West Side Story
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Quadracci powerhouse

It has been more than 60 years since the ground-breaking West Side Story revolutionized Broadway with its story of star-crossed lovers and gang warfare in the streets of New York. What could have been a faded relic gets a fresh, exciting perspective in the Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s season opener of 2019-2020.

First off, director Mark Clements has cast the show very young, to better represent the world of high school students (and school drop-outs). The gang members look like kids who are trying to act tough as they find their way in the world.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Be Here Now
Theater Wit

Don't be fooled by the pop-yoga title, Be Here Now, or the deceptively New Age publicity image. In Deborah Zoe Laufer's universe, the road to enlightenment begins with a wholesale rejection of egocentric navel-gazing, not to mention "love" as defined by the romance industry.

Our play's setting is East Cooperville (as distinct from West Cooperville, and South Cooperville), located a mere hundred miles north of New York City.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Tiny Beautiful Things
Biograph

Once upon a time, there was an online publication called “Rumpus.” Its table of contents included an advice column, where readers could address queries pertaining to the literary topics constituting the magazine's focus, and have them answered by a curator identified only as “Sugar.” But in 2010, Sugar's pseudonymous voice underwent an abrupt change, as did the scope of her mission.

These events are not the story told in Nia Vardalos's Tiny Beautiful Things, however, but are simply a framing device.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Blue Stockings
The Den

In the printed text of Blue Stockings, the play is dedicated to Malala Yousafzi—the Pakistani teenage activist advocating education for women, who, in 2012, was wounded by armed assassins seeking to silence her. If that's not enough to illustrate women's long and hard-won struggle for academic parity, Jessica Swale's microcosmic account of how Cambridge University stonewalled on issuing degrees to its female scholars until 1948 (!) will make you a believer. Can I get a “you-go-girl"?

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
In Circles
Odyssey Theater

The Odyssey Theater’s unique way of celebrating its fiftieth anniversary is to revisit seminal plays from 1967-71 which inspired the Odyssey’s artistic director, Ron Sossi, to start a company of his own.  One of those “golden oldies” was In Circles, the Gertrude Stein/Al Carmines avant-garde musical.  First done at New York’s Judson Memorial Church (where Carmines was a Reverend), the show later transferred to the Cherry Lane Theatre, where it ran for a year and won an Obie.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Sea Wall / A Life
Hudson Theater

Sea Wall/A Life, two extraordinarily powerful one act plays, presented in monologue form, are holding court at the Hudson Theater on Broadway. Fueled by strong reviews, and the star power of film and stage actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge, it is one of the most deeply moving productions currently gracing the stage here in New York City.

With word of mouth religiously shouting hosannas, this starry-eyed production is already being touted (by those that tout) as a Tony contender in several categories, acting and direction (Carrie Cracknell) among them.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Chorus Line, A
Hobby Center - Mainstage

By way of full disclosure, let me first declare that the legendary, Tony Award-winning musical, A Chorus Line, has been a longtime favorite of mine since the brilliant Michael Bennett directed and choreographed its record-breaking initial run on Broadway years ago. During that period I had several joyful opportunities to see the show on The Great White Way.

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Wild Women of Windale
Ceighton Theater

Who among us has not noticed the explosion, in recent years, of the growing industry of storage facilities designed to relieve us of the clutter of all our accumulated “stuff?” In my own family we sometimes joke about it, while all the while knowing it is really no laughing matter.

That fact notwithstanding, plenty of laughs currently emanate from Conroe’s elegant Crighton Theater. Before heading home to clean out those closets, why not drop by to enjoy this madcap comedy from Stage Right Productions, directed by Dinah Mahlman?

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Great Leap, The
Steppenwolf Theater

Nobody translates Chinese culture for clueless Yankees better than Lauren Yee, even if doing so demands a certain level of mythologizing. The most obvious of these may be the Hollywood myth of the pure-in-heart athlete overcoming obstacles to triumph in the Big Final Game, but we also tap into older sagas recounting the search of a young man born in mysterious circumstances to discover his true lineage, before we finish with our hero forever lost to the mists of unrecorded history.

Nobody writes better feisty-old-men roles than Yee, either.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Tony Danza: Standards and Stories
Cafe Carlyle

You gotta love the guy. He is Mr. Entertainment, a charmer who has done it all, or at least he has tried to. He is currently back at the Cafe Carlyle, ready and willing to revisit his previous sell-out show, Standards and Stories, to kick off the Fall 2019 season.

Danza's charisma is guaranteed to entertain. He shares stories, singing the American songbook standards to illustrate his journey from Brooklyn to Hollywood to New York and along the way, you can't help falling for the guy.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
On Beckett
Kirk Douglas Theater

Bill Irwin has utilized his many gifts as a performer to illuminate his love letter to Samuel Beckett, On Beckett, which has just opened at the Kirk Douglas after runs in San Francisco, New York, and Seattle.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations
Imperial Theater

When yet another jukebox musical was announced for Broadway, a collective groan could be heard by certain segments of the Broadway cognoscenti. Yet, Ain’t Too Proud, the story of The Temptations, stands on its own as a brilliant sparkler in the Broadway firmament, jukebox musical or not.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Betrayal
Bernard B. Jacobs Theater

It may take two to tango, but it obviously takes three for a triangle or, better, a ménage à trois. In director Jamie Lloyd’s insidious, corrosive, engrossing, icy revival of Harold Pinter’s provocative Betrayal, every twosome is silently observed by a third, often aggrieved, party. While Jerry, Robert’s best friend, is having a seven-year affair with Emma, Robert’s wife, it’s Robert himself who is the observant party, perhaps as eager to participate as he is to be a voyeur.

David Rosenberg
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Skintight
Geffen Playhouse - Gil Cates Theater

Another play about a dysfunctional Jewish family, but this one has a wrinkle: the family is  mostly queer.

The patriarch, Elliot Isaac (the always-solid Harry Groener), is a billionaire who lives in a lavish, ultra-modern house in Greenwich Village (towering set by Lauren Helpern) and has made his money in the shmatta trade: underwear, shirts, etc.  Born to Hungarian immigrant parents, he looks and lives like an English lord, attended to by two full-time servants (Kimberly Jurgen and Jeff Skowron).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Play That Goes Wrong, The
New World Stages

The mayhem begins even before the curtain goes up on The Play That Goes Wrong, a hilarious new comedy that transferred to Off-Broadway this spring following its Broadway run. As audiences search for their seats, stagehands are murmuring aloud about a dog that has gone missing. Onstage, more stagehands can be seen doing final prep work, such as trying to mend a broken mantlepiece. Even an audience member is recruited to help hold the set together during these last-minute adjustments.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Songbook Summit 2019: The Andersons Play Louis Armstrong
Peter Norton Symphony Space - Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater

It seems to be becoming an annual musical celebration of the end summer as brilliant jazz musicians, Peter and Will Anderson, hold forth at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre in Manhattan’s Symphony Space on Broadway for yet another sensational concert in their increasingly popular Songbook Summit series. Last season’s sophisticated offerings featured musical tributes to Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Van Heusen, and Irving Berlin.

David Dow Bentley III
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
9 to 11 Minute Plays and Stories: Inspired by the Events of 9/11
Loft Ensemble Theater

For three years now a group led by the L.A.-based Michael Hennessey and Elizabeth Regen has been marking the anniversary of 9/ll by mounting an evening of readings that honor the many victims of that tragic event.

This year’s presentation of 9 to 11 Minute Plays and Stories featured eleven actors reading pieces written by people who were directly involved in 9/ll (Regen’s father, for example, was one of those who died as a result of exposure to the toxic Twin Towers site).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Betrayal
Bernard B. Jacobs Theater

With director Jamie Lloyd at the helm, Harold Pinter's calculation of the emotional dissolution of a marriage is as cool as its pale setting by Soutra Gilmour. The curtain rises slowly, the characters move leisurely across the stage, creatively lighted by Jon Clark. A mood is set with Pinter's minimalist language forming a measured passage between lives, laden with deceit and tension.

Pinter's 1978 play, Betrayal, begins with a bitter taste sometime after the end of Emma's (Zawe Ashton) and Jerry's (Charlie Cox) seven-year affair.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
2 Pianos, 4 Hands

See reviews/articles under "Two Pianos, Four Hands"

Two Pianos, Four Hands
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stackner Cabaret

The title of this show may be accurate, but it doesn’t do justice to this funny, heartrending tribute to the piano and those who devote their lives to its mastery. 2 Pianos, 4 Hands is so much more than two pianists (“4 hands”) serenading the audience with a compilation of classical and contemporary tunes (although the pianists do that, too). It takes audiences through a roller coaster of emotions, many of which will be familiar to piano students, piano teachers, parents, and almost everyone who has picked up an instrument at some time.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Latin History for Morons
Ahmanson Theater

John Leguizamo has been successfully doing one-man shows (Spic-O-Rama, Mambo Mouth, etc.) for thirty years, thanks to his writing and performing skills.  A large, charismatic presence on stage, he knows how to capture and hold an audience’s attention—and make it laugh and, on occasion, shed a few tears.

All of his many gifts are on display at the Ahmanson, where he has just opened in a new solo show, Latin History for Morons, well-directed by Tony Taccone.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Who Loves You
Florida Studio Theater - Goldstein Cabaret

As dynamic as the early Four Seasons and Frankie Valli whom they imitate, the performers of Who Loves You transfer their energy to their audience with music and movement.  When the group gets to Dion and the Belmonts’ “Teenager in Love,” those listening become spontaneous singers joining in. The program greatly spurs many to reliving their younger days or discovering earlier or later somethings good they’ve missed.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Tootsie
Marquis Theater

There may be funnier musical comedies on Broadway than Tootsie, but don’t tell that to the audiences lining up outside the Marquis Theater. They are here for entertainment, with maybe a little bit of a message thrown in. And they’re in the right place: Tootsie is born to please.

Based on the 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman, the story was originally concocted by Don McGuire and Larry Gelbart. They created a smart, insightful look into a woman’s world—from a man’s perspective.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Howard's End
Theater Wit

Classroom curricula usually group E.M. Forster with the Victorians, ignoring the undercurrent of imminent social upheaval simmering below the surface of the complacent universe that preceded the irreversible destruction of World War One.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
September 2019
Boogieban
Chicago Dramatists

The phenomenon we now call post-trauma stress disorder was first employed in dramatic literature by Sophocles circa 441 BC.

So extensive a history of tragedy based in revelation of long-concealed atrocities has rendered audiences justly familiar with the narrative arc evidenced in this Akron, Ohio import, but playwright D.C. Fidler's mission is to tell us a story, by gum—two stories, in fact—and he sees no shame in enlisting every available assisting factor toward its completion.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
All Quiet on the Western Front
Greenhouse

World War I might not have been truly the "war to end all wars," but it was the war that banished attrition as a viable method of conducting armed combat. The ballistic equivalent of a staring contest, the hardships associated with stationary readiness made for more casualties on both sides resulting from disease, privation, anomie and psychological disorders than ever fell to hostile fire.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
NonFiction

For Jillian Leff's play, see reviews under (Non)Fiction.

(Non)Fiction
Athenaeum

The Right Brain Project's publicity leads us to anticipate a bittersweet tale of romance undone by good intentions gone wrong, but within Jillian Leff's world-premiere play lies a warning to artists and those foolish enough to fall in love with them.

We are first introduced to aspiring author Stefanie and CPA Michael.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Witch
Geffen Playhouse

Jen Silverman pretty much savages the modern world in Witch, her fiendishly clever adaptation of a Jacobean drama, The Witch of Edmonton, now running at the Geffen.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Casa Valentina
Pride Arts Broadway

There are many reasons to see Harvey Fierstein's 2014 portrait of a summer resort in 1962 where buttoned-down het males could indulge their non-binary—as we call it in 2019—sensibilities in comfort and privacy.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Michaels, The
Public Theater

The kitchen is also a source of drama in Richard Nelson’s The Michaels at the Public. Like his previous cycle of works which premiered at the same theater, four plays that make up “The Apple Family Plays” and the three that comprise “The Gabriels,” The Michaels takes place in a middle-class abode in Rhinebeck, New York where the residents argue, connect, and review their lives as they prepare and eat a meal together in more or less real time. A major difference here is the discussions are not as overtly political as in the previous works.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
November 2019
Coriolanus
Delacorte Theater

Like its current Mojada, The Public Theater is presenting another production combining classic and modern templates and resonating with our present moment of political dysfunction. Director Daniel Sullivan transports Shakespeare’s Coriolanus from ancient Rome to a post-apocalyptic future. On Central Park’s Delacorte stage, set designer Beowulf Boritt creates a “Mad Max” fantasy world of burnt-out autos, discarded metal, and junked plastic bottles.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Mojada
Public Theater

Luis Alfaro’s Mojada (Spanish for a derogatory term for a recent immigrant) at the Public Theater takes familiar material—the story of Medea—as its source, but the playwright makes something contemporary, relevant, and thought-provoking out of it. Just as the original protagonist was a foreigner in a hostile land and abandoned by her husband, this Medea is lost in her new home and responds with vengeance. But unlike the original, Alfaro’s creation is not a venomous virago; she’s a victim of political and social forces beyond her control.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Moulin Rouge
Al Hirschfeld Theater

Combining and repurposing plots, plays, films and songs can provide new insights into old-age cultural themes, or they can just be a cheap way drawing in audiences for a comfortable, fun, brainless evening. Moulin Rouge, the new Broadway musical based on Baz Luhrmann’s gorgeous but empty 2001 film, falls into the second category in every respect except one—it ain’t cheap. With ticket prices exceeding $500 for premium seats and the least dear running in the triple digits, Moulin Rouge is one of the most expensive shows in recent Broadway history.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Broadway Bounty Hunter
Greenwich House Theater

Off-Broadway, the Main Stem comes in for a riotous ribbing in a clever, pocket-sized musical called Broadway Bounty Hunter. Combining equal parts Quentin Tarantino and Gerard Alessandrini (of Forbidden Broadway fame), the clever book by Joe Iconis (Be More Chill), Lance Rubin, and Jason Sweettooth Williams parodies schlocky tuners and violent exploitation flicks without mercy.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Sea Wall / A Life
Hudson Theater

One-person pieces are often the hardest type of theater to bring off. Live stage work depends on conflict, and no matter how talented a performer is, convincingly creating character and/or principle clashes while flying solo is a prodigious task few can handle with dexterity. There’s also the heightened economic stakes of theater these days. Audiences pay into the triple digits, so if they’re greeted with a bare stage and only one name in the cast list, expectations are going to be that much higher.

David Sheward
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Love Noel: The Songs and Letters of Noel Coward
Irish Repertory Theater

“There are probably greater painters than Noël. Greater novelists than Noël, greater librettists, greater composers of music, greater singers, greater dancers, greater comedians, greater tragedians, greater stage producers, greater film directors, greater cabaret artists, greater TV stars, and so on. If they are, they are fourteen different people. Only one man combines all fourteen different talents The Master, Noël Coward” — Lord Louis Mountbatten’s toast to Noël Coward on his 70th birthday.

Edward Rubin
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Eurydice
City Garage Theater

In her 2003 play, Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl puts a feminist twist on the Orpheus myth. This time the protagonist is Orpheus’s bride (the sprightly Lindsay Plake), who descends into the underworld after her death and seeks out her father (Bo Roberts), who is upright and walking around but unfortunately has lost his memory, after having dipped his feet in the River of Forgetfulness. Much to her chagrin, he has no idea who she is, so she sets about trying to awaken him by teaching him to spell her name.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Andy Warhol's Tomato
Pacific Resident Theater

Andy Warhol’s Tomato is a portrait of the artist as a young man. Warhol, who came to fame in the 1960s, is the subject of Vince Melocchi’s new play, a two-hander set in Pittsburgh, the playwright’s home town. It was there, Melocchi reports in a program note, that he was told that the teenaged Warhol had drawn pictures on napkins in a local bar in exchange for Coca-Colas.  Although that bit of urban folklore turned out to be untrue, it inspired Melocchi to write the piece.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
August 2019
Unnecessary Farce
Broadway Theater Center - Cabot Theater

Milwaukee’s fall theater season officially begins with the annual August production by Milwaukee Chamber Theater, now entering its 45th year of operation. According to producing director C. Michael Wright, the recent sad news events across America and the world have inspired the company to do a pure comedy. Enter Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith.

In this door-slamming free-for-all, a pair of cops (played by Ben Yela and Rachael Zientek) have set up a sting operation in a pair of identical hotel rooms in Sheboygan, Wis.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
August 2019

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