trouble in mind
“In this poetic exploration of the auditory imagination, the third in his series on sonic aesthetics, Seán Street peoples silence with sound, travelling through and the shadow lands of the inner psyche. Our mind is a canvas on which the colours of the sound world leave permanent impressions. It is the root of all listening.” – “The Sound inside the…
“The Great Society,” the second installment of playwright Robert Schenkkan’s biographical account of the years Lyndon B. Johnson spent as president in the White House, is less a drama and more a chronological list of the destructive events the plagued his second term in office. To the playwright’s credit, it is extensively detailed and factual; however, to his discredit, it…
The one and probably only thing you may be sure of when you leave the Cort Theatre after viewing the recent production of “Derren Brown: Secret” is that Mr. Brown is a very likable and convincing fellow, along with being a wonderful entertainer. He assures you that he cannot read your mind, that there is nothing contrived and there are…
There is a bleak, doleful new play entitled “Bergen” that is being presented as part of The Broadway Bound Festival at the 14th Street Y. More a play with songs than a musical, “Bergen” is set in the near future in Norway where a motley group of mediocre rock musicians try to decide what to name their band. They set…
Italian castrato Farinelli (Sam Crane) soothes the troubled mind of Spain’s King Philippe V (Mark Rylance) who suffers from what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders would code as a bipolar disorder. Despite support from the King’s physician Dr. Jose Cervi (Huss Garbiya), the Chief Minister of Spain Don Sebastian De La Cuadra (Edward Peel) advocates for the…
Upon entering Pershing Square Signature Center’s Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre to view a new musical adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters’ 1915 “Spoon River Anthology,” we became a bit leery about the execution of this undertaking (no pun intended) as we walked down a dark hallway past Bertie Hume lying at rest in a casket. Continuing in the dark, we turned…
It is a difficult and a brave undertaking to choose to stage Henrik’s Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt.” The Classic Stage Company recently accepted the challenge with a sparse two-hour (with no intermission) version in June of 2016. It becomes more difficult when one attempts to overlay the complex script with a new narrative – the quest of an LGBTQ Peer Gynt…
“Miss” is about unspeakable acts: horrific, unforgiveable, heinous acts committed by seemingly “normal” and “respectable” individuals. Because of the structure of Michael Ross Albert’s play, it is difficult to speak of these acts without having to issue a plethora of “spoiler alerts.” The most unspeakable are committed by a Laura (played with a suspicious gritty innocence by Rosie Sowa) a…
“Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.” ― Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World”…
The new musical “Trip of Love,” now playing at the 42nd St Theater, pays homage to some of the unforgettable hits of the sixties. It would be better described as a musical revue that is extremely well choreographed with lavish costumes and extravagant sets that together create an opulent psychedelic collage. It is neither thought provoking, nor particularly well structured,…