King Lear
Starring Glenda Jackson
Written by William Shakespeare
Music by Philip Glass
Directed by Sam Gold
Cort Theatre
March 11, 2019
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

This is a major chew for an audience.  For a crowd that is going to the theatre expecting all to be would up in a 90 minute intermission-less night, Lear coming in at almost three hours and thirty minutes is a test.  Of course to see the incandescent Glenda Jackson take on this role of lifetime at the age of 82 is worth the wait!

I wanted to adore this show . .  Continue reading King Lear →

American Son
Written by Christopher Demos-Brown
Directed by Kenny Leon
Starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale
Booth Theatre
January 3, 2019
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

This was by FAR the best play that I have seen in many months.  In only about 75 tight moments on stage this play prepares you for a kick in the gut that my entire row in the theatre AUDIBLE recoiled at the play’s conclusion.  It started with a slow wind-up as the mother (Kerry Washington) paces around the stage in complete agitated silence checking her cell phone again and again.  It seems like forever.  The lady next to me actually thought someone had forgotten to enter.  But the pain of the wait was oh so necessary. Continue reading American Son →

Choir Boy
Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Trip Cullman
Manhattan Theatre Club
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
January 1, 2019
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

I loved this play, and I NEVER realized the power of gospel music in igniting passion and brining an audience in.  Choir Boy centers on the tensions in a prestigious prep school for African American boys when a flamboyantly gay youth is named leader of their celebrated gospel choir.  Essentially is a coming-of-age story for a gay student surviving and thriving in a mostly straight prep school with the strongest and most stringent of values to create “ethical black men.”  Continue reading Choir Boy →

Mike Birbiglia’s The New One
Written and performed by Mike Birbiglia
Directed by Seth Barrish
Cort Theatre
December 23, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

How does a successful stand-up comedian who has spent a life traveling through the midwest in town’s where “everything centers on the action at the local Applebees” translate to the Great White Way?  How can one man fill he stage when he is used to filling a few square yards of staging shoved in the corner of some bar pushing a two drink minimum?   Mike Birbiglia is how you do it!

Continue reading Mike Birbiglia’s The New One →

Head Over Heels
Songs by the Go-Go’s
Based on The Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney
Conceived & Original Book by Jeff Whitty
Adapted by James Magruder
Music Supervision, Orchestration & Arrangements by Tom Kitt
Choreographed by Spencer Liff
Directed by Michael Mayer
Hudson Theatre
November 21, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

Sometimes I get the urge to be a total tourist I’m New York.  I want to walk around Times Square and run into people by taking pictures of all the tall buildings.  I want to do that avoidance dance as all of those poorly masked cartoon characters waddle to you to take the pictures with mandatory tips. I want to read each of the jumbo-trons and plan a meal in one of the oversized restaurants.  And to this perfect tourist day, I would get tickets to see Head Over Heels.  This musical, struggling at the box office, is an odd fairy tale like adventure of a kingdom held bound by a curse and threatened to “loose their beat.”  For an out-of-towner this really could be the perfect show. Continue reading Head Over Heels →