GNIT
Written by Will Eno
Directed by Oliver Butler
Theatre for a New Audience
Polonsky Shakespeare Center
March 10, 2020 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
I loved, loved, loved this show. It is one of the very few “5 needle” productions I have given out over the past few years. Every single moment of the play was a treasure. I couldn’t wait for the next scene or the next change in plot. Even after its 2+ hour run time, I wanted more and more. I have read so many posts in Facebook over Spring Break of my friends and former students taking in Moulin Rouge, Come From Away, The Inheritance, and on and on and rightly raving about each show. BUT, if they miss Gnit, they are missing New York theatre at its very best! If my friends and former students value my opinion, then THIS must become their must see! Here are a few reasons this play thrills:
The Perplexed
Written by Richard Greenberg
Directed by Lynne Meadow
Manhattan Theatre Club
March 8, 2020 Production website
💉💉 out of 5.
The Perplexed did that and did that for over 150 minutes and did that without any prize for having stayed the course. I felt like I was in these expositional first few scenes of a comedy where you do not expect much to happen except the setup that is going to so pay off when you get to the last half of the show. I was more than willing to be patient! But this was exposition that went on and on and right to the last moment and felt like a long, long joke that was refusing to get the punch line!
72 Miles to Go . . .
Written by Hilary Bettis
Directed by Jo Bonney
Roundabout Theatre Company
Laura Pels Theatre
March 8, 2020 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
I really wanted to love this play; I really did. I was thinking it was time for a good play to really deal with the DACA debate and the personal stories of those who are living through the experience and the fear.
72 Miles to Go . . follows a splintered family over 10 years of strength, struggle and love, as they face the profoundly personal drama of immigration. Seventy-two miles. That’s the space between Nogales, Mexico and Tucson, Arizona—and the world of distance that separates a mother at a shelter and her American-born husband and children.Continue reading 72 Miles to Go . . .→
Greater Clements
Written by Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Davis McCallum
Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse
December 31, 2019 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Tonight was one of the most disturbing evenings I can remember having in the theatre in a long long time.Again, this was another play that I did no preparation for.Boy was I surprised!Tonight I saw two of the best acting performances of the year – for sure!
Edmund Donavan as Joe and Judith Ivey as Maggie just took me away!Never have I seen acting that just took my breath away and truly scared me.Usually I am not such a fan of realism – finding it a bit too much like so much of TV – but this is modern realism done right.Three hours went by and I never checked my watch. Continue reading Greater Clements→
One in Two
Written by Donja R. Love
Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb
The New Group at Pershing Square Signature Center
December 30, 2019 Production website
💉💉 out of 5.
The statistics behind one is two are just frightening.The play is built on a study that shows that of the men who have sex with other white men, 1 in 11 will contact AIDS.If the men men are hispanic the odds move to one in five. Most terrifying of all, one in two black man will contract HIV – and this is NOW – not some decade old statistic.
I have to admit I was a bit reluctant to see another play that deals with gay men and HIV/AIDS.I have truly seen all the plays that have come out – from As Is and Normal Heart to Angels in America and The Inheritance.I have seen these hallmark productions and all of the good, bad and ugly productions in between.What excited me here was a chance to see one showing TODAY’s landscape and to explore the world of this epediimc from a black perspective. Continue reading One in Two→
GNIT
