Art

Music Box Theatre
in ,

5 out of 5 Stars

Currently in previews and opening on September 16th, Art is a dazzling revival of Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award–winning play, starring Bobby Cannavale, Neil Patrick Harris, and James Corden. This extraordinary exploration of the complexity of male friendships keeps the audience enthralled from start to finish.

At its heart lies a provocative question: can what is essentially a white canvas truly be considered art and is it possibly worth a small fortune. More importantly, can such a question unravel and even threaten to destroy 25 years of friendship? As alliances shift and tempers flare, the play reveals the fragility and resilience of human connection with acerbic wit.

Combining raw vulnerability with perfect comedic timing, each star seizes their moment to completely command the audience. The dialogue is mesmerizing, and the laughter is continuous, accented by occasional bursts of spontaneous applause. The synergy of these three actors makes the production percolate with energy.

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Summer, 1976

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
in ,


4 out of 5 Stars

The title alone of Summer, 1976 sets the stage for the joyful, consuming experience awaiting you at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. For many of us, it is easy to dial back to precisely the time of our lives when this story sets sail. Adding to the delight of this tale is that we theatergoers get to spend this summer afternoon in the company of theater royalty - Jessica Hecht and Laura Linney.

For 90 minutes, the pair volleyed back and forth with their perspectives on the relationship that developed that summer. It is ordinary in that we have all felt or witnessed many of the components of their experiences, yet extraordinary in the cleverness of their storytelling. Many times during the course of this play you will have the “oh, I can see where this is going” moment only to be surprised and delighted by the unexpected twists and turns. It also evokes a time when the unpolished veneer of youth allows us to dream big before adult experiences begin grinding into our reality.

This stage is mostly bare, with the actors providing everything you need to be fully engrossed and dare I say mesmerized. These two actors effortlessly pivot whenever additional characters are needed to fill the required roles. In the end, you will have had a profoundly satisfying experience of what Bob Dylan would describe as “life and life only”. See the show.

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Prima Facie

Golden Theatre
in ,


5 out of 5 Stars

Sometimes you can trudge your way through a theater season wondering if there is something else you might be doing with your time and money. To bring those concerns to a complete halt, get tickets to Prima Facie starring Jodie Comer at the Golden Theatre. 

Ms. Comer, known to many for her knockout performance in the TV series Killing Eve, provides Broadway magic at its finest. This show hits its mark in every category of theater production. It is the most powerful thing I have seen in the last five years. The issues of #MeToo, sexual assault, and no-means-no are presented and brought to life in a form that is purely visceral. In the way a girl’s simple diary can tell the entire story of the Holocaust, this story encapsulates the awakening of our collective consciousness to the realities faced by women since the beginning of time.

Despite this being a one-woman show there is no shortage of depicted characters provided by Ms. Comer in her Broadway debut. Following the arc of this story is simply electrifying with equal credit given to playwright Suzie Miller who won the 2023 Olivier Award for Best New Play. Lighting, Direction, and Sound all fall perfectly into place making this an unparalleled theatrical experience you may need to see more than once. I believe it is a Tony Award shoo-in for at least Best Play and Best Actor. If I have one recommendation this year it is - do not miss this show! An extraordinary experience awaits you. The buzz is big so get your tickets soon.

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The Lifespan of a Fact

Studio 54
in ,

4 out of 5 Stars

What is The Lifespan of a Fact? Our current political landscape brings lots of questions about facts to the forefront. The emergence of real “fake news” (we are not talking about you, New York Times) has truly undermined some of our faith in reality.

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The Waverly Gallery

Golden Theatre
in ,

4 out of 5 Stars

As some baby boomers begin to dwindle off into the twilight realm of dementia, the individual stories of mental decline have become so numerous. One might confuse the The Waverly Gallery as just another tale of this journey into mental oblivion. The real story in this well written, well-acted production is the performance of the main actor, Elaine May, and supportive family members.

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The Children

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
in ,

4.5 out of 5 Stars

I’ll keep this brief because the fun part of The Children is answering all the questions that you might otherwise look to a review to prepare. Who are these people? What is their relationship? Where are we? (The curtain rises on a set that is truly mundane, with one twist that puts you on an edge you didn’t know you had for the whole show). WHEN are we?

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Farinelli and the King

Belasco Theatre
in ,

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Mark Rylance is theater’s greatest living actor. Before I had ever even heard of him,  I was informed of this by a reliable source - our theater-going friend Margaret. Just before the start of the show, Mr. Rylance’s position in the pantheon of actors was spontaneously reconfirmed by the young woman serving me milk duds and scotch. Two rounds of Nice Fish at St Ann’s Warehouse and his Academy Award-winning performance in Bridge of Spies have only further served to support Margaret’s claim.

When you enter the Balasco Theatre, you are immersed in 18th century Spain with the costumes, the candlelight, and era-appropriate instruments setting the tone for this ethereal musical.  Farinelli and the King is based on the psychologically tortured life of King Phillipe the V and the castrato Farinelli. These two unlikely friends form a bond that spans nine years and brings respite to the King and the harried Spanish court.

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Oslo

Lincoln Center Theater - Vivian Beaumont
in

Guest Review

Oslo, directed by Bartlett Sher, is a very interesting play. It examines the efforts of a few daring individuals who challenged conventional (and ineffective) diplomacy in 1993, creating a secret back channel through which representatives of Israel and the PLO - entities that until that point had either denied the other’s legitimacy or promised its annihilation to meet and negotiate.   They introduced the concept of gradualism versus totalism, fostered by the then-novel concept that the negotiators should actually know each other as human beings. 

Does that make it sound dry?  It does sound dry.  Yet however improbably, the play is riveting.

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The Little Foxes

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
in ,

4 out of 5 Stars

Lillian Hellman’s play, The Little Foxes (Tony Award nomination – Best Revival), was first performed on Broadway in 1939 but it remains a thoroughly modern play with themes that are relevant today.  Grab the arms of your seat and be prepared for heaping doses of greed, sibling rivalry, scheming, manipulation, exploitation of the community, self-aggrandizement, domestic abuse, racial bias, parent/child clashes, and more greed.

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The Price

American Airlines Theatre
in ,

3.5 out of 5 Stars

Arthur Miller’s play, The Price, does something that most Miller plays don’t do; it will make you laugh.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t heavy moments, this is Arthur Miller after all, and there are no light moments in the likes of The Crucible, Incident at Vichy, Death of a Salesman, or A View from the Bridge. But this play has charm and wit to go along with the heavy bits.

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Long Day's Journey Into Night

American Airlines Theater
in

"The past is the present, isn't it?  It's the future, too"  These are the words said by Mary Tyrone midway through the first act of Long Day’s Journey Into Night.  This line perhaps more than anything summarizes the story of this American family.  Through three and three-quarters hours on high simmer, the ingredients in our pot don’t seem to change as much as simply thicken.

This is the American classic by Eugene O’Neill, lauded by many as one of the great dramatic works, is beyond a doubt worthy of its praise. 

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A View From the Bridge

Lyceum Theatre
in

This is the third Broadway production of A View From the Bridge that I have seen. It is a rave-reviewed, three-time Olivier Award winning (Best Revival, Best Director, Best Actor) London transplant. We decided to ride the wave of Arthur Miller productions to honor the 100th anniversary of this birth.  About mid-way through the show, I wondered if I had ever experienced this before.  This is A View that I have never seen.

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Blackbird

Belasco Theatre
in

The historical events that brought us to this bleak break room occurred 15 years ago.  These events were neither random nor premeditated.  They are simply occurrences that unfold on the fringes of the human experience.  That being said, our 90 minutes of theater revolve around the ripple effect seen at this later date.  This is what makes the play, Blackbird, fascinating. 

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