Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Irish...and How They Got That Way

My latest review is the revival of Frank McCourt's play with music The Irish...and How They Got That Way at — where else? — Irish Rep.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Dinosaurs!

Today's linkage is a little late but I just came back from an Internet-free long weekend upstate. (I may have to blog about my discovery of water parks at some point!)

I finished off last week with a review of Walking with Dinosaurs, which was at the Garden until Sunday. My technical advisor, ie my ten-year-old nephew, approved, and so did I.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Judgment Day

Ödön von Horváth isn't staged very much in the US so it was a particular thrill to see his last play, Judgment Day (1937). It's part of Bard College's SummerScape 2010, and well worth the trip to Annandale-on-Hudson. Review here.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Teorema

In his latest show, Teorema, Ivo van Hove tackles Pasolini's movie of the same title — the one where Terence Stamp seduces an entire family plus the maid, then leaves them to their alienation. It's an intriguing proposition, and I'm a huge van Hove fan, but the show is oddly blah (see my review).

Friday, July 16, 2010

Falling for Eve

Joe DiPietro — excuse me, Tony-winning Joe DiPietro — strikes again, having written the book for the new musical Falling for Eve at the York. How they managed to work Nazis into the Adam and Eve story, I leave that for you to discover.

Monday, July 12, 2010

A Night at the Tombs

Readers of this blog who don't live in NY need to know that the Tombs is the nickname of the city's detention house. When you need to cool off for a night, that's where you go. It happened to Bianca Leigh after she was arrested for soliciting in 1987, and now she's doing a one-woman show about it, A Night at the Tombs. Review in today's paper.

Friday, July 09, 2010

Musashi

And we're off! The 2010 Lincoln Center Festival started with Hisashi Inoue's Musashi, a Noh-inflected tale of samurai vengeance. I was there, of course.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

My favorite New Yorkers

In today's Post, I write about some of the New Yorkers who bought tickets for Peter Stein's 12-hour-long staging of The Demons. (Yes, you read right: 12 hours.) It's basically a way for me to talk about the people who keep theater going in our town: the intellectually curious, the folks always looking for new experiences. I love them all.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Race reboot

Last week I revisited David Mamet's Race, and found it considerably improved thanks to a new cast that includes Eddie Izzard and Dennis Haysbert. Review in today's Post.

Friday, July 02, 2010

The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale, the second of this summer's Shakespeare in the Park offerings has opened. Oooh it's bad. Really bad. When I greeted John Simon, who was sitting in front of me, and asked how he was doing at intermission, he replied, "Good, under the circumstances."

Thursday, July 01, 2010

The Merchant of Venice

[in booming Moviefone voice] "He's an outcast and a money-lending Jew! His daughter has betrayed him, and everybody hates him! It's payback time! This summer, Al Pacino is SHYLOCK in The Merchant of Venice! Now playing in Central Park! Now reviewed in the New York Post!"