There are times during Harvey Fierstein’s performance in his “Bella Bella,” currently playing at Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center Stage I, that the audience is convinced – sans dress, sans hat, sans props – that he is the iconic social activist “Battling Bella.” When Mr. Fierstein channels Bella’s admonitions about the “voice of the people” superseding the importance…
Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York premiere of The Cake, written by Bekah Brunstetter (“This Is Us,” “American Gods,” The Oregon Trail) and directed by MTC’s award-winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadow (The Assembled Parties, The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Commons of Pensacola), opens tomorrow at MTC at New York City Center – Stage I (131 West 55th Street). The…
Currently in its Broadway debut, John Lithgow’s “Stories By Heart” first took shape in 2008 at Lincoln Center Theater in a special repertory presentation directed by Jack O’Brien. Then, Mr. Lithgow told one story on each of two nights. Since then he has evolved the play in theaters around the country, produced by Staci Levine, on evenings away from his…
The highly anticipated new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar entitled “JUNK” – referring to the bonds sold in the 1980s by Machiavellian inside traders – does tend to sacrifice intrigue for the sake of entertainment. The plot centers around the fictional junk bond king Robert Merkin (played with unscrupulous charisma by Steven Pasquale), as he manipulates his…