Monday, April 29, 2024
There is something powerfully cathartic about art created out of trauma, especially when that art reminds us that we aren’t alone in our pain. In Plays for the Plague Year, which opened last night at The Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub, Suzan-Lori Parks reminds her audience that pain shared is halved, but joy shared is doubled. Parks created the piece from March 2020 to April 2021 while the country was in lockdown. Much as she did with 365 Days/365 Plays, Parks wrote one short play (and some songs) for each day, documenting the fear, anger and helplessness that dominated the national discourse
Reviews
Bad Cinderella — Campy, But Not Classic
Yet again, Andrew Lloyd Webber has created a musical with a titular protagonist rejected by mainstream society for not meeting popular beauty standards—but unlike The Phantom of the Opera, Bad Cinderella eschews gothic melodrama in favor of silliness, aiming for laughs that it rarely earns. The setting of this adaptation is Belleville, a town where beauty is prioritized above all else. Only two people in the town do not live up to the community’s surface standards: Cinderella and Prince Sebastian, the new heir to the throne since the disappearance of his older brother Prince Charming. The two, of course, are best
“The Harder They Come” — The Public Theater
The Public Theater presents this stage version of the 1972 film by the same name. It was the first Jamaican feature film, just a decade after independence, and the first film that exposed a world-wide audience to reggae music. Jimmy Cliff played the lead role, Ivanhoe (Ivan) Martin, and for a time, he was the face of reggae before that passed to Bob Marley. While writer-in-residence Suzan-Lori Parker has altered some of the plot for instance, (larger parts for Ivan's mother Daisy and his wife Elsa), she has retained the integrity of the story and theme. “The Harder They Come”
“Becomes a Woman” — New York City Center Stage II
The world knows Betty Smith as the woman who wrote the coming-of-age novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a minor (or arguable a major) American classic. The irony is that she considered herself a playwright rather than a novelist. “Becomes a Woman” has never before been produced, despite winning the Avery Hopwood Award in 1931 at the University of Michigan – along with the princely sum (for the Depression) of $1,000. The Mint Theater Company has seen fit to stage it. I am very glad they did. Emma Pfitzer Price plays the lead role of Francie Nolan (the same name as
Under the Radar Festival: 2023 Highlights
Lovers of avant-garde, cutting-edge performing arts in tune with the current pulse rejoice! The Public Theater’s annual theater festival, Under the Radar, is back after a hiatus since its 2020 edition. This year brought some of the most exciting creators making new work locally, nationally, and globally. This year’s UTR Festival sprawled out across various venues beyond the Public’s Astor Place home, including the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The New York Public Library, and La MaMa, to name those I visited. My final show was a homecoming to Joe’s Pub for New York cabaret artist Salty Brine’s monstrously fun
Quinn’s Quixotic, Quagmire & Laughs At The Lucille Lortel Theater
PHOTOS BY: MONIQUE CARBON Colin Quinn has been a New York City mainstay for over 35 years. He’s remembered as far back as the mid-nineties when he was the co-host and announcer for MTV’s trivia show, “Remote Control”. I can still hear Colin’s voice in my head right now introducing the show's host, the late Ken Ober, “The Quiz Master of ’72 Whooping Cough Lane”. Many will also remember his iconic “I’m Going Back To Brooklyn” parody. There is also, of course, his very memorable stint as SNL’s News Correspondent in the early 2000s. He’s been at the forefront of comedy
“Afghanistan is Not Funny” — Soho Playhouse
The Soho Playhouse is an artistic institution in New York that punches well-above its weight in the theatre world. Much of this rests on the Fringe Encore Series, which brings some of the best fringe work from around the world to its stage. With “Afghanistan is Not Funny,” it has scored again. Henry Nayler's one-actor show has won more awards than many shows have had performances, and Nayler himself has won at Edinburgh 3 times. And they were well-deserved, every one of them. Like most one-actor shows, Afghanistan is Not Funny relies on the personal adventures of the playwright. Back in
75 Years Later Death Of A Salesman Still Kills
Photo D.B Frick On November 16th, 2022 I went to see Arthur Miller's, "Death of a Salesman", at the Hudson Theater on 44th St. This was my first live Broadway show since I saw Martin McDonagh's, "Hangmen", on March 12th, 2020-- the day the pandemic sent Broadway into a tailspin, bringing the fabled area of NYC to its knees. So much has happened in almost three years, and I'm so happy for the opportunity to give you a little feedback on this new production of a classic. There isn't much that hasn't already been said about this show. Despite that, here
Madeline Sayet’s WHERE WE BELONG at the Public Theater
Theatre-maker Madeline Sayet straddles many identities that often contrast and sometimes conflict. She's half Mohegan (on her mother's side) and half Jewish (on her father's side). Sayet is also an actress/director and an academic who found joy and solace in escaping through Shakespeare. But she can't shake the painful scars of colonialism that haunts her people's present and flavors their future, where erasure is imminent if the next generation doesn't keep the Mohegan language and traditions alive. It's a heavy burden for a young woman searching for her place in this world and a sense of belonging. In her solo show,
FC Bergman’s 300 el x 50 el x 30 el at BAM Next Wave
How does one describe the foreboding feeling of the calm before the storm? What might you witness if you peeked into the homes of a small community before a raging tempest transpired? In the US and Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) premiere of 300 el x 50 el x 30 el by the daring, provocative Belgian theatre company FC Bergman, you don’t have to guess. Instead, you are granted fly-on-the-wall access to the private moments of ordinary people with quirky and bizarre habits, blissfully unaware of the storm brewing. The Harvey Theater at BAM Strong is transformed into a quaint European