Six Degrees of Separation
Written by John Guare
Directed by Trip Cullman
Starring Allison Janney, John Hickey, and Corey Hawkins
Barrymore Theatre
April 14, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
“For each of our dysfunctions, there is someone out there eager to meet us.” This is NOT a line from the play but a line I have learned from my life – – the hard way. I saw Six Degrees of Separation almost 30 years ago and all I could remember was the nudity and the reckless inclusion of gay hustlers. Beyond that I am not sure I could tell you the plot. But I am some 30 years older and now able to focus on those things beyond the scintillating and grab more of the story. Continue reading Six Degrees of Separation→
Miss Saigon
Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg
Lyrics by Richard Maltby, Fr & Alain Boublil
Choreography by Geoffrey Garratt
Directed by Laurence Connnor
Broadway Theatre
March 20, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
It has been 20 years since I saw Miss Saigon and the show feels quite different. The show still has that wonderful anti-war bite of spinning embassy gates, marching followers of Ho Chi Minh storming through the rice fields, and helicopters (now more realistically then EVER) pulling out all of the American forces from Saigon and leaving all of the natives with lots of empty promises and fatherless children. The exploitation of the women into sexual slavery and trafficking remains the same – perhaps made even more painfully blunt as this cast has no inhibitions about touching the breasts, butts, and crotches of women at will. This production truly takes the objectification of women to a new level of inappropriateness. It is NOT for the faint of heart.Continue reading Miss Saigon→
The Babylon Line
Written by Richard Greenberg Directed by Terry Kinney
Lincoln Center: Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre
January 5, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
I walked into the theatre and saw the tell-tale chalky blackboard, pictures of presidents, encyclopedias, student desks and musky muskiness. I was back in fifth grade at Central School. Only this play wasn’t about going back to 5th grade. It was a classroom that was being used in the night time for an adult education class in writing. A wanna-be writer from the city was making the perilous journey by train (hence, the Babylon Line) to the suburbs of Long Island to share his love of writing with a group of misfit adults a bit chagrined that the class they WANTED – the class on flower arranging or such was filled to capacity. Continue reading The Babylon Line→
The Front Page
Written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur Directed by Jack O’Brien
Broadhurst Theatre
January 4, 2017 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
I think that I could just leave the theatre right now and nobody would know that I have gone. This is the feeling I had for the first hour or two of Front Page. After seeing so many shows that worked to bridge the distance between the actor and the audience, it was a shock to see a good ol’ fashioned realistic play where that fourth wall was truly being respected. To be honest it felt like I was watching really good TV. Continue reading The Front Page→
Bright Colors and Bold Patterns
Written and Performed by Drew Droege
Directed by Michael Urie
Barrow Street Theatre
December 23, 2016 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
I am in Palm Springs for a wedding of someone I have only heard of. I am in my mid-twenties and in the prime of my life. An older man – I guess we can call him my boyfriend – brought me along because every party needs some eye candy. I have no interest in attending the wedding, but I am digging the attention I am getting floating around this pool in my impressive tan and speedo. [Okay, this is not me – not me now, not me then, and regretfully, not me ever.] Continue reading Bright Colors and Bold Patterns→
Six Degrees of Separation
