And Baby Makes Seven
Circle Repertory

Somewhere in the top five key rules of playwriting is this one: the more mystified you leave your audience, the bigger the payoff had better be. In The Baltimore Waltz, Paula Vogel took the risk. Much of that play, with its wild, slapsticky take on spy-movie cliches, seemed to operate in its own heady ozone layer, yet the finale offered a revelation so potent that everything before it was instantly justified. No such luck with Vogel’s latest, though.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 1993
Blood Brothers
Music Box Theater

Blood Brothers’s plot, concerning a working-class woman who gives up one her sons only to see the two become friends, rivals, and, finally, brothers again in tragedy, is the kind of penny-dreadful that’s so melodramatic, it’s nearly farcical. If only author Willy Russell had gone in that direction. Instead, his lighter moments are incidental throwaways in a musical that wallows in portentous hooey. There’s even a somber narrator who strides on every five minutes to deliver some cautionary doggerel -- complete with ominous musical underscoring. Ooohh.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 1993
Another Time
American Jewish Theater

At first it seems Ronald Harwood, in his generational family drama, is putting his play through an elaborate artifice that gets in the way of the subject at hand. After all, despite its South African setting, Another Time has the usual kitchen/porch permutations, first in the early 1950s as young Leonard (James Waterston) copes with the loveless marriage of his self-pitying dad and overcompensating mom; then thirty-five years later as Leonard, now a father--and now played by Malcolm McDowell, the father of Act One--struggles to communicate with his son.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 1993
Beau Jest
Lamb's Theater

Old-fashioned, schematic, but undeniably warm and funny, it’s the story of a nice Jewish girl who tries to fool her nosy jewish mother by hiring a male escort to play her perfect doctor/boyfriend.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
January 1993
Boy Who Saw True, The
Theater at 224 Waverly

In the late 1800s, when a sweet-natured eight-year-old boy saw visions, his parents treated his ability as a mental aberration and dragged him to various doctors, his school teacher ridiculed him, and his peers treated him with derision and contempt. If a child were to see the same visions today, his parents would drag him to Oprah, his teachers would grant exclusives to the "Enquirer," and his peers would treat him with derision and contempt. (Well, kids will be kids.)

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 1992
Anna Karenina
Circle in the Square

From the outbreaks of disdainful snickers during a press-night performance of Anna Karenina, you’d think the production was so misguided that when the heroine threw herself under a train, she jumped singing “Clang, Clang, Clang, Went the Trolley!”. The truth is, while Peter Kellogg/Daniel Levine’s musicalization of Leo Tolstoy’s 1877 novel ultimately falls far short of being a compelling musical work, it isn’t the preposterous pastiche the sniggers suggest.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 1992
Big Al / Angel of Death
American Jewish Theater

The American Jewish Theater goes out on a limb with its one-act double bill, Brian Goluboff’s Big Al and Charlie Schulman’s Angel of Death.

Actually, the only reason Big Al makes for unusual Jewish theater is that there’s nothing Jewish about it except (forgive the assumption) the author. Which isn’t to say this creepy, funny play, about a guy so obsessed with writing a screenplay for his idol, Al Pacino, that he sheds his own blood and terrifies his best friend, isn’t worth a look. 

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
August 1992
Akin
La MaMa ETC

In this brief life, three little words are supposed to make all the difference. Three little words that excuse immaturity, lapses in judgment, and self-indulgence. Let’s whisper those three little words together: “work in progress.” When confronted with a show bearing that tag, critics are put in the impossible position of having to encourage the playwright and point him in the right direction, while simultaneously cautioning the paying audience against a disappointing evening.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 1992
After the Dancing in Jericho
Episcopal Church of Heavenly Rest

A fellow critic confessed to having little use for the proliferation of current plays with nasty people doing ugly things. “It would be perfectly fine for me,” he sighed, “to watch five hours of a family just being nice to each other.” While I can’t go that far, I must admit to a sense of pleasure at encountering a play in which essentially decent people—who, nonetheless, have problems—try to get through life by hurting each other as little as possible.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
February 1992
Brother Theodore
13th Street Theater

Brother Theodore was hurling insults before I was born, and he may well be doing it after my great grandchildren die—but not before grandpa makes them catch his act.

To call him Sam Kinison before there was a Sam Kinison is only half-right; Theodore’s more absurdist, German expressionist, more weird. A must for the adventurous, but returnees beware: the material stays pretty much the same.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
December 1991
And the World Goes `Round
Westside Theater

A good if not incendiary cast in an entertaining tribute to composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago, Zorba, The Rink). Although the originals remain unforgettable, Brenda Pressley holds her own against Streisand (“My Coloring Book”) and Liza Minnelli (“Maybe This Time”). Best of all are the two hilarious duets between Pressley and Karen Mason, “Class” and “The Grass is Always Greener.” (Yes, you’ll hear “New York, New York” and “Cabaret”—and you won’t even mind.)

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
May 1991
Black Eagles
City Center - Stage 2

Entertaining, admirably performed drama about a corps of black fighter pilots in World War II. It’s repetitious and somewhat formulaic (lose that stupid puppet!), with situations that are more absorbing than the characters, but it sure isn’t boring.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 1991
Advice from a Caterpillar
Lucille Lortel Theater

Terrified of anything even remotely like a complicated relationship, a young artist (Ally Sheedy) settles for easy sex with a married man—until she falls for her gay roommate’s bisexual lover. Would you believe this is a lighthearted, conventional, even “old fashioned” comedy? And would you believe that, thanks to clever lines, a winning Sheedy, and an outrageous Dennis Christopher, author Douglas Carter Beane almost pulls it off?

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 1991
Big Love, The
Plymouth Theater

Based on the memoirs of Florence Aadland (who?), The Big Love examines a woman who sacrificed everything for her daughter’s career--including her daughter. Pretty 17-year-old Beverly was introduced to movie heartthrob Errol Flynn at a Hollywood nightclub. Flynn poured on the charm, and it worked so well he ended up raping the kid. Oh, but Flynn wasn’t such a bad egg--he became smitten with Beverly, and the two actually embarked on a romantic, almost dreamy, Hollywood love affair.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 1991
Blue Heat
Intar - Theater 2

Four video screens, a “swimming pool,” a cross-dressing dancer, and two exorcisms. The interplay between live action and scenes recorded on a video monitor is interesting, but why do avant-garde artists still confuse ludicrous hogwash for innovation?

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 1991
Candida
Playhouse 91

George Bernard Shaw’s delightful tale of a woman who must choose between her “wrong,” complacent husband (Guy Paul) and the immature, passionate poet (Don Reilly) who craves her. Despite a few labored touches, Shaw is rarely done so well on these shores. 

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 1991
Buddy
Shubert Theater

Classic Buddy Holly songs punctuate and redeem Alan Janes’s lame, cliched bio. As Buddy, Paul Hipp’s the spitting image, right down to the hiccups, and he makes the final concert—a recreation of the now legendary Holly/Big Bopper/RItchie Valens last stand—rousing.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 1990
As You Like It - Fresh
RAPP Arts Center

Visitors to the Forest of Arden in R. Jeffrey Cohen’s As You Like It—Fresh! will find more accents than leaves, not to mention some non-traditional casting that would scare even B.D. Wong. However, since this production envisions Frederick’s dukedom as Wall Street and Madison Square Garden, and Arden as the South Bronx, such pluralism drives home Shakespeare’s points about the unpredictable nature of love and Cohen’s theme of the violence bred by prejudice and injustice.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
September 1990
Aunts, The
47th Street Theater

Theatergoers know they’re in trouble when set design is the most believable part of the evening. That’s not to denigrate Atkin Pace, whose insta-pulpit was a highlight of last year’s overrated Cantorial, and whose middle-income row house in The Aunts is carefully detailed right down to phone plugs and wall sockets. No, Mr. Pace has created a real home. Unfortunately, playwright Gary Bonasorte has filled it with artificial people.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
November 1989
Aristocrats
Theater Four

Do you get the feeling that if an Irish theater company were to mount a production of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, everyone from the dramaturg on down would come up with a thousand political subtexts? “The title,” they’d say, “represents Ireland walking with bare feet on the treacherous ground of English law. And the newlywed couple really stand for Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, split apart by outside forces. And what about the foreigner (PLO) who seduces Cory’s mother (ITA), huh?”

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
September 1989
Buzzsaw Berkeley
WPA Theater

I should be jealous. After all, Doug Wright graduated not only from my alma mater (NYU), but from the same department (Dramatic Writing) with the same degree (MFA), a year after my own commencement. Now here I am, a frustrated critic, while Mr. Wright’s plays have already won HBO and MacArthur Awards and have been staged at Yale, the Actors Theater in St. Paul, and the Mark Taper Forum.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
August 1989
Arms and the Man
Union Square Theater

Arms and the Man, one of George Bernard Shaw’s earliest plays, was originally subtitled “a romantic comedy.” Correctly sensing that the public would get the wrong idea, the playwright redubbed the work “an anti-romantic comedy,” an appellation both clever and fitting. Love triangles, concealed passions, and gallantry take a back seat to Shaw’s estimation of what really makes a soldier or a lover.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
July 1989
Cafe Crown
Brooks Atkinson Theater

Once upon a time there was a magical place called Second Avenue. Honest, weary working folk, linked by a common history and language, could venture there and see their dreams enacted, their culture celebrated, and their troubles shared. But soon the elderly began to die, and the next generation didn’t take its place. Second Avenue withered away, and life went on. Memories remain, though, as those who were there recall the vital wonder of the Yiddish theater.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
April 1989
Born Yesterday
46th Street Theater

I was not born yesterday. I’ve lived a reasonably interesting life up to this point, having read hundreds of books, seen dozens of plays, and watched innumerable movies, among them George Cukor’s "Born Yesterday" starring Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford. It’s been many years since I last viewed that acknowledged classic, and I remember enjoying the film and agreeing that the leads were perfectly cast, but since I was not born yesteryear, the flick didn’t seep into my consciousness and become one of my all-time favorites, either.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 1989
Cantorial
Lamb's Theater

Diverting but utterly lacking divine inspiration, Ira Levin’s gentle comedy brings us a yuppie couple whose Manhattan co-op is haunted by the ghost of a synagogue cantor. Anthony Fusco does nicely as the young man who slowly becomes obsessed with rebuilding the shul, as well his own religious background. Heavy issues are touched on lightly, advancing the cute plot but little more. 

Cantorial moved to the Lamb's after running at the tiny Jewish Rep on 14th Street, where it must have been more at home.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
March 1989
Black and Blue
Minskoff Theater

Like their previous Tango Argentino, Claudio Segovia and Hector Orezzoli’s musical dance pastiche Black and Blue hits the Broadway boards after completing a hugely successful run in Paris. The French have long been fascinated by the American jazz and blues idioms, treating it with more reverence than Americans do. But one needs no nationality to appreciate the artistry of the show’s three leading ladies or of its talented corps of hoofers.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
February 1989
Bitter Friends
Jewish Repertory Theater

How I despised those TV commercials showing people walking out of a movie or play, a camera suddenly forced upon them, their gut reactions eagerly sought by on-the-spot pseudo Public Relations journalists. “It was wonderful!” the patrons exclaim. “The best thing I’ve seen in ages!” The few self-appointed instant critics who don’t sound moronic - sound phony, affected, and at least momentarily starstruck by the thought that their hyperbolic drivel might land them five seconds on a television ad.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
February 1989
Anything Goes
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

Patti LuPone was born to play Reno Sweeney. The cast brings familiar Cole Porter tunes to brilliant life, and Jerry Zaks’s direction milks big laughs from a silly book. There was talk of moving the show to midtown, but see it at the Beaumont: there isn’t a bad seat in the house.

David Lefkowitz
Date Reviewed:
October 1987

Pages