Thursday, November 30, 2023
Combine elements of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Beetlejuice with The 39 Steps and Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein, add a quick-witted, fast-paced, farcical script, mix in five phenomenally talented actor comedians, dozens of fanciful quick-change costumes, all wrapped up in a big batty vampire bow and you’d have Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. The show, written by Gordon Greenberg (who also directs it) and Steve Rosen, now playing Off-Broadway at New World Stages, is a riotous romp that’s sexy, spooky and utterly hysterical. Though Dracula (played by the devastatingly dashing and terrifically talented James Daly, who’s more of an Alexander Skarsgard
Tag: play
CHASING HAPPY by Michel Wallerstein Debuts at Theatre Row
Ideals like those proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” may be considered “self-evident” to the Founding Fathers of the USA, but they weren’t living in today’s world, inundated by obstacles to these “certain inalienable rights,” despite the progress made over a few hundred years. Admittedly, we have it comparatively better in many ways, but pursuing happiness can feel more challenging than ever. Whole movements, companies, and apps have been created to support our quest for contentment. Yet even for those fortunate enough not to be caught up in the worst of woes,
shadow/land at The Public Theater
Americans are bombarded by tragedies every day; mass shootings, police brutality, and natural disasters like fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. People become numbers, and their stories and struggles are reduced to headlines or photos showcasing their stress. It’s easy to become numb and forget the human aspect behind the images and figures. shadow/land by playwright Erika Dickerson-Despenza humanizes one of the worst disasters in American history, not only in terms of the damage that nature caused but the lives lost due to negligence and lack of care and support for vulnerable populations. The play examines the breakdown of a mother-daughter relationship
QUINCE: An Unforgettable Immersive Experience Blossoms at The Bushwick Starr
Anyone who has tended a garden (even on a rooftop or fire escape) or owned a houseplant knows that a living thing needs proper care, time, nourishment, and nurturing to grow, flourish and reach its potential. The same is true of a new work of theatre. It does not sprout from the playwright’s head or the director’s vision fully actualized but requires an investment to cultivate the seed and make it bloom. I have seen no finer example of this in the past two years than the journey of the interactive play celebrating modern Mexican American culture playing (on extension) at
Fat Ham at The Public Theater: Succulent Joy Triumphs Over Tragedy
For a play premiering on Memorial Day weekend, what could feel more festive than a family gathering at a backyard barbecue served with a side of Shakespeare, a heaping portion of pop culture references, simmered in family drama, seasoned with violence and a dash of glitter to taste? Ay, there's the spice rub! Shakespeare's plays have had many adaptations and updated versions that take creative licenses with the Bard's works and themes. A favorite choice is the tale of the brooding, tragic prince with intense and questionable family dynamics. The Guardian recently published a piece examining the obsession that dramatists of stage and
The Accidental Futurist Ensemble: SITI Company’s “The Medium” at BAM
The year is 1993: Bill Clinton becomes president of the US; the World Trade Center is bombed by Islamic Fundamentalists; the FBI raids Branch Davidians, a religious cult in Waco, TX; Russia and the US sign a treaty; an earthquake and tsunami devastate Japan; brush fires ravage Australia; ethnic fighting causes turmoil in Bosnia; Ty introduces plush toys called Beanie Babies; the tech company Intel launches its Premium Processor. And an ensemble-based theater company called SITI Company devises the play The Medium in Toga-Mura, Japan. The Medium returns almost 30 years later to BAM Fisher, Fishman Space from March 15-20. As Shakespeare
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
SOCRATES at THE PUBLIC THEATER
Lecture, exhortation, dissertation, harangue. These are all synonyms for “talking”, which is what the subject of actor/director/playwright Tim Blake Nelson’s new play Socrates --- now playing at The Public Theater extended through June 2nd as the anchor of Onassis USA Festival 2019: Democracy is Coming --- is best known for. In fact, he made a life, death and immortality out of being a relentless orator, so much so that a man born in 470 B.C.E. is still a topic of modern tongues and his tradition of thought, theories and philosophies are taught as required curriculum at any liberal arts school
4:48 PSYCHOSIS Explores the Sounds of Despair, Rage and Hopelessness at Prototype Festival
Great art is meant to bring the viewer into another universe, perhaps allowing them to -- if only fleetingly -- experience previously unimagined scenarios, feelings and worldviews. It has the power and potency to connect us to the broader spectrum of emotions that make up the human condition. But what happens when this art is a semi-autobiographical piece of essentially heightened, poeticized and dramatized non-fiction that could be and has been regarded as “a 75-minute suicide note” (Michael Billington, The Guardian), such as 4:48 Psychosis -- the stark, often brutal, occasionally darkly comedic and deeply unsettling post-mortem work of English
Wild Goose Dreams at The Public Theater
In Hansol Jung’s tender, poignant and humorously human Wild Goose Dreams, The Public Theater’s entire third floor space is transformed into a the city of Seoul, South Korea (the inventive and imaginative design is credited to Public and Broadway veteran, Clint Ramos) through a vibrant visual plethora of candy-colored campaigns and neon notifications with a small sampling of blown-up family photos scattered between. This manic mosaic sets the chaotic tone of a modern world where various sights and sound bites compete for attention -- though that only creates a feeling of deeper isolation amidst all the noise. But the eye-bruising visual