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 […]
BY TRAV S.D. | For almost 40 years Epstein and Hassan (Steve Krantz and Naima Hassan) formed a romantic and artistic partnership which saw them through a series of two-person shows, bookings in variety settings like burlesque bills and launch parties, as well as their own podcasts and radio programs. Billing themselves as “The Black […]
BY MICHAEL MUSTO | Can a photo elicit multiple narratives, if taken out of context? That’s just one of the themes infusing Pictures From Home, an intermissionless, one hour 45-minute family play by Sharr White based on the photo memoir by late photographer Larry Sultan. Other themes that turn up involve damaging interfamilial dynamics, the […]
BY CHARLES BATTERSBY | Over the last decade the “Sick Lit” genre of young adult fiction has grown in popularity. Tragic tales of teenagers with terminal illnesses have filled stages, pages, and movie screens, but Kimberly Akimbo has a clever twist: Its teenage heroine has a rare aging disease, and she looks like a woman […]
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 […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | It’s a case of Local Boy born and raised in NYC who moves away, gets some schooling academic and otherwise, garners raves for his stage work in Boston and London, has his heart broken into tiny pieces, and scours the carpeting for the shards with which to commence its reconstruction—oh yeah, […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Debuting as part of New York Theater Festival’s Winterfest, Chelsea resident David Allard’s Pañuelos brings, he says, “a queer narrative” to the history of Argentina’s “Dirty War” (aka Process of National Reorganization, or El Proceso). This it does by devoting a great deal of its upfront time to Daniel Romero, a […]
BY MICHAEL MUSTO | There are two varieties of jukebox shows, and I’m getting weary of the first kind: The type where they pick a Boomer-beloved musical group or icon (Carole King, Cher, the Four Seasons) and tell their story, spanning their success despite the challenges, followed by more challenges, then—surprise—more success. And in the […]
BY CHARLI BATTERSBY | Company XIV, the nimble burlesque troupe behind the recently reviewed Seven Sins and the annual destination holiday event Nutcracker Rouge, has a new venue with a new show and a clever plan to draw audiences. Cocktail Magique is a cocktail-themed magic/burlesque extravaganza, and it’s certainly a crowd pleaser, given that the […]
BY SCOTT STIFFLER | Like rocking out to the sweet riffs of a Bob Seeger song after years of irony-only listening, writer/performer Bruce McCulloch’s autumnal residency at Soho Playhouse reveals heretofore hidden depths to the stellar ensemble comedian, whose work with The Kids in the Hall is peppered with mission-focused loners and sweet searchers yearning […]