Thrown under the bus by her ex-husband Greg, a carping, selfish, completely self-centered Jodi Isaac (Idina Menzel) takes the red-eye from Los Angeles to New York City to “celebrate” her a self-assured father Elliot Isaac’s (Jack Wetherall) birthday. However, the real reason for her visit is that she “just, like couldn’t physically be in LA knowing” Greg and his new…
Ezra’s (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) stories about his father’s reaction to the news that Ezra was marrying Chris (Phillip James Brannon) and then, later, that they were going to have a baby serve as bookends for Jordan Harrison’s LGBTQ themed new play about “our origins” and how “denying our origins is not healthy nor is denying our children the right to…
“The Gentleman Caller” was the predecessor of Tennessee Williams first successful play “The Glass Menagerie” which opened in 1944 in Chicago and happens to be the title of a new play by Philip Dawkins which is having its New York premiere at Cherry Lane Theatre, being produced by Abingdon Theatre Company. Perhaps Mr. Dawkins should have taken the hint from…
The production currently playing at SoHo Playhouse entitled “Bright Colors and Bold Patterns” is a self- absorbed, ostentatious, and highly opinionated rant penned by Drew Droege who also holds court on stage for the eighty-minute overwrought outburst. The premise for the tirade is receiving an invitation to his friend’s gay wedding that states guests should eschew from wearing bright colors…
Beau Willimon is perhaps best known for creating the successful Netflix original series “House of Cards” which is completing its final season. Much of what made the series so savvy was the way the writers exposed the chicanery and dishonesty of politics without “naming names.” The episodes wisely left making connections to current events to the viewers. Inspired by Henry…
Loneliness, the quest for authentic and meaningful love, the fear of rejection, the need for respect, and the excruciating separation from situations of abuse are not unique to members of the LGBTQ community of any decade or location and perhaps that is why audiences have responded positively to Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy” since its Broadway production in 1982 at…
“A compliment brings the charm to the surface. When we say that a certain color compliments your eyes, we mean it brings them out. You want to bring the other person out, make them feel special.” – Mama At first glance, Philip Dawkins’s “Charm,” currently playing at MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, is a heartfelt play about Mama…
Watching “Tiny Beautiful Things” at The Public’s Newman Theater can be described as experiencing the vicissitudes of the human experience through the kaleidoscopic lens of sheer redemptive grace. The broken hearted, the beaten down, the bereft, and the “just broken” send their questions on coping, overcoming, and raging against all forms of the “dying of the light” to “Sugar” (Nia…
In Riley Thomas’s “Convicted,” currently playing at the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival at the 14th Street Y Theatre, a dedicated group of convicted – some damaged – individuals gather to equitably resolve a situation that has spun out of control. The situation was precipitated by a phone call from Toper (played with an innocence marred by deep pain by Dylan…
Hearing the undisclosed “confessions” of nine peculiar residents from a small southern town, one may presume that the whole is the sum of its parts, and these offbeat characters provide a good representation of the core of the abstract community at hand in Anitola Parish. It is anchored on one end by gossip monger, quasi tour guide, JoBeth Maybelline, who…