Saturday, April 20, 2024
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,
Tag: Theatre Row
J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company’s Revival of ‘A Day in Hollywood/A Night at the Ukraine at Theatre Row
It was hard not thinking about what was happening in Ukraine (the "The" was dropped when independence was declared in 1991) when J2 Spotlight Theater's captivating revival of A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine opened last weekend and finishing up its sold out run at Theatre Row on March 6. However, it's important to remember that the infrequently seen 1980 Dick Vosburgh, Frank Lazarus and Jerry Herman musical doesn't have a Marx named Karl, but those named Groucho (David B. Friedman), Harpo (Suzanne Slade) and Chico (Mike Cefalo). This love letter to 1930s Hollywood is about as far from the myopic disaster Carnegie
“Blues for an Alabama Sky” at Theatre Row
Pearl Cleage wrote “Blues for an Alabama Sky” in the mid-1990s, and it is astonishing that it has taken so long for a play set at the cusp of the Harlem Renaissance and the Great Depression to make it to New York. Thanks to the Keen Company, the wait is over, and this production makes the wait worthwhile. Angel (Alfie Fuller) is a singer living with Guy (John-Andrew Morrison), a flamboyant costume designer and unapologetic gay man whose ambition is to design costumes in Paris for Josephine Baker. Across the hall lives Delia (Jasminn Johnson), who campaigns for reproductive rights and
The Chase Brock Experience’s ‘The Four Seasons’
The November 26, 2019 publication of The UN environment programme Emissions Gap Report 2019 confirms yet again that Earth is in serious trouble. Findings directed specifically at the U.S. and China conclude that action must be taken ASAP. Thru Sunday, December 8 at Theatre Row, The Chase Brock Experience provides a strong response to climate change with The Four Seasons, which Brock visualizes as a dance of destruction. Brock's 2008 ballet (female dancers wear ballet slippers instead of pointe shoes) is a loose, yet potent, narrative. The dancers - Jane Abbott, Michael Bishop, Chloë Campbell, Kendrick D. Carter, Kassandra Cruz, Kory Geller, David Hochberg, Yukiko Kashiki, Honza Pelichovský,
Ma-Yi Theater Company Presents the World Premiere of “Felix Starro” at Theatre Row
Like many musicals, Felix Starro, opening Ma-Yi Theatre Company's 30th anniversary season at Theatre Row, is about the tenuous connection between family and faith. What makes Felix's strong ensemble of voices unique is that they are heard in the first Off-Broadway Filipino-American musical where pain may be imaginary but always real. Jessica Hagedorn's book and Fabian Obispo's score is based on Lysley Tenorio's short story. Filipino psychic surgeon Felix (Alan Ariano) and his teenage grandson Junior (Nacho Tambunting) are in 1980s San Francisco on the older man's latest mission to heal those in pain. His technique combines prayer and a lot of faith on the part of the seeker.
FRUITING BODIES at Theatre Row
FRUITING BODIES, a new play by Sam Chanse, is a call to the wild parts of ourselves that have been starved of oxygen. It's a hunt to find the elusive, the dangerous, the long buried...The familiar family drama finds a different setting away from the dinner table to the forest floor with it's mercurial mycology. It's a thought provoking transformation play where the troubled characters enter the shifting forest, the unknown, and emerge somewhat altered. There are secrets to be revealed, hero's to be tested and dream fragments to confront. The Ma-Yi Theater Company takes us mushroom hunting into the
The Chinese Lady at Theatre Row
The Chinese Lady is a shattering story of how our western culture’s scopophilia leads us to make “freaks” of those who are different to ourselves. Our obsessive voyeurism does not lead to understanding of others but rather a desire to possess, command and sometimes destroy the objects of our incessant gaze. This is one of the most original, thought-provoking and necessary works I have ever seen. It is a production that excels on every single level – text, direction, performance and design. I am still haunted by the brilliance of the insights, the emotionality unleashed in the spaces between words
Love Deadline at the 2018 United Solo Theatre Festival
This is the third time I have had the honor of reviewing a show by the colossal talent that is Ji Young Choi. She is a South Korean performer who blends classical Shakespearian texts with rituals and cultural practices from her home country to create an entirely new form. In Love Deadline she tackles the inner thoughts of the character of Desdemona as she stays isolated in her tea room for seven days wrestling with the source of Othello’s unexplained rage. This production had its world premiere at the United Solo Theatre Festival – a perfect platform for a solo
RANDY WRITES A NOVEL at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row
This is cheek sore, solar plexus spasm funny. This is laughter therapy that exfoliates grumpy out of your psychological wardrobe. Randy can turn a phrase like he’s cornering a Lotus Elise SC. You’re watching a truly hilarious stand-up comedian who is sitting down. He looks like the love child of Kermit the frog and Barney the dinosaur but has more facial expressions than Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura. You marvel at how “felt” and eyeballs can be more enlivened than the bulk of the humans you know. Randy may be energized by puppetry but he has almost as much soul
‘Anything Goes at Theatre Row’s Lion Theatre
I have had delicious earworm of “Anything Goes” since I saw this vivacious production at Theatre Row. Musicals Tonight! is having an epic 20th anniversary spring season with work that is truly exceptional. I had the great pleasure of seeing their brilliant “Boys From Syracuse” last month and with “Anything Goes” this month they are exceling at knocking our socks off. This 1934 Cole Porter classic must have been a joyful oasis and vital antidote to the Depression years. I left feeling so optimistic about everything - "It's delightful, it's delicious, It’s de-lovely! It has an infectious happiness about it