In Simon Stephens’s brilliant “Vanya,” the adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya, Andrew Scott portrays the eight main characters from the 1897 play. He depicts these familiar characters with a degree of believability and authenticity that is beyond remarkable. That would be impressive enough if he portrayed one character at a time, but there is often more than one character…
Two half-brothers half a world apart face the decline of their mother in Samuel D. Hunter’s “Grangeville” currently on at The Pershing Square Signature Center’s Alice Griffen Jewel Box Theatre. The mood of the conversations between forty-something Arnold (Brian J. Smith) who lives in Rotterdam and his older half-brother Jerry (Paul Sparks) who still lives in Grangeville, Idaho range from…
There is nothing about liberation, nor is there anything liberating in Bess Wohl’s “Liberation” currently running at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. There is gratuitous and unnecessary nudity on stage that requires patrons to relinquish their phones before entering the theater. That nudity is completely unnecessary: the questions raised about the characters’…
Sam Shephard’s iconic 1977 “Curse of the Starving Class” is enjoying its second revival production at The Pershing Square Signature Center. The 2019 Terry Kinney revival (also at Pershing Square Signature Center) starred Maggie Siff and David Warshofsky as Ella and Weston. The current revival, directed by Scott Elliott and starring Calista Flockhart as Ella and Christian Slater as Weston,…
The full title of “The Antiquities” currently running at Playwrights Horizons is “A Tour of the Permanent Collection in the Museum of the Late Human Antiquities.” The title contains two important pairs of words: “Permanent Collection” and “Late Human.” The play begins at some point in the far distant future with two museum docents W1 (Aria Shahghasemi) and W2 (Amelia…
It is important to pay attention to the title of a play, especially in the case of Leslye Headland’s well-crafted “Cult of Love” currently running at the Helen Hayes. The Dahl nuclear family cult began early in the lives of the Dahl children. Diana (Shailene Woodley), Evie (Rebecca Henderson), Johnny (Christopher Sears), and Mark (Zachary Quinto) experienced a sheltered childhood…
What could go wrong at a private school whose five-member board of directors makes all decisions based on consensus and has what benefitted the community at heart as their guiding principle. A board so committed to inclusion that The Eureka Day School in Berkeley, California’s cultural identity drop-down menu for prospective parents offers eleven choices. And if Eli (an oblivious…
Abby (Marisa Tomei) has co-produced records with Gus (Arliss Howard) for thirty-two years. She had been his right hand, but her name never appears on the album as co-producer. She finds talent. Gus takes the credit. Recognition is not the only problem. Gus is a misogynist and a prime example of toxic masculinity in the workplace and elsewhere. Abby colludes…
Families of any number, age, or culture often meet for special occasions, some more special than others. Depending on the mix of those above descriptors, these get-togethers result in quite different outcomes ranging from collegial to catastrophic. These gatherings can be around any number of holidays or around some specific tradition. Those celebrating a specific tradition are often annual events….
Gone are the turban, the grand staircase, the jewels, the chandeliers, the drapes, and the viewing of Norma Desmond’s monkey in the reimagining of “Sunset Blvd.” currently running at the St. James Theatre. Norma Desmond (an incandescent Nicole Scherzinger), Max Von Mayerling (a devoted and doting David Thaxton), Joe Gillis (a failed and still failing Tom Francis), and Betty Schafer…