Jomama Jones on Black Light and Seeing in the Dark
[Original published in Theater Pizzazz, March 1, 2018.] “What if I told you it’s going to be alright? … What if I told you it began tonight?” Somewhere on a […]
Off-Broadway, “An Ordinary Muslim” Offers Extraordinary Journey
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, February 27, 2018.] “The problem is not the Jamaat,” one character declares. “The problem is this family.” “We’ve lost, Dad. There’s nothing for […]
“Kings” Passes Bechdel Test, Drowns in Design
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, February 20, 2018.] In the new play by Sarah Burgess, hyper-aggro sound design nearly ruins the storytelling. Playwright Sarah Burgess plums politics for her newest […]
Adrienne Kennedy’s New Play of Love, Race and Puppets
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, January 30, 2018.] Memories of her white grandfather animate the 86-year-old legend’s first play in a decade. Details of her own rich biography […]
Orlandersmith Finds Documentary Theater in Ferguson, MO
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, January 19, 2018.] A quiet contemplation of America’s newly energized racist past In her resonant work Forever, first staged at Center Theatre Group in 2014 and […]
Nuclear Disaster: Cleaning Up the Mess Three Boomers Leave Behind
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, December 13, 2017.] Big themes and human-scale stories twine with elegance, humor and some horror in Lucy Kirkwood’s play The Children, now running on […]
Hirabayashi Lives On, Still Defending the US Constitution
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, December 10, 2017.] Jeanne Sakata’s one-person play Hold These Truths, running in the basement performance space of the Sheen Center in NYC through Dec. 20, delightfully […]
Miller’s “20th Century Blues”: 40 Years, Four Women Fall Flat
[feature image caption: Ellen Parker, Franchelle Stewart Dorn, Polly Draper and Kathryn Grody ponder 20th Century Blues. Photos: Joan Marcus.] [Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, November 27, 2017.] I […]
Halston on Life and Death and What’s Between
[article as originally published in Theater Pizzazz, November 25, 2017.] Julie Halston is a librarian of memories, a seeker of wisdom in unexpected places, a literary comedian. She’s been reading to […]
Dreamy “Peter Pan” Grows Wild and Full of Bedlam
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, November 21, 2017.] A new adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play Peter Pan presented by the theater company Bedlam and running The Duke through Dec. 23, takes place […]
In Broadway’s Gentlest Musical, Hope Strikes Up the “Band”
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, November 12, 2017.] The wonder holds in The Band’s Visit, the musical dreamscape now on Broadway less than a year after an Off-Broadway unveiling that opened to rapturous reviews. […]
He Said, He Said: “M. Butterfly” Takes Wing on Broadway
[featured image: Clive Owen and Jin Ha in M. Butterfly. Photos: Matthew Murphy.] [Original published Clyde Fitch Report November 1, 2017] Julie Taymor’s elegant revival of David Henry Hwang’s 1988 play M. Butterfly remains a […]
The Home Place: Persnickety Plot Paralyzes Political Play
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, October 11, 2017.] Sometimes a beautiful woman’s yearning gaze isn’t sufficient to hold a piece of theater together that has too many moving […]
Advice and Consent: Nia Vardalos Finds “Tiny Beautiful Things”
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, October 3, 2017.] Tiny Beautiful Things has returned in quiet triumph to the Public Theater after last season’s sold-out engagement in the tiny Shiva […]
Son to Forgive His Betraying Mother? Ask “The Treasurer”
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, September 27, 2017.] What happens to a 13-year-old boy when his mother leaves the family for another life? “She left and poof, there […]
“Mary Jane,” Mom to Chronically Sick Child, Gently Explodes
[Original published in The Clyde Fitch Report, September 27, 2017.] There’s quiet devastation in the all-female voices of Amy Herzog’s Mary Jane, now playing at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop after a run […]
urban excavations 