Jaclyn Backhaus’s “India Pale Ale” currently running at Manhattan Theatre Club’s New York City Center Stage I has a collection of “teachable moments.” Some of the lessons are rather unimportant though interesting. The audience learns the history of IPA (India Pale Ale), the hops and alcohol content of the iconic enhanced pale ale, and how at least one white hipster…
One would think mounting a Broadway show about snooker would be perilous. Richard Bean’s “The Nap,” currently running at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, unfortunately confirms that fear. Think “The Hustler” staged as a farce with poorly developed characters whose conflicts are not believable and drive a less than satisfying plot. Dylan Spokes (an energetic and engaging Ben…
Due to popular demand, Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director and Barry Grove, Executive Producer) is pleased to announce one additional week of performances for the world premiere of of Sugar in Our Wounds, a new play by Donja R. Love, directed by Saheem Ali (Twelfth Night for the Public Theater’s Mobile Unit), at The Studio at Stage II –…
“No sir: we are afraid of you; but she puts courage into us. She really doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything. Perhaps you could frighten her, sir.” – Robert de Baudricourt’s Steward, Scene 1, “Saint Joan” George Bernard Shaw has had a successful run on Broadway in the 2017-2018 season. Shaw’s “Pygmalion” lies at the heart of Lerner and…
“Yes exactly. I would’ve felt like a traitor. Besides, retired people are like nuclear power stations. We like to live by the sea.” – Hazel to Rose The success of “The Children,” currently playing at Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, is primarily the result of playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s effective and judicious use of tropes, particularly the…
Some audience members attending the engaging “Prince of Broadway,” currently running at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, might find themselves caught between the devil and the deep blue sea: either they are unforgiving musical theatre aficionados and find themselves constantly comparing the iconic musical numbers with the original Broadway production of the shows from which they come, or they have…
August Wilson is having a banner year—especially for someone who has been dead since 2005. The good news is that the playwright had great success while he was living (two Pulitzers among numerous other awards). He is best known for what is called the American Century cycle, one drama a decade that chronicles African American lives in the Hill district…
“This agony inside of me ain’t providing me any time to think/About anything beyond the sitch we’re now living/Gotta go hard, gotta be tough/gotta move forward towards a new dawn, a new dream, a new hope.” – Tong On a recent visit to Vietnam, two glaring disparities were evident: there is a noticeable divide between rich and poor Vietnamese citizens;…
“You’re not. You can hear it. That’s not listening to it. That’s different from listening./You need to follow it. The melody. Try to predict what will happen to it next. It will completely take you by surprise./That’s the secret that nobody knows about music./Music doesn’t exist in the notes. It exists in the spaces between the notes.” – Alex Priest…
The jury remains out in the scientific community: which came first the brain or the mind? Throw into the discussion precisely where memory resides and how it is accessed and the debate becomes even more interesting and convoluted. Playwright Nick Payne focuses his interest on the brain and memory and in the American premiere of his “Incognito” – currently playing…