Gently Down the Stream
Written by Martin Sherman
Directed by Sean Mathias
Public Theatre
April 15, 2017
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

I wanted to like this play.  I really wanted to like thus play,  It had everything going for it:  the writer, Martin Sherman and the wonderful Harvey Fierstein.  But I did not like this play.  It just never took off and then it became way too predictable and way to driven by monologues that just didn’t matter to me.   Continue reading Gently Down the Stream →

In Transit
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Kristen Ajderso-Lopez, James-Allen Ford, Russ Kaplaj, and Sara Wordsworth
Directed and Choreographed by Kathleen Marshall
Circle in the Square Theatre
March 23, 2017
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

InTransit: a new musical was just too cute – just way, way way too cute.  For people of my generation, it was as if Up With People were doing an homage to the mass transit system of New York.  It really is hard to fault the piece.  It so cleverly used the thrust staging of the Circle in the Square Theatre where a working treadmill provided the necessary illusion of a subway car whizzing back and forth across the city’s underground. Continue reading In Transit →

Wakey, Wakey
Written  and directed by William Eno
Signature  Theatre
March 22, 2017
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Wakey, Wakey is just 5 💉💉💉💉💉 brilliant!  There is little more on stage then a wheelchair, a few cardboard boxes, a surface to display a few YouTube clips and the amazing Michael Emerson illuminating the quirky world of William Eno.  Essentially Wakey, Wakey is a dramatic poem taking us through the final moments of a man’s life.  What is so amazing here is that although you were very connected with the central character and certainly bought the stakes of the moment, you didn’t get swallowed up in sentimentality.  You didn’t cry.  I didn’t cry – – and I am a crier in plays like this!  I was scared.  I was dumbstruck – – but just not sad. Continue reading Wakey, Wakey →

The Babylon Line
Written by Richard Greenberg          Directed by Terry Kinney
Lincoln Center: Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre
January 5, 2017
Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.

I walked into the theatre and saw the tell-tale chalky blackboard, pictures of presidents, encyclopedias, student desks and musky muskiness.  I was back in fifth grade at Central School.  Only this play wasn’t about going back to 5th grade.  It was a classroom that was being used in the night time for an adult education class in writing.  A wanna-be writer from the city was making the perilous journey by train (hence, the Babylon Line) to the suburbs of Long Island to share his love of writing with a group of misfit adults a bit chagrined that the class they WANTED – the class on flower arranging or such was filled to capacity. Continue reading The Babylon Line →

Gorey, The Secret Life of Edward Gorey
Written and Directed by Travis Russ
Life Jacket Theatre Company
January 4, 2017
Production website
💉💉 out of 5.

This play was a bit of mystery to me.  Gorey was one of those plays that I purposely chose NOT to research and NOT toread any biography on Edward Gorey’s life.  I wanted to come to the play as a blank canvas. – – This is where I got lost.  Continue reading Gorey, The Secret Life of Edward Gorey →