The Flick
by Annie Baker
directed by Sam Gold
Barrow Street Theatre
June 18, 2015
Production website     💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

I will never leave my too-buttered popcorn and giant soda in my movie theatre seat again!  Set in a movie theatre in New England The Flick focuses on 3 barely paid workers trying to keep the movies playing (although no one seems to be attending) and the floor free from trash.  They interact and collide with each other and basically get to know each other.  BUT what makes this experience so rare is that they are getting to know each other at the very same speed that we are!  This doesn’t happen quickly.

Continue reading The Flick →

Guards at the Taj
by Rajiv Joseph
directed by Amy Morton
starring Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed
Atlantic Theatre Company
June 16, 2015

Production website     💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

The Taj Mahal is a truly beautiful wonder of the world – – but you will NEVER be able to look at that serene building the same! Based on a popular myth regarding the Taj, director Amy Morton tells the story of the ugly cruelty that is behind so many of the beautiful things that man is able to create.

Two low level guards are set to protect the construction of the Taj Mahal. They are to insure that no one, including themselves, are able to view the Taj before it is fully complete and ready for viewing. So they stand, and they stand. Slowly we explore the Godot-like relationship of the two men: one strictly following the rules without question, the other, a bit of a radical open to questioning authority! What fun to watch this couple banter away and debate the obvious impossibility of preventing passerby from viewing the enormous Taj.  How crazy is this job?  But to what extent must authority be obeyed?  What would be so wrong to take just the slightest of peeks to see what in the world they have been guarding for sometime. Continue reading Guards at the Taj →

Significant Other
by Joshua Harmon
directed by Trip Cullman
Roundabout Theatre
July 17, 2015
Production website.

💉 out of 5.
I am really not so sure what makes this significant.  Significant Others is a play that sets out to explore how hard it is for a twenty-something gay man to find the “one.”  For all of his consternating with his grandmother, employing of all social media options and championing of his best girl buddies he simply can’t “get any.”  I guess we are supposed to care.
The play does have its funny moments as wedding parties always create a drunken free-for-all.  And protagonist Jordan Berkan certainly does fly across the stage in a caffeinated craze – – but I simply didn’t care for him.  He seemed so whiny and shallow as he pursued the elusive Abacrombie-like model that did little but stand on a raised platform for admiration.

He did talk to his grandmother, played by the talented Barbara Barrie.  She either ask him “how’s your love life? (which she does more then a dozen times) or she is oddly and comfortably planning her suicide.  What??
The set was massive – – a series of rooms and levels but none of them got used.  Most was played on the apron in front.  Why build such a big set and never inhabit it.
Significant Other would undoubtable make good TV.  But to get all dressed up, catch 3 trains, pay over $75 and not to have your dog on your lap – – it simply wasn’t worth the trip.  It might have even different for the twenty-sowing in the audience but for this fifty-something no.

Disenchanted
book, music and lyrics by Dennis T. Giacino
directed by Fiely A. Matias
produced by Westside Theatre
June 14, 2015

💉💉💉 out of 5.

Six women play dozen’s of Disney Princesses in this adult comedy and send-up of all that is Disney and much of what is female in countless bedtime stories.

The result is super sweet, a bit naughty and truly captivating. My imagination was kept for the entire short 90 minutes of the play – grateful of course that they didn’t overwork the bit for another hour.

As the musical asks, I found myself wondering why almost every happily-ever-after – – involves finding that certain someone, Can’t a hard won happily-ever-after be just as sweet and rewarding on your own. I am NOT a Disney person and certainly not a Princess fan – but now I understand their appeal and danger to a young audience.

The Way We Get By

by Neil LaBute

Produced by Second Stage Theatre

June 13, 2015     The Way We Get By

Not to sound too jaded, I have grown a bit tired of Neil Labute. His plays seem to relentlessly focus on broken people making poor choices and stepping on a lot of feelings in the process. But this play was different for me. This play was sexy. You have that delicious human drama of waking up the morning after the night you can’t really remember doing the thing that you are oh, so unsure of. Who hasn’t been there? Continue reading The Way We Get By →