Ubu Roi
prestented by Cheek by Jowl
by Alfred Jarry
directed by Declan Donnellan
Lincoln Center Festival
Gerald W. Lynch Theatre
July 22, 2015

Production website    💉💉 out of 5
When a play begins with a live camera on stage projecting itself on the back wall – – I grow a bit afraid. How many times I have seen this gimmick and saw actors more worried about the image they are projecting on the back wall then making something happen between the people on the stage. Follow me for just the first few minutes of the play and you will see what I am talking about. The very monochromatic, beige stage features one man lounging on the couch playing with a live camera – – just looking into the lens and playing with the buttons. Cheerful French radio plays from the onstage radio. Then the play begins. Continue reading Ubo Roi →

Happy Days
written by Samuel Beckett
directed by Andrei Belgrader
starring Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub
The Flea Theatre
July 13, 2015

Production website     💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
You walk into the theatre of seventy-five seats and see nothing on stage but a large mount of dirt and an obviously painted scrim with clouds and sky. The lights go down and up and then we see our protagonist, Winnie (Brooke Adams) “planted” in the ground with only her head and torso above ground.  A theatre shaking alarm blares off, Winnie opens her eyes and it’s “just another day.” Winnie spends all of act one  trapped in this dirt mound with only a capacious bag full of toiletries, and a gun – – Brownie – – a gun – just in case . .
Continue reading Happy Days →

The Twentieth Century Way
written by Tom Jacobson
directed by Michael Michette
Rattlestick Theatre
July 9, 2015
Production website     💉💉 out of 5.

The premise of the The Twentieth Century Way holds incredible promise – HELD incredible promise.  Based on a fascinating piece of history of 1914, The Twentieth Century Way tells the true story of two actors, Warren and Brown, who where were hired in 1914 by the Long Beach Police Department to entrap gay men in the public bathrooms.  Brown, a young man with markedly sweet looks and Warren, an older man with classic ruggedness set about to flirt with men that were giving them the eye.  They would lead them into the stalls of the men’s rooms and silently encourage them to to place their penis through a small hole  – “glory hole” between the stalls.  Once the “pervert” inserted his penis.  The actors, now vice detectives, would mark their penis with indelible ink and thus secure their arrest. Continue reading The Twentieth Century Way →

Awake and Sing!
by Clifford Odets
directed by Stephen Brown-Fried
The Public Theatre
July 8, 2015
Production website     💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Here’s a crazy idea! Let’s take the American classic Awake and Sing!, written by Clifford Odets, that tells the story of three generations of an immigrant Jewish family struggling with economic, political and familial issues – – and let’s take this oh-so-Jewish story and cast it with an all Asian cast. Crazy, huh? That is exactly what the Public Theatre did with the combination of Awake and Sing! and the National Asian American Theatre Company!

And it worked! Oh boy did it work! Continue reading Awake and Sing →

The Qualms
written by Bruce Norris
directed by Pam MacKinnon
Playwrights Horizons
July 5, 2015

Production website     💉💉💉 out of 5.

I came in expecting to hate this play and simply found myself riveted. The plot is simple: four couples of varied sexual backgrounds get together in a beautiful beach home to have a swingers sex party! I was thinking I was going to hear a lot of provocative talk and some, if not a lot of deliciously gratuitous nudity. But, no! The sex party turned out to be as strained and mundane as you might imagine your parents would give. Yech! I get it. Condoms are thrown around as confetti but never used for their given purpose. Lots of sex talk resolved itself into talk of parking difficulties outside the beach home and thoughts on food delivery in the area. Continue reading The Qualms →