Thursday, November 20, 2025
There’s only one other full-size Broadway musical revival in town right now, that thing uptown about Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, so fans of golden age musicals had better hie themselves to Kiss Me Kate. But on arriving, they may find the 1948 classic, with a book by Sam and Bella Spewack and a career-high score by Cole Porter, has been tampered with to an unhealthy degree. To be sure, there’s still plenty of glory for the eye and ear. That starts with Mr. Porter’s fabulous work, a triumph for a composer-lyricist who had thought the then-recent revolution pioneered by Rodgers
Reviews
‘Chimpanzee’ at HERE
Our primate friends and relatives have been taking it on their pronounced chins lately. The orange orangutan resemblance to the president was raucously noted in Adam McKay's brilliantly biting Vice, and Bubbles the chimp's BFF Michael Jackson was openly accused of being a predator in HBO's documentary Leaving Neverland. Then there is the nameless solitary female chimpanzee caged in her own show at HERE. Directed, created and designed by Nick Lehane, Chimpanzee is on exhibit through May 5 at the Dorothy B. Williams Theater. For those who are familiar with or new to HERE's Dream Music Puppetry program, Chimpanzee personifies what they do best: use the inanimate
“Death of a Driver” at Urban Stages
The two hardest types of theatrical production to pull off are polar opposites in complexity. On the one hand, there is the classic Broadway musical that requires a range of talents and has so many moving parts that it's a miracle any of them succeed. On the other, there is the simple play involving two people just talking, which is difficult because so much hinges on so little – just words as they are delivered. Will Snider's “Death of a Driver” is clearly of the latter class, and it is largely successful in delivering the words with a punch. Sarah (Sarah
Twelfth Night At The Sheen Center Black Box Theater
Frog and Peach Theatre Company presents an accessible Twelfth Night stripped of any artifice or extraneous "concept" to deliver an enthusiastic romp through one of Shakespeare's most hilarious comedies. We have all of the ingredients for an attention grabbing show - mistaken identity, gender bender complexities, pranks, fools, bawdy drunkenness, witty repartee, plot twists, disguises and satisfying reveals - all culminating in marriages. This whirlwind is underscored by Ted Zurkowski's glorious, original music. It's a fast-paced hurtle through the text, almost as if the cast are on a revolve and swivel onto stage to drop their plot turn before being
BalletNext at New York Live Arts
If New York City is considered "The Dance Capital of the World," than Utah is "The United State of Dance". For 50+ years it's been home to Ballet West, who made a very strong impression on their last Fall 2016 visit to the Joyce. December 2018 saw the premiere at New York Live Arts of Bears Ears, a thoughtful collaboration between NYC's ZviDance and Repertory Dance Theater of Utah. From February 19-23, New York Live Arts hosted sold-out performances by BalletNext, a dynamic chamber company comprised of University of Utah School of Dance students led by former ABT Principal Michelle Wiles.
Samieva Theater’s ‘Medusa Volution’ at happylucky no.1
To borrow an Amazonian sales tactic, If you liked Madeline Miller's bestseller Circe, you should really catch the last four performances February 21-24 of Sophie Amieva and Suzanne Bagert's Medusa Volution at happylucky no.1. Just as Miller allows the nymph to describe in her own words her special skill set (turning men into pigs), the playwrights and their all-female Samvia Theatre group directed by Amiva create a strong collective voice untangling Greek/Roman mythology's if looks could kill eternal bad hair day. Taking their cue from a throwaway line Ovid's Metamorphosis, Medusa not always sprouted a head of snakes. The priestess's good looks attracted unwanted
Even If It Gets Us Nowhere at Access Theater
This production from The Social Club Theatre is Brechtian in its approach. We truly don't ever get to know the characters, what their jobs are, why they are sharing an apartment – and we don't need to. In yet another season of juke-box musicals on Broadway, the script and the staging are swimming against the stream. This is a piece of theatre that makes one think, not just during the production but the next day and thereafter. Bartholomew (Matthew Zimmerman) and Milo (Justin P. Armstrong) are friends who share a common problem – they're single and don't want to be. In
The Neurology of the Soul -A.R.T./New York Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre
The Neurology of the Soul seeks to quantify the complexities of our passions. Can we measure the intensity of love? Its waxing and waning, its unpredictability, its mystery? This is a fascinating creative deep dive into neuroscience and it's application in 21st century marketing. What ultimately makes us 'tick'? Would our brains, under fMRI, scan reveal our deepest secrets to the scientist monitoring the experiment? Are we keeping secrets from ourselves? What happens to the 'experiment' when a third element/energy/force is added into the mix? How does the data change? This production makes you curious. It inspires a long list
Yaël Farber’s ‘Mies Julie’ at Classic Stage Company
Not that loyal Classic Stage Company attendees need convincing, but updates are one way of attracting an audience. Through March 10, CSC is running two new adaptations of August Strindberg classics. One is Yaël Farber's Mies Julie, a harrowing reinterpretation of the Swedish playwright's most famous work. The darkness within nineteenth century Expressionism invite exploration, and Faber, along with director Shariffa Ali smash every crevice of the contemporary South African farmhouse kitchen where the fatal encounter between Julie (Elise Kibler) and John (James Udom) takes place. Like Strindberg's 1888 original, the 75-minute play focuses on the class war between the bored rich young
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas ‘Verklärte Nacht’ at Baryshnikov Arts Center
About a year from now, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will reach a mainstream audience when she stages the dances for Ivo van Hove's Broadway production of West Side Story. Both she and her company Rosas frequent BAM, various Lincoln Center festivals and Baryshnikov Arts Center, which over this long weekend presented the New York premiere of the Belgian modernist's stunning Verklärte Nacht in the Jerome Robbins Theater. There's no irony intended here. It's BAC's largest performing space and the two choreographers are generationally, aesthetically and fundamentally different from each other. Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), originally choreographed in 1995 and reconstructed in 2014, is based