Call Me Izzy
Written by Jamie West
Directed by Sarna Lapine
Roundabout Theatre – Studio 54
August 6, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
This is one remarkable story on stage. Going into a one-person show, I am always wondering if perhaps the show would be best read with little need to go to the theatre, but Jean Smart absolutely proves me wrong on this. From the first moment played in a chair, in her tiny bathroom, in a trailer, in Louisiana you cannot take your eyes of her.
well, I’ll let you go
Written by Bubba Weiler
Directed by Jack Serio
The Space at Irondale
August 5, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Set in a small Midwestern town well I’ll let you go is a portrait of a woman and a community in crisis. Alternately vast and personal in scope, shifting backwards and forwards in time, this expansive, yet incredibly intimate, debut play sifts through the rubble of a town, marriage and a life built on an American dream that’s crumbled period.
Entering the “space” above a beautiful church in Brooklyn I was met with a very long court of a floor all in nailed down in plywood and a handful of metal folding chairs. I knew this was going to be a terrible show or something really special. AND it turned out to be something very, very special. It is impossible to believe that this is playwright Bubba Weiler’s playwriting debut – – It is so clean and clear with beautiful language and the perfect blending of kitchen-sink American realism with touches of theatrical magic. I was interested and invested in each character and wanted to see how each of their story lines played out.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Written by Oscar Wilde
In a new adaptation written and directed by Kip Williams
Music Box Theatre
May 23, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
The Picture of Dorian Gray was an incredible night in the theatre! It was simply magical how one woman, an amazing technology and crew could fill the stage and tell a somewhat forgotten story long considered a literary classic. From the very first moment that the large screen center stage lights up, you know you are going to see the “pictures” in the Picture of Dorian Gray like you could never have imagined. The story is told by one woman using characters she creates live vying with those she has pre-recorded on sets that are live in front of us and settings that have been pre-recorded.
Purpose
Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Phylicia Rashad
Hayes Theatre
May 16, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Purpose begins the evening with its protagonist waning the audience to, “Buckle up,” and he is not kidding. On stage we are about to experience three hours lacerating, biting and totally unforgettable family drama. At first, you believe you are going to go down the well-worn path of a conventional family reunion. The snow is falling, roads are closed, and the wayward son has returned. But it is here that playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins takes a most distinct point of view: he introduces black history and his peerless use of language to plumet this funny, deep and provocative work. Purpose is a dramatic vivisection of the Jasper family and so much more.
Nicole Scherzinger
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Sunset Boulevard
Book and Lyrics by Don Black & Christopher Hampton
Directed by Jamie Lloyd
St. James Theatre
January 1, 2025
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
It comes down to a debate whether you like your Sunset Blvd with a lavish set that becomes a morbid decrepit character, much like its protagonist Norma Desmond – – – or whether you prefer the stripped bare, sexy, sleek, dangerous stage and Norma of the current Sunset. I must admit that it is a bit odd to see this Norma as so much younger and more attractive than Normas of the past but this reiteration of Norma sure gets at the psychotic killer that Norma soon becomes.