The new musical “The Visitor,” now playing at the Public’s Newman Theater, is based on the 2007 film sharing the same title, with a book by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Brian Yorkey, music by Tom Kitt and lyrics also by Mr. Yorkey. The story is the same but somehow confining it to the stage provides a better focus on the characters…
Tony Kushner’s dystopian vision has a firm grounding in the history of the rise of fascism in Germany in the early 1930s and in the methodical and somewhat meteoric rise of Adolf Hitler to Chancellor of the German Reich. This vision is embodied in “A Bright Room Called Day” currently running at The Public’s Anspacher Theater. Mr. Kushner places himself…
“Every place I went felt the same. Cept . . . Until I got to Drew. Everybody didn’t like me but I had . . . I had space to let me be. Now everybody looking at me like, ‘Blackeye, probation, Yup, that’s what you get.’” – Pharus to ‘AJ’ After a successful and extended run at Manhattan Theatre Club’s…
If you are a fan of Irish plays you will most likely recognize the characters and may recall hearing similar stories as you listen and watch the epic family drama “The Ferryman” by Jez Butterworth now playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. That is where the familiarity stops, allowing the brilliant dialogue of Mr. Butterworth and the sagacious, meticulous…
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…
“I’m Mlima of the Great Plains. Eldest of my clan. I was tracked for many days, taken by a poison arrow. Why are there so many of you?! Mumbi? Koko? Do you hear me?” Mighty Mlima, “Kenya’s most famous elephant,” – the old, large elephant “with extraordinary tusks” – is murdered for those tusks by the Somali poachers Raman and…
“It won’t stay this – go back to Richard, make amends, sort your life out – but things will get better, easier, with time, people such as yourself ‘n your family start integrating more.” – David to Azeem What does it mean to be an ordinary Muslim? What does it mean to be an ordinary Christian? What does it mean…