All stories by Elisabeth Vincentelli on BroadwayStars

Friday, March 23, 2012

Praise be for ‘Jesus’ by Elisabeth Vincentelli

It’s hard to pin down Jesus in the 1971 rock musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Sometimes, co-creators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice seem to agree with Mary Magdalene, who sings “H…

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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Fresh, satisfying ‘Meal’ by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The new off-Broadway show “The Big Meal” is high-concept, to say the least. In just 90 minutes, playwright Dan LeFranc tracks Nicole and Sam over several generations — romance, marriag…

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

It’s Dublin your pleasure by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The new Broadway musical “Once” doesn’t have a swinging chandelier, tap-dancing showgirls or brand-name stars. There’s only one set — and it doesn’t levitate. The show wins its s…

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Friday, March 16, 2012

Old ‘Maids’ roused to action, fantasy and just desserts by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Violence, fantasy, jealousy, dominance and submission, death — Jean Genet’s play “The Maids” has it all! Two sisters working as servants for a rich woman engage in elaborate role-pl…

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Attention must be paid to age by Elisabeth Vincentelli

An interesting case, that Willy Loman. Cynics would say the title character of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” is one of the biggest losers to ever grace the stage — yet actors…

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

‘Iliad’ doesn’t hit a Homer-run by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Chicken or fish? Leno or Conan? Rent or buy? Decisions, decisions. Theatergoers are facing an equally tough choice with “An Iliad,” a new one-man show that features two men. Depending on…

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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Small revival is ‘Paint’ by numbers by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Don’t let the title throw you: This is no epic about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. The subject of Tina Howe’s play “Painting Churches” is an elderly couple named Fanny and Gar…

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Monday, March 5, 2012

The life of the party by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Jo sure knows how to play party games. “I am your wife, and I am dying,” she snaps at her husband, Sam, during a round of 20 Questions, while their guests look elsewhere. That’s one wa…

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Sunday, March 4, 2012

All signs point to ‘Tribes’ by Elisabeth Vincentelli

There’s so much going on in the new off-Broadway show “Tribes” that it’s almost overwhelming: intellect and sentiment, love and cruelty, witty zingers and biting put-downs. But in Ni…

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Thursday, March 1, 2012

‘Carrie’: blood lite & boring by Elisabeth Vincentelli

There are two ways to bring back a flop. The first is to believe the show was good but badly staged, and to have a visionary set things right. The “Carrie” revival that opened off-Broadw…

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Parenthood musical’s a bit too Rated G by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Despite what Paula Deen says, there is such a thing as too sweet. But the creators of “Rated P for Parenthood” didn’t get the memo, and their musical could send unsuspecting audiences …

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You should help yourself to expert ‘Assistance’ by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Fun fact: After graduating from NYU, playwright Leslye Headland (“Bachelorette”) briefly worked as Harvey Weinstein’s personal assistant. Now, a tyrannical tycoon looms over her bliste…

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Monday, February 27, 2012

Takes a ‘Village’ to mar a kid by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The best part of Katori Hall’s Broadway debut, “The Mountaintop,” was the very end, when the show really took flight. Most of the time, the 30-year-old playwright seemed constricted by…

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Fatherly pain in the glass by Elisabeth Vincentelli

‘life in this house is intolerable,” someone moans in the terrific British family drama “Rutherford & Son,” now at the Mint. But while the home’s gloomy, Githa Sowerby’s 1912 pla…

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Weak atmosphere eclipses astronomer’s tale by Elisabeth Vincentelli

If the skies had looked the way they do in Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo,” which just opened at Classic Stage Company, the famous Italian astronomer may never have looked up a telescope. I…

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‘Early’ O’Neill at sea by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Don’t let the author’s name throw you: Though these “Early Plays” are by Eugene O’Neill, these aren’t your grandmother’s classics. To begin with, you can’t really call the th…

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Thursday, February 16, 2012

Enterprising Shatner Kirks up one-man show by Elisabeth Vincentelli

William Shatner makes most screen actors look like puppets with too many media-training classes. It’s not as if he’s a great thespian like, say, Christopher Plummer — for whom Shatner…

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Fugard’s slow-starting ‘Knot’ ties up nicely by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Athol Fugard’s 1961 drama “Blood Knot” does the exact opposite of what writing manuals advise. Forget about setting the tone and the plot early on to capture the audience’s attention…

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Not the best of ‘Times’ by Elisabeth Vincentelli

It had all the elements of a great thriller. A con man abuses the trust of his friends and colleagues at a big newspaper, lies about everything from his upbringing to his résumé to his sou…

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Friday, February 10, 2012

‘Ugly’ truth: Play’s pretty good by Elisabeth Vincentelli

‘the Ugly One” may be a new play, but it has the familiar vibe of a classic “Twilight Zone” episode. Translated from the German, Marius von Mayenburg’s black-humored fable about ap…

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Just what doctor ordered by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Poor Meena. The harried heroine of Kate Fodor’s new play, “Rx,” is in a funk, and no wonder: A published poet, she works in a soulless gray office as the managing editor for piggeries …

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Monday, February 6, 2012

No escape from this absurd French caper by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The three-piece orchestra in “Ionescopade” has barely started the overture — zany percussion, wacky noisemakers — and already the whimsy-meter is in the red. You’d think you were a…

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Friday, February 3, 2012

A look at good ‘Anger’ management by Elisabeth Vincentelli

John Osborne’s “Look Back in Anger” opened in London with a huge bang in 1956, upending staid British theater and helping usher the era of “angry young men” — smart, educated, wo…

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Monday, January 30, 2012

A transporting tale by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The new family drama “Russian Transport” isn’t edgy or groundbreaking. Rather, it’s a good old-fashioned delicacy: a solid yarn, well told. Playwright Erika Sheffer can be guilty of …

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sophomoric Sophocles by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Even before Oedipus asks his daughter to identify a stranger and she calls him “some jerk-off,” you know you’re in for a wink-wink take on Sophocles. And so it goes, more or less, for …

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Thursday, January 26, 2012

Cancer drama stays ‘Wit’ you by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Wit” offers a lucky — and brave — actress a complex, finely detailed role that’s as demanding as it is rewarding. When the play fir…

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Aimless ‘Yosemite’ digs tunnel to nowhere by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Daniel Talbott’s new off-Broadway play, “Yosemite,” starts off great. We’re in the woods, among leafless trees coated with a dusting of snow. A young man — he could be in his late …

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Warhol, dish du jour by Elisabeth Vincentelli

A lot of off-Broadway theater makes extensive use of video nowadays. In January, the Gob Squad company offered the stunt-like “Super Night Shot,” in which the actors screened footage of …

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

He’s no great Shakes by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Few actors play villains as expertly as Kevin Spacey. His gallery of memorable bad guys includes a sadistic movie producer in “Swimming With Sharks,” a serial killer in “Seven” and a…

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Luminous performers brighten 1984 ‘Road’ by Elisabeth Vincentelli

It’s pretty clear the Roundabout company is in the theater business, because its latest Broadway show, “The Road to Mecca,” would have a hard time getting made in Hollywood. Forget ab…

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Monday, January 16, 2012

Live, nude, funny women by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Over the past decade, Young Jean Lee has emerged as one of the most fascinating, unpredictable voices on the downtown scene. The Korean-American playwright mercilessly poked fun at Asian ste…

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