Strings McCrane (a complex, unsettled, and conflicted Adam Driver) did not need to be overly mindful when he was a world-famous country and western singer and a movie star: he had teams deciding what was best for his present and future career, thus unburdening him from the pressure and uncertainty of being mindful about anything. After his mother’s untimely death…
Since the controversy started about the destiny of so called “dreamers” and immigration moved to the forefront of the political spectrum, theatre has become a formidable platform, revealing the many obstacles that face these innocent victims. What has also developed is the now familiar phrase “sanctuary city.” A city that limits its cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents, to protect…
Perhaps the most problematic element in the new play “Fear” by Matt Williams is that it is flooded with too many sources of fear that tend to diminish the fear that might actually be present during the action of the play. Characters display their fear of infidelity, bullying, child welfare and safety. These concerns and fears are all revealed while…
By agreeing to carefully examine the sex-role stereotypes attributed to women, five disparate women named ‘Betty’ cautiously approach self-acceptance and self-understanding in Jen Silverman’s “Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties” at MCC Theater’s Lucille Lortel Theatre. Their collective rage about their loneliness, their fears, their submission, and their dismissions by men is a welcomed examination of gender and sexual…
Eve Ensler’s commitment to ending violence against cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming women and girls globally (V-Day: A Global Movement to End Violence Against Women) has been unwavering since “The Vagina Monologues” premiered at HERE in 1996. Ms. Ensler attempts to continue that commitment in “Fruit Trilogy,” Abingdon Theatre Company’s final mainstage production of its twenty-fifth anniversary season. Currently in…
“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…
“The End of Longing,” now playing and extended by popular demand at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, is yet another example of the evermore trending evidence that the use of star power will attract an audience regardless of the merit of the vehicle. In this case it is Matthew Perry starring in his less than interesting playwriting debut, which only…
More “Of Mice and Men” than “Orphans,” “Yen,” currently playing at MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, dives headlong into the miasma of dysfunctional families without abandon and lands in a matrix of enduring questions that British playwright Anna Jordan decides not to answer in this play that makes its way from a successful run at the Royal Exchange…
“I KNOW THIS DREAM OF LIFE IS NEVER ENDING,/IT GOES AROUND AND ‘ROUND AND ‘ROUND AGAIN, YOU KNOW THE SUN IS RISING WHILE DESCENDING,/IT GOES ON AND ON AND NEVER ENDS.” – Jane Doe AKA Penny Lamb Like most of humankind residing earth side, the six young victims of a rollercoaster malfunction in “Ride the Cyclone” are trapped in a…
Mrs. Johnson muses that the role of a teacher– a high school English and Drama teacher at an unnamed public school at a non-specific time – is to provide answers to students’ questions. Whether the answers are right or wrong matters not, she ponders. What matters is grappling with the issue and discovering the truth – whatever that might be….