David Roberts

Off-Broadway Review: The New Group’s “Evanston Salt Costs Climbing” at Pershing Square Signature Center’s Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre (Closed Sunday, December 18, 2022)

If Will Arbery’s “Evanston Salt Costs Climbing were an absurdist play, its non-sense narrative might make some sense. However, this is not a “Waiting for Godot” for post-pandemic Evanston, Illinois, or a pre-recession America. Peter (a foul-mouthed and depressive Jeb Kreager) and Basil’s (an equally foul-mouthed but agreeable Ken Leung) world borders on meaningless and the play’s characters are experiencing…

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Broadway Review: “Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol” at The Nederlander Theatre (Closed Sunday, January 1, 2023)

November 21, 2022 | Broadway, on that day > | "Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol", Ben Stanton (lighting design), Cookie Jordan (hair and makeup design), Dane Laffrey (scenic and costume design), David Roberts, Jefferson Mays, John Kristiansen (puppet design), Joshua D. Reid (sound design), Justin Scribner (associate director and production stage manager), Lucy Mackinnon (projection design), Michael Arden, Stephen Kopel (casting director), Susan Lyons, The Nederlander Theatre, Theatre Reviews Limited

Under Michael Arden’s meticulous direction, Jefferson Mays navigates through his adaptation (with Susan Lyons and Michael Arden) of the five staves of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” with the full arsenal of his impressive craft. In addition to the protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge, Mr. Mays portrays and reimagines fifty of Charles Dickens’ iconic characters with the full range of emotion from…

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Off-Broadway Review: “You Will Get Sick” at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre (Closed Sunday, December 11, 2022)

You will get sick. It happens. You do not know why. Often you do not want to tell anyone you are sick. Perhaps you might even pay someone to talk to you about your illness. Yet after all that, you still might die. And you are not alone. Rabbi Harold S. Kushner wrote about “When Bad Things Happen to Good…

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Off-Broadway Review: “Catch as Catch Can” at Playwrights Horizons (Closed Sunday, November 20, 2022)

November 14, 2022 | Off-Broadway, on that day > | "Catch as Catch Can", Bray Poor (Sound Designer), Cindy Cheung, Daniel Aukin, David Roberts, Enver Chakartash (Costume Designer), Eva Shannon-Dabek (Stage Management Fellow), Genevieve Ortiz (Production Stage Manager), Jon Norman Schneider, Marika Kent (Lighting Designer), Matt Saunders (Scenic Designer), Mia Chung, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Rob Yang, Theatre Reviews Limited, Zach Brecheen (Assistant Stage Manager)

Playwright Mia Chung intends to raise a rich and enduring question in her play “Catch as Catch Can” currently running at Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater: “What is inherent in our inheritance? What is universal?” Unfortunately, this question is not addressed nor answered in her character-driven play featuring Cindy Cheung, Jon Norman Schneider, and Rob Yang as Irish American…

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Off-Broadway Review: “A Raisin in the Sun” at the Public Theater’s Newman Theater (Closed on Sunday, November 20, 2022)

November 14, 2022 | a man of, back the future, black no, Off-Broadway, on that day, public theater, the old man > | "A Raisin in the Sun", Almeria Campbell, Andie Burns, Bjorn Dupaty, Calvin Dutton, Camden McKinnon, Christopher Marquis Lindsay, Clarissa Marie Ligon, costume design by Karen Perry, David Roberts, fight and intimacy direction by Teniece Divya Johnson, Francois Battiste, hair and wig design by Nikiya Mathis, Jesse Pennington, Joan Marcus, John Clay III, lighting design by Alex Jainchill, Lorraine Hansberry, Mandi Masden, Mister Fitzgerald, movement direction by Rickey Tripp, N’yomi Stewart, Paige Gilbert, Perri Gaffney, Prop management by Claire M. Kavanah, Public Theater, Robert O'Hara, scenic design by Clint Ramos, Skyler Gallun, sound design by Elisheba Ittoop, sound system design by Will Pickens, The Newman Theater, Theatre Reviews Limited, Tonya Pinkins, Toussaint Battiste, Vann Dukes, video design by Brittany Bland

Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” debuted on Broadway in 1959 and appeared in London’s West End five months later. The musical adaptation “Raisin” won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1973 and the play had two Broadway revivals in 2004 and 2014. This powerful and ground-breaking story of a financially strapped Chicago South Side Black extended family’s…

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Off-Broadway Review: The Civilians “The Unbelieving” at 59E59 Theaters (Closed Saturday, November 19, 2022)

Marin Gazzaniga’s “The Unbelieving” is based on select interviews from the 2013 book “Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind” by Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola. The authors interview clergy from various denominations who have been grappling with their loss of faith in the divine and their fears of being hypocritical by not sharing their unbelief with their congregations/adherents….

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Broadway Review: “Topdog/Underdog” at the Golden Theatre (Through Sunday, January 15, 2023)

In the current 20th anniversary production of “Topdog/Underdog,” Suzan Lori-Parks reminds the audience that when one does not receive unconditional and nonjudgmental love and chooses to disconnect from one’s cultural and family histories, things can and will go terribly wrong. From the first scene of the play currently running at the John Golden Theatre, it is evident that there is…

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Off-Broadway Review: “american (tele)visions” Co-Produced with Theatre Mitu at New York Theatre Workshop (Closed Sunday, October 16, 2022)

There is too much noise on the set of Victor I. Cazares’s “american (tele)visions” currently running at New York Theatre Workshop (co-produced with Theatre Mitu). Although that noise comes from what is certainly a dynamic and innovative set design by Bretta Gerecke and a clever technical design by Theatre Mitu’s Justin Nestor, Alex Hawthorn, and Kelly Colburn, it unfortunately masks…

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Book News/Preview: Elysa Gardner’s “Magic to Do” Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of “Pippin” Opening (Releases in November 2022)

October 4, 2022 | book review, Broadway, do this one thing for me, hamilton, News, Previews > | "Magic to Do", Bob Fosse, David Roberts, Elysa Gardner, Pippin, Stephen Schwartz, Theatre Reviews Limited

Applause Books is proud to announce the November 2022 release of Magic to Do (192 pages • 978-1-4930-6435-9• Hardback) by Elysa Gardner. In Magic to Do, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Pippin’s opening, two-time Pulitzer Prize jury member Elysa Gardner turns her attention to this innovative show, the musical retelling of the story of Prince Pippin, son of Charlemagne,…

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Broadway Review: “Cost of Living” at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (Closed Sunday, November 6, 2022)

“Cost of living indexes are meant to compare the expenses an average person can expect to incur to acquire food, shelter, transportation, energy, clothing, education, healthcare, childcare, and entertainment in different regions.” – Investopedia The folks in Martyna Majok’s “Cost of Living,” currently running at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, are not “average people” and they experience the…

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