the ally
There are very few words not sung but spoken in the rock musical “Tommy,” but three that might be relevant are “Brilliant, wasn’t it?” spoken by a local lad that happens to be part of a larger audience, amazed, while watching Tommy play his first game of pinball in a pool hall. Unfortunately, they are not the three words that…
When does “life” begin? Depending upon one’s religious beliefs, or scientific beliefs, or social media threads, the answer to the question is different. Does “life” begin at conception; in utero; at birth; in childhood; in adolescence; in old age; in death; or after death? Seen through the eyes of his older self in “Water for Elephants” (currently on at the…
“Doubt” can produce several similar congenial feelings such as uncertainty, suspicion, uneasiness, apprehension, distrust and confusion. Usually there is a situation or event that occurs that may be the cause, or possibly misinformation that may initiate speculation and accusation. The striking Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s riveting drama, rightfully titled “Doubt,” now playing at the newly named Todd Haimes…
If you did not read the Nicholas Sparks novel “The Notebook,” you most likely saw the movie of the same name based on the novel and if you saw the movie chances are you have plans to see the new Broadway musical, with the same name and somewhat the same story, with just a few changes. Bekah Brunstetter has penned…
Asaf and the members of the audience are the unwitting protagonists of Itamar Moses’s “The Ally” which is currently running at the Public’s Anspacher Theater. Asaf Sternheim (a well-meaning but uncommitted Josh Radnor) is Jewish, a writer, and an adjunct professor of writing at a prestigious American University in a struggling American city where his Korean American wife Gwen Kim…
According to the dictionary, there are several definitions of the word ‘appropriate,’ but there may possibly be one that could be added, that being “a brilliant play by Brandon Jacob-Jenkins.” which is now having a stunning production mounted on Broadway by Second Stage Theater. Aptly titled “Appropriate” follows the ultra-dysfunctional Lafayette clan back to their family plantation home in Southeast…
Microsoft’s Text to Speech Voice read’s Mona Pirnot’s script aloud (scored with sequences of punctuation to create pauses and silences) as the playwright sits with her back to the audience at a small desk adorned by her laptop and a small lamp. Pirnot’s non-fictional narrative is the personal yet “Everyman” story of loneliness, love, loss, death, bereavement, acceptance, confession, forgiveness,…
The world premiere musical “The Connector” with a book by Jonathon Marc Sherman and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown now playing at MCC Theater certainly has a suitable title on many different levels. Although each character is pivotal in connecting the pieces of the puzzle to create the story, they are also connected by the same personality trait…
The time “Jonah,” currently running at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre, takes place is described in the program as “The past and the present. But everything is slippery.” ‘Slippery’ is the operative word here. Everything is slippery in “Jonah” in addition to the time: the series of bedrooms in Wilson Chin’s cerebral and surreal design; the changeability and moodiness…
Immediately after the first number in the new musical “Hell’s Kitchen” which is a loosely based auto biographical story about musician Alicia Keys growing up and coming of age during the late nineties in the New York City neighborhood which the show is named after, you get the feeling this might be headed to Broadway. That assumption would be right…