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…
In Nancy Harris’s “The Beacon,” currently on at the Irish Repertory Theatre, four characters navigate through life’s rough waters. Three make it. One is still lost at sea. The back wall of Beiv’s (Kate Mulgrew) cottage on an island off the coast of West Cork is made almost entirely of glass and looks out onto the Atlantic Ocean. Angst and…
The main problem with “Tammy Faye,” currently on at the Palace Theatre is not the vapid lyrics by Jake Shears or the bland book by James Graham. Unfortunately, the “New Broadway Musical” has nothing to do with the iconic PTL Club televangelist Tammy Faye. Not even the two-time Laurence Olivier Award winning Katie Brayben’s performance as Tammy Faye, or the…
It has been a long journey for “The Roommate,” the dark comedy by Jen Silverman, to finally arrive on Broadway since its premiere in 2015 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival. It was well worth the wait, since the current production now playing at The Booth Theatre stars Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone in a two hander that…
New York theater goers know Marie Mullen from her performance in “The Cripple of Inishmaan” as Billy Claven’s Aunt Kate who talks to stones, and from her performance in “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” as Meg who is desperate to escape from her tyrannical mother. Mullen returns to the New York Stage to play Maire the “Monster Irish Mother” in…
I am an LGBTQ+ able-bodied and hearing person walking into the lobby of one of my favorite venues: The Public Theater. There is a notice on the door to mask up before entering. I am early and after masking up and picking up my ticket, I lean up against one of the columns in the lobby and check out my…
Currently running at Classic Stage Company, “A Man of No Importance” chronicles gay middle-aged bus conductor Alfie Byrnes’s (a gloomy and dispirited Jim Parsons) struggles to claim his agency in 1960s Dublin, Ireland’s repressive homophobic environment. His sexual status defines him as a criminal; however, Alfie self-defines as an ordinary man who secretly loves Robbie Faye (a spirited and generous…
Fantasy Non Fiction is a fierce four-piece rock band featuring the original music of drummer/vocalist, Rose Cangelosi, a queer songwriter navigating the world through the catharsis of musical composition. Fantasy Non Fiction raises the bar for drummer-led projects, with complex rhythmic styles that complement the captivating melodies. A vivid, kaleidoscopic sound is rounded out with an array of musical influences…
The title of Donja R. Love’s play “one in two,” currently running in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center, is reflective of the alarming 2016 study released by the CDC, which projected that “one in two Black gay and bisexual men will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime.” Trapped in a stark white…
Once again playwright Richard Nelson has gathered another family around the colloquial table to observe their trials and tribulations as they conquer another day of survival in Rhinebeck, New York. This time around it is “The Michaels” who are the subjects of this intimate study of human behavior. The revelations evolve almost in real time as friends and family convene…