Thom Pain (based on nothing)
Starring Michael C. Hall
Written by Will Eno
Directed by Oliver Butler
Signature Theatre
November 24, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Watching Thom Paine (based on nothing), with Michael C. Hall is a 70 minute romp round the existential racetrack that feels very much like Beckett brought back to life.  In fact, as I was sitting there, I began to see this play and imagining what it would be like to have seen Waiting for Godot– now told in the 21st century and now played out after the death of Estragon.  What would Godot be like after the death of one member of its infamous couple?  How would Vladimire hold forth on a world when there was no one to verbally spar with him?  Can you imagine the pain of all those jokes and pondering landing on ears that were no longer there to answer.  Existential on steroids for sure . . . Continue reading Thom Pain (based on nothing) →

What the Constitution Means to Me
Written by and starring Heidi Schreck
Directed by Oliver Butler
New York Theatre Workshop
October 26, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

Great things come in the most unexpected of places.  I am not sure what attracted me to spend a night in New York watching a one woman show about the U.S. Constitution – but that is how I chose to spend the night and boy, was I grateful for the choice.  It is a mighty odd show to put down in simple terms.  Essentially it is set in the meeting room of every American Legion in the middle  of anywhere America as they are holding one of their annual oratorical contests for high school students to compete with their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.  Continue reading What the Constitution Means to Me →

The Hard Problem
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Lincoln Center Theatre Company
October 25, 2018
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

In all my theatre going days, I don’t think I have ever been to the FIRST preview of any play.  The very first time a New York audience was going to see the play – pretty cool!  I was surprised to see the imperfections I did see a few.  Light cues were bringing up lights on audience members when the audience was not involved in the story.  It certainly made a few people last night very self conscious as they were pointed out in plain view for several minutes.  Set pieces got spun around to face the wrong direction and there were a few traffic jams with all the cast moving too much furniture around this thrust stage. Continue reading The Hard Problem →

The Pattern at Pendarvis
Written by Dean Gray
Directed by Joseph Megel
New Dog Theatre Company
August 3, 2018
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

New York is full of gay theatre!  That’s for sure.  Gay men of the city love to hear themselves talk and talk!  These stories are mainly set in Greenwich Village or Castro Street, in Fire Island or Provincetown.  They are set in Boys Town in Chicago or on the beaches of Miami – but were there any gay folk outside of major cities?  Were there any gay people in Rust Belt, Corn Belt, middle of America?  Pattern at Pendarvis answers that question with a resounding or, perhaps, more quiet, “yes.” Continue reading The Pattern at Pendarvis →

Skintight
Written by Joshua Harmon
Directed by Daniel Aukin
Roundabout: Laura Pels Theatre
June 12, 2018
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

What could ever draw Idina Menzel to the stages of NYC without giving her single song to sing?  Skintight was the show that did it!  I worried that the show was going to somehow ride off of her notoriety with Rent, Wicket or even Frozen, but blessedly I was wrong.  This show was rough, crude and certainly a puzzle.  Idina’s character has a father who is massively successful in the fashion industry and has recently taken in a 20 year old man as his partner – as she calls him his “boy toy”.  This is even more disturbing in that she has a son the same age.  And to make it even more, more disturbing she is recently divorced from a husband who decided himself to marry a woman in her twenties.  Everyone in the show wants someone in their twenties!  Everyone wants someone hot! Continue reading Skintight →