John Paul Murphy's two-hander take on contemporary Dublin lowlife—heavy with words, light on action—is almost redeemed by two sterling performances.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMIn Belinda McKeon's new play, set in the remnants of a Brooklyn restaurant, the menu is decidedly limited.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMThe appeal of Conor McPherson's one-man play is in its value as a prologue of uncertain promise to a playwright's remarkable career.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMThe DNA of Anna Ziegler's new play reveals an engrossing story by a talented writer. This tale of a lone, wondrous woman amidst a casual conspiracy of males makes for compelling theater.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMVaclav Havel's 1965 absurdist comedy of bureaucracy run rampant in a Communist regime has lost a measure of its punch in the intervening years.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMIn this amiable romantic comedy, a Christmas gift from Steven Banks, a little more "naughty" would enliven the prevailing "nice."
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMRachel Bonds' new drama, which speaks of damaged lives, is strong on sensitivity but weak on structure. Still, she's a playwright to watch.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMSusanna Hamnett bravely introduces Shakespeare's "King Lear" to younger audiences, but the results are mixed.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMThis exercise in absurdism at the Under the Radar festival is over the top and wholly diverting.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMThomas Kilroy's absorbing picture of Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's lover, is a must for Wilde fans, even if Oscar remains offstage much of the time.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMPlaywright Susan Mosakowski's imagination of a contemporary Abelard and Heloise story unfortunately strains credulity.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMKyoung H. Park's new play about the trials of the Korean immigrant in America is too heavy-handed, with dialogue awash in soapy clichés, to sustain interest.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PMThis moral fable of contemporary Ireland—written, performed, and accompanied at the piano by Raymond Scannell—is a story that more often bewilders rather than informs.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PM"Himself and Nora," a NYMF offering, is a conventional but intelligent James Joyce bio-musical by Jonathan Brielle, with Matt Bogart as the famous writer.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:13AMDavid Adjmi's "3C," a quirky deconstruction of a popular sitcom presented at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, is a psychotic version of "Three's Company."
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMThe two nights of short plays that comprise "The East Village Chronicles," part of the East Village Theater Festival, demonstrate the form’s limitations.
SOURCE: Backstage at 12:11PMDan Gordon’s “Murder in the First,” starring Chad Kimball as a condemned murder at Alcatraz, is a feel-good documentary rescued by an engrossing production.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:00AMThis sketchy play by Susan Charlotte on serious issues that women face is given an anemic treatment, despite the talent of two of its protagonists.
SOURCE: Backstage at 09:57AM"Pinocchio's Ashes," an absurdist play overstuffed with moral fiber from Scandinavian American Theater Company, introduces Danish scribe Jokum Rohde to NYC.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMThe Acting Company’s modern-dress “Julius Caesar” is a speedy, well-spoken Shakespearean production, strong on clarity but less so on emotion.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMTheatre for a New Audience's Wild West take on Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" has a rollicking style that can't accommodate the "taming" itself.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:00AMAmerican Bard Theater Company's production of the rarely seen part-Shakespearean "Pericles" gets high marks for invention but lower for spoken delivery.
SOURCE: Backstage at 06:48AMJoyce Hokin Sachs' engrossing play about the Bloomsbury Group, from Grove Theater Center, is thrown off balance by one unconvincing characterization.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMWriter-actor-director Amy Conroy's play about two Dublin lesbians named Alice, at Irish Arts Center, is a gem, with a quietly spoken, touching authenticity.
SOURCE: Backstage at 05:41AMMany theater hearts will be gladdened, not broken, by director Selina Cartmell's consummate production of John Ford's wondrous but rarely seen 1629 revenge drama at Theater for a New Audie…
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:38AMThis production of a rarely presented Arthur Schnitzler play is dogged by an unwieldy translation and a large, uneven cast but features a title performance of genuine distinction.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMPlaywright Nick Starr displays an overactive imagination in this muddled sci-fi fantasy, whose characters are mere puppets and which is stuffed with everything except logic.
SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AMThis cautionary 1731 play by George Lillo, never before seen in New York, is the forefather of every "she done him wrong" drama.
SOURCE: Backstage at 12:33PMUnder the ever-enterprising Albert Bergeret, New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players delivers a cheery account of this classic comic operetta, strong on song and good-natured humor.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:48AMIn this theatrical accusation, written and performed by Gerard Mannix Flynn, an Irishman details in exuberant language the horrendous damage inflicted upon him by church and state.
SOURCE: Backstage at 07:30AMJames Presson's would-be comedy about television's sitcom industry has a split personality, strangely trying to mix satire with Henrik Ibsen without much success.
SOURCE: Backstage at 03:57AM