Water for Elephants Book by Rick Elise Music and Lyrics by Pigpen Theatre Company Based on the novel by Sara Gruen Directed by Jessica Stone Imperial Theatre June 1, 2024 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
This show began with one of the most magical, energetic physical first acts that I can remember. The circus truly sprung into life. I learned more about the circus and had more fun in the theater than I have had in a while. Every transition, every movement of a piece of scenery or a prop, every curtain that had to move, became a wondrous physical event. I can’t remember the last time I saw the stage spectacle so alive.
The Notebook Music and Lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson Book by Beech Brunstetter Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks Choreographed by Katie Superman Directed by Michael Greig & Scheme Williams Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre May 29, 2024 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
I must have been the ONLY person in the audience who had never read nor seen the movie for the Notebook. I was a rarity in the theatre. I was a bit concerned coming into the theater. One thing that struck me with worry is that even in the merchandise counter as you came in, they were selling boxed tissues for the audience as if we were going to be incapable of getting through the show without pouring tears onto our laps.
Patriots by Peter Morgan Directed by Rupert Goold Ethel Barrymore Theatre April 12, 2024 Production website 💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Simply brilliant! Patriots is everything a play should be: a smart play that gives causes you to think and feel – excites your imagination – is fun and clever – dangerous and radical – challenges your view of history – and causes you to think about your future! All that in 2 glorious hours. Set in 1991 as the Soviet Union is morphing into the new Russia, oligarchs are taking over the government and billionaire Boris Berezovsky (brilliantly, brilliantly played by Michael Stuhlbarg) looks to an unknown deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin (equally brilliantly played by Will Keen) to serve as the eventual successor to President Boris Yeltsin – Putin seems to be the perfect puppet to serve this king-maker – – or is he?
Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Directed by Lila Neugebauer 2nd Stage Theatre at Helen Hayes Theater February 15, 2024 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Appropriate was a very difficult play to sit through- particularly the first act. I cannot remember the last play that I have seen in which there was so much yelling and non-stop, unrelenting anger. From the first moment to the Act 1 curtain, every single character was raging about something. And the problem when everything is yelled out – nothing is angry – and where do you go from there. We, the audience, take yelling as the norm so when you really DO want to yell or highlight and attack we don’t even notice it – you have already used that ammunition. Granted, Sara Paulson is a truly gifted actress and a powerhouse on stage. She has a charisma on stage that is very rare – but even she became a leader in the anger campaign and spent Act 1, and, unfortunately, most of Act 2 angry and yelling away.
Prayer for the French Republic written by Joshua Harmon Directed by David Cromer Manhattan Theatre Club February 13, 2024 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
In 1791 France became the FIRST European country to fully free its Jewish population, and for the for more than 200 years, French rabbis spoke a special sabbath benediction: “may France enjoy lasting peace, and preserve her glorious rank among the nations”. For centuries, Jewish identity in France, despite periodic waves of hate crimes, has been tightly linked to the state but in Prayers for the French Republic that contract shows signs of strain. In the first moment of the play, the son who insists on wearing a yarmulke to his school, enters the home, badly beating, having been accosted by an anti-Semitic group of men on his way home.
