! well known senior citizens take on Beatrice and Benedick

Much Ado About Nothing - Our review of Vanessa Redgrave's and James Earl Jones''s Beatrice and Benedick is summed up with s Dogberry's "When the age is in, the wit is out." . . Read More

Our tally of the cost for anyone Daisey-daffyy enough to attend his marathon

We've yet to  meet anyone  who's  actually   gone  back to  Joe's  Pub  night after night after night to hear Mike Daisey  rant   in what  he  calls  free-standing  but  connected monologues.
Once  was enough for me.  And  once  was too much for my colleage, Simon Saltzman.  But
it id have him  add  up what  attending  the  entire marathon would  cost.   Clearly  it wouldn't   a member of  New York's  unemployed,  under employed,  or working  for minimum wages.

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All The Faces Of The Moon - Simon Saltzman visited the Daisey marathon monologues and added his comments to our earlier reviews. . . . Read More

A riveting new Glass Menagerie

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The Glass Menagerie - New York theater goers are being bombarded by a veritable blizzard of plays by William Shakespeare this season. But one of the most thrilling revivals is The Glass Menagerie by the contemporary American theater's own Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams. . . . R

A dark but absorbing and well acted Play by William Inge

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Natural Affection - This forgotten William Inge play is too overstuffed with relationship dysfunctions and plot complications. However, the T.A.C.T. production is so well staged and acted that it is indeed well worth seeing. It certainly kept me fully engaged throughout its two hours.. . . Read More

The all over the place bard is sidelined for h is sister

Shakespeare's Sister - This mash-up of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Marguerite Duras' La Vie Materielle is a dream of a dinner party where five women unpack their minds and hearts as they prepare a communal meal with unmistakable joie de vivre.. . .

The cheeky Elevator Repair Service takes on the Supreme Court

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Arguendo - Elevator Repair Service shifts from literature to the law for its unique style of using every word, including the pauses and uhumps, to transform it all into an often hilarious theater work . . . Read Mor

George Kelly's faded comedy resurrected by the Mint

New York Off-Broadway
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Philip Goes Forth - Ruiz shows us again that he knows how to put a strong imprint on a faded text Read More

Movie Star Romeo cycles on to Broadway stage

Romeo and Juliet - Leveaux, who has directed a number of Tony Award-winning revivals (Nine, , The Real Thing, Anna Christie, has done exceptionally well keeping Romeo and Juliet’s sympathies in proper balance and the play moving

The Simpson-powered Mr. Burns has me in between the thumbs up and downers. . .

New York Off-Broadway
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Mr. Burns, A Post Electric Play - Clever as this travelogue through over 80 years following a horrific apocalypse via the satiric cartoon series, The Simpsons is, it's going to have audiences divided between the extravagantly enthusiastic and the more exasparated than exhilarated naysayers, with the enthusiasts possibly having the edge.

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Film maker Ethan Coen's disappointingly contrived new play

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Women Or Nothing - I'm sorry to report that Ethan Coen's first full lenth play is annoyingly misconceived, egregiously contrived, unbelievable and unfunny. .

A delightfully entertaining Shaw revival--

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You Never Can Tell - If anyone can make Shaw's early play sparkle, David Staller's the man. And so he has done. This is a colorful production, rich in whimsy and musical movement that has some of the actors dancing (literally) even through the scene changes. . . Read

Ít's raining Shakespeare productions on and off the rialto. . .

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Shakespeare, Shakespeare Everywhere - his star-crossed lovers are on and off Broadway, so are Hamlet and the Macbeths . . . Read More

2 new off-Browaday reviews, both worth seeing

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The Old Friends - Horton Foote's many fans are in for quite a surprise. These old friends and their various relatives could easily be mistaken as kin to the greedy unhappy people in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. But not to worry. This is not copy-cat Williams or a misconceived departure from Foote's more gentle world, but two hours well spent . . . Read More

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Fetch Clay, Make Man - It has been a three-year journey from the McCarter Theater in Princeton to the New York Theater Workshop for Will Powers play Fetch Clay, Make Man, about the unlikely but nevertheless extraordinary bonding between boxing champion Muhammad Ali and former Hollywood star Stepin Fetchit. Read More

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29 days of ranting and venting with Mike Daisey

 
 Unless you're  daffy about Daisey,   a  sampling  of  this 29-monologue cycle   is more than enough. You can also save $25 a pop, plus  your tab for food and drink,  by  listening to the free podcast on Daisey's blog.

  All The Faces Of The Moon - Even if I were free to attend every evening of Mike Daisey's 29 performanced, I doubt I could have brought myself to sign on for more than two at most. As it turns out, much as I admire the man's showmanship and am dazzled by his "chutzpah" in undertaking this epic presentation, once, plus listening to parts of Moon's the available podcasts, was more than enough. . . Read More .

CurtainupNewLinks: We recommend The Recommendation at the Flea

CurtainupNewLinks: We recommend The Recommendation at the Flea: ...

We recommend The Recommendation at the Flea

The Recommendation - In an age in which Trayvon Martin and stop and frisk dominate national conversation, Jonathan Caren's play seems especially timely. . . . Read M

A need for a shrink links Mahler and Mugabe in 2 plays

ed in trendy Park Slope.. . . Read More .

Final Analysis - Otho Eskin's cast of already and still to be famous people from the arts, science and politics who interact in a typical Vienna coffee house circa 1910 is indeed fascinating but it makes for too many characters and issues for a 90-minute play. . . . Read More

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ch for our review when all officially open later this week). . . Read More

. Breakfast With Mugabe -an example of historical (or ahistorical) theater at its best: it thrives without the necessity of the historical context it's placed in

Matthew Friedman throws a theatrical dinner party in Park Slope

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Why We Left Brooklyn or The Dinner Party Play - How could any job make a move to Columbus, Ohio anything but purgatory for anyone who's lived in trendy Park Slope.. .

Our coveragerage of The Hill Town Plays

Ashville - Lucy Thurber's new play is being launched along with restaged production of four previous dramas under the umbrella title of The Hillside Plays. . . . Read More

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An interview with Lucy Thurber - shortly before the official opening of her simultaneously presented Hill Town Plays — 4 restagings and a new premiere (watch for our

Our DC critic likes the Signature production of the new-old musical

Miss Saigon - Still enormously entertaining, and with something to say about love and war. . . Read More

Curtainup talks about the Hill Town Plays with Lucy Thurber. . .

An interview with Lucy Thurber - shortly before the official opening of her simultaneously presented Hill Town Plays — 4 restagings and a new premiere (watch for our review when all officially open later this week). . . Read More