Sunday, September 24, 2023
Children's theatre is usually treated as an afterthought (if it is thought of at all), not as important as anything done for adults. Disney has given us some exceptions to this, but few production companies have the resources and the marketing power the House of the Mouse has. TheatreWorks USA has taken a different track with Cat Kid Comic Club, by Dav Pilkey. Pilkey is the author of the Captain Underpants books, and TheatreWorks turned his DogMan spin-off book into a musical a few years ago. Having sold 50 million copies of his works, Pilkey is a known-quantity to youngsters
Tag: Off-Broadway
“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
Henry Nalyor Talks About “Afghanistan is Not Funny”
Henry Naylor brought is award winning one-man show "Afghanistan is Not Funny" at the Soho Playhouse as part of its International Fringe Encore festival. In between performing to packed houses, he was kind enough to answer a few questions from Stagebiz. Stagebiz: What did you think you were going to find when you left for Afghanistan? What were your pre-conceived ideas and how right or wrong were you? HN: I’d followed the post 9/11 Afghan War obsessively on the news. So my perceptions were shaped – and distorted - by our well-meaning media. Inevitably because I watched the British news, I believed that
“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
“Gratitude” — Urban Stages
Montreal's Mainline Theatre has brought “Gratitude” by Oren Safdie to New York's Urban Stages, and it is quite a strong premier for the show. Set in a private school in Canada in a disused locker room, the play explores teen sexuality (quite vividly), gender and consent. Throw in the clash between Canadian and the more traditional societies from whence some of its immigrants have come, and you have a play that is tense and uncomfortable to watch in places. The discomfort is deliberate. Indeed, it could be the whole point for some. “Gratitude” opens up a lot of topics that make
“The Motherf**ker with the Hat” — Denizens Theater Company
The premise of the play is simple enough. Jackie (David Feliz) is a former drug dealer freshly out of prison and determined to go straight. His girlfriend Veronica (Jillian K. Waters) is thrilled about this, but she is still using. Just before they get into bed to celebrate his successful job search, he sees a hat that doesn't belong to him. He suspects her of cheating; he goes off to meet his parole officer and AA sponsor Ralph D (Gregory Marlow), who is having trouble with his own wife Victoria (Lara Ruth Smith). Jackie gets a gun, is convinced to
“The Perplexed” at New York City Center Stage I
"The Perplexed" should be one of the events of the theatre this spring. A Richard Greenberg script directed by Lynne Meadow and presented by the Manhattan Theatre Club – what could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, the script leaves this production snake-bit from the beginning. A glorious set and a solid cast can not make up for the fact that the script is overly long and the characters rather unengaging. The action all takes place in the library of the Fifth Avenue apartment among various members of two families. The Resnicks and the Stahls have been involved with one
Radical Adaptations of Dracula & Frankenstein Ignite Classic Stage Company
For as many adaptations and interpretations as there are of the classic gothic horror novels Frankenstein and Dracula, it is hard to imagine two more creative, unique, radical and timely works that deal with the well-known tales and characters than the pair playing in a repertory cycle at Classic Stage Company (CSC). They are also strikingly contrasting works. Both are deeply engaging, provocative and compelling explorations of the source material -- each of which was written in the 1800s, one slightly predating the other near the end of the Victorian era. They remind the audience of timeless themes investigated in
The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. presents ‘a photograph/lovers in motion’ by Ntozake Shange,
Neither Michael (Imana Breaux) nor Sean David (Adrain Washington) would recognize their present-day San Francisco hometown. The aspiring artists' relationship, told in Ntozake Shange's a photograph/lovers in motion, develops during the late 1970s-early 1980s before SF's gentrification for the super rich and high tech. While SF is not a "character",characters define themselves by it. A rare revival of Shange's 1977 play is presented by The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc.'s plays through the end February at Theatre St. Marks. Directed by Shange's sister and long-time collaborator Ifa Bayeza, a photograph/lovers in motion has the same lyricism found in her landmark for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf