Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Part of the yearly Broadway Close Up series, Bound for Broadway presents songs from new musicals that may or may not actually be "bound for Broadway" (only time will tell). Past shows t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:43PMSaturday, October 10, 2015
Cloud Nine, Caryl Churchill's brilliant riff on sexual politics, colonialism, identity, and love, is receiving an excellent revival at the Atlantic, directed with a sure hand by James Macdon…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:33PMSaturday, September 26, 2015
Harold Chapin's The New Morality, the slight but delightful piece from 1915 currently on view at The Mint, resembles an Oscar Wilde play if Wilde wrote about (almost) real people.Brenda…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:38PMFriday, September 25, 2015
In a long-needed piece of housekeeping, we have updated our list of Theatre Links in the right-hand column of this blog (scroll down). If you'd like us to add your theatre blog/website to ou…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:05PMTuesday, September 22, 2015
There are two ways of looking at the anniversary reading of Carrie Hamilton and Carol Burnett's Hollywood Arms at Merkin Hall last night. As an event, it was a huge success. Just g…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:38PMFriday, September 11, 2015
I'm pleased to announce that I now have the honor of being the theatre writer for Art Times, where I will write essays most months. Here's a link to the latest issue. And here's a link …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:15PMThursday, September 10, 2015
At first glance, The Acting Company's production of Desire would seem to be an evening of works by Tennessee Williams. After all, the six one-acts are ostensibly based on his short stories, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:09PMWednesday, September 2, 2015
Ivy Meadows (nee Olive Ziegwart) is an actress by night and a P.I. in training by day. Her current evening gig is The Sound of Murder, a Cabaret-Sound of Music mashup that I'd definitel…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:52AMThursday, August 20, 2015
In her absorbing new play, John (directed by frequent collaborator Sam Gold), Annie Baker shows that there are many ways to be haunted and many ways to be in touch with the univers…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:28AMWednesday, August 19, 2015
I cannot predict that Schooled will be the breakout hit of this year's Fringe, the vagaries of theatre being what they are. However, I can say that it should be. Schooled is just this side o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:22PMTwo brothers come into a deserted room strewn with debris. Elliot is clearly the leader, smart and full of authority. Darren is the ne'er-do-well, slow-witted and stoned. They are preparing …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:22PMTuesday, August 18, 2015
On hearing the phrase "political theatre," most of us think of painful shows discussing life-or-death issues, often with unhappy endings. (Anyway, that's what I think of, and not without rea…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:08AMFriday, August 14, 2015
The character of Rose in Gypsy, the masterpiece by Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), and Arthur Laurents (book), is the quintessence of larger-than-life. She's a force of n…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:04PMSaturday, July 25, 2015
Pound, the fabulous Marga Gomez's satirical exploration of the depiction of lesbians in old movies, has only one more performance (Dixon Place, on July 25, 2015). If you have any interest in…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:12AMThursday, July 23, 2015
At one point in Yussef El Guindi's brilliantly surprising play Threesome, Leila (Alia Attallah), author of a book on sexual and racial politics, says to the man about to photograph her …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:42AMTuesday, July 21, 2015
I believe this is the entire list.OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLEAnd If You Lose Your Way, or A Food Odyssey, Lauren Rayner ProdutionsMaha Chehlaoui, Nick Choksi, Damon Daunno, Rach…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:07PMWell-done political theatre can be invigorating, inspiring, and infuriating in the best way. Not-so-well-done political theatre, however, can be pretty tedious, as shown by the pair of one a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:07PMFriday, July 10, 2015
In the first act of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, Winnie is buried up to her waist in a large mound of barren earth. In the second act, she is buried up to her neck. The mound of earth can be…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:21AMFriday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
In Clubbed Thumb's production of Jaclyn Backhaus's extraordinary Men on Boats, perfectly directed by Will Davis, it is 1869, and ten men are canoeing down the Colorado River in search o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:12AMTuesday, June 16, 2015
Here is how My Perfect Mind is described in press materials and on the 59e59 website:Petherbridge, HunterPhoto: Manuel HarlanAcclaimed classical actor and two-time Tony Award nominee Ed…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:52AMSaturday, June 13, 2015
The Qualms, by Bruce Norris, focuses on a bunch of friends who get together periodically to have sex with one another in twos and threes. They are mellow, sure of what they want, and loving.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:51PMWednesday, June 10, 2015
Tech rehearsals occur in the days immediately preceding actual performances. They allow the set, lighting, and sound people, along with the stage management team, to practice, polish, and so…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:51PMMonday, June 8, 2015
This post discusses the accuracy of the predictions we made here at Show Showdown. Suffice to say that none of us should leave our day job and go into fortune-telling. Mind you, we did all g…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:04PMMonday, June 1, 2015
In many ways, it's a familiar story. An adult child continues to care for her elderly parent despite never receiving simple acknowledgement and acceptance of who she is. The adult child migh…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58AMFriday, May 29, 2015
What does it mean to be a "nice girl"? And is it really a positive label? In Melissa Ross's Nice Girl at the Labyrinth, Jo (the smart and subtle Diane Davis) doesn't feel nice at all. S…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:38AMWednesday, May 27, 2015
The King and I is an odd classic. Full of wonderful songs, it features a dumb plot with a cutesy approach to female enslavement, a condescending view of Siamese culture, unconvincing sc…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:33AMMonday, May 25, 2015
Reviewer Wendy Caster discusses why she is now specifying where she sat--and how much she paid to sit there--in her reviews.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PMExtremely entertaining, breathtakingly imaginative, and quite funny (especially in the second act).
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PMStageGrade provides an important public service for New York theatre-goers: it assembles reviews of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway shows.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PMUntil this production, Abe Burrows' Cactus Flower had not had a major New York revival. That was a good thing.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:58PM 
