AH, YOUTH! 

Being “of a certain age” I’ve often observed facetiously that the world is 28 years old.  At the August Wilson Theatre there is no better proof of that than the audience, which delights -almost cultishly - to the musical version of the 2004 teen comedy movie...

The New Group’s production of JERRY SPRINGER THE OPERA explodes as outrageous moral fantasia, lewd, cultural carnival, and black-humored political satire in the first, New York full staging of the British 2003 Olivier-award winning musical.   Perfectly conceived for a...

Theater lovers like myself who love theater because it takes us to a place we can’t get to on our own will love Frank Boyd’s THE HOLLER SESSIONS, in too brief a run at the Ancram Opera House.  Frank loves jazz because it takes him to a place he can’t get to on his own....

Lillian Hellman’s THE LITTLE FOXES, superbly staged in revival at Manhattan Theatre Club, is as satisfying as theatre gets. In this cautionary, intriguing tale of one woman’s greed and struggle for freedom, the setting is Alabama in 1900. Regina Hubbard Gibbons fights...

NORA'S BACK
Lucas Hnath’s A DOLL’S HOUSE, PART 2 is the freshest playwriting on Broadway this season, ingeniously conceived, economically executed. The premise – what happens if Ibsen’s Nora returns to confront her husband after having abandoned him and her infant chil...

Good, old-fashioned American grit and determination get adrenalized in the ambitious musical BANDSTAND. The star of the show is the non-stop, uber-kinetic movement and dance by Andy Blankenbuehler, who also directs, fresh off his dazzling, award-winning choreography fo...

Every actor who’s played Dolly Levi - from the original Dolly, Carol Channing, to even stand-up comic Phyllis Diller - has informed the role with her own persona. Dolly’s perfect for any diva: she was written by playwright Michael Stewart and lyricist and composer Jerr...

Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s newest play , HOW TO TRANSCEND A HAPPY MARRIAGE, doesn’t quite transcend her habit of churning out narratively challenged and thematically ambitious work,  but it’s an improvement, especially on last year’s , inert THE OLDEST BOY, which was also...

Goodwill overflows in the heartwarming, home-grown Canadian musical COME FROM AWAY, based on true stories of American air passengers grounded in Newfoundland for the fateful week of 9/11. Playwrights, composers and lyricists Irene Sankoff and David Hein meld the tales...

If you liked NOISES OFF, you’ll love the Mischief Theatre’s production THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, imported from the West End, about an amateur, community theatre production of a hackneyed, Agatha Christie-wannabe, murder whodunit. Not only does it out-farce NOISES OFF,...