The Band’s Visit
Music and Lyrics by David Yazbec
Book by Itamar Moses
Directed by David Cromer
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
January 12, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

From the first moment of music I was won.  The Egyptian music was so wonderfully foreign to me – and so passionate and emotional – It was an entire show before the first character entered.  It is hard to describe the wonderfulness of this show.  I suppose if you were schooled in international music you would have heard some of this Jewish/Egyptian/Arabic music and all of its unique orchestration it would be old hat you  – but, for me, it was new, new, new.  Passion played out is such new and unusual ways. Continue reading The Band’s Visit →

Meteor Shower
Starring Amy Schumer
Written by Steve Martin
Directed by Jerry Zaks
Booth Theatre
January 3, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

Meteor Shower was 80 minutes of good sincere fun. Amy Schumer showed up and did her magic and the audience was hers for the afternoon. The lines were sincerely funny and the ensemble of the two quite contrasting couples gave lots and lots of opportunities for laughs. Watching the beautiful slick couple of Laura Benanti and Keegan-Michael Key interact with the decidedly not slick couple of Amy Schumer and Jeremy Shamos was very rich in comic moments. Even the chest wounds of a direct meteor hit – – brought the house down as it squirted blood every time there was a cough or laugh. Continue reading Meteor Shower →

John Lithgow: Stories by the Heart
Adapted and Performed by John Lithgow
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Roundabout Theatre Company
January 2, 2018
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

Here we are at the American Airlines Theatre on 42nd on a cold Tuesday night. The set is a beautiful, rich, paneled library with a large wooden chair center stage and a smaller chair with table on the left side of the stage. Beautiful – but that’s it. Then John Lithgow enters. We are all applause; we are applauding, of course, for a career that has given us one of our best moments on stage, television and the silver screen. He comes out to give us just a bit of intro about her early years and the love he had for story telling as a young boy. He and his siblings were read stories every night and they loved them. It defined them as a family. Continue reading John Lithgow: Stories by the Heart →

Junk
Written by Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Doug Hughes
Lincoln Center Theater
Vivian Beaumont
December 31, 2017
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

Usually my first criteria in looking at a play is to see if I cared for any of the characters on stage.  I want to be able to identify with at least someone and follow them through some struggles.  I want to see them suffer and learn/feel something from their suffering.  However in Junk, I could care less about any of the character on stage – and this play had well over a dozen characters on stage.  Usually that would be the end of the story for me when it comes to a play.  But Junk is different – Continue reading Junk →

The Pariasian Woman
Written by Bill Willimon
Directed by Pam McKinnon
Hudson Theatre
December 27, 2017
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

Kill Bill does a bit of a political thriller – or so I thought. . . .  well, a bit more of Kill Bill would have helped.   The Parisian Woman is based 19th-century French farce by Henry Becque.  They obviously took this political farce and “updated” it with as many pseudo-Trump references as they could.  “Let’s say everything we can about Trump without saying his name.”  And clearly this was the response of the audience.  From “locker room talk” to “fake news”, the audience giggled with delight every time they could make the connection.  Continue reading The Pariasian Woman →