last stand city center
It is always a pleasure to attend a performance of a play that stars two Broadway veterans and even better when it is a two hander because you are assured ample stage presence for both talented actors. Such is the case in “Harry Townsend’s Last Stand” written by George Eastman which features Len Cariou and Craig Bierko as a stubborn…
Jaclyn Backhaus’s “India Pale Ale” currently running at Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center Stage I has a collection of “teachable moments.” Some of the lessons are rather unimportant though interesting. The audience learns the history of IPA (India Pale Ale), the hops and alcohol content of the iconic enhanced pale ale, and how at least one white hipster…
Thrown under the bus by her ex-husband Greg, a carping, selfish, completely self-centered Jodi Isaac (Idina Menzel) takes the red-eye from Los Angeles to New York City to “celebrate” her a self-assured father Elliot Isaac’s (Jack Wetherall) birthday. However, the real reason for her visit is that she “just, like couldn’t physically be in LA knowing” Greg and his new…
The value of enduring questions is that they are not specific to a time or place or event. Theatre should be raising enduring questions and conflicts that playwrights (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago and remain relevant today. Stephen Adly Guirgis raises several such questions in the revival of his play “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” currently…
It has just been announced that Tony Award-nominee Melissa Errico will join Michael Feinstein as a special guest at Zankel Hall on March 21 at 7:30pm at Carnegie Hall (881 Seventh Ave.) for “Standard Time”, featuring the music of Harry Warren. Melissa will sing music popularized by such artists as Doris Day, Judy Garland, Vera Lynn and Peggy Lee. The…
“In the Name of God, I take you to be my husband/wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.” – From “The Book of Common Prayer” In 1958 Martin…
“Yesterday today next summer tomorrow just uh moment uhgoh in 1317 dieded thuh last black man in thuh whole entire world. Uh! Oh. Dont be uhlarmed. Do not be afeared. It was painless. Uh painless passin. He falls twenty-three floors to his death. 23 floors from uh passin ship from space tuh splat on thuh pavement. He have uh head…
“This agony inside of me ain’t providing me any time to think/About anything beyond the sitch we’re now living/Gotta go hard, gotta be tough/gotta move forward towards a new dawn, a new dream, a new hope.” – Tong On a recent visit to Vietnam, two glaring disparities were evident: there is a noticeable divide between rich and poor Vietnamese citizens;…
Classic Stage Company (Artistic Director John Doyle and Managing Director Jeff Griffin) announced that Jason Sudeikis will star as John Keating in the world premiere of Dead Poets Society, a new play based on the beloved 1989 film. Written by Academy Award winner Tom Schulman, adapted from his screenplay, and directed by John Doyle, Dead Poets Society is set at a…
In Anand Rao’s new play “A Muslim in the midst,” an affluent Hindu couple, both executives of American companies in Bangalore – the Silicon Valley of India, come across a poor Muslim couple seeking a ride three days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks bring down the Twin Towers in New York City. After sorting out their concerns about inviting strangers into their…