Review: A Great ‘Fat Ham’ Turns The Bard Upside Down

Review: A Great ‘Fat Ham’ Turns The Bard Upside Down

BY MICHAEL MUSTO | Anyone craving a straightforward modern interpretation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet should get themselves to a nunnery instead. Fat Ham—James Ijames’ Pulitzer-winning new play, which has come to Broadway after a run produced by the Public Theater and National Black Theatre—is much more ambitious than that. Using the basic plot themes […]

Glorious, Fierce, Sorrowful, Witty: Songs & Sketches from a ‘Cabaret in Captivity’

Glorious, Fierce, Sorrowful, Witty: Songs & Sketches from a ‘Cabaret in Captivity’

BY TRAV S.D. | There is no adjective, certainly none in English anyway, to describe the emotions stirred up by Cabaret in Captivity: Songs and Sketches Written in Terezin, presented by Untitled Theater Company No. 61 (UTC61) as part of the National Jewish Theater Foundation’s Holocaust Theater Initiative. “Bittersweet” doesn’t cover it, for “bitter” won’t do […]

Warhol/Basquiat ‘Collaboration’ Sputters at Start, then Serves a Fully Rewarding Canvas

Warhol/Basquiat ‘Collaboration’ Sputters at Start, then Serves a Fully Rewarding Canvas

BY MICHAEL MUSTO | In The Collaboration—written by the quadruple Oscar-nominated Anthony McCarten—Andy Warhol’s real-life, 1984 creative partnership with Jean-Michel Basquiat is played out as a battle (and sort of ultimate romance) between two polar opposites of the art world. Warhol (played by Paul Bettany) is calculated and surfacy, but feels his star has somewhat faded […]