The nominees for the 66th Annual Drama Desk Awards: Outstanding Play Cullud Wattah, by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, The Public Theater English, by Sanaz Toossi, Atlantic Theater Company Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, Manhattan Theatre Club Sanctuary City, by Martyna Majok, New York Theatre Workshop Selling Kabul, by Sylvia Khoury, Playwrights Horizons The Chinese Lady, by Lloyd Suh, The…
Award Announcement: The Outer Critics Circle 71st Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards Nominees By David Roberts Theatre Reviews Limited The Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers and national publications, are pleased to announce the nominees for the 71st Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards, honoring the 2021-2022 Broadway and Off-Broadway season….
The Comedian Harmonists was an internationally famous all-male German singing group that was formed during the Weimar period and was forced to disband in the early 1930’s when the Nazi regime came into power. The group consisted of six males, three of whom were Jewish or of Jewish decent and one that had married a Jewish woman. The story of…
There is something very special happening at New World Stages that every ardent admirer of great musical legends and theatre enthusiast should see. “Little Girl Blue”, the new Nina Simone musical is a captivating journey into the life of the legendary singer and civil rights activist that weaves some of her well-known songs into the tragic episodes of her life….
As Stacey Derosier’s lighting comes up on the stage of Charly Evon Simpson’s “sandblasted,” which is currently being co-presented by Vineyard Theatre and Women’s Project Theater at the Vineyard, Angela (a willful yet vulnerable Brittany Bellizeare) and Odessa (a confident and temperamental Marinda Anderson) slowly emerge from behind beach umbrellas (“where the sand is”). Both complain about the omnipresence of sand…
A clue in in the “New York Times” crossword puzzle on Tuesday, February 15th was “Prefix with futurism.” The correct answer: ‘Afrofuturism,’ defined as “a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry.” In 1931, George S. Schuyler explores the Afrofuturism literary…
In “Tambo & Bones,” currently running at Playwrights Horizons, playwright Dave Harris (“Summertime,” “Patricide”) gives the audience a minstrel show with three variety acts whose timeframes span more than two centuries. Endmen Tambo (W. Tré Davis) and Bones (Tyler Fauntleroy) appear as humans in olios one and two performing for white audiences, and they appear as robots, themselves, and their…
“Kimberly Akimbo” may be one of the best new musicals to appear on the New York Theatre scene this season, glorified by the music of Jeanine Tesori, and enhanced with the unequivocal book and lyrics of David Lindsay- Abaire. It is not perfect, and some aspects can certainly be improved upon, but in its current incarnation it happens to be…
The new musical “Trevor: The Musical” based on the 1994 short film makes a valid attempt to bring to light the issues and problems that adolescent gay teens face, which result in attempts at suicide. It was a serious problem during the nineties that has continued to present day with online bullying and shaming. It is a noble idea to…
The new musical “The Visitor,” now playing at the Public’s Newman Theater, is based on the 2007 film sharing the same title, with a book by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Brian Yorkey, music by Tom Kitt and lyrics also by Mr. Yorkey. The story is the same but somehow confining it to the stage provides a better focus on the characters…