Wednesday, September 17, 2025
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
Reviews
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
SKIN – A Broken Box Mime Theater performance at A.R.T/New York
I did not know that I would love 90 minutes of traditional mime so much. But I did. Nine performers, in mime white make-up masks, performing a series of scenes and moments, managed to be both captivating and surprising, and I was amazed at how deeply I responded to this skilled and brilliantly executed performing art form. My vocabulary for mime is not very big. I immediately default to thinking about the man in the box, the rope puller, the mime mimic performing street theatre at a tourist intersection. SKIN takes that and tosses it out the moment the lights go
Colin Quinn Red State Blue State at Minetta Lane Theatre Unites a Nation Divided with Humor and Wisdom
Comedian Colin Quinn has been referred to as a “satirical sage from Brooklyn.” It’s an apt title for the performer who took the stage of the Minetta Lane Theatre to a packed house for his new solo show, Red State Blue State. With his scruffy facial hair -- not quite a beard but well past the hour of a 5 o’clock shadow, now with more salt than pepper -- the alumni of MTV, Comedy Central and SNL both looks and acts the part of a wise, witty and wistful observer reflecting on our drastically divided nation without malice, blame or
BroadwayCon Once Again Connects With The Fans
I first covered BroadwayCon for The New York Theatre Guide in 2016 when it arrived at the Jacob Javits Center. As I continue to live the life of someone who won't say no to anything, I found myself at The New York Hilton in Manhattan this past weekend January 11th to 13th, covering BroadwayCon once again this time for StageBiz.com. BroadwayCon is a convention in the vain of ComicCon except, well, Broadway. From seminars to classes, to a kitsch mall, to thousands of cosplayers. I saw more Mary Poppinses than you could wink a nose at. BroadwayCon is a place