Reviews

"Sam Cooke: Where You Been Baby?"
If you think race relations in America have changed for the better, think again. The Tea Party, FOX News, prison populations and Arizona's new draconian immigration laws are proofs there's a still long way to go. Yes we have an African-American President, but by most people's standards he's more Ivy League white lawyer than black soul brother. By Larry Litt.

"All Singin' All Dancin'"
The Town Hall's fourth annual Summer Broadway Festival ended Monday, July 26 with a graceful and joyful concert directed by Jeffry Denman ("Yank!"), and written and hosted by Scott Seigel. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Manhattan Transfer"
Martin Zuckerman, a former mathematics professor at City College, has adapted John Do Passos's novel "Manhattan Transfer" into a play that features several of Dos Passos's original plotlines. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Searching for Soula"
"Searching for Soula" is an exploration of the life and loves of a feisty young lady named Soula and several of her friends and relatives, as told by Irena, her childhood friend from Astoria. By Paulanne Simmons.

Diverse City Theater Company's Pearl Project Theater Festival
Diverse City Theater Company's Pearl Project Theater Festival is presenting four plays by Filipino playwrights running in repertory. Both series pair a one-act with a full-length play: "Quarter Century Baby" and "Resurrection" in the Red Series, and "The Encounter" and "Something Blue" in the Blue Series. By Paulanne Simmons.

"FUHGEddABOUDIT"
"FUHGEddABOUDIT" plays on just about every stereotype of Italian and Jewish culture beloved to New Yorkers. But director Renee Lynette Ferrara has so much fun with these characters that the young audience at whom much of the humor is aimed probably won't notice. By Paulanne Simmons.

"The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik, Deep Sea Explorer"
Theatrical innovator" is possibly an epithet that Mr. Tim Watts might find too burdensome, but it certainly seems to fit him like a pair of made-to-order gloves. Seamlessly melding live performance, song, puppetry, and animation to a fantastic tale of woe and hope, this Australian import elicited surprise, cheers, and hearty applause during his five performances at the 4th Annual Undergroundzero Festival. By Brandon Judell.

"The National Diet of Japan" and "L.A. Party"
Food on the American stage isn't what it used to be, if the offerings at undergroundzero are any indicator. In place of fully realized restaurants, family dinners with actual edibles, representations of privation or plenty, foodie snobbery, fish and vegetables to be juggled, or audience as consumers of the comestibles, we now have food as index of existential anxiety. Or maybe just anxiety. By Dorothy Chansky.

"Batman & Robin In The Boogie Down"
Nominated for a NAACP Theatre Award for Best Play in Los Angeles, "Batman & Robin In The Boogie Down," Juliette Jeffers's autobiographical one woman show, which she both wrote and acts in, took seven long years to reach New York City. Given the intense and deeply humane story that Jeffers recreates on stage - with equal amounts of humor and pathos – it took four times that amount of time, as Jeffers relates in the play, for her to come to terms, to make peace, so to speak – if such a thing is possible - with all of the life-changing events in her life. By Edward Rubin.

"Everyday Rapture"
I'm usually suspicious about people who do plays about themselves. But this autobiographical cabaret was a lot better than I expected. Sherie Rene Scott is certainly very self-involved, perhaps par for the course among performers, but she's also got something interesting to say and, directed by Michael Mayer, an appealing way of saying it. By Lucy Komisar.

"Fences" in 2010
What happens when the victim becomes the victimizer? When a man's spirit is so thwarted that he turns hard in his soul and becomes so self-centered that he can't love or care for anyone else? It's the message of August Wilson's tough 1983 play set in the late fifties that attempts to explain the dysfunctional working class black men who were being studied to death. By Lucy Komisar.

"Nunsense"
Twenty years have passed since I last saw Dan Goggin's musical comedy homage to Catholic sisterhood "Nunsense." Since 1985 "Nunsense" has wildly excited audiences with songs and jokes about the secret inner lives and manipulations of an order of habit wearing nuns. They're on a money raising mission from God to avoid Health Department closure of their convent. The most talented sisters are producing a show to raise this money. Sound familiar? By Larry Litt.

"Red."
Can an art lecture in the form of a theater piece push you to the edge of your seat? This rich, engrossing play by John Logan does! Painter Mark Rothko's inflated sense of self collides with the challenges of youth's new visions in Logan's fascinating pas de deux about the meaning of art and its indelible connection to commerce. By Lucy Komisar.

"Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson"
"Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" by Alex Timbers is a stunning satirical revisionist history of America's 7th president Andrew Jackson as a genocidal Indian killer. It's done in a rock idiom that takes the edge off and makes him seem almost a man of his time as well as/rather than a political murderer. But with some present day vernacular, it takes on immediacy. It's a commentary on the past and also on the present day politics of state killing that is rare in its gut-wrenching toughness. By Lucy Komisar.

"Can You Hear Their Voices?"
"Not since the Great Depression" has practically become a brand for today's economic climate. As if. Peculiar Works Project's heartfelt and appealing production of the 1931 "Can You Hear Their Voices?" revives a then up-to-the-minute portrait of the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich against a backdrop of both economic and natural disaster. Things were different in the days before entities like FEMA, food stamps, disability insurance, social security, or FDIC were even gleams in their progenitors' eyes. By Dorothy Chansky.

"Sondheim on Sondheim"
A musical/documentary may be a new genre and this one, created and directed by Stephen Sondheim's longtime collaborator James Lapine, works smartly and engagingly to provide a tour through the life and works of the master songwriter. The man who is known for sustained peaks of imagination comes to life through a very imaginative combination of video and musical numbers, with an appealing cast led by Vanessa Williams and Tom Wopat. By Lucy Komisar.

"Magus"
British university student theater societies are renowned for their sketch and parody performances. Justly famous "Monty Python's Flying Circus" started out as a college troupe, continuing on as we know to universal comedic brilliance. Playwright/director/actor Carey Harrison brings this rarely seen tradition to America at the historic Byrdcliffe Theater in Woodstock with "Magus" a tragicomedy of broad literary historical proportions. Its conceit is that Franz Kafka is dreaming of historical literary and political figures that somehow influence him and his sister Ottla in the 20th Century. By Larry Litt.

"A Little Night Music"
This almost tongue-in-cheek celebration of sex would imply that passion begets foolishness, especially among men. As we watch the absurdly shifting liaisons and desires among the mostly upper class protagonists, we understand the genesis of the play's famous song performed by the actress Desirée (Catherine Zeta-Jones), "Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here." By Lucy Komisar.

"Peter Pan" at Paper Mill Playhouse
"Peter Pan" has everything young people need to feed their imaginations: Indians, pirates, children without their parents, swordfights and most importantly, the triumph of good over evil. By Paulanne Simmons.

Gordon Edelstein's "Glass Menagerie" at the Roundabout
Dreariness is the design motif of Gordon Edelstein's persuasive staging of Tennessee Williams' memory play about a family trapped in unhappiness and illusion. Dreary dark wallpaper hovers over the single bed with a rose spread in the hotel room that the "writer", Tom (Williams' alter ego), inhabits. The same claustrophobic space becomes the rooms he shared with his mother Amanda and sister Laura. In Edelstein's production, you know from the beginning that dark events will follow the dark décor. By Lucy Komisar.

"Restoration" with Claudia Shear
Claudia Shear stars in her own play, "Restoration," about a Brooklyn art restorer who is commissioned to refurbish the famed "David," which is somewhat the worse for wear in its home in Florence's Galleria dell' Accademia. By Paulanne Simmons.

"The Forest"
A table is set with bread and cakes, back-dropped by a forest created from a jumble of cross-hatched planks painted and splotched to suggest leaves. (Sets by Santo Loquasto.) A servant is angry at the housekeeper who enters the space without warning. "Do we barge in on you?" Class stratification and conflicts ripple through this richly comic production of Alexander Ostrovsky's satire of a Russian aristocracy high on self-importance and low on cash. By Lucy Komisar.

"Gabriel"
Moira Buffini's "Gabriel" is definitely one of the finest examples of World War II drama this reviewer has seen in a long time. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Mark Twain's Last Stand"
If Mark Twain is running for United States President then this one man play, starring very capable Twain interpreter Alan Kitty, is his stump speech for us undecided voters. Looking very much like Twain, including his twinkling eyes, Kitty tours us around the mind of a professional storyteller whose uncompromising wit rises to every occasion. Kitty's Twain is reminding us that Americans always enjoyed a good story well told in the English tradition. At one point Kitty makes it clear that Twain knew his stories were derivative, but the speakers take and tone are the attraction. By Larry Litt.

"Dr. Knock, or The Triumph of Medicine"
For some, the medical profession is the highest calling a person can follow. For others it is filled with quacks who are more concerned with making money than curing the sick. It is the latter who will most appreciate Jules Romains' enormously funny "Dr. Knock, or The Triumph of Medicine." By Paulanne Simmons.

"Decades Apart: Reflections of Three Gay Men"
Rick Pulos, who wrote, designed and performs "Decades Apart: Reflections of Three Gay Men," is a talented young man who has studied film and theater at Yale University and already has one published play under his belt. His show mixes music, video and live performance to capture significant moments in the lives of three gay men. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Sondheim on Sondheim"
There is no doubt that lyricist and composer Stephen Sondheim, an acquired and rarified taste – not unlike that of Phillip Glass, Gilbert & Sullivan and raw oysters with champagne - is both a genius and a national treasure. This alone is more than enough to justify Roundabout Theatre Company's current production of "Sondheim on Sondheim." Add to this that Sondheim just happens to be celebrating his eightieth birthday and you have a third reason – and three is a charm - to bring a survey of his work to the stage. Unless it is extended, three is also the number of months that "Sondheim on Sondheim" will be up and running at Studio 54. By Ed Rubin.

"A Behanding in Spokane"
Martin McDonagh takes weird to new levels in this ultimate shaggy dog story. It's bizarre and funny and if you suspend belief and don't take it too seriously, you will have a good time. It seems that a 17-year-old kid was playing catch in Spokane, Washington, when six hillbillies dragged him to the railroad tracks, forced his hand on the rail and watched while a train sped by and sliced it off. Then they used it to wave him good-bye. He, Carmichael (Christopher Walken), decided if he didn't die he would retrieve his hand and pay them back. He has spent the ensuing 47 years doing just that. By Lucy Komisar.

"The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams"
Barbara Kahn's new play, "The Spring and Fall of Eve Adams," recounts the true story of an extraordinary woman who was a victim of homophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria that ultimately led to her death at the hands of the Nazis. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Ovo"
There is nothing to compare with a good Cirque du Soleil show: the continuous live music, the lights, the astonishingly innovative costumes, the colors, the acrobats and dancers. It's like entering a dream where you can do anything, twirl on a silk rope from the rafters of the big top, juggle fire, leap from trapeze to trapeze, or effortlessly scale a wall. Cirque is about human possibilities and daring. It's about team work and trust. Loss and discovery. And sometimes it's about love. By Glenda Frank.

"Uncle Vanya"
Beautiful and bored, Elena, the young wife of an elderly professor, has cast a spell on the denizens of the Serebriakov country house. Everyone is suddenly awake, filled with longings and dreams. Old family rivalries only inflame the discontent. And even she, an ice queen, is touched. Uncle Vanya, driven by passion, tries to resolve matters with a revolver, yet even point blank he misses. By Glenda Frank.

"The Addams Family"
From the opening song, "When You're an Addams" to the closing, "Move Toward the Darkness," "The Addams Family" is a nonstop festival of exuberant joy. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Million Dollar Quartet"
"Million Dollar Quartet" is a chance 1956 gathering of country and rock innovators Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis at a Memphis recording studio. Fans will like the stars' doubles' performances of the songs that made them famous. And this jukebox musical jumps off the charts whenever Levi Kreis, who plays Jerry Lee Lewis, dominates the stage with his wild jazzy piano playing and furious rock lyrics. By Lucy Komisar.

"Love is my sin."
Creating a richness in their arrangement that adds to the beauty of each poem, director Peter Brook has ordered 31 Shakespearean sonnets, dramatically recited by Natasha Parry and Michael Pennington, to create a striking theater piece. It elegantly expresses love as it consumes lovers in the highs and lows of their relationships and into their later years. The poems are grouped to praise love that lasts through time; the pain of separation; the torments of jealousy, self-deception, and guilt; and the sorrows of older age. By Lucy Komisar.

"Looped"
Valerie Harper channels Tallulah Bankhead. Her acting is so on the mark, so mesmerizing, that you would swear that the 30s stage and screen actress had come back to live. Her wit, biting and risqué; her intelligence, sharp; her vulgarity, in your face, her talent opulent makes you wish you had lived in her time. The device of Matthew Lombardo's play is that she's been called to an audio studio to record a bit of film dialogue that got mangled in the screen cut. That's called doing a loop. But Tallulah seems a big looped herself as she gives editor Danny (Brian Hutchison) a frustrating bout of dealing with the grande dame. Director Rob Ruggiero deserves praise for turning a long moment into a fascinating two hours. By Lucy Komisar.

The Miracle Worker
Helen (Abigail Breslin) is 10, a wild child, throwing tantrums, screaming. Annie (Alison Pill) is 20, saucy and opinionated. She says, "The only time I have trouble is when I'm right" which is "so often." Both of them are whip-smart as well as strong-minded, and William Gibson's 1985 play tells the fascinating story of how teacher Annie Sullivan got Helen Keller, deaf and blind since infancy, to understand, to touch-sign, and to express herself so brilliantly that she became a world-famous traveler and lecturer.

Ching Chong Chinamen
"Ching Chong Chinamen" by Lauren Yee, the current production at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, is ideal spring fare. It's a clever farce about assimilation, disgruntled teens, an empty nest mom, Princeton, and competitive dancing. It wastes no time getting down to the jokes, absurdities and bizarre nature of life in America, told through the eyes of an Asian-American family. And thanks to the spirited direction by May Adrales, the pace does not slacken. This is one of the best -- and funniest -- productions of the off-off season, a don't miss. By Glenda Frank.

The Orphans' Home Cycle
"The Orphans' Home Cycle," Horton Foote's story of a young boy growing to manhood in rural Texas in the early decades of the last century, is so gripping, and elegantly performed, that it's hard to acknowledge that the mundane events of family interactions, marriage, divorce, illness and death in the extended Robideaux clan are in themselves understated and sometimes almost without great drama. In a grand work divided into three plays of an hour each, beginning 1902 and with photographic backdrops, Foote has brilliantly etched the personal and economic details of Horace Robideaux' life, beginning when he was 12 and his father, a lawyer of some prominence, died from drink. The work proceeds to his struggles as a youth rejected by his mother, a young man facing economic reversals and difficulties with women, and finally to the challenges of marriage and family life. By Lucy Komisar.

T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party" gets powerful staging by Actors Company Theatre
"The Cocktail Party." This is not the kind of black tie London cocktail party that Noel Coward was wont to attend. There may be champagne poured and secret infidelities going on, but the darkness that bubbles up out of those glasses reminds one of Albee or Pinter. The Actors Company Theatre has mounted a striking production of T.S. Eliot's 1950 play that one won't soon forget. By Lucy Komisar.

Bette Bourne is back in "A Life In Three Acts"
Like oysters, caviar, absinthe and Proust, London based actor and gay icon Bette Bourne, an acquired taste for many, and an addiction for those super-sensitive, aesthetically clued-in denizens living and working below 14th street, is gloriously back in town. He is holding royal court, as only a full-fledged queen can do, at St Anne’s Warehouse in Dumbo. This time around Bourn is not mouthing other people’s words, or for that matter playing a character out of a play, but presenting a partially, self-scripted, loosely assembled, bio-epic, walk-thru of his life, conducted in interview format, by English playwright Mark Ravenhill, also a writer and director of this "Evening with Bette Bourne." By Ed Rubin.

Three views of "The Scottsboro Boys
Dorothy Chansky writes, "When the Theatre Guild produced John Wexley's play 'They Shall Not Die' on Broadway in 1934, critic Burns Mantle called it a 'propaganda play,' noting that it 'suffers from . . . overstatement' but has an exposition 'devoted to an unadulterated and brutalized realism.' Some of the same could be said about 'The Scottsboro Boys,' a new musical with lyrics and music John Kander and Fred Ebb and book by David Thompson, and based on the same gross miscarriage of justice that spawned its dramatic predecessor. We present her review together with two other views: by our critics Lucy Komisar and Paulanne Simmons.

"Equivocation"
In "Equivocation," Cain imagines what might have happened if King James I had asked Shakespeare to write a play about the failed attempt to blow up parliament known as the Gunpowder Plot. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Clybourne Park"
Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris is the feel-good play of the season. One does not leave this satire of race relations uplifted but giddy from having laughed spontaneously and hard. By Alexander Harrington.

"A View From the Bridge"
Arthur Miller's story of the betrayal that tears apart a longshore family in Brooklyn was a metaphor for the treachery of the people who "named names" in the anti-communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Miller was particularly angry at director Elia Kazan, with whom he had worked. In 1956, Miller was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee and cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to identify writers he had met at one of two communist writers' meetings he had attended years before. That same year, "A View From the Bridge" opened on Broadway. By Lucy Komisar.

"Time Stands Still."
Donald Margulies's powerful and moving play dissects the professional and psychological passion of a photographer who covers the horrors of wars, famine, and genocide. "Time stands still" represents the moment when she presses the shutter button and sees the world only through the view finder. Time stops, sound cuts out; her experience is just what is taking place in the rectangle. There is an objectifying and separation from reality. And for Sarah Goodwin (Laura Linney) it's the only moment in life that counts. By Lucy Komisar.

"Present Laughter"
Garry Essendine (Victor Garber), who has the sense of a flighty youth, is a self-absorbed actor of 54. He is wont to shave a decade or so off his life, especially when he is playing up to pretty young women. Noel Coward's semi-autobiographical comedy is at times amusing – it is meant to be a send-up of the actor and his entourage -- but it's nowhere near as clever as Coward can be. And the production by director Nicholas Martin lacks sparkle. By Lucy Komisar.

"River"
"What I want to do always is to get a collection of songs that take people on a journey and bring them somewhere they didn't expect to end up and leave them smiling and happy and having touched something." (Barb Jungr) By Paulanne Simmons.

"Clybourne Park"
Taking off from Clybourne Park, to where Lorraine Hansbury's black family moved in "A Raisin in the Sun," Bruce Norris has written a clever, pointed comedy, acted by a superb cast under the well paced direction of Pam MacKinnon, that plumbs the depths of racism to see how it's changed from the blatant late 50s to the more subtle present. By Lucy Komisar.

"West Side Story"
The free-floating anger exuded by the "Jets" and "Sharks" as they clash under and leap onto fire escapes is combustible. Any reason for the gangs' free-floating hostility? Well, when Officer Krupke (Lee Sellars) arrives in the neighborhood, along the Hudson River on the Upper West Side of New York City, he slams one kid in the stomach with a Billy club. Lt. Schrank (Steve Bassett) comes into a local drugstore and insults the Puerto Ricans as migrant scum. The sociological stage is set. There's nothing dated about Arthur Laurents' revival of his own "West Side Story." This American theater classic is another proof that the best, most enduring musicals (and plays) combine personal stories with political ones. By Lucy Komisar.

"The Jackie Look"
The Jackie Look, Finley's latest outing, part play, part web tour, part lecture, and fully didactic, by the very nature of its author's complex ideas, and the structure of her performance, which asks the audience to switch gears, as Finley changes her methods of dispensing information from performance to lecturing and back to performance, is Finley's most intellectually challenging performance piece to date. By Edward Rubin.

"Hair" is simplistic politics but a joyous celebration of the 60s counterculture
My guest at "Hair" was an old friend who had been a leader of the 1968 protest movement in Germany. As we left the theater, he shook his head. He said, "We were much more political." That said, and history corrected, Diane Paulus's revival of the 1968 musical now on Broadway captures the mood of part of a generation of young people (a minority of their contemporaries) that helped change the culture. By Lucy Komisar.

"Lear" at Soho Rep
In Lear, Young Jean Lee sets characters from what many consider to be the most devastating of tragedies to similar navel-gazing. As the younger generation of Shakespeare's play sits around an ornate Tudor throne room wearing gorgeous Tudor clothes, which leave no doubt that they are well-healed royals and nobles, Edmund the bastard worries that he is a bad person because he sees everyone as fat, while Goneril concurs that it is, indeed, evil to imagine that people who are not fat have such an unspeakable flaw. Goneril is also repulsed by the skin of old people. Regan suggests that Edmund try Buddhism. Edgar is frustrated to the point of rage that people take it for granted that he will be decent, reliable, and responsible.

"Fanny" Brings Romance to City Center
Set in the seaport French city of Marseilles, "Fanny" is a romantic tale about a young woman, Fanny, who falls in love with Cesar’s son, the sea-struck Marius (James Snyder), who sets sail one day, leaving Fanny pregnant after a night of lovemaking. While Marius is away, his father disowns him and agrees to have Fanny (who is under pressure from her mother, Honorine [Priscilla Lopez]) marry the widowed Panisse. The plan is to have the childless Panisse raise Fanny and Marius’s son as his own. Cesar becomes the godfather and the child will inherit all the money from both families. For those who are willing to suspend disbelief and shelve scorn for a short while, Fanny is pure delight.

"Venus in Fur"
In David Ives' ingeniously clever play, a feminist avenger turns the tables on a playwright conducting auditions for a work based on "Venus in Furs," a novel of sexual domination and submission by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the 19th-century Austrian writer. An actress arrives in an audition studio. She's wearing a black leather skirt and tight black lacey underwear top, stiletto-heeled boots, and a silver-studded dog-collar. She's not on the audition list. But she persuades the playwright to let her read, and suddenly she is a 19th-century Austrian aristocrat, charming, articulate, and outrageous in the white flouncy dress she pulls over her grunge-wear. This play plumbs men's psychological connections between sex and power and their view of women. By Lucy Komisar.

"The Garage"
The Zagreb Youth Theatre's well-acted stage adaptation of Zdenko Mesaric's novel The Garage depicts brutality: the brutality of child abuse and exploitation, wife-beating, and blood sports. The program notes argue that the play's "metaphorical subtext remains anchored in the post-communist horror of modern transition economies." Here the production (and, I suspect, the script) fails to deliver. By Alexander Harrington.

"Il Mondo Della Luna"
Even before recorded history, human beings were fascinated by the moon, sometimes seeing in its graceful orbit a kingdom ruled by a powerful deity -- male or female depending on the culture. Our deepening knowledge of the universe has not destroyed our romance with outer space, so it is not hard to understand Buonafede's (Marco Nisticò) fascination with the moon, a body he studies devotedly through his telescope. By Glenda Frank.

"Wormwood."
For about 20 years, from 1964, when Communists ruled Poland and dissidents went to jail, a very extraordinary underground theater troop bucked censorship and pelted the regime with avant garde works inspired by the director Jerzy Grotowski. They played to full houses at shipyards and churches and other opposition stages until the four actors in 1985 were forced into exile. Now the Theater of the Eighth Day travels internationally to reprise the astonishing and subversive plays that described and denounced life under repression roused and nourished the opponents of the Communist regime. By Lucy Komisar

"Zero Hour"
Zero Mostel — consummate actor, painter and personality — was a presence in American films and stage for decades, except for a brief hiatus called McCarthyism. Zero was iconoclastic, cynical and flip. He scowled and shouted in a voice that was stentorian. Jim Brochu’s one-man show, directed by Piper Laurie, brings him to life, eyes piercing out of a gray-bearded jowly face, recreating his physical presence and attitude, and most importantly his passionate political commitment to honor at a time when theater people and others were selling out their colleagues. By Lucy Komisar.

"Search and destroy"
At first glance Howard Korder’s 1990 play Search and Destroy, being revived by Strudel productions at the Kraine Theater, is very much in the vein of David Mamet: a small-time operator (in this case, Martin Mirkheim, who books Icecapades-style events and evades taxes) desperately tries to raise money to produce a movie and ends up involved in a drug deal that goes very wrong. The play seems to echo critiques of Reagan-era selfishness such as Oliver Stone’s Wall Street in which corporate raider Gordon Gekko proclaims "greed is good." The movie Mirkheim is seeking to make is of a novel by a self-help guru in which the main character overcomes his guilt about killing his father and which espouses the philosophy, "overcome your fear" and "be a threat."

"Finian's Rainbow."
This charmingly radical musical by Yip Harburg and Fred Saidy – given a smart, lively, delicious staging by Warren Carlyle -- was a shot across the bow of conservative America when it opened on Broadway in 1947. It showed black and white sharecroppers in solidarity against the tax foreclosure sale of a farm. It depicted the corruption and racism of a white politician who is buying up local real estate so he can block cheap public electric power. And it satirized capitalism by declaring that digging up some gold buried in the ground would remove an incentive and wreck free enterprise. Even the famous "If this isn't love" has the pointed line, "If this isn't love, it's red propaganda!" By Lucy Komisar.

"The Emperor Jones."
Director Ciaran O'Reilly has done a brilliant job in staging O'Neill's 1920 psychological thriller about the self-appointed emperor of a Caribbean backwater whose "subjects" suddenly turn on him. John Douglas Thompson is overpowering as Brutus Jones, a black American who has fled from a southern chain gang and, persuading the locals that he can be killed only with a silver bullet, takes over in a "revolution" that removes the erstwhile chief. By Lucy Komisar.

"Circle Mirror Transformation."
In Annie Baker's fascinating and inventive play, acting exercises morph into real life for an instructor and four people who sign up for a community theater workshop in Shirley, Vermont. Slowly, the theatrical games turn into life games. Director Sam Gold moves seamlessly between acting exercises and real life drama so that the characters' stories, said by others, are expressed and "acted out," as it were, by themselves. By Lucy Komisar

"Wishful Drinking" is Carrie Fisher’s autobiography, a stage version of bad tell-all late night TV
"Wishful Drinking" is Carrie Fisher's self-referential one-woman staged pop autobiography is based largely on the famous people she interacted with through her life, starting with her parents, Eddie Fisher and what's her name? Oh, Debbie Reynolds. It's been so long. The play is rather like bad tell-all late night TV. By Lucy Komisar

"The Understudy."
This gem of a play by Theresa Rebeck is a theater aficionado's delight. A stage manager and two actors – one an overpaid film star and the other a struggling "pure" actor –connect in a rehearsal for a Broadway production of an "undiscovered masterpiece" by Franz Kafka. Celebrity film actors who get starring roles in theater are deftly skewered. By Lucy Komisar.

"In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play."
The conceit of this bizarre, whimsical play could be dismissed as an absurd allegory except that it is based on true facts! Take men who don’t have a clue about women's sexuality, add a few wives who feel malaise, throw in a guy who's that he can't find a female partner, and send them to a doctor with a very unusual prescription. It's often comic, albeit, like the bad sex it skewers, it is ultimately unsatisfying. By Lucy Komisar

"This" is a witty play about the angst of thirty-somethings.
Melissa James Gibson has a clever way with words. In this stage-of-life play, she uses that talent to examine the lives of four college chums who have stayed close friends, for good and for ill, into their late 30s. It's not a deep play, but it's engaging. In a sympathetic, non-judgmental way, she deals with friendship, the dissolution of marriage, adultery, personal loyalty, death, and the desire for a meaningful life. By Lucy Komisar.

"Fascinating Aïda-Absolutely Miraculous"
For over a quarter of a century, a trio of witty Brits (some of the names have changed) has been amusing audiences with pointed political musical satire and a few jabs at social mores. The latest version on a visit to New York includes some numbers that you won't find even from the hot American satirists. By Lucy Komisar

"Ragtime"
"Ragtime" is a cinematic, visionary, heart-stopping view of America of the early 1900s. The power and sweep of the bittersweet mix of true history and invention take your breath away. The characters are meant to be symbols, as the play mixes real people with invented ones, true events with imaginary ones. Fictional people come from three families—upper-middle class, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant, socialist immigrant Jewish from Latvia, and Harlem black – who represent American dreams and the tragedies that ensued during the struggle for justice. They play also shows the transformative power of the new 20th century. By Lucy Komisar.

"Love's Labour's Lost"
London’s Globe Theatre is back in New York City for the first time in four years with "Love's Labour's Lost" at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, where the show completes a two-month national tour.

Diverse City Theater Company Discovers the Truth about Santa
"Santa Claus is Coming Out" is a one-man show written and preformed by Jeffrey Solomon, with direction by Joe Brancato. The show imagines that Santa Claus is a closeted gay and longtime lover of Giovanni Geppetto, an Italian toymaker who is the great-great-great-great grandson of Pinocchio. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Superior Donuts" is funny dark comedy about white 60s radical and young black man
"Superior Donuts." There's a whiff of television in Tracy Letts dark comedy about a 60s radical coming to terms with his life and a society that continues to have an underclass. The story is intriguing if a bit formulaic. It's as if Letts said, "Well, we need a middle-aged white ex-hippie with a pony tail, a brash young black man, a couple of cops of mixed colors and genders and some bad guys to prevent the story from cloying too much." That said, there is some charm in what he came up with, even if it's not great drama. Tina Landau directs at an agile pace that highlights the laughs. By Lucy Komisar.

"So Help Me God!" is a comic and sardonic look at divas of the stage
"So Help Me God!" When theater actress Lily Darnley (Kristen Johnston) kisses her image in the mirror, it might be taken as an exaggeration. It's not. It's the quintessential moment in this funny backstage comedy about self-absorbed celebrity divas who, alas, were just as much among us in the 1920s as today. By Lucy Komisar.

"A Streetcar Named Desire"
Sydney Theatre Company’s production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" brings together three giants of theater, Tennessee Williams, Liv Ullmann and Cate Blanchett. The result is fireworks. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Shrek the Musical"
"Shrek the Musical" is a kids musical with clever jokes & lyrics for adults. There's a genre of musicals that is supposed to be for kids, but is just as much for adults. I include "The Lion King" and "Wicked" and now "Shrek the Musical." I loved them all. What they have in common is strong moral politics. The characters in the first play fight oppression, the second combat racism and Shrek does a bit of both. Like the others, it proves that shows about ideas are more interesting and fun than empty-headed fluff. By Lucy Komisar.

"Memphis" is a vibrant back story of the Rhythm & Blues on Beale Street in the 50s.
"Memphis," book by Joe DiPietro, music by David Bryan, and lyrics by both, is a vibrant sometimes hokey but visually exciting story musical with terrific sounds that range from rhythm and blues to gospel. It's a social and political back story of Rhythm & Blues. It's 1951 on Beale Street. And Huey (Chad Kimball) wanders into a hot music joint He's found the music of his soul. The only problem is that he's in the black part of town and he's white. By Lucy Komisar.

"The Brother/Sister Plays"
"The Brother/Sister Plays" by Tarell Alvin McCraney are written in the dark poetry of lives tinged by unrequited love, misfortune and tragedy, but which exhibit joyous defiance against the odds of disappointment. The friends and family whose lives make up the stories reside in the projects in the mythical city of San Pere in the bayou of the Louisiana Delta, south of New Orleans. These projects are not grungy; they are surreal. By Lucy Komisar.

Lord Buckley Meets Marilyn Monroe at Richmond Shepard Theatre
"Lord Buckley & Marilyn" is a double treat for those who love stories and the people who tell them. "Lord Buckley," the 25-minute curtain raiser, features theater veteran Richmond Shepard as mid-19th century comedian Lord Buckley, while the second part presents Leslie E. Hughes as film star Marilyn Monroe.

"On the Town" Dances into Millburn, New Jersey
"On the Town" depends on great performances and excellent direction, both of which the Paper Mill Playhouse production has in abundance.Most people in the audience will recognize the ever-popular "New York, New York," the show's signature song. But they will come away with a new admiration for Hildy's hilarious "Come Up to My Place" and "I Can Cook Too," and the big dance numbers in the museum, "Carried Away," and at Coney Island, "The Real Coney Island." In fact, Patti Colombo's original choreography captures the essence of Robbins' muscular, saucy and spirited dances. By Paulanne Simmons.

Saints Alive!
"Creature," Heidi Schreck's new play, both portrays and riffs on the life of Margery Kempe, a brewer's wife who decided, in 1401, to pursue sainthood as a career. The rock star avant la lettre (played by the protean Sofia Jean Gomez) proceeded to fast, rant, make pilgrimages, and—significantly—assure that her story got told her way for posterity via a detailed and sometimes self-contradictory autobiography. By Dorothy Chansky

"The Age of Iron"
"The Age of Iron" puts lechery and war in a sandbox. Adapter/director Brian Kulick entwines Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida," set in Troy during the Trojan War, with "The Iron Age" by Thomas Heywood, a contemporary. Shakespeare's is the more personal play, but much of the action is from Heywood's macho jousting. A juxtaposition made for the movies. By Lucy Komisar.

"My Wonderful Day"
"My Wonderful Day," Alan Ayckbourn's mordantly funny satire of middle class marital life – a staple of his genius through 70 plays -- is significantly enhanced by the presence, almost as a fly on the wall, of 9-year-old Winnie (Ayesha Antoine). Winnie's school assignment for the next day is to write about "My Wonderful Day," and she methodically records the marital spats and infidelities she observes, generally with a blank expression and fidgeting as any kid might. Ayckbourn is a master of subtle slapstick, the one liner, the bizarre situation. His dark wit is displayed here with perfect comic timing. By Lucy Komisar.

"A Quarelling Pair"
In just 45 minutes, "A quarreling Pair," presented recently at La MaMa as part of the La MaMa E.T.C. puppet series, successfully illuminated the many intricacies of sibling ties more than many a full length play. Composed of Jane Bowles 1945 short puppet play "A Quarreling Pair," Lally Katz's "Mr Peterson's Milk," and Cynthia Troup's "And When They Were Good," the evening offered audiences a unique chance to revisit the distinctive worlds inhabited by pairs of sisters. By Philippa Wehle.

"Nightingale"
"Nightingale" is Lynn Redgrave's less-than-completely-truthful memoir of the women of her family, their men and their unhappiness about marital sex. Redgrave as an actress of course does a fine professional job. And the dialogue is smart. But for a tell-all memoir, mostly about sex, it manages to eke the most lively sections out of the one part of the story that is totally made up. By Lucy Komisar.

"The Empeor Jones"
John Douglas Thompson, who plays Brutus Jones in the Irish Repertory’s revival, can stand tall with the best of his predecessors. Thompson’ Jones is powerful, conniving, ruthless and, ultimately, tragic when he is defeated by the natives and his own demons. His physical struggle is so intense one feels fatigue along with catharsis by the time Jones lies dead on the stage. By Paulanne Simmons.

"God of Carnage"
"God of Carnage" shows the disintegration of the thin veneer of civilization that keeps people polite. As the "nice" people' evening progresses, they descend from throwing words at each other into throwing things. By Lucy Komisar.

"Such Things Only Happen in Books"
In the collection of five one-acts gathered under the umbrella "Such Things Only Happen in Books," the Keen Company valiantly but ploddingly revives three Wilder plays in which one member of a couple has an unsavory secret that is revealed to the other. By Dorothy Chansky.

"After Miss Julie"
"After Miss Julie" a psychological thriller, a rich drama has three characters enmeshed in a web of conflicts that shift the upper hand from one to the other, depending on whether the field of battle is class or sex. It is a riveting play where the power of class and gender fight for primacy. By Lucy Komisar

"The Royal Family"
"The Royal Family," based on the theatrical Barrymores, shows actresses torn between their love of the stage and their desire to have married lives. (Well, this play is more than 80 years old!) The text may be dated, but Jan Maxwell and Reg Rogers steal the show with their theatricality. By Lucy Komisar.

"A Steady Rain"
"A Steady Rain" is a thriller about two beat cops, partners, friends from childhood, that would seem to belong on TV. On the other hand, some of the events they describe are so bloody, that I'd rather see them described in the two interlocking monologues that make up the play rather than watch them in full color. By Lucy Komisar.

"Broke-ology"
"Broke-ology" is a sometimes appealing, sometimes corny look at the dynamics of being loyal to your family and also loyal to yourself. It also examines the science of being a family. By Lucy Komisar.

"Hamlet"
Jude Law brings a pulsating animal energy to Shakespeare's tragedy, not the tentative or tormented like the Hamlets we are used to. This "Hamlet" is a thriller and Hamlet the vengeful detective. The excitement is palpable. By Lucy Komisar.

Two Views of "Imelda"
Sooner or later the flamboyant lives of powerful women married to powerful world leaders find their lives exhumed from the dustbins of history and dropped onto the theatrical stage. Pan Asian Rep's production drew both Ed Rubin and Glendsa Frank. Read both their reports in one article.

Barb is Back
British singing sensation Barb Jungr seems to have found a home at the Metropolitan Room. After premiering "The Men I Love," at the Café Carlyle in March she's bringing it to the Metropolitan Room, where she appears frequently, for a one-week exclusive engagement. By Paulanne Simmons.

Burn the Floor
Our Ed Rubin writes that, having been an exhibition dancer during histeens and an Arthur Murray ballroom dancing instructor while at college (they were desperate for young men to move fat ladies across the floor, he says), "Burn the Floor" had him sitting both ecstatically and nostalgically on the edge of my seat for nearly two hours.

Mr. Joplin, meet Mr. Berlin
"The Tin Pan Alley Rag" is a charming, vivid musical biography of two American composers who changed the idiom of western popular music. The curious parallel personal tragedies of Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin exist in counterpoint to their generally upbeat lively sounds. By Lucy Komisar.

"Look after You" by Louise Flory
We are experimenting with a thousand different diets, searching (and travelling) globally for the answers to good health, and even learning the history of soy in China through an advertising campaign. Our playwrights – and screenwriters – are exploring textbooks for lesser known ailments that might just strike. "Look after You" by Louise Flory at the New York Fringe International Festival is a wave in this ocean. By Glenda Frank.

"Viral" by Mac Rogers
Meredith (Amy Lynn Stewart) finds their website. She is hesitant. She chats a moment, signs off, signs on again, and eventually she travels to Portland, OR, for a meeting in their apartment. Colin (Kent Meister) yells at Geena (Rebecca Comtois) for typing the wrong phrases, for frightening Meredith off. Then he dictates Geena's response. They are all nervous. Meredith is the answer to their money problems -- only she doesn't know it. She thinks they are a support group. Fill in whatever plot details you want – and this is still an intriguing set up. Playwright Mac Rogers' dark comedy is about difficult choices. It's inhabited by a mismatched, bizarre quartet. By Glenda Frank.

"Time's Scream and Hurry"
Decades ago, Meatloaf had a hit in which a guy tries to con his girl by telling her two out of three ain't bad ("I want you, I need you, but I'm never gonna love you, now don't be sad 'cause two out of three ain't bad!"). Playwright/director Paul Hoan Zeidler might say the same about his new Fringe production "Time's Scream and Hurry." The three monologues have an uneven quality. The first two have their compelling moments and end with a bang, but the third whimpers and weeps and sinks like a lead weight. If you leave at intermission, "Time's Scream and Hurry" is a piquant Fringe production. By Glenda Frank.

“Way to Heaven” (“Himmelweg”) by Juan Mayorga
Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, where the play is set, was a nightmare of false hope, terror and sadistic manipulation. The camp, designed to house prominent Jewish musicians, painters, writers, and performers, was a way station to Auschwitz. In 1944, the camp was transformed into the equivalent of a living theatre, offering an environmental stage show for visitors from the Red Cross and other international human rights groups to prove that the Nazi relocation plan was humane. A band plays. Contented villagers, all wearing the yellow star of David, socialize on the village green. Visitors eat lunch with families. By the river, two boys spin a top, lovers quarrel, a girl teaches her doll to swim in the river, and the local mayor recounts with pride the long history of the village clock. By Glenda Frank.

The Irish Rep Presents “Father Knows Best” – Take Two
Irish Rep’s double-header, “After Luke” and “When I Was God,” can be seen as a searing indictment of fatherhood or a semi-sweet, semi-ironic remembrance of the pitfalls in the father/son relationship. By Paulanne Simmons.

“FaceSpace”
Gonzalez and Masoud may be first-time playwrights but they know that everyone loves a good love story – where boy doesn’t get girl for the best of reasons. Anne (Lindsay Ryan) and Simon (Mike Carlsen) are about as mismatched as couples go – only he doesn’t know it. She’s trying to climb out of her small-town mindset and, having Googled him, she’s invented a pack of lies to rank herself in his league. His ex-girlfriend (Ilana Becker) adds an interesting complication -- and a sizzling performance. By Glenda Frank.

“The Tin Pan Alley Rag”
If you enjoy humming along to Irving Berlin tunes and tapping your toe to Scott Joplin, then “The Tin Pan Alley Rag” at the Laura Pels is a must-see. Their music and lyrics make up the score, and their lives provide the biographies for this new work by Mark Saltzman. What the play lacks in drama, it makes up for in historical insight and irony. Joplin, the better educated of the two, ties his personal failures to the economy and the demands of world events. He is a composer with a mission, an educated man with big ambitions. Berlin, who could neither read nor write music and had an elementary school education, is busy accumulating a small fortune to compensate for the poverty of his immigrant childhood. They come together in a fictive meeting at Berlin’s sheet music shop and vie amiably for the title of King of Ragtime. Mostly though the characters just want to tell their stories, complete with flashbacks. By Glenda Frank.

"The Norman Conquests"
"The Norman Conquests" is an ultra-sophisticated comedy about three couples, including two sisters and a brother, who share a weekend at the family country house. Over the course of time and space – there are three plays in three venues – we learn about the dissatisfactions between the pairings of men and women, and the outrageous way that the eponymous Norman plays out his own desires without a thought of where that might lead. By Lucy Komisar.

"Blithe Spirit"
"Blithe Spirit" is a dated Noel Coward comedy about a middle-aged man's fantasy of having two wives. Okay, one is really a ghost he conjures up, with the aid of Madame Arcati (Angela Lansbury), an exuberant bicycle-riding medium. In spite of the long gowns and black ties the two couples wear to the séance, the piece is more television fluff than Coward's trade-mark sophistication. By Lucy Komisar.

"Our House"
A new comedy by Theresa Rebeck is always an event to celebrate. “Our House” at Playwrights Horizons is a razor-edged incision into our modern psyche and our obsession with television reality shows. The gunshot that closes Act I may seem to come out of nowhere, but Rebeck’s reference isn’t the well-made play but the news, the Columbine massacres and other sudden, violent assaults that have bewildered communities and became national headlines. By Glenda Frank.

"Waiting for Godot"
"Waiting for Godot," Samuel Beckett's play about the uselessness of waiting for God to save humans from misery and exploitation, gets a stunning production by Anthony Page and superior acting by Bill Irwin as Didi and John Glover as Lucky. One is ever curious about why this play about suffering makes many people laugh. By Lucy Komisar.

“The Wiz” Is a Wow!
Teaser: “The Wiz” has an upbeat rhythmic score by Charlie Smalls that draws not only on pop but also blues, soul and gospel; exciting choreography; and sassy black street humor incorporated in William F. Brown’s book as well as Smalls’ lyrics. And the Encores! Summer Stars production displays all these attributes in full bloom. By Paulanne Simmons.

“Paper Mill Playhouse Bares All with “The Full Monty”
“The Full Money,” based on the 1997 British film, ranks among those musicals that most skillfully blend dark themes with some of the jazziest upbeat music anyone could wish for. By Paulanne Simmons.

Preparation Hex
First and foremost Bob Brader is a nice, normal guy, even though he’s an actor who writes his own very intimate solo shows, daring to perform them in front of strangers. His current one person show, Preparation Hex, exposes us to how nice and normal he is while on his “finding true love journey.” It’s also his verbal diary of very painful days of stress, bathing and doctoring. By Larry Litt.

"Pure Confidence" traces a slave jockey to "freedom" in Saratoga, New York.
"Pure Confidence" is a moving almost-melodrama of the fates of slaves after the Civil War. In this case, it tells what happened to a champion black slave jockey when he sought to compete as a free man with the white jockeys of the north. It's a dramatization based on realities and is sensitively directed by Marion McClinton, best known for his productions of the works of August Wilson. By Lucy Komisar.

"Billy Elliot the Musical"
It is no wonder that "Billy Elliot" won so many Tony awards. Rightly so. If you want to have a total theater experience and a memorable evening full of joy and exuberance, see "Billy Elliot," a remarkable achievement. Although "Billy Elliot" is listed as a Broadway musical, it is not an ordinary one. With a poignant story and some terrific acting, besides unusual dancing, and gifted young people who make up the plot, I assure you will be happy when you come out of the theater and will long remember it. By Margaret Croyden

"Exit the King"
"Exit the King" is Ionesco's witty satire on the corruption of those in power, given a tongue-in-cheek staging by Neil Armfield with a bravura performance by Geoffrey Rush as King Beringer, the man with only 90 minutes to live. By Lucy Komisar.

"Joe Turner's Come and Gone"
"Joe Turner's Come and Gone" is a poetic, surreal, tragic vignette of the struggles of blacks coping with the still powerful vestiges of
slavery. By Lucy Komisar

"All Aboard the Marriage Hearse"
The eternal battle of the sexes takes a new, modern and hilarious turn in playwright Matt Morillo's "All Aboard the Marriage Hearse." It's a comedy of romantic desires, traditions scorned, rejected and personally compromised. By Larry Litt.

"Kooza"
"Kooza" is the Cirque de Soleil's latest New York offering, a mix of stunning dance and traditional circus fare, all done in gorgeous costumes to a theme of Asian music. Under the big top ("the Grand Chapiteau") at Randall's Island. By Lucy Komisar.

"Happiness"
"Happiness" is not always what it seems, goes the cliché, which is a starting point for this whimsical fantasy about the recently departed going back to choose the best moments of their lives. With direction and choreography by Susan Stroman, it has its own moments of charm. By Lucy Komisar

Waiting For Godot
What a pleasure to see grown up theater once again, to listen to a play with ideas, and to be in the presence of Samuel Beckett, the literary genius who knew how to express man's deepest feelings about existence, and inability to accept it for what it is, and always will be. The story is simple. Two tramps are on a bleak road waiting for someone called Godot. By Margaret Croyden.

33 Variations
“33 Variations” by Moisés Kaufman investigates what moves the creative and intellectual mind. A musicologist seeking answers in the Beethoven archives about why the composer insisted on writing so many variations to a mediocre waltz displays the same tenacity in confronting intellectual challenges as did the great master. And both do so in the face of daunting physical disabilities. Jane Fonda is compelling as the mortally ill researcher whose powerful brain prevails over the frailty of her body. By Lucy Komisar

Long Live the Party
212-868-4444 is the number to call for a rocking good time -- plus free wine, beer, and a dance lesson. “Viva Patshiva” is a party way west of Broadway (10th Ave.), a gypsy fiesta, and a rock opera. The score has clever, jazzy Roma (as in Gypsy) turns with Israeli and other Middle Eastern motifs woven in. The lyrics – mostly a comic struggle with nihilism -- are catchy and distinctive, and the over-the-top performers give it their all. It would be a good deal at $40 a ticket, but it’s only $20. I was impressed, and everyone had a good time. By Glenda Frank.

"Why Torture is Wrong, and the people who love them"
"Why Torture is Wrong, and the people who love them," is a bloody comic farce which brilliantly uses absurdity to explain the brutality and ineffectualness of the Bush "war on terror." By Lucy Komisar.

The Cody Rivers Show
Two guys prance out from behind closed doors dressed as either Olympic weight lifters or old fashioned bathing suit models. Both are crowned with boxing ear guards. Their look shocks and amuses their audience from the moment they run onstage exhibiting faux ballet poses instead of swinging their fists, greeting each other as long lost friends. For an hour they play at clowning and gymnastics, but it's highly skilled, thoughtful nonsense that turns language and movement on its head. Much like watching trained seals at the zoo, The Cody Rivers Show duo are happy to be in front of an audience. Their zeal is infectious. By Larry Lit.

"The Liar show"
The Liar Show, as developed by Andy Christie, is presenting a rethinking of the art of the autobiographical monologue. Introducing the event on stage, Christie tells the audience that four storytellers will beguile them with tales of wondrous personal experiences. Only hitch is that one of the stories is a bald faced lie. After the four tellers are finished canting, the audience will vote to reveal which one they think is the liar. By Larry Lit.

"Chasing Manet"
"Chasing Manet" is Tina Howe's bittersweet look at a tough, smart, legally blind and aging painter railing at the indignities of being warehoused in a Riverdale nursing home. The play is sensitive and often funny. By Lucy Komisar.

Mickey Solis and Annika Boas in "An Oresteia." Photo by Joan Marcus.

"An Oresteia"
"An Oresteia" is a very contemporary sometimes hokey presentation of three Greek tragedies, Aeschylus's "Agamemnon," Sophocles's "Electra," and Euripedes's "Orestes." Juicy tales of adultery, murder, and revenge are camped up in modern style and very entertaining. By Lucy Komisar.

Zina Anaplioti, Nate Rubin, Amanda Yachechak, and Robert Gonzales in "Walking from Rumania" by Barbara Kahn. Photo by Joe Bly.

"Walking from Rumania: a journey to freedom in 1899"
Once again Barbara Kahn mixes Jewish history, romance and politics in her newest play, "Walking from Rumania: a journey to freedom in 1899." By Paulanne Simmons.

L-R: Garrett Lee Hendricks, David Pendleton, Marty Austin Lamar,
Nedra McClyde, and Jason Donnell Bush. Photo by Gretchen Handloser.

"Miss Evers' Boys"
"Miss Evers' Boys" is a fictionalized account of the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which hundreds of black men were denied treatment for syphilis so the effects of the untreated disease could be observed. By Paulanne Simmons.

"God of Carnage"
"God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza, who gave us the delightful play "Art," is a memorable work, full of humor, gaiety, and a certain madness all within the framework of a hilarious farce. Underneath the comedy are Reza's ideas on marriage, children, Wall Street, do-gooders, poseurs, liars and fools--emblems of the bourgeois class which she patently scorns. By Margaret Croyden.

"She said, she said."
Loyalty breeds strange bedfellows. Just look at the characters in Kathryn Chetkovich’s occasionally thought-provoking although too often soapy "She Said She Said," receiving a workmanlike premiere at Workshop Theater under the direction of Peter Sylvester. Chetokovich’s forty-something yuppies think they are doing the right thing by friends and lovers, yet they end up behaving like a bunch of sneaky creeps. Their behavior takes them by surprise and it is the results of hard-won self discoveries that interest the playwright. By Dorothy Chansky.

Todd Gearhart, John Friemann, and Christopher Burns in "Incident at Vichy." Photo by Stephen Kunken.

"Incident at Vichy."
"Incident at Vichy," set in occupied France, is Arthur Miller's chilling morality play about the Holocaust. Nine men and a boy have been brought to a French police station and ordered to present their papers. Self-delusion, fear, confusion and heroism ensue. By Lucy Komisar.

Jonathan Hogan, Ron Holgate, and John Cullum in "Heroes". Photo by Theresa Squire.

“Heroes.”
A charming wistful mood piece about three Frenchmen in a veterans home they view as much as a prison as a refuge. By Lucy Komisar.

Michael Micalizzi and Maren Langdon in a scene from Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used To It). Photo by Joan Marcus.

"Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to It)"
Glenda Frank writes, "It’s not always love at first sight. In 2005 I admired Itamar Moses’s challenging but confusing 'Bach at Leipzig' at the New York Theatre Workshop. I liked his daring in choosing historical subject matter and how he kept the characters lively. I had a good time, but there’s a lot of theatre in NY. Last year, 'Back Back Back' at Manhattan Theatre Club, about baseball, steroids, and lies, changed my mind."

Anna Krämer, as Lola Blau, and Joe Völker,musical director, in "Tonight: Lola Blau."

"Tonight Lola Blau"
There are certain political predicaments surely no one wishes to be in: for instance, what do you do if your homeland is taken over by some monstrous power? How long do you remain, hoping change is possible? And if you do leave, where do you go? Then, should the occupying forces be defeated, when do you return, and how do you react to what you may find? Such matters are pondered in "Tonight: Lola Blau." By Jack Anderson

"Shekinah"
Death means many things. Each idea of the final event is conjecture and ultimately an interpretation. The expiration of the body is only one type of death. Because Death is physically unknowable unless you’ve had the near death experience, it is also the subject of brilliant and demonic human manipulation. By Larry Litt.

The Surprise
What's the difference between family gossip and autobiographical storytelling in a public space? As audience, chances are we'll never get to meet the family, only the performer. In this case, Martin Dockery, who tells all, will have to answer to his family for a long time to come. By Larry Litt.

Rory Raven's Brainstorming
Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved magic and especially mental magic shows. Whenever I see one in town I try to attend just for that thrill of seeing a performer work the old routines that still dazzle both smart children and disbelief suspending adults. I’m one of them and hope I always will be. By Larry Lit.

Two Kindred Spirits: Neil Sedaka and Jim Van Slyke
“The Sedaka Show” features many of the singer/composer’s hits: “Breaking Up Is Hard To Do,” “Laughter in the Rain” and a Doo Wop Medley that begins with “Oh Carol,” written for Carole Klein (a.k.a. Carole King) and ends with a tune made famous in a film starring Connie Francis, “Where the Boys Are.” By Paulanne Simmons.

Guys and Dolls Company. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"Guys and Dolls"
"Guys and Dolls" proves the score's the king in classic Broadway musicals. This revival of the 1950 musical comedy about a Salvation Army missionary who reforms a couple of hard-boiled but appealing gamblers shows why the show was a smash. By Lucy Komisar.

"Ruined" brings Mother Courage to Africa
Lynn Nottage's tense, intense thriller about the civil war in the Congo is guaranteed to leave a knot in your stomach. It aspires to be a modern version of Brecht's "Mother Courage." But instead of being an itinerant peddler, Mama Nadi runs a bordello. By Lucy Komisar.

Aaron Monaghan and Kerry Condon in 'The Cripple of Inishmaan." Photo by Keith Pattison.

"The Cripple of Inishmaan" seeks love under mean-spirited cruelty.
"The Cripple of Inishmaan" seeks love under mean-spirited cruelty.
"The Cripple of Inishmaan" is another saga of Martin McDonough's love-hate relationship with Ireland, a country that appears suffocated with mean-spiritedness and cruelty until a bit of hidden love finally gets out. Aaron Monaghan gives a bravura performance as Billy, who desperately wants to be valued for himself and not by his infirmity. By Lucy Komisar.

Ex-tenebris Rising; "we jump on nows fat belly and float…"
Extenebris Rising, the 15th annual new year's day marathon (January 1) of poets, performance poets and musicians took place on the dressed up stage of the Bowery Poetry Club on a frigid afternoon and a night so cold and dark it couldn't wake up. Still, this event manages to intrigue me more each year and for fifteen years I’ve attended, read as a poet and taken notes as a journalist. This year though, for the first time, I could cut the generation differences w/ a pocket knife and of the seventy plus folks there at any one time I think I knew twelve! By Ellen Lytle.

Kieran Campion and Lily Rabe in "The American Plan". Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"The American Plan"
"The American Plan" is Richard Greenberg's fast-paced, sharply acted, quirky drama of love twisted into domination. The witchy, controlling Eva Adler (a biting Mercedes Ruehl), who presides over the scene on a lake in the Catskills, could blot out the sun as she does the life of her daughter and her chances with young men. Ruehl as Mother Eva makes Mama Rose ("Gypsy") look like a wimp. By Lucy Komisar.

Trent Kowalik as Billy Elliot and Ballet Girls. Photo by Alastair Muir.

Billy Elliot The Musical
"Billy Elliot, The Musical" is an appeal for solidarity and freedom. This Lee Hall-Elton John musical is a lively, moving, exhilarating production that recounts the impact of the British miners' strike of the mid-80s . It also asserts the right of an individual to express himself, his dreams and his art. By Lucy Komisar.

"Raised in Captivity" is a Big Step for a New Company
With its use of the surreal, gay hero and use of AIDS as a metaphor for failed love, Nicky Silver’s “Raised in Captivity” owes a great deal to Tony Kushner’s earlier “Angels in America.” But while Kushner’s work is certainly more ambitious, in many ways Silver’s work is more powerful. With a few more shows like “Raised in Captivity,” Red Fern Theatre Company may soon establish itself as one of the most promising up-and-coming additions to the New York theater scene. By Paulanne Simmons.

Loss and Departures - "The Cherry Orchard"
Sinéad Cusack, who plays Mme. Ranevskaya in the current BAM production of Anton Chekhov’s "The Cherry Orchard,” is resplendent. It is easy to forgive her everything. By Glenda Frank.

Ethan Hawke in "The Cherry Orchard." Photo: Joan Marcus.

"The Cherry Orchard"
With the help of director Sam Mendes, playwright Tom Stoppard sharpens Chekhov's turn of the last century quirky comedy into a compelling chapter of his own "Coast of Utopia" Russian trilogy, showing us how hapless members of the landowner aristocracy slept through their own demise, losing out first to the new business class, and then--but we see this only in a dark glimpse of the future--to the desperate waiting peasants. By Lucy Komisar.

"Forbidden Broadway Goes To Rehab"
Here's yet another Forbidden Broadway production in which the numbers are sometimes better than the musicals they satirize and always on target about the shows and the theatrical culture. The performers start out by introducing themselves and declaring, “We’ll do twelve steps the Fosseway!” By Lucy Komisar.

"Garden of Earthly Delights"
Martha Clark and Richard Peaslee have created an exotic, erotic theater piece that brings to life the 16th century painting by Hieronymus Bosch. Dancers move and twist and fly to express joy, raucousness, cruelty and a 16th-century vision of life. By Lucy Komisar.

"The Importance of Being Ernest"
Undoubtedly many people will come to Paper Mill Playhouse's revival of “The Importance of Being Earnest” to see Lynn Redgrave as Lady Bracknell, a role she played three years ago in a five-month tour of the show. But they will leave equally impressed with the entire cast, Alexander Dodge’s eye-catching set and David Schweitzer's eccentric direction. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Woolf at the Door"
Postmodernist Anne Bogart interprets Modernist Virginia Woolf’s only play, in which the high priestess of Bloomsbury skewered her Victorian arts forebears. Tennyson is an egomaniac, Julia Cameron is a bug-eyed mad hatter, and actress Ellen Terry skips out on the stifling solemnity of “all for art.” It’s zany fun and a chance to play literary who’s who. By Dorothy Chansky.

Scientists dance a Ladybug Dance in "The Blue Bird." Foreground: Laine Rettmer. Behind: Orion Taraban, Mike Mikos.

"Blue Bird Takes Flight"
Witness Relocation delights in unusual mixtures of dance and theater."The Blue Bird," is one of those wacky concoctions that cause you to stare at the stage, slightly befuddled, and ask yourself, "What are these people doing that for?" By Jack Anderson.

"Shrek The Musical"
After one children's picture book (by the prolific William Steig) and three movies, one would think the Shrek franchise was near its end. Then along comes "Shrek the Musical," and we find out it has a healthy future. By Paulanne Simmons.

L to R: Rosalie Tenseth, Kelly Ann Moore, Dionne Audain, Sarah Saunders and Lisa Velten Smith in "Silent Heroes." Photo by Jim Baldassare.

"Silent Heroes"
Six wives of Marine pilots hold a vigil as they wait to see which of their husbands has been lost in an unspecified crash. Playwright Linda Escalera Baggs's take on feminism circa 1975, the military, and spousal responsibility borders on the soapy, but good performances make it a compelling bit of social history. By Dorothy Chansky.

Jennifer Ikeda and Geraint Wyn Davies in "Women Beware Women" at the Theater at St. Clement's. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"Women Beware Women"
Larry Litt is not a great fan of romantic comedies. Not only are they unrealistic, but they can ruin any relationship with false expectations of levity and reconciliation. So he loves Thomas Middleton's "Women Beware Women" because it's the antithesis of Hollywood's sappy idea of love and marriage going together like a horse and carriage.

Stockard Channing and Matthew Risch in "Pal Joey" at Studio 54, through February 15, 2009. Photo by Joan Marcus.

"Pal Joey," a cynical musical about a womanizing con man, rings true today.
Con men make good anti-heroes. At a time when the country is focused on a spectacular one that cheated people of billions, it's instructive to take a look at the genre. "Pal Joey," the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart 1940 musical given a moody revival by director Joe Mantello at the Roundabout Theatre, is about a sleazy character on the make for money and success. By Lucy Komisar.

Richard Griffiths and Daniel Radcliffe in "Equus" at Broadhurst Theatre, through February 8, 2009 . Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"Equus" is a powerful mystery of a youth caught in a conflict of religion and sex
"Equus" by Peter Shaffer (1973) is vividly directed by Thea Sharrock in its current revival. A troubled 17-year-old youth, Alan Strang (Daniel Radcliffe) is brought by a judge (Kate Mulgew) to the office of an overworked psychiatrist in a provincial hospital in southern England. He has blinded a stable of six horses. Slowly, through importuning, bribes of small gifts and even hypnotism, the psychiatrist, Martin Dysart (Richard Griffiths) gets him to see through his nightmares and tell what brought him to commit this horror. By Lucy Komisar.

"Speed the Plow"-- L to R: Raul Esparza, Jeremy Piven, Elisabeth Moss. Photo by Brigitte Lancombe.

Mamet's inside story of why Hollywood produces junk
At a time in the U.S. when most films seem made for retarded 13-year-olds, this revival of David Mamet's 1988 "Speed the Plow" is right on target. It's a satire on Hollywood moguls on the make for money and success, which they see strewn along the paths of titillating sex and violence. Hey, how else to get a lunch table at the town's favored watering hole? Who will win the battle for movieland? The young producer who dreams of dollar signs in his future hyperventilates: "If they can't put it in TV Guide, you can't make the film." By Lucy Komisar.

"All My Sons"
Arthur Miller's play about corporate corruption never goes out of fashion. As a theater device, he focused on a small factory owned by one man, but you can take this as a representation of what went on and what goes on when anything goes in business. Profits trump morals. The victims are all of us, which is what the title means. Simon McBurney's production is smooth and riveting. By Lucy Komisar.

Moti Margolin revitalizes Chekhov's Classic Characters in his new translation of "Uncle Vanya"
Chekhov's small farm Russians and their nemesis, Herr Professor Alexandre, are alive and not living well in Moti Margolin's new translation of Chekhov's tragicomedy, directed by John Knauss at The Space, 300 West 43rd St., 4th Floor. Mr. Margolin successfully brings contemporary vernacular into a household of characters full of internal conflicts. By Larry Litt.

Mia Barron as Hillary Clinton and Darren Pettie as Bill Clinton, swears on his daughter Chelsea's in "Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy With a (Somewhat) Happy Ending." Photo.Photo by Jim Baldassare.

A Cinderella Story for the Mensa Set
Liberal bona fides are not required to get a kick out of "Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy." Wendy Weiner's wacky and witty coming-of-age story has Aphrodite and Athena battling over the American girl who vows to take on sexism on a national scale. In the New Georges production, director Julie Kramer set a lively pace, and her solid cast time traveled from Olympus to Ohio, Arkansas to Hades, and Wellesley to the White House. By Dorothy Chansky.

"The Grand Inquisitor "
With "The Grand Inquisitor," Peter Brook has forsaken big productions for simple storytelling on an almost bare stage. In his earliest book, "The Empty Space," he declared that his main effort in theater would be storytelling (not dominated by great pyrotechnical inventions) by actors on a simple stage who, by themselves, could make theater come alive. In "The Grand Inquisitor" he has carried out his long desired wish tell a story (without complicated theatrics) with actors who can live on stage who can be present, and just "be." By Margaret Croyden.

Kristine Lee, John Costelloe in "Gang of Seven " at La MaMa E.T.C. Photo by Nadia Kitirath.

The Theater and Pop Psychology in "Gang of Seven"
If you've ever been in a focus group and marveled at the solemn commitment the group makes to the facilitator and their client, "Gang of Seven" will be a comic revelation. On the other hand, if you never had the fortune, or misfortune, to focus on a completely inane subject until you absolutely were thrilled or revolted by it, then Jim Neu's writing and Keith McDermott's directing will give you a a warm welcoming wink to the possibilities of focus group as theater and pop psychology. By Larry Litt.

"Pucelandia" Is a Colorful Show for the Whole Family
If you're looking for low-cost, high-value entertainment for yourself and your children this holiday season, you can't do better than Turtle Shell Productions' "Pucelandia: the Pucical Musical," a delightful musical fairytale with book and lyrics by Fran Handman and Composed by Sheldon Gartner. By Paulanne Simmons.

Oh, What a Funny War!
"Catch 22" is back and funnier than ever in Peter Meineck's adaptation for Aquila Theatre at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. It's poetic, brutal, satiric, incisive, and always smart. This production is Meineck's baby. He not only directed with panache but also designed the visuals. His Playbill resume may be long, but you still might wonder where he has been showcasing all this talent until now. By Glenda Frank.

"Saturn Returns"
With "Saturn Returns" at Lincoln Center, playwright Noah Haidle, whose credentials include Princeton and Juilliard, may have lacked a good dramaturge but he lucked out with his director, Nicholas Martin. Martin almost saves the play. By Glenda Frank.

OH, THOSE BEAUTIFUL WEIMAR GIRLS -- Sarah Lemp as Anita Berber; Javier Bone Carbone as Sebastian Droste. Behind: Peter B. Schmitz as Master of Ceremonies.

Oh, Those Beautiful Weimar Girls!
Everyone in the arts should know Anita Berber. She's the Icon of Desire in Berlin's Weimar period, where sensuality and depravity reigned. With her slim, elegant dancer's body she provoked seduction in every pose, arousing perverse sexual images through her dances and lack of costumes. How did her times influence Anita as an artist? Her world spanned between devastation of the First World War and what would be the unthinkable horrors of Nazism and the Second World War. Was she an artistic prophetess of impending doom, intuitively sensing the conservatism, repression and heights of destruction to come? As Ildiko Nemeth, director of "Oh, Those Weimar Girls!" presents Anita and her circle of dancers, there is an impending orgasm of creativity along with reactionary doom. By Larry Litt.

Sin Cha Hong's "Godot"
Korean born international dancer/choreographer Sin Cha Hong's new solo piece is an engaging meditation on one woman's obsession with Samuel Beckett's enigmatic 1953 play "Waiting for Godot." Hong's character is an older woman, remembering her glorious past, lazily and luxuriously living in the present, while clearly fearful of the future's uncertainties. Godot is a fitting tribute to artists by an artist. You will leave inspired and encouraged by Hong's sincerity through her homage to a great play. By Larry Litt.

"Surrender" is not surrender!
"Surrender" is a masterful achievement on all fronts. Not only have Josh Fox and The International WOW Company succeeded in producing an important piece about the war in Iraq, but the interactive nature of the show allows both soldiers and observers to get a much closer look at what it means to volunteer for duty, to train, kill and be killed, than we ever get from televised reports of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.. How they manage to harness the energies, dedication and enthusiasm of a new group of amateur players each time the show is performed is equally remarkable. Unfortunately, this memorable show only runs for three weeks. I can only hope that it will find other sponsors and another space so that many more people can observe war close up. By Philippa Wehle.

The real man in "A Man for All seasons"
Frank Langella is a real thoroughbred. An actor whose presence dominates the stage, he captures every moment, displaying an honesty and theatricality that few actors can achieve. More importantly, he has the energy to give life to a work what might otherwise be boring. "A Man For all Seasons," a revival of many years, patently comes tolife because of Langella. Not that the play is uninteresting. It is about nobility of a certain kind, the kind that remains constant. It is about consistency of beliefs, no matter the price. Perhaps some might find the subject talky and overly intellectualized, which can be hard to take, but Langella overcomes all the pitfalls of the play. By Margaret Croyden.

The Pumpkin Pie Show is well worth it.
Larry Litt loves energetic opening moments by actors who are proud of their self-created material. It's a sign that the audience is going to have a rollicking good time. But Clay McLeod Chapman and Hanna Cheek fooled him. They took him for an emotional ride on a storytelling roller coaster that he won't forget for a long time. He adds, he hasn't seen standing room crowds in a long time.

Jessica Dickey and Todd Weeks in "The Fourposter" by Keen Company at The Clurman Theatre. Photo by Suzi Sadler.

"The Fourposter" is witty, funny and highly therapeutic.
Given the skyrocketing divorce rate in the United States, it might not be a bad idea for everyone to see "The Fourposter," Jan Hartog's enduring and endearing classic, playing through November 22 at the Keene Company. It's about what keeps a man and woman together through the trials and terrors of married life. This romantic comedy follows a couple from 1890 to 1925, from the awkwardness of their wedding night, through pregnancy, infidelity, parenting and midlife crisis. Each time one half of the couple breaks away, the other half somehow draws the partner back by an invisible string. Some might call it love. By Paulanne Simmons.

Is Neo-burlesque really "Revealed"?
So what makes "Revealed" different? First and foremost is the youthful energy, irony and faux sophistication of the emcee of "Revealed," Bastard Keith. He loves all the ladies, they're all his favorites. And why not? They're all beautiful, sexy, mysterious women who love to expose their dancing and performing skills. You can't go wrong at "Revealed" if you're looking for a night of escapist fun and classic entertainment. By Larry Litt.

Diverse City Theater Explores "Passing"
When most people think of "passing," what comes to mind is the black man or woman whose skin color is light enough that most people will take that individual for white. But for Cassandra Medley, author of "Noon Day Sun," passing takes many forms. By Paulanne Simmons.

Workdays with Maury
Joe Mande is a very funny kid. He's also an ironic storyteller who understands the art, yes art, of self reflection as the highest form of comedy. Comedy works best when it falls on the comedian as the model of the bizarre society we live in. Mande's comedy education and experience has worked well for him. In the not too subtle, but direct send up of his summer internship titled, Workdays with Maury, on the ‘Maury (Povich) Show' he shows us how TV show biz works from his innocent nerd's eye view. By Larry Litt

"What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends"
This self proclaimed anti-social comedy could only have been created in the post "Seinfeld" era. Jerry Seinfeld and his funny but essentially unlikable neighbors have permanently set the stage for mismatched but needy young characters that work as unique, off beat, accidental and substitute family of personally satisfying misanthropes.Your friends may not be as funny or depraved as Kunofsky's five friends, but their saving grace is they're probably not nearly as competitive. By Larry Litt.

"Buffalo Gal"
"Buffalo Gal" pits dreams against dreams, the pull of nostalgia against the impulse to move forward, the love of art against the temptation of commercialism – and it does all this with charm, grace, and humor. The productin by Primary Stages at 59 E. 59th Street Theaters, under the direction of Mark Lamos, brings us the fullness of real people coming together for a common goal. All the characters seem to have back stories. And Susan Sullivan is charismatic. By Glenda Frank.

"Some Americans Abroad": a dark comedy becomes a summer highlight
Student tales of class trips abroad are full of drunken adventures, sexual hook-ups, mysterious disappearances and cultural discoveries. Richard Nelson's "Some Americans Abroad," in a stellar revival at Second Stage Theatre, turns the tables by taking on the teachers' perspective of the trip. This dark comedy of manner, this satire with a poignant heart, slowly reveals the secrets of these academics, and we discover how precarious, stressful and cruel life can be in an ivory tower. The delicate balance between parody and the human condition makes this production of "Some Americans Abroad" a summer highlight. By Glenda Frank.

"Around the World in 80 Days" in Two Delightful Hours
In "Around the World in 80 Days," Michael Evan Haney directs five actors playing 39 parts, brilliantly coordinating the many scenes and sets, with the attendant lighting, sound effects and props. The result is a dazzling tour-de-force of acting and production. By Paulanne Simmons.

Bette and Boo walk down memory lane at the Roundabout
Pioneers built our country. They settled the land, explored the galaxy, created jazz, and founded corporations on a shoestring in their garages. These visionaries saw the ladder, climbed the first rungs – and sometimes, like Eugene O'Neill and Jonas Salk, they become the benchmarks. In 1985, when "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" premiered, Christopher Durang had audiences rolling in the aisles as they tossed away their rose-colored glasses to look with cynical eyes at the American family and Catholicism, topics that had been taboo as satire on the American stage. The play earned Durang an Obie and Obies for cast; "The Marriage of Bette and Boo" is very actor-friendly. But the Roundabout Theatre Company revival, directed by Walter Bobbie, is more a walk down memory lane than a compelling comedy. By Glenda Frank.

Badia Fahra, Montego Glover and Angela Grovey in "Little Shop of Horrors" by Mark Waldrop. Photo by Gerry Goodstein.

"Little Shop of Horrors" Is Open Again at the Paper Mill Playhouse
"Little Shop of Horrors," based on Roger Corman's 1960 sci-fi comedy, is a production team's dream. It features smoke rolling down the isles, projections, strobe lights, a trap door, and of course, that wonderful naughty plant. But the show is also a perfect showcase for a talented cast, with a doo-wop, rock ‘n' roll, Motown and bluesy score that includes the show-stoppers "Skid Row (Downtown)," "Suddenly Seymour" and "Suppertime."

EST: MARATHON 2008, SERIES B
Every serious playwright deserves a showcase -- to experiment, reconsider, revise or scrap -- and that's precisely what the EST marathons are all about. Held during the summer and consisting of five quick takes – most of the one-acts are about half an hour long -- the festival might seem to be part of the growing trend toward reasonably priced theatre for people who don't want a highly polished or even finished production. For people who want to experience theatre that is not Broadway. By Glenda Frank.

Pablo Schreiber and Thomas Sadoski in a scene from MCC Theater's production of "reasons to be pretty." Photo by Joan Marcus.

"reasons to be pretty" Needs More Thought
Neil LaBute who has made a name for himself with plays about casual cruelty and the effect personal appearance has on life and love ("Fat Pig"), is on his hobby horse again with "reasons to be pretty" presented by MCC Theater under the direction of Terry Kinney. The play marks the sixth collaboration between MCC Theater and LaBute, who is MCC's Playwright-in-Residence. This kind of relationship between a theater and playwright can be wonderfully productive. It can also allow the playwright to sink into a swamp of self-indulgence. By Paulanne Simmons.

Kristin Griffith and Evan Thompson in " Stretch." Photo by Jim Baldassare.

Stretch
Susan Bernfield, in "STRETCH (a fantasia)," presented by New Georges at the Living Theater, calls her imaginative construction of the last weeks of Rose Mary Woods's life a "musical-hybrid-play-thingie." Woods was Richard Nixon's secretary and a powerhouse in her own right, and "STRETCH" conjectures what her last weeks in an Ohio nursing home might have been like from her own perspective. Kristin Griffith as Woods goes from Beltway insider to droopy-eyed octogenarian at the drop of the proverbial handkerchief, as Rachel Peters's score conveys emotions via a small orchestra that includes an IBM Selectric. By Dorothy Chansky.

The Great American All Star Traveling War Machine
Even though Larry Litt empathizes with Irondale's anti war stance, he believes that its politics are riddled with falsehoods and prejudice.

Phillip Goodwin and Emma O'Donnell in "Prisoner of the Crown."

"Prisoner of the Crown"
Roger Casement was hanged for treason after he attempted to secure a German declaration of support for an independent Ireland after World War I (this was shortly before the failed Easter Rising), and encouraging Irish prisoners of war to join an Irish brigade (he got only three recruits). His trial is the subject of "Prisoner of the Crown" by Richard F. Stockton and Richard T. Herd. The Irish Rep's production, directed by Ciaran O'Reilly, is part "Twelve Angry Men," part "Law & Order," part impressionistic, experimental drama. As time places us further and further from the events of the play, Casement appears more and more to be an Irish national hero. Who better than The Irish Repertory Theatre to tell the story? By Paulanne Simmons.

"Appearance – A Suspense in Being"
Throughout the day, we respond to scores of sensory and emotional stimuli, sometimes with grandly-scaled movements, sometimes with only flickering, nearly invisible, gestures. There are also times when our actions are carefully calculated because we deliberately want to show the world something; yet we can also use movements and facial expressions as armor to protect ourselves. With "jazz acting" based on Meyerhold, this phenomenon is examined by Theaterlab in "Appearance - A Suspense in Being." By Jack Anderson.

Laura Linney and Ben Daniels in "Les Liasons Dangereuses." Photo by Joan Marcus.

Les Liaisons dangereuses
Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is based on the epistolary novel by the Frenchman, Choderlos de Laclos who wrote the book in 1782. Hampton's adaptation was first produced in l987, followed by the movie, 1988. The film achieved a good deal of attention and was a huge success, particularly for the work of Glen Close and John Malkovich in the leads. In this current production both Laura Linney and Ben Daniels as the two unscrupulous schemers are miscast. Which leaves the play an empty shell. By Margaret Croyden.

Maximilian Osinski and Mark Zeisler in a scene from Cherry Docs. Photo by Caleb Levengood.

Cherry Docs
Larry Litt says that rarely does he leave a theater feeling he's seen a play so overwhelming and important that he has to tell friends they shouldn't miss it. Plays come and go, but their issues remain long after their runs. "Cherry Docs" by Canadian David Gow is a play that will stay because its issues demand immediate attention; its writing is clear and characters human and its actors are superlative.

Mark Rylance and Kathryn Hahn in "Boeing-Boeing" by Matthew Camoletti. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Boeing-Boeing
A few minutes into the play, buoyantly directed by Matthew Warchus, the plot is revealed. Bernard (Bradley Whitford), an attractive, self-assured bachelor, has three girlfriends. "Less than three would be monotonous; more than three is way too tiring." All are airline hostesses, and all think he's going to marry them. "Boeing-Boeing" is filled with double entendres, misunderstandings, near misses and high jinx. It takes a while for "Boeing-Boeing" to get off the ground, but once it takes off, the show is non-stop hilarity. By Paulanne Simmons.

The Devil and Tom Walker
If you're looking to spend a couple of enjoyable hours with delightful songs, storytelling and capable acting about The Devil conning a ne'er-do-well into lending money to greedy colonial New Englanders, then watch him justify foreclosing on their properties and shrug at their ruined lives, then this very timely show is just the ticket for a lively Springtime entertainment. By Larry Litt.

The cast of "Cry Baby" by Mark Brokaw. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Cry-Baby
Broadway's exuberant new musical, "Cry-Baby" opens at an anti-Polio picnic in Baltimore. It's 1954, and Mrs. Vernon-Williams (the always magnificent Harriet Harris) presides over a group of wholesome, all-American teenagers, the girls wearing flared skirts, the boys wearing identical sweaters. They sing an innocent 50s number about the joys of inoculation. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Kiss Me Kate", Paper Mill Playhouse, Photo by Gerry Goodstein, Left to Right, Liz Kimball, Elliott Bradley, Gary Lynch (Pops), Stephen Carrasco (Hortensio), Wes Hart (Gremio), Katie Hagen, Kyle Vaughn and Desirée Davar

Kiss Me Kate
"Kiss Me Kate" is the ultimate backstage musical in that it integrates the show-within-the show better than anybody had done before or has done since. Based on Shakespeare's comedy, "The Taming of the Shrew," the musical shows how the hero, Fred Graham (Mike McGowan) manages to tame his woman, his former wife, Lilli Vanessi (Michele Ragusa), both onstage when she plays Kate, the shrew, and offstage as the temperamental diva. By Paulanne Simmons.

Alvin Epstein and Kathryn Grody in "Endgame" by Andrei Belgrader. Photo by Richard Termine.

BAM Plays "Endgame"
"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness," says Nell in Samuel Beckett's "Endgame," now onstage at the BAM Harvey Theater under the direction of Andrei Belgrader. Whether or not this is true, it is certainly the guiding principle behind much of Beckett's work. "Endgame" is not an easy play to watch or to perform. But when it is performed as well as it is at the Harvey Theater it can certainly be hugely satisfying. By Paulanne Simmons.

The cast of "The Importance of being Ernest" directed by J.R. Sullivan. Photo b Gregory Costanzo.

The Importance of Being Earnest
If there ever was a play that's almost impossible to destroy it might be Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." Yet given modern directors' inability to leave a good thing alone, one can be assured nothing is safe. So when "The Importance of Being Earnest" is presented as gleefully and energetically as the Pearl has done this season, it is still cause for celebrations. By Paulanne Simmons.

A Catered Affair
"The Catered Affair," a 1956 MGM film starring Bette Davis, Debbie Reynolds and Ernest Borgnine, explored the fragmentation and eventual coming together of a Bronx Irish family when their daughter decides she is going to marry her longtime boyfriend. It was a heartwarming story, but would it make a successful musical? Harvey Fierstein and John Bucchino's adaptation of "The Catered Affair" proves that turning a drama into a musical takes a lot more than adding a few songs. By Paulanne Simmons.

David Magentale in "The Conversation" by Leo Farley. Photo by Peter Sylvester.

The Conversation
Harry Caul is a storyteller of other people's real life stories. Normally characters in Harry Caul's stories don't know him. Nonetheless he's created their moment. Indeed, they wouldn't want to know Harry unless they too are electronic surveillance geeks. These mediated stories are intended to change and destroy lives. By Larry Litt.

How theatre failed America
It's the new regional theater buildings and their creative inhabitants that irk Daisey's imagination. Artistic directors, agents, stage managers, boards of directors, sponsors, grant officers all come under his scrutiny for forgetting about the role of the play and acting in the process of making theater. Theater is now like professional sports, it's the new building that impresses and imparts pride to the local crowd and the ever more important money people. It's a permanent testament to the community's love of the arts, but not art making. By Larry Litt.

Einstein's brain is removed in "The Brain," a new puppet theater work by Inkfish which explores the life, science, and mind of Albert Einstein, presented by The Club at La MaMa, NYC, April 18 to 27, 2008. Alissa Mello directs. Puppeteer: Brian Snapp.

The Brain
In The Brain, the extremely theatrical methods use wildly diverse mixed media to explain the theory of relativity in a way any theatergoer can recognize. Inkfish provides science education through amazingly skilled and innovative video and puppetry theater arts. Video is uniquely used to amplify Einstein's theories. You'll never wonder about relativity again. This production should be seen by all who love theater, science and peace. By Larry Litt.

In "Attorney for the Damned," a funny, horrific rock musical by Denis Woychuk (book, lyrics) and Rob McCullough (music), an idealistic lawyer (played by Allison Johnson) is forced to represent two criminally insane mental patients. This "Tommy"-style production is an adventure story told with dark humor, weird science and outsized, grotesque characters.

Attorney for the Damned
If Rocky Horror Picture Show can be summed up as loss of innocence rock musical with sex changes and gender bending, then Attorney for the Damned is rock and roll's personality loss, professional disappointment and violent acting out tribute.We're asked to understand and sing along with the very real manipulation, guilt and final redemption of a young, beautiful, former corporate lawyer, turned attorney for the criminally insane, the play's attorney for the damned. Musicals have come a long way baby. By Larry Litt.

The Day The Whores Came Out To Play Tenni s
"The day The Whores Came Out To Play Tennis" is a play for those who love the absurdity of class and social manners. It is a poke at our striated society pretending to be classless in public but completely committed to an aristocracy of financial dominance. It could have been written at any time in history. It's at home next to Greek high comedy or French farce or an English drawing drollery. By Larry Litt.

Chamber Music
Eight woman live in the same ward of a mental institution, each believing they're the embodiment of other famous women. They interact at their ward's annual organization board meeting. The organization does nothing. Seems harm less enough. Except they're all status crazed, a microcosm of the outside world. They have nowhere to go but back to their beds with their desires. This trapped crew's existential absurdity is Kopit's theatrical strength. He creates models of the ridiculous and pompous in human relations. By Larry Litt.

The cast of "Candide." Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Candide
"Candide" is back at the New York City Opera for a limited run. It has the lavish Prince treatment and is certainly delightful to both the eye and ear. Leonard Bernstein's comic opera, "Candide," has not had an easy life. It was conceived back in 1953 when Lillian Hellman made the suggestion to Leonard Bernstein that Voltaire's comic novel could be successfully adapted into a musical. The immediate result was not promising, and it's been a "problem play" ever since. This "Candide" is a pleasing spectacle; it's delightful to both the eye and ear. By Paulanne Simmons.

Another Vermeer -- Justin Grace and Austin Pendleton. Photo by Kim T. Sharp.

Another Vermeer
Paulanne Simmons calls Bruce J. Robinson's "Another Vermeer" the most literate play she has seen this year. Based on the true story of noted Dutch forger Han Van Meegeren, who was thrown into jail after World War II, when it was discovered he sold a Vermeer to Hermann Goring, it asks many perceptive questions about the nature of art and its relationship to the artist and society.

The Little Flower of East Orange
" The Little Flower of East Orange" could easily be just one more play about a dysfunctional family that keeps its secrets if it weren't for Stephen Adly Guirgis' sensitive writing, Philip Seymour Hoffman's muscular direction and a superb cast headed by Ellen Burstyn. It is this combination of talent that turns the play into a gripping drama of raw emotion and exposed nerves. By Paulanne Simmons.

Rebecca Schull (R) plays Anna Akhmatova and Sue Cremin (L) plays Lydia Chukovskaya, a young writer who kept a journal of her meetings with Akhmatova, in "On Naked Soil - Imagining Anna Akhmatova."

On Naked Soil - Imagining Anna Akhmatova
Rebecca Schull's playwriting craftsmanship shines in this production about the tragic life of Russian poetess Anna Akhmatova during the 1930s Stalinist purges. While the words are deeply true, they are spoken with uncommon feeling and sincerity by Ms Schull, who plays Anna. This is a superior example of actor/writer theater, a genre usually reserved for one person shows. By Larry Litt.

"Gypsy" is back
As the quintessential stage mother who launched Gypsy Rose Lee on her career, Patti LuPone is brassy and vulnerable, calm and frenetic, distracted and intense. Her voice fills the theater and her heart takes over the stage. From the moment she steps onto the stage at the St. James Theatre, it's obvious she's going to make this role totally her own. Who could ask for more? By Paulanne Simmons.

Victoria Clark is the hardworking Irish matriarch struggling heroically to hold her family together in "Juno," the second Encores! production of the season.

"Juno" Is Well-Worth a Second Look
Based on the 1924 play "Juno and the Peacock" by Sean O'Casey, "Juno" is about the trials of an Irish family during the time of troubles when the IRA was terrorizing both the British and the Ireland it was sworn to defend. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Betrayed" by George Packer. Directed by Pippin Parker
An old Chinese proverb warns that when you walk on the tiger's tail, you must tread lightly. It is a lesson the three idealistic Iraqis in George Packer's provocative play "Betrayed" learn day by day as they return home to the war zone from their jobs as translators for the American army. They don't all survive. Prescott (Mike Doyle), their American supervisor, is the play's voice of indignation, and we join him in wishing that these bright young people – the hope of their nation – survive and move on to bigger and better lives. They are the drama, but the larger lesson of the play is our good-natured but deadly delusions about the country and our ambivalent moral responsibility. Since its inception in 1996, Culture Project has been bringing cutting edge political issues to audiences through high quality dramas. They have been a call to conscience. "Betrayed" is one of its finest productions. By Glenda Frank.

DB Woodside and John Cullum in "The Conscientious Objector" Photo by Theresa Squire

"Parlor Song," a familiar tune
"Parlour Song," like Jez Butterworth's two other plays staged at Atlantic Theater Company, "Mojo" and "The Night Heron," takes place in contemporary Great Britain, in an area somewhere close to London. But the drama offers an apt depiction of a familiar, bleak view of the alienated, isolated and empty life endured by many couples. By Paulanne Simmons.

Lynn Redgrave and Oscar Isaac in MCC Theater's production of "Grace." Photo by Joan Marcus.

Looking for God Off-Broadway
What is Grace? In Mick Gordon and AC Grayling's play by the same name, now making its American premiere at the Lucille Lortel Theater, grace is two things. It's the name of the principal character, a mother, wife, professor and confirmed atheist. It's also that state one achieves through what the dictionary calls "the unmerited love and favor of God toward mankind." By Paulanne Simmons.

Christine Ebersole as Margo Channing in "Applause." Photo by Joan Marcus.

Four Days of Applause
"Applause," the 1970 Tony-winning musical hasn't been seen on Broadway for more than 35 years. Happily for those who remember its fine score and saucy dialogue, as well as those who need to be introduced to the show, "Applause" is part of this season's City Center Encores! series. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Glimpses of the Moon" Is Jazzy and Juicy
Based on a novel by Edith Wharton, "Glimpses of the Moon" has a book and lyrics by Tajlei Levis and music by John Mercurio. Composer and lyricist have created a score with clever lines and catchy melodies that pay tribute to the likes of Cole Porter and the Gershwins. By Paulanne Simmons.

Star Gazing at the Judson Memorial Church
''The Great Nebula in Orion'' is one of a trilogy by Wilson that composer Kenneth Fuchs scored. There are some exciting phrases and instalments, when sound becomes architectural and music, voices and mood achieve a rare beauty and complexity. But the musical whole does not consistently command attention and interest. The script itself is more an exercise for two actors than a developed short play. The women never achieve significant contact or conflict despite some genuine human moments of cattiness, jealousy and discomfort. The score serves as a thread instead of stepping into the gaps and offering more drama and deeper emotional context. The singers, however, excel. Their voices tell the human story in many colors and tones, effortlessly and as a natural extension of their acting. They move well on the comfortable, elegant set with lighting by Richard Currie and direction by Wallace Norman, Artistic Director of Woodstock Fringe, the co-producer . By Glenda Frank.

Philip J. Cutrone, Marianna McClellan in "Apartment 3A." Photo by Kat Cheng

"Apartment 3A" Opens Doors of Hope
Two years ago Paulanne Simmons reviewed "Apartment 3A" at ArcLight Theater and liked it. Now Jeff Daniels' fine piece of work is at Beckett Theatre, presented by the young and vibrant Clockwork Theatre, and she loves it.

Water Running Under Ice
"Maudie and Jane" was written by Luciano Nattino but based on Doris Lessing's story, "The Diary of Jane Somers." Hanon Reznikov has translated the play from the Italian and directed it for The Living Theater, casting Judith Malina as Maudie and Pat Russell as Jane. The production does for theater what Erica Jong and Philip Roth did for novels in the 70s. By Ellen W. Lytle.

Lisa Emery and Terry Layman in Keen Company's production of "The Maddening Truth." Photo by Theresa Squire

"The Maddening Truth" Makes Words Count
David Hay, whose "The Maddening Truth" is now being staged by Keen Company under the direction of Carl Forsman, is a writer on art and architecture, and a contributor to The New York Times, Men's Vogue and New York Magazine. All of this is clearly evident in his new play. "The Maddening Truth" takes a look at Hemmingway's third wife, Martha Gellhorn, and her heroic attempt in her mid-60s to write a novel with the same kind of stature achieved by those of her husband. It is a play about people, places and times. But most of all it is a play about ideas. When the dust settles, what this play does make obvious is that creativity is not passive, but it is painful. In Gelllhorn's triumphant BBC reading with Geoffrey Brooks (Layman), her limpid prose is searing and revelatory; and Forsman knows how to let the words speak for themselves, with no gimmicks and no bells and whistles. "The Maddening Truth" is making its premiere in the 21st century. But there is something about this play that hearkens back to another time: a time when words counted and people were willing to pay attention long enough to listen and think about them. This alone cause for celebration. By Paulanne Simmons.

Mike Shimkin, Ashton Crosby and Dustin Olson in "Slaughterhouse Five Or: The Children's Crusade." Photo by Donata Zanott

Godlight Illuminates "Slaughterhouse-Five"
Turning a novel into a play is no easy matter; but when the novel happens to be Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-five," the difficulties might seem insurmountable. Fortunately, Eric Simonson has created an excellent adaptation that is both faithful to the original novel and eminently dramatic, and Godlight Theatre Company handles this production with great care, energy and expertise. By Paulanne Simmons.

A Hundred Characters for "The 39 Steps"
If you are old enough to remember Alfred Hitchcock's fabulous script, its intricate design, its suspense, and amusing chase between the hero and the spy masters, then you will certainly appreciate this spoof of Hitchcock's. Imagine three men and a single woman playing all the roles that encompass the entire movie from the beginning to the end; and this they do so brilliantly that it is impossible to tell that the actors are playing multiple characters. How does this production, so cleverly directed by Maria Aitken, get this story in shape? She had only four actors who seem as if they are improvising. Within a minute they change from one character to another. Sometimes they run across the stage, existing from the right only to re-enter left, almost instantly. These actors have the agility of clowns as they depict changes of scenery with a variety of body movements. They walk, glide, run, exit, enter. Few props are used: a wooden frame becomes a window, certain body movements by the cast indicate a moving train, or a mountainous climb all this is accomplished by the actors' perfect timing. By Margaret Croyden.

Fiona Shaw as Winnie in "Happy Days" by Samuel Beckett, directed by Deborah Warner, National Theatre of Great Britain, photo by Richard Termine.

The Search for "Happy Days"
There are two characters in Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days." One is Winnie, a fifty-year-old woman who cannot walk because she is partially buried, or literally in a hole. The other is her husband, Willie, a sixty-year-old man who cannot talk. Or rather a man who can only occasionally talk in monosyllables and grunts. Winnie, on the other hand, can certainly talk. And that she does, incessantly. Many people regard Beckett's plays as abstract, obscure and intellectual. The National Theatre of Great Britain's production, directed by Deborah Warner, brilliantly exposes the emotional core of Beckett's tragicomic view of life. By Paulanne Simmons.

"No Regrets: The Remarkable Barb Jungr" at the Metropolitan Room.

Barb Jungr is Smokin' in "No Regrets: The Remarkable Barb Jungr"
Barb Jungr is sultry in a way that makes one think of crowded bistros entered through a beaded door, dimly lit and filled with smoke. Cigarettes are now banned in most public places. But, have no fear, Jungr provides her own smoke. By Paulanne Simmons.

Fourteenth Annual "Spoken Word Extravaganza"
Futurus Lux is the latin name for future light, the fourteenth annual 'spoken word extravaganza' at the Bowery Poetry Club. As most of you know the original idea of founder Bruce Weber was to have an alternative to the poetry politics of the St. Marks' Poetry Project; that is to have absolutely free of charge, freedom to express performances that would last all day and all evening so almost all the poets and musicians who want to read or perform, may. It works. By Ellen W. Lytle.

Kymm Zuckert as Caliban, Alexandra Devin as Stephano, and Sarah Hankins as Trinculo in The Tempest, photo by Kimberly Zuckert.

The Women Take Over "The Tempest"
In recent years we have seen directors stage numerous successful all-male versions of Shakespeare's plays, most notably Edward Hall's Propeller Company's all-male productions of Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" and "Twelfth Night." So an all-female production of the Bard might be a long time coming. "The Tempest" at Wings Theater begins with a long and somewhat contrived narrative of past events in which Prospero tells his daughter, Miranda (Kendall Rileigh) how years ago his brother Antonio (Kim Carlson), stole the dukedom of Milan from him, and cast him off to sea along with his baby, Miranda. On the lonely island where they now reside, Prospero found Caliban (the excellent Kymm Zuckert), the vulgar son of the witch Sycorax, and Ariel (Kerry Shear), a spirit whom Caliban had imprisoned. After releasing Ariel, Prospero made both Caliban and Ariel his servants through his expert use of magic. By Paulanne Simmons.

"The Seafarer" -- At last, a Winner!
If you want to see terrific acting on the Broadway stage (which is rare) you must see Conor McPherson's new play, "The Seafarer" at the Booth theater. There, five actors will show you how group acting can make a simple drama compelling. As expected in a McPherson play, the story takes place in a provincial town outside of Dublin where four friends meet to celebrate Christmas, beginning with Christmas Eve morning and ending Christmas Eve night. In Richard's (Jim Norton) run down, shabby house, each man is eager to indulge his ritual--playing poker and drinking. Drinking, the endless talk about it, the search for it, are the principle obsessions of this besotted group. And they will do anything to procure the precious alcohol which unites them in a common bond. By Margaret Croyden.

The Devil's Disciple -- Lorenzo Pisoni and Cristin Milioti. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

"The Devil's Disciple" Is Filled with Wit and Wisdom
George Bernard Shaw's "The Devil's Disciple," presents us with three intriguing men: Anthony Anderson, a preacher doing God's work; Dick Dudgeon, the elder son in a Puritan family, who considers himself a renegade, a disciple of the devil; and General Burgoyne, a cynical and pragmatic military man. By Paulanne Simmons.

SYMPATHY FROM AN IMPOSTER -- In "Is He Dead" by Mark Twain, cross-dressing Francoise Millet (Norbert Leo Burtz) embraces the comely Marie Leroux (Jenn Gambatese). Photo by Joan Marcus.

"Is He Dead" by Michael Blakemore
"Is He Dead?" has none of the biting wit and dark humor that made Twain famous. It is a broad farce that owes more to vaudeville than the legitimate theater. By Paulanne Simmons.

Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad
"Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad" is a timely chronicle of deep disappointment and unfulfilled desires painted over with songs, comedy, dance and joy from assimilated Jewish women who want it all. Fame, fortune, love and family. The poetical angst of learning that coming to New York, trying to be modern, hip, and Jewish in cold, cold show business, has a personal toll. By Larry Litt.

"Rock 'N' Roll" by Tom Stoppard
In "Rock 'N' Roll," Tom Stoppard, Britain's most erudite and scholarly playwright, has once again tackled political and historical problems on repression and revolution in 20th century Czechoslovakia during the Cold war--a perfect background for arguments about Marxism, socialism, Soviet oppression, and revolution and its effect on human character. By Margaret Croyden.

The Pearl Theatre Company Keeps "The Constant Couple" Young
In "The Constant Couple," five men vie for the beautiful and rich Lady Lurewell (Rachel Botchan), a woman who's traumatic first experience with love has made her determined never to love again. By Paulanne Simmons.

Richard III at CSC
Some Richards glower. Some limp around the stage and sneer. Some simply look dyspeptic. But Michael Cumpsty's King Richard III, the most evil and beloved of all Shakespeare's villain, smiles with unsullied delight. He adores this game of bloody politics. Ticking off the murdered players is his opiate of choice. The blending of this upbeat villainy with some judicious editing makes this "Richard III" at Classic Stage Company, directed jointly by Cumpsty and Brian Kulick, the Artistic Director of CSC, compelling, fresh, and exciting. By Glenda Frank.

The Piano Teacher
Mrs. K, the title character in Julia Cho's new play, "The Piano Teacher," is an aging widow who lives in a fussy, old-fashioned house with her old baby grand piano and her memories. By Paulanne Simmons.

"THE ROUND OF PLEASURE" IS A VIENNESE TREAT -- Werner Schwab's play, based on Schnitzler's "La ROnde" has ten assignations, just like the original. Here, Catherine Correa (Prostitute) consorts with Peter Schmitz (Member of Parliament).

"The Round of Pleasure" by Werner Schwab
We have playwrights like Austria's Werner Schwab in this country. Playwirghts who see through all the major and minor hypocrisies of our contemporary lives. But can they tell their stories without schmaltz, without making you want to cry? Because our American version of the human condition is that somewhere there's a better life for us? Yeah right. Not any more. That's why The New Stage Theatre Company's production of Schwab's "The Round of Pleasure" is a Viennese treat, a rich dessert from Mittel Europa that breaks all the artificially imposed rules of political correctness. Call it anti-Kushner to a stylistic extreme. "Round" has no social conscience, while also having as complete a picture of society's moral hypocrisies and ethical duplicities as one can get in an hour and a half. By Larry Litt.

Cyrano de Kevin Kline
Edmond Rostand's 19th century classic play "Cyrano de Bergerac" has always attracted stars and over the years many have tried their hand at it. In the past Jose Ferrer played it on stage and screen, and even the French leading man Gerard Depardieu stared in the original French version. Margaret Croyden assesses Kevin Kline's stab at the role.

Pygmaleon in the Roundabout
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Directed by David Grindley Margaret Croyden attends Shaw's "Pygmaleon," directed by David Grindley at the Roundabout, and comes out filled with praise for the author. The production, she relates, was enjoyable but not without its flaws.

John Jesurun's Philoktetes
John Jesurun's Philoktetes is definitely not a gay romp in ancient Greece. It is a poetic masterpiece that made me close my eyes so I could hear and digest the brilliance of his language. By Larry Litt.

Night Over Taos
In its frenetic search for the next new voice or style, the many theatre festivals in New York have been demonstrating the need for craft – and with craft the American masters whose work has fallen by the wayside. The award-winning Mint Theatre and Transport Group at the Connelly Center have been holding the banner high. Recently INTAR, under the guidance of Eduardo Machado, has joined them with Maxwell Anderson's "Night over Taos." The 1932 play offers audiences both the historical and the contemporary -- thanks in large part to the insight of director Estelle Parsons. The play runs almost three hours but time flies by. It is hard to come by that sense of real satisfaction from ticket prices this reasonable. By Glenda Frank.

"Electra" from National Theatre of Greece at City Center
When Sigmund Freud read Sophocles' tragedy about family murder and obsession, he recognized the pathology and so titled a daughter's infatuation for her father an Electra complex. The National Theatre of Greece has brought us the original, slightly adapted but still in Greek (modern) with supertitles, and staged by the internationally celebrated German director Peter Stein at City Center's Main Stage. The return of the national theatre for six performances at City Center is always an event, but this year it is a little disappointing. The production has many impressive moments, but it is emotionally unengaging. By Glenda Frank.

Tim Ryan Meinelschmidt in "Who Do You Think You Are" at 78th Street Theatre Lab. Photo by N. Rainford.

"All The Help You Need"
Working with director Christopher Fessenden, Tim Ryan Meinelschmidt has turned his true-life experiences as an actor supplementing his income by hiring himself out as a jack-of-all-trades into a monologue filled with humor and pathos. By Paulanne Simmons.

"Sive"
John B. Keane's first play, "Sive," originally produced in 1959 and this season at The Irish Repertory Theatre, is a simple but moving family drama set in Ireland during the days when the country was still poor. By Paulanne Simmons.

Marty Maguire and Johnny Hopkins in "Rock Doves." Photo by Jaisen Crockett.

"Rock Doves" Is Heartbreaking and Hilarious
"Rock Doves" is set in a derelict house on the fringes of a Protestant Estate in inner-city Belfast. The IRA boys are all drinking cappuccinos in Armani suites. But the Loyalists have found it difficult to adjust. By Paulanne Simmons.

Angela Reed and Mark Alhadeff in "The Power of Darkness." Photo by Rahav Segev.

"The Power of Darkness" Has Great Dramatic Strength
Tolstoy's "The Power of Darkness" does not just expose the depths to which immoral persons can sink. It also reveals the saving power of faith in the Lord's goodness and mercy. By Paulanne Simmons.

Mystery and Mayhem in "Jewel Thieves!"
If Agatha Christie had written comedies, the result might have been something like Norman Beim's "Jewel Thieves!" now making its New York premiere at The Turtle's Shell Theater. By Paulanne Simmons.

Walmartopia
It's easy to target Wal-Mart, but doing it as tunefully as Catherine Capellaro (book) and Andrew Rohn (music and lyrics) in their new musical, "Walmartopia," directed by Daniel Goldstein at The Minetta Lane Theatre, is another matter. By Paulanne Simmons.

Johannes Dokchtor Faust, with Czech Puppets
In the United States puppetry is dominated by the Muppets and children's entertainment. So it may come as some surprise that the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre has chosen for its latest production the centuries-old story of the learned Johannes Faust, who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for ultimate knowledge. The company's "Johannes Dochtor Faust" is filled with clever effects and brilliant staging. By Paulanne Simmons.

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