A Sneak Peek at Perfection: “Monster Love” Promises a Musical Revolution

              In the realm of modern musical theater, Krista Weaver’s "Monster Love" emerges as a captivating revelation that, even in its unfinished state, showcases the potential for innovation, emotion, and the delicate dance between comedy and tragedy. This isn’t merely a musical; it’s a tapestry of intricate emotions, with lyrics and melodies that linger long after the curtain falls. Set against the backdrop of idealistic aspirations for Broadway’s future, "Monster Love" demonstrates the profound impact of blending the humorous and the heart-wrenching. Act One, Scene One: A Magical Beginning The journey begins in an enchanting forest, enveloped in moonlight, where the unique character

Grief Camp: Coping with Loss

Grief certainly makes for good drama: Unpredictable, unreliable and messy, it can be a great basis for an emotionally intense play. Unfortunately, in Grief Camp, the new play written by Eliya Smith in her off-Broadway debut running through May 11 at the Atlantic Theater Company, grief is less dramatic than it is befuddling. The play appears to follow a group of kids and young adults who have gathered at a camp in aptly named Hurt, Virginia, to attend the titular camp and mourn their losses together. The kids grieve in different ways: One is writing a solo play that becomes increasingly

Floyd Collins: Finding Fortune & Glory

The cavernous Vivian Beaumont theater at Lincoln Center is a surprisingly brilliant choice for staging the Broadway premiere of Floyd Collins, Tina Landau and Adam Guettel’s 1994 musical about a man trapped in a tunnel dozens of feet underground. While the stage itself is massive, Landau’s intelligent staging, dots’ effective sets and Scott Zielinski’s haunting lighting create a sense of claustrophobia that only grows as the show goes on. Based on the true story of one of America’s first media circuses, the musical follows the titular Floyd, a working-class man who, in 1925, set out to find a subterranean cave that

Churchill One Acts: Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp

Caryl Churchill is famous—or perhaps infamous—for taking bold leaps in her plays and circumventing both theatrical conventions and audience expectations, leveraging both fantasy and surrealism to comment on the world as it is and as it could be. A series of her one-act-plays, now running at the Public Theater through May 11, is an excellent sampler of her unique style—but unfortunately, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp is uneven in balancing that style with substance. The first act is the first three plays, with the much longer one, Imp, making up act two of the evening. Glass follows several inanimate

Ghosts: Ibsen for a New Generation

After a season of “reimaginings” of classic works that completely overhaul original concepts, it is somewhat refreshing to have a more traditional revival of Ghosts, Henrik Ibsen’s classic that is ending its run next weekend at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. The 1882 play tackles infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases, incest and euthanasia across different levels of Norwegian society, following a mother, her son and other people in their orbit as devastating family secrets come to light. The salacious subject matter was shocking for its time, and sparked a vitriolic pushback from the public — including royalty — before it was eventually

A Night in November – New York Irish Center

The play's title is a reference to one of the most important nights in Irish soccer (football), the night in 1993 when Ireland and Northern Ireland played to a 1-1 draw. That was good enough to send Ireland through to the World Cup in the USA in 1994. This play is not about football, though. It is about tribes and tribalism, making it a contemporary subject not a historical one. Kenneth Normal McAllister (Allan Smyth) is a dole clerk at the Department of Health and Social Security in Belfast. He is a Protestant and rather proud of it. His position gives

Tom Moran is a Big, Fat, Filthy, Disgusting Liar – Irish Repertory Theatre

Tom Moran has brought his one-man show to New York as part of the Origin First Irish Festival, and it is the kind of production that makes this sort of festival so wonderful. Moran is a charming, thoughtful and quite funny fellow, who believes if the audience got to really know him, they would hate him. Even so, quite the opposite is true. Moran is a self-described people-pleaser, and he has spent most of his 31 years on this planet trying to make sure everyone is always OK. Aiding him (for want of a better verb) are his parents who seem

Old Friends: Celebrating a Master’s Art

One of Stephen Sondheim’s most famous maxims was that a musical’s content should dictate each song’s form—in other words, the framework of the musical itself will determine what the songs should sound like. This can make taking the songs out of the full musical work challenging, since they are so intricately entwined into the musicals they come from. In creating Old Friends, a Sondheim revue running through June 15 at Manhattan Theatre Club, creator Cameron Mackintosh and director Matthew Bourne try to have it both ways. Some songs are performed as in a concert, with performers in formal dress singing directly

“Old Friends” Are Making New Friends On Broadway

“Old Friends,” the joyous Sondheim revue now gracing the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, is less a show and more a heartfelt celebration—a Broadway party where every guest is an absolute legend! With Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga leading the charge, the audience is in for a storm of emotions strong enough to make even the thickest mascara run. Heaven help those who don’t come prepared with tissues! Bernadette Peters as Dot From "Sunday In The Park With George" Bernadette Peters returns to her iconic role as Dot from "Sunday In The Park With George" with a flair that is nothing short of

Buena Vista Social Club: Celebrating Cuban Music and Culture

While any number of musicals are based on popular movies, precious few are based on documentaries. Fortunately, Saheem Ali had the wonderful idea to bring Wim Wender’s 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club to the stage. After a run at Atlantic Theater Company in late 2023, the celebration of Cuban music and history has come to Broadway. The musical’s (rather thin) story evokes the melodrama of classic telenovelas, with a romance that is star-crossed by class divisions and a passionate artist who must choose between creating music for the world or for her own community. In 1959, as revolution sweeps across

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