Thursday, February 23, 2017
Perhaps it wasn't fair to see Wallace Shawn's mildly compelling dystopian play Evening at the Talk House so soon after seeing Caryl Churchill's wildly compelling dystopian play Escaped …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:03AMWednesday, February 22, 2017
Caryl Churchill's brilliant, bizarre, puzzling, horrifying, and strangely sweet Escaped Alone packs the punch of a major dystopia into its lean 55 minutes. It also allows us to meet, enjoy, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:48PMMonday, February 20, 2017
My latest essay is up at Art Times:Good acting is a matter of opinion. A performance that you perceive as brilliantly emotional, I might perceive as overacting. A performance that strikes me…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:06PMWednesday, February 8, 2017
The Sherwood Forest in the Flux Theatre Ensemble's delightful production of Adam Szymkowicz's Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood has its full complement of merry men--except most of them…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:03PMMonday, January 30, 2017
So much depends on where you begin a play. Do you start when character A is behaving well? Or when character B is? Do you start at the foundation of their relationship or in media res? In Yo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:32PMThursday, January 19, 2017
Due to some health issues, it has been two and a half months since I've seen a play--what a gift that the first one back was August Wilson's superb Jitney, beautifully directed by Ruben Sant…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12PMFriday, December 30, 2016
It was late summer 1974 and Debbie Reynolds was returning to the musical Irene for a brief stint before taking it on the road. (Jane Powell had been her replacement.) My friend R and I …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:42PMThursday, December 22, 2016
Due to some health challenges, I only saw 42 shows in 2016--my lowest total in decades. Yet it was still difficult to carve my best list down to 10 entries.I remain in awe of the breadt…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:33AMSunday, November 6, 2016
I can't be 100% certain what William Shakespeare would think of the current election season, but, as Director Michael Sexton and the good people of the Red Bull Theater show in their dynamic…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:42PMMonday, October 31, 2016
Okay, so here's an awkward thing: what happens when you're a reviewer, and you're not feeling well, and you fall asleep during a show? That happened to me the other night at The Resisti…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:12PMWednesday, October 26, 2016
I wasn't even planning to see this brief production of Sunday in the Park With George, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and benefiting City Center. It's not my favorite Sondheim show, and my life ha…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:42PMSunday, October 16, 2016
Perhaps it's time for me to make a template for my reviews of Mint Theater Company productions:Thanks once again to the invaluable Mint for reintroducing the world to yet another fabulous pl…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:03AMSaturday, October 15, 2016
Who are the real actors of NYC? After watching the lightly entertaining, largely painless new musical, The Real Actors of NYC, I'd have to say that the answer is: Klea Blackhurst and Lorinda…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:48AMThursday, September 29, 2016
On Monday, September 26, 2016, The New York Innovative Theatre Foundation presented their IT Awards. Winners are marked with asterisks.OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE** The Golfer,Gemini CollisionWorks…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:19PMFriday, September 23, 2016
This is not a review. I saw the first preview of Love, Love, Love, and a review wouldn't be appropriate. However, the show is already in excellent shape, and quite interesting, and completel…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:30PMMonday, September 12, 2016
James Blossom is a hero--over and over again. He defuses a Nazi nuke miles under the sea and "is given a ticker tape parade and his face on the five dollar bill." He saves the life of the Se…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:13PMThursday, September 8, 2016
Six people assemble for a spiritual retreat with varying levels of comfort and enthusiasm: an ultra-limber, ultra-sexy yoga instructor; a lesbian couple, affectionate but annoyed with each o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:31PMTuesday, August 30, 2016
My latest Art Times essay is up:The Greek philosopher Heraclitus believed that you can never step into the same river twice because the water is ever-flowing—and also you have ch…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:40PMMonday, August 29, 2016
Some friends and I are working our way through past Tony Award shows, and it's been a surprising journey in many ways. This past week, we watched 1970 through 1974. The Tony gestalt has chan…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:16AMMonday, July 18, 2016
My latest essay is up at Art Times:What accounts for the rise of the intermissionless 90-minute play? A prevalent theory points to the shrinking attention spans of a population inundated 24/…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:48PMSunday, July 17, 2016
It's almost impossible to discuss James Graham's new play Privacy without saying too much. So here's what I will say:Privacy is a frequently entertaining, sometimes horrifying exam…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:32PMFriday, July 1, 2016
My latest essay is up at Art Times. Here's a taste.A recent cover of Entertainment Weekly achieved a new low in spoilers. It blared out a big, juicy piece of information about a po…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:03AMWednesday, June 15, 2016
Our correct predictions are highlighted. Wendy Sandra Cameron Liz Best play: The Humans The Humans The Humans The Humans King Charles III Best musica…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:16AMThursday, June 9, 2016
The Color Purple has been well-reviewed all over the place, and I generally agree that it is a strong production of a moving show. But I have a serious ax to grind.In Alice Walker's nov…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:37PMTuesday, June 7, 2016
Stephen Hawking: The real risk with AI isn’t malice but competence. A superintelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren’t aligned with ours, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:04AMSaturday, June 4, 2016
The setting is familiar: a 12-step-program-type support group. A woman stands, says, "Hello, my name is Mica, and I'm Z-positive," and everyone else says, "Hi, Mica." Does "Z-positive" perha…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:19PMWednesday, May 4, 2016
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s The School For Scandal, first performed in 1777, reveals that humans have changed little over the centuries, clothing a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:31PMSaturday, April 30, 2016
There's good news, and bad news, and good news again. The good news is that the Master Voices (formerly The Collegiate Chorale) production of Dido and Aeneas was lovely. The bad news is that…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:34PMTuesday, April 26, 2016
The earnest and well-acted Echoes takes place in two times and places: Victorian England and Afghanistan, and present-day England and Syria. In both situations, a young woman has&n…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:22PMTuesday, April 5, 2016
From Art Times:Once upon a time, boys played the women’s roles in Shakespeare’s plays. Once upon a different time, Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor performed in blackface to great acclaim, and…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:58PMPerhaps the single most salient fact about theater is that it is ephemeral, evanescent. Even if you get to see a production 10 times, it eventually closes, and it's gone. Poof. But in some i…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:48PM 
