Theater
2746 results
Page 226
"The Scottsboro Boys' on Broadway (1st review)
Two cheers for the minstrel show
Those Broadway pickets who object to the minstrel format of The Scottsboro Boys miss the point. This musical tells a disturbing story of racism through a device that's racially charged, and also very entertaining.
Articles
5 minute read
Lantern Theater's "Uncle Vanya' (2nd review)
The landed gentry, awaiting extinction
Chekhov's Uncle Vanya is, like his other works on turn-of-the-20th-Century Russia, a comedy that breaks the heart. It's well served in the Lantern Theater's current production.
Articles
8 minute read
F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Gatz' in New York
The power of many, many, many words
The entire Great Gatsby, read word for word on stage aloud, in the course of seven hours plus a dinner break? Yes— and it's one of the most valiant coups de théâtre I've ever seen: a stunning theatrical feat of virtuosity and sheer audacity.
Articles
5 minute read
Lantern Theater's "Uncle Vanya' (1st review)
Empty lives, up very close and personal
Lantern Theater's production of Uncle Vanya is unusually intimate, shining more focus than usual on the unheralded characters in Chekhov's tragicomedy of dissolute gentry. The cast rises to the challenge.
Articles
4 minute read
Enda Walsh's "Penelope' in Brooklyn
Odysseus is coming, and, boy, is he steamed
In this existential tragic burlesque, the powerhouse young Irish playwright Enda Walsh redefines the unnamed suitors of Homer's Odyssey. Here they emerge as minor, vile characters— men we never even thought about until now.
Articles
3 minute read
Beau Willimon's "Spirit Control' in New York
One moment that changes everything
In Spirit Control, the high drama of an airport tower fades as a controller picks up the pieces years later. He's haunted by a tragedy; I was haunted by the aftermath.
Articles
3 minute read
Lee Hall's "Pitmen Painters' on Broadway (2nd review)
Creativity in the mines
In Lee Hall's The Pitmen Painters, paintings are the stars of the play, and seemingly pedantic dialogue about the meaning of art offers a window into men's souls.
Articles
3 minute read
Should actors address the audience?
Isherwood's complaint, or: One slight problem with 'natural' theater
The New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood recently decried the spread of “direct address”— in which actors speak directly to the audience rather than “naturally” to each other. So much for Euripides, Shakespeare, Beckett, Brecht and Thornton Wilder. Besides, is "natural" theater really natural?
Articles
5 minute read
"Threepenny Opera' at the Arden
What did Mack the Knife really want?
Although virtually all cultured people are familiar with The Threepenny Opera, the play remains elusive. Contrary to conventional belief, it's not about the plight of the poor. It's about the plight of the poor performers.
Articles
3 minute read
Jennifer Haley's "Neighborhood 3'
Suburbia as The Twilight Zone
In Jennifer Haley's Neighborhood 3, all the world's a video game, and the suburban teenagers merely avatars and zombies. It's a clever but superficial idea: The reality of teenage video gaming is more complicated and less frightening.
Articles
4 minute read