The Hallway Trilogy

Adam Rapp goes two for three in his new Hallway Trilogy at the Rattlestick. Rapp's one of my favorite American playwrights so I'm always happy to see his work. My review's here.

As a side note, I spent all of Sunday at or near the Rattlestick and on one of the breaks I finally went to Taïm for the first time. Its reputation is richly deserved.

Vieux Carré

The Wooster Group revives Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carré -- which had played Broadway for a total of 17 performances back in 1977. I enjoyed it more than the last two Wooster shows I caught, "Hamlet" and North Atlantic, but still felt it petered out halfway through. May we have a case of diminishing returns here?

The Diary of a Madman

Geoffrey Rush lets it rip in The Diary of a Madman at BAM. You've got less than a month left to see him. In the meantime, my review's here.

Interviewing the Audience

I was blissfully off the grid for the past few days, so here's a belated link to my review of Interviewing the Audience at the Vineyard.

Black Tie

I found A.R. Gurney's latest play, Black Tie, oddly defensive. For instance, the idea of WASPs being mocked and/or made uncomfortable by Jewish comics (Jackie Mason is name-dropped, and the show refers to a made-up comedian named Seymour Schwartz) feels so…dated — to put it mildly.

Thataway for my review.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

Yep, most of the critics decided enough was enough and wrote about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark today — which was the opening date at one point.

Amazingly, my take-down is one of the kindest reviews out there.

Lost in the Stars

Encores! is presenting a very good concert version of Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's Lost in the Stars through the weekend. I caught in on Thursday (review here) and highly recommend it.

Three Sisters

It looks like I'm going to be the minority opinion on this one: I didn't care for the Three Sisters production at CSC. It's a great cast on paper, but there's no life on stage. That's pushing Chekhov's theme a bit far.

Gruesome Playground Injuries + The Whipping Man

Double-barrel attack in the Post today, with a pair of reviews from big off-Broadway houses.

First off is Gruesome Playground Injuries, starring Pablo Schreiber and Jennifer Carpenter, at Second Stage. I've been a Schreiber fan since the second season of The Wire, where he played Nick Sobotka, and he doesn't disappoint here. I hear he's now in the new FX series Lights Out, so gotta check that one out.

Then we have The Whipping Man at MTC. Good performance by André Braugher but the play is so maddeningly earnest...