Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Games Grown Ups Play by Diane Snyder

Trudi Jackson and Mark Rice-Oxley in Playing With Grown Ups.Although Playing with Grown Ups isn't entirely successful as a play, it's refreshing to see a completely unsentimental look at mot…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 10:10PM
Monday, March 9, 2015

Some Pleasure in Fish in the Dark by Diane Snyder

Rosie Perez and David in Fish in the Dark.I didn't expect to enjoy Fish in the Dark as much as I did. That's not to say I had a great time. Larry David's Broadway debut as actor and author i…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:56PM
Friday, October 17, 2014

Theater Close-Up: Home Theater on PBS by Diane Snyder

I was late to the party in discovering Richard Nelson's Apple Family Plays. I caught only the last two during their Off Broadway runs at the Public Theater. So I was delighted to hear that o…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:32PM
Monday, July 7, 2014

Is Religion Your Thing? by Diane Snyder

Religion isn't really my thing, but that didn't prevent me from thoroughly enjoying Renee Calarco's The Religion Thing, currently on the boards at the Cell thanks to Project Y Theatre, origi…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:39PM
Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Slow-Going for Donogoo by Diane Snyder

The Mint Theater strays from its usual diet of British and Irish drama with a French curiosity from 1930 called Donogoo, about a South American land scheme. But comedy doesn't always transla…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:43PM
Thursday, May 15, 2014

Scene-stealing Rivals by Diane Snyder

Memorable performances sometimes pop up where you don't expect them. Sheridan's The Rivals is best known as the play that features the word-misusing Mrs. Malaprop, but the best performances …

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:59PM
Thursday, April 3, 2014

Lotta Lear-ing Goin' On by Diane Snyder

There's been some kvetching about the number of King Lears treading the boards of New York theaters this season, but I don't mind at all. Maybe it's because it takes me awhile to fully proce…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:13PM
Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Object of Adulation by Diane Snyder

Cuban playwright Eduardo Machado usually writes about his heritage, but Worship is about the often unhealthy, tumultuous relationship between students and the mentors they, well, worship. It…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:51PM
Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Modest Middle by Diane Snyder

Similarities abound between Marty, Paddy Chayefsky's best-known work from the 1950s, and Middle of the Night, a less-familiar play from that same decade, now being revived Off Broadway by th…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 03:59PM
Friday, February 21, 2014

Sailing for Redemption by Diane Snyder

Irish Rep's new musical, about convicts bound for Australia, has a book by Thomas Keneally (Schindler's List), music and lyrics by Larry Kirwan (the group Black 47) and direction and design …

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:01PM
Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Rosencrnatz and Guildenstern Are...Very Much Alive by Diane Snyder

I wasn't sure I was in the mood for two and a half hours of Tom Stoppard on the chilly night that I caught the Acting Company's production of his Rosencrantz abd Guildenstern Are Dead, but m…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:33PM
Monday, December 2, 2013

And Away We Go...But Not Quickly Enough by Diane Snyder

The plucky little Pearl Theatre Company has survived 30 years in the Off Broadway trenches, an amazing feat. To mark the occasion, Terrence McNally was commissioned to write a play that pays…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:01PM
Friday, October 18, 2013

Romeo the Right Way by Diane Snyder

CSC's nervy, nontraditional Romeo & Juliet, which I caught at a Sunday matinee a month after I saw the current Broadway revival, is a welcome surprise. I didn't expect it to be universally e…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:46PM
Friday, September 27, 2013

Don't Go to New York, Young Playwright by Diane Snyder

The scion of a wealthy family moves to New York to become a playwright. That's the premise of George Kelly's Philip Goes Forth, as well as the dramatist's own biography. But while things wen…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 03:36PM
Monday, September 16, 2013

A Hell of Blessing's Making by Diane Snyder

How can a play that features a 9/11 terrorist fucking a Ponzi-scheme master in ass be as tame and trite as Lee Blessing's A User's Guide to Hell, featuring Bernard Madoof? Given the current …

SOURCE: Blank New World at 02:47PM
Thursday, September 5, 2013

Past Doesn't Come Alive by Diane Snyder

Should I ever be lucky enough to get on the TARDIS, time-travel back to early-20th-century Vienna, and meet Freud, Mahler and others of their ilk, I would hope they wouldn't be as dull as th…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 09:08AM
Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Burning up the Tango Floor by Diane Snyder

Forever Tango...whether you see that as a promise or a threat all depends on your affinity for the hot Latin dance and those who perform it. Mine wasn't strong enough to be sustained by this…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:13PM
Thursday, June 20, 2013

Cutting the Cord—Or Not by Diane Snyder

That film and television now fulfill a role that theater once played is not such a bad thing. Case in point: There's no longer a need for playwrights like Sidney Howard to be quite so overt …

SOURCE: Blank New World at 02:55PM
Friday, June 14, 2013

The Great Fall by Diane Snyder

Lots of theaters (though certainly not enough of them) introduce their audiences to new playwrights, but not many can say they introduce their audiences to "new" playwrights who died 40 year…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:07PM
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Dysfunctional Family by Diane Snyder

Am I the only one who didn't see why Bob Glaudini's Jack Goes Boating received the all the praise that it did when it played Off Broadway several years ago? It seemed like Steppenwolf-lite: …

SOURCE: Blank New World at 10:24PM
Thursday, May 2, 2013

It's a Draw by Diane Snyder

I almost never tire of dry, quirky, understated Canadian humor, and when that is the main thrust of The Drawer Boy, Michael Healey's play is a delight. But this tale of two farmers with a my…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 12:54PM
Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Not Much Will Power by Diane Snyder

Think formalizing your final will is one of life's more soporific labors. I'm afraid it's not much more interesting watching Shakespeare accomplish the task in The Last Will, Robert Brustein…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:11PM
Monday, April 22, 2013

Who's in Once by Diane Snyder

When I heard this morning that Arthur Darvill was stepping into one of the lead roles in the Broadway production of Once, I was sure I missed a press release or three. Surely producers knew …

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:36PM
Thursday, April 18, 2013

Remaking Macbeth by Diane Snyder

It sounds gimmicky, but I was really impressed with the creepy, evocative Macbeth now on Broadway, in which Alan Cumming gets to stretch his Shakespeare muscles by playing all of the major c…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 02:38PM
Friday, April 12, 2013

Name-Namers by Diane Snyder

Until I saw Zero Hour, a solo biodrama about the brilliant, difficult Zero Mostel, a few years back, I wasn't aware that Jerome Robbins had given names of suspected communists to the House U…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 11:10AM
Monday, April 8, 2013

Great with Two-Handers by Diane Snyder

Amid all the big spring Broadway openings, don't overlook David Harrower's Good with People. I was reading a book of Pinter plays (how pretentious does that sound!) when I caught this thorny…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 10:52PM
Wednesday, February 27, 2013

More Forgotten Irish Drama from the Mint by Diane Snyder

Thanks to the Mint Theater Company I've had a lovely time getting acquainted with Irish playwright Teresa Deevy over the last three seasons. Their current offering, Katie Roche, isn't my fav…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:10PM
Monday, February 11, 2013

Talley for Two by Diane Snyder

It's quite delightful conducting an interview when your subjects are Danny Bursetin, who was equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking in the Broadway revivals of South Pacific, and Sarah Paul…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 05:27PM
Thursday, December 13, 2012

Secular Celebrations by Diane Snyder

Sometimes the plays and films and TV shows that best fill me with the Christmas spirit aren't the ones that directly relate to the holiday. Take, for example, Red Bull Theater's jaunty, frol…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 03:51PM
Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Lesson in Bombing by Diane Snyder

Yep, there actually was an episode of This Is Your Life that featured a Hiroshima survivor meeting one of the pilots who dropped the bomb. Now there's even a play about it, written by Cusi C…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 04:33PM
Monday, October 22, 2012

Pinter the Poet by Diane Snyder

There's a Pinter lovefest going on over at the Irish Rep, with British actor Julian Sands of A Room With a View fame performing Pinter's poetry and prose--interspersed with reminiscences fro…

SOURCE: Blank New World at 02:00PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards