Greenberg's The American Plan, a wealthy survivor of the Holocaust spends summers with her daughter across from a popular lake resort in the Catskills. It's the early '60s. The older woman, Eva Adler (Mercedes Ruehl), exerts a profound influence on daughter Lili (Lily Rabe), so when Lili meets a handsome interloper on their dock, Eva's antennae begin vibrating. The young man, Nick Lockridge (Kieran Campion), claims to be a writer for "Time" magazine, but who can really tell?

Diana Barth
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Women Beware Women
Theater at St. Clement's

Women Beware Women, a 400 year old play by Thomas Middleton, is being given a lushly-costumed production by a fine classical company, Red Bull Theater. Intrigue, romance, honor and dishonor, deception, betrayal, murder-- it's a real soap opera of sin, and as a sample of its time, it's quite enjoyable, especially the pageantry in Act Two.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Adding Machine
GableStage at Biltmore Hotel

On its way to becoming a musical a couple of years ago, Elmer Rice's 1923 expressonistic play, The Adding Machine, lost its definite article and a bunch of speaking roles but picked up a three-piece band and -- judging from its current GableStage production -- quite possibly a new generation of fans.

Julie Calsi
Date Reviewed:
January 2009
Uncanny Appearance of Sherlock Holmes, The
HERE Arts Center

I rarely see, anywhere, the high level of ensemble work now playing in NACL's The Uncanny Appearance of Sherlock Holmes at HERE Arts Center in SoHo. You can only achieve what they do by working together daily for years - and that is what North American Cultural Laboratory does in their upstate theater center.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2008
White Christmas
Marriott Marquis Theater

White Christmas, with songs by Irving Berlin and book by David Ives and Paul Blake and a sharp Broadway cast, is an entertainment full of holiday cheer with familiar songs well performed. Everything is bubbly clean: the dancers, the costumes by Carrie Robbins, the imaginative, flexible sets by Anna Louizos.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2008
Dust
Westside Theater - Downstairs

Dust by Billy Goda, now at The Westside Theater, an exciting adventure play, has a Broadway-level cast with Richard Masur and Hunter Foster as a sympathetic anti-hero with a past and an older, rich egotist flaunting his power. Helped by a terrific soundscape by Sharath Patel and lighting by Charles Foster, on a fine flexible set by Caleb Wertenbaker, as directed by Scott Zigler, the play is a thriller -- with jeopardy, romance (with the lovely, thin Laura E.

Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed:
December 2008

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