Fun Home
Arden Theater - F. Otto Haas Stage

Many plays have dealt with dysfunction, but the perspective is what makes Fun Home unique. It portrays a troubled family from the points of view of a child at different ages, and it combines this with the self-discovery of the young woman’s homosexuality. If actors or director underline any one of the themes, they risk upsetting the delicate balance — and the Arden’s artistic director, Terrence Nolen, maintains a symmetry. Of the three productions I’ve seen of Fun Home, this Arden staging is the most communicative.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Lydie Breeze Trilogy
Christ Church Neighborhood House

John Guare is known for his comedies Six Degrees of Separation and House of Blue Leaves. The playwright, however, considers a different work to be his masterpiece. Guare’s Lydie Breeze Trilogy has just been performed as a continuous entity for the first time by EgoPo Classic Theater in Philadelphia. Although these are three full-length plays, Philadelphia’s Barrymore committee agreed to judge Lydie Breeze as a single unit for its awards in October, and I’ll treat it that way here.

Steve Cohen
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Bad Jews
Odyssey Theater

“How religion poisons everything” is the sub-title of the late Christopher Hitchens’s “God is not Great,” his 2007 book about his intellectual journey toward a secular view of life based on science and religion. Hitchens’s title came to mind while I was watching Bad Jews, Joshua Harmon’s ferocious family drama, unfold at The Odyssey Theater. If ever there was a play that depicted religion’s malignant effect on the human race, Bad Jews is it.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
To Catch a Fish
Baird Hall

If this scenario weren't almost all true, you'd think David Mamet plotted it.

There's these three scruffy hustlers, you see—outlaw biker Dex, tattooed skateboard-bum Ike and Pam Grier-lookalike "G"—managing a pop-up dollar-shop outlet in Milwaukee's borderline-gentrified River North district.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Hear What's in the Heart
Next Act Theater

There’s much to enjoy in the autobiographical, Hear What’s In the Heart: An Italian Shoemaker’s Tale, in which Los Angeles-based actor/writer Steve Scionti brings to life eight members of his Sicilian-American family. This one-man, one-act show revolves around the life and death of Scionti’s grandfather, Angelo Morello.

According to the theater program notes, the first glimpses of the show came together in one of Scionti’s acting classes.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Saint Joan
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

In the 15th century, a young French country girl, inspired by saints' voices, persuades the socio-religious powers-that-be to allow her to lead the French army against the British occupation during the ongoing 100 Years War. No small feat for a 17-year-old girl in a patriarchal society She was called "The Maid," "Joan of Arc," and later, five centuries after her death, she was acknowledged as Saint Joan.

It is not a spoiler to say that the zealous teenage heretic warrior won the battle but lost her own war. She was captured, labeled a heretic and burned at the stake.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Blues in the Night
Lovelace Studio Theater

Like a shot of adrenalin, Blues in the Night gave me a real pick-me-up, a feeling of joy, hope, and delight. The two-hour tour through the jazz and blues songs of the 1920s and 30s, was first seen two decades ago at the Pasadena Playhouse when it was under the leadership of Sheldon Epps. Epps, who conceived and directed the show (which later won acclaim on Broadway and the West End), has revived it at The Wallis, with equally successful results. It wouldn’t surprise me if the revue ended up on Broadway again.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Randy Writes a Novel
Clurman Theater

Randy is a purple hand puppet who gives an 80-minute monologue from behind a table on stage, speaking educated Strine. It’s a stand-up comedy act called randy writes a novel. The premise is that he’s going to read to us from the first draft of his novel. He’s reluctant to read, and by way of diversion, he flies off on comic tangents.

The program credits the actor playing Randy as Randy, but between us, the comedian’s name is Heath McIvor. Presenting himself through a felt puppet puts a whole new complexion on his comedy.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Ragtime
Florida State University Center for the Performing Arts - Mertz Theater

What’s abbreviated in Asolo Rep’s production of Ragtime? Not the plot, music, or lyrics from the original Broadway production, but rather the number of the cast and the orchestra. Both may be smaller but they’re greatly talented. They pull off an undeniable tour de force.

As fans of “Ragtime” the book, the film, and the original staging know, the musical involves three segments of American society in the early 19th century. It traces the progress of their worlds and their intersection along with that of representative celebrities. Henry Ford, Booker T.

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, A
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts

It has been four long years since A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder received the Tony Award for Best Musical, but that seemed not to matter a whit to the packed house that flocked to Milwaukee’s Marcus Center for the Performing Arts on opening night to see its first performance here.

For musicals that have an extended run in Chicago—such as A Gentleman’s Guide—it typically takes months or years for musicals to make their way north to Milwaukee. It should be noted, however, that this same tour appeared in Madison, WI in October 2017.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Dance Nation
Playwrights Horizons - Peter Jay Sharp Theater

The title for Dance Nation, the latest offering from Playwrights Horizons, is a bit misleading. This isn’t really a play about dance, but rather, a look into the ambitions and emotions of young teenagers. They’re in a small group hoping to go to Nationals in Tampa. There, having gone through several ordeals at other venues, they’ll win the grand title. Why this is so important to them is revealed in a series of monologues and short scenes.

From this point, it gets pretty confusing.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Summer
Lunt-Fontanne Theater

The last ten minutes or so of Summer are absolute magic. The stage is lit up, everyone’s wearing a beautiful sparkly outfit, and the dance music flows. The great disco songs “Hot Stuff” and “Last Dance” are belted out by all three Donnas, and the whole company is onstage to join in. This is what we’re been waiting for from a show about “The Queen of Disco.”

Unfortunately, it’s the book of this musical that lets us down. Unlike Jersey Boys and On Your Feet, dialogue for Summer lags miserably. Bring back the music and the glitz!

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Madres, The
The Biograph

Don't be fooled by the convivial chat of the priest making a friendly visit to an elderly widow in the first scene of Teatro Vista’s production of Las Madres. Padre Juan's nostalgia for sentimental love songs and Senora Josefina's home-baked medialunes camouflages inquiries into treasonous activities, just as his hostess’s pride in her granddaughter Belen's accomplishments as a film student in Paris conceals her fear that the pregnant young newlywed is being detained in a government prison.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Memphis
Ruth Page Center for the Arts

The pantheon of musicals documenting the triumph of rock-and-roll as a multicultural phenomenon transcending global boundaries—a catalogue encompassing The Buddy Holly Story, Hairspray, Jersey Boys, Million Dollar Quartet and practically everything written by Jackie Taylor—has now been expanded to restore Dewey Phillips, Tennessee's real-life pioneering prophet, to his rightful place in a myth too long dominated by East Coast imitators Alan Freed and Dick Clark.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
May 2018
Escape to Margaritaville
Marquis Theater

If Broadway musicals were rated the way movies are, Escape to Margaritaville, the jukebox musical crafted around Jimmy Buffett songs, would be rated R. It features lots of beautiful beach bodies, lots and lots of drinking (in the audience as well as on stage) and an emphasis on meaningless sexual hook-ups.

The hero of the story, Tully (attractive Paul Alexander Nolan) the Buffett-figure, is all about casual relationships. His mantra is exemplified in the song, “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”

Elyse Trevers
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Lobby Hero
Helen Hayes Theater

Jeff is a “fuck up.” Kicked out of the Navy and in debt, he’s living in one room that he rents from his brother. For the last nine months, he’s been working as a security guard (not a doorman, which he clearly explains). He’s funny and garrulous and working the graveyard shift from 12-8 am. William, his boss (Brian Tyree Henry of TV’s “Atlanta”), calls Jeff a “joker.” He’s also the central character in the revival of Lobby Hero by Ken Lonergan at the Helen Hayes Theater. Jeff is somewhat lonely, so when anyone else shows up, he talks almost nonstop.

Elyse Trevers
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Fantasticks, The
Tenth Street Theater

When Broadway producers dream at night, one can perhaps imagine what sweeps through their thoughts: “A hit show!” It’s no surprise that some might envy the success enjoyed by The Fantasticks. It’s the only musical in U.S. history that can claim an Off-Broadway run of 42 years (not to mention the Off-Broadway revival, which ran from 2006-2017).

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Iceman Cometh, The
Bernard B. Jacobs Theater

It is 1912 on the seedy West Side of Manhattan where director George C. Wolfe's artistic staging of The Iceman Cometh presents the regulars at Harry Hope's saloon frozen in drunken stupors. They had been waiting for hours for Hickey to arrive and liven things up. Surely when Theodore Hickman (Hickey), a traveling salesman arrives, it will be as usual, drinks all around and lively stories from the road. But tonight Hickey is late and everyone is tired of waiting.

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Pygmalion
Sheen Center

Remember Pygmalion? It’s My Fair Lady without the Ascot Gavotte. If you share the English-speaking world’s fondness for George Bernard Shaw’s clever and witty version of the mythology, you will admit that his most adored comedy more than holds its own even without Lerner and Loewe’s “loverly” score, and that the cherished classic hold up beautifully even with a healthy dose of cross-dressing-double casting and an unorthodox, if expediently workable staging by the always adventurous Off Broadway Bedlam company.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Three Tall Women
Golden Theater

None of the disaffection for a series of Edward Albee’s plays that followed years of success and great acclaim was deemed relevant when Three Tall Women (premiered in Vienna in 1991) eventually opened in the U.S. at the Vineyard Theater in 1994 and featured memorable performances by Myra Carter and Marian Seldes. It re-awakened in us what we already knew: Albee is once again to be acknowledged as one of the best American playwrights of the 20th century with this play winning for him his third Pulitzer Prize.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Carousel
Imperial Theater

Nothing is going to change the fact that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Carousel is unrelentingly sentimental, occasionally maudlin and even at times corny. But when you futz around too much with this gloriously melodic 73-year-old musical drama, you are asking for trouble. In what turns out to be a misbegotten re-envisioning of it directed by Jack O’Brien and choreographed by Justin Peck, the classic musical fails almost irretrievably in its effort to be either an uplifting or wonderfully romantic experience.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Shakespeare Jubilee, A
Bram Goldsmith Theater

A Shakespeare Jubilee!, a one-night celebration of The Bard’s work, was recently mounted at The Wallis with 34 actors and singers filling the evening with excerpts from plays and sonnets that have become mainstays of the English language. The night, which was narrated by Ioan Gruffudd and Joely Fisher, also included “Songs for Shakespeare” by John Dankworth and Cleo Laine (sung by Sherry Williams) and an aria from the opera “Macbeth,” (sung by Oscar ZC. Zhang).

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Saint Joan
Samuel J. Friedman Theater

Condola Rashad is an African-American woman onstage with a company of men, most of them white. This works perfectly with the sense of isolation and uniqueness felt by Saint Joan. She is like no one else. A girl from a rural community, she feels compelled by the voices of Saint Margaret and Saint Catherine to drive the English from France, and have the dauphin (Adam Chanler-Berat) crowned at Rheims. At first, few believe her, but when they meet Joan, they must admit that she has something special.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Twelfth Night
Classic Stage Company

There is not a better way to celebrate the holidays than a visit to the Classic Stage Company where they are hosting the Fiasco Theater’s entertaining and very funny production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will. If you are wondering what play to introduce your child to the Bard right now, this one is it.

Every now and then there is that rare confluence of conception, acting, directing, and in this instance, a lot of extra songs and (with no apologies) silly cavorting that adds up to sheer pleasure for two and one half hours.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Angels in America
Neil Simon Theater

New York is the recipient of the stunning and superb revival of the two-part masterpiece Angels in America from London where Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play actually began a quarter century ago before it took Broadway by storm in 1993. Repeating their roles in this glorious new National Theater production are Nathan Lane as Roy Cohen and Andrew Garfield as Prior Walter. The king-size play is being presented as a unit with its two lengthy parts staged in consecutive evenings or with a matinee and evening option.

Simon Saltzman
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Always...Patsy Cline
Milwaukee Repertory Theater - Stackner Cabaret

The life of Patsy Cline, was brilliant and all too brief. Having survived two car crashes, at the age of 30 her small plane went down in bad weather while puddle hopping to a gig in Nashville. Against advice to stay the night the pilot, a member of her entourage, who was not trained in flying by instruments, insisted on taking off with tragic consequences.

Given the success of her career as a torchy, crossover country/pop artist, one may only imagine what might have been.

Charles Giuliano
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Travesties
American Airlines Theater

Tom Stoppard is one of the most polarizing figures in modern theater. Those who love the playwright call him a genius, a master of the English language, a rare wit. Those who hate him say he’s pretentious, boring, a magnet for all the members of the audience with a need to announce to one and all “I get it!

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Ameryka
Kirk Douglas Theater

Presented by Center Theater Group as part of its second annual Block Party festival, Ameryka digs deep into the twin history of the USA and Poland to make a bold statement about mankind’s struggle for democracy and freedom over the centuries.

Originally developed and produced  by the Critical Mass Performance Group (headed by Nancy Keystone) and brought back for this encore production by CTG, Ameryka is agit-prop theater at its best.  Nine actors, all of whom play multiple roles, impersonate such historical characters as Thomas Jefferson, Tadeusz Kosciuszko,

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Frost/Nixon
Redtwist Theater

"I shall be your fiercest adversary. The limelight can shine upon only one of us," proclaims the invisible foe on the eve of the decisive battle, his voice emerging from the darkness as the young warrior who will face him on the morrow listens in stunned trepidation.

This isn't Macbeth at Dunsinane or Richard III on Bosworth Field, however, nor will the duel commencing at dawn be swordplay to the death.

Mary Shen Barnidge
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Lyric Theater

No doubt about it: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a smash, a major event, a sure thing, which will run forever. How could it be any less? Potter fans are legion, and fiercely devoted to the lauded wizard and his magical world. The stats are undeniably impressive: 500 million books sold worldwide and nearly eight billion dollars brought in from the movies. $68 million was raised to put on the production, the most ever for a non-musical. The Lyric theater was refurbished for the expected infinite run to the tune of $33 million.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Soul Man
WBBT Theater

As a historical jukebox musical, Soul Man brings us lessons of the part soul music played in national political and social movements through the developmental life of hip-hop and effects on current hit music.  With Nate Jacobs and his Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe as the teachers, “school” is both dynamic and engaging.

The set-up:  lively young Breezy Wheezy (Derric Gobourne, Jr.) brings his golden-clad self into the studio of media star Diamond (experienced singer and speaker Ariel Blue).

Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Love Trade
La MaMa

The pre-show set of The Hess Collective’s production of Elizabeth Hess’ play Love Trade, at La MaMa, is stunning: when we enter the theater, we see something shrouded under white gauze, in a white spotlight, with dozens of white balloons on the floor, all on an otherwise unadorned stage with a black floor and backdrop. When the show begins, that something begins to move and gradually reveals itself to be actress, but she removes the gauze so subtly (by the lower layers, I think) that the revelation is gradual.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
It Came from Beyond
St. Luke's Theater

What we do without science fiction? It keeps our imagination sharp even when it’s not on-the-mark predictive. And we can see the imaginative value even in the sci-fi of the past.

It Came from Beyond is a musical frolic through the sci-fi of the 1950’s, produced by John Lant, Cornell Christian and ICFB Productions, at St. Luke’s Theater. It’s not so much a send-up as a comic musical interpretation, with a book by Cornell Christianson and with music and lyrics by Stephen M. Schwartz and Norman E. Thalheimer.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Miss You Like Hell
Public Theater

Miss You Like Hell, at The Public Theater, is topical and timely, a musical about a Mexican resident of the US who’s requesting a stay of deportation (it’s also called a “cancellation of removal,” as if the individual were an object). But the play presents in its foreground not a political issue but a genuine personal drama. If it’s uneven, its concept is solid.

The character with the looming deportation hearing in Los Angeles is Beatriz.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Martyrs
La MaMa

Romana Soutus’s play Martyrs, at La MaMa, presents nine women in a room with two king-sized beds and a garish sort of expressionist Madonna on the wall. The walls are chicken wire, like a cage.

This is a secluded cult, with three leaders whom the program calls cats, and six followers whom the program calls kittens. They’re all waiting be “lifted,” living in the eternal present. “There’s no before. There’s only now,” one says.

Steve Capra
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Elephant Man, The
Crighton Theater

Fans of the historic Crighton Theater in Conroe, Texas, are well-acquainted with the high-quality work of its resident company, Stage Right Productions, all under the guidance of producers, Carolyn & Steven Wong. The company often produces crowd-pleasing comedies and musicals, but that is not always the case. Consider the present exception to that rule with the current run of Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man. Winner of the 1979 Tony Award for Best Play, this dark and very serious play is about as far from musical comedy as dramatic theatre can take us.

David Dow Bentley
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
My Fair Lady
Lincoln Center - Vivian Beaumont Theater

No doubt about it, Lauren Ambrose is the fairest of them all. The new production of My Fair Lady at Lincoln Center sparkles with a warmth and vivacity that make this beloved classic seem fresh again. As Eliza Doolittle, Ambrose is the dynamic center of the piece, her peaches and cream complexion and bright ginger hair the outward manifestation of her passion and verve. The stage seems to light up with her presence, and in her caramel ball gown, she is positively dazzling. Long admired for her acting, her singing voice is a pure delight.

Michall Jeffers
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
My Son the Waiter
Colony Theater

Brad Zimmerman’s My Son the Waiter is stand-up comedy, not a proper play. But it’s being presented in a theatre, not a nightclub or auditorium, so I suppose it qualifies for review in these pages.

Willard Manus
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Songs for a New World
Redeemer Lutheran Church

As director Tim Backes so aptly notes in the program for Songs for a New World, “the unknown can be frightening.” Thankfully, those who braved the unknown to see this latest production by newish theater company All-In Production were in for a rare experience.

Songs for a New World is somewhat of a revue by Jason Robert Brown. This was Brown’s first show; it debuted in 1995 at the Off-Broadway WPA Theater. The show is a loosely knit assemblage of about 15 songs that Brown had composed for other shows and projects.

Anne Siegel
Date Reviewed:
April 2018
Sting, The
Paper Mill Playhouse

Brace yourself Broadway! A Big Brawny Musical may be heading your way.

Jeannie Lieberman
Date Reviewed:
April 2018

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