This Space Between Us Written by Peter Gil-Sheridan Directed by Jonathan Silverstein Keen Company – Theatre Row March 26, 2022 Production website 💉💉 out of 5.
This play was exactly what I expected – – in fact it was a bit too much of what I expected. This Space Between Us tells the story of a corporate lawyer who is connected to his parents, aunt, neighbor and boyfriend, who one day wakes up to realize that his corporate law job – although lucrative – is not making the change in the world that he feels necessary. He wants to ditch it all and head to Africa to help others.
Kimberly Akimbo Book & Lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire Music by Jeanine Tesori Based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaiore Choreographed by Danny Mefford Directed by Jessica Stone Atlantic Theatre Company December 30, 2021 Production website 💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Kimberly Akimbo is a truly magnificent musical. It is true, honest, sincere and in no way pretentious. The story involves a teenage girl suffering from Progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes the patient to age very quickly and often results in death around the age of 16. The girl in this play, Kimberly, played by master performer Victoria Clark, is played by a 60+ year old woman. Essentially we have the soul of a teenage girl being played by a much older actress. Kimberly Akimbo is one of the most beautiful examples of theatrical irony then have seen in many years.
Morning Sun Written by Simon Stephens Directed by Lila Neugebauer Manhattan Theatre Club October 12, 2021 Production website ☠️ out of 5 – TOTAL POISON
In decades of theatre going under my belt, this has to be THE WORST PRODUCTION of arguable the WORST SCRIPT I have ever seen. I am serious. Now of course I saw the production on the first preview, but since they were charging just as much as a regular production, I didn’t feel that I needed to cut them any slack. To begin the set was just a bland, drab expanse of stage that was very wide and very shallow. Nothing about the set gave me a sense of where we were at. All the furniture faced front and there was large gaps of carpet until the next illogical piece of furniture. Interesting stage pictures were not going to be possible. I cut the show some slack thinking that later in the night this drab expanse of a set was going to make some magical sense, but no.
Letters of Suresh Written by Rajiv Joseph Directed by May Adrales Second Stage Theatre October 10, 2021 Production website 💉💉💉💉 out of 5
With this play I did something I have never done in all of my years of theatre-going. I just looked at my watch and found that I could make an evening show if I wanted. I hadn’t planned on this – didn’t do any research. I just went to Playbill on-line and picked one not too far away that I hadn’t seen – – thus Letters of Suresh. Luckily it paid off and the play was the perfect choice for the evening.
Essentially Letters of Suresh is a series of letters that were found in the meager estate of a dead priest in Hiroshima. Over the years he had corresponded to Suresh about life and love. These letters where found and through a third party they are read and passed on to another reader. Essentially the correspondence of one pair of penpals grew into a small group of people that were transformed by the beauty and honesty of the writing. Each person that read the letters was driven to become a writer and the art of letter writing blossomed.
Sanctuary City Written by Martina Major Directed by Rebecca Frecknall New York Theatre Workshop October 9, 2021 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5
It was so great to back into the theatre and see a play. It had been waaaaaay tooo long! Sanctuary Play was the first of the group. The story was simple – two adolescents, both children of undocumented workers banded together to plot ways to stay in the country. The girl simply named “G” found a loophole in the system that allowed her to stay if she was willing to stay with her physically abuse succession of her Mother’s boyfriends and take on an excessive amount of college student debt. The boy, “B” had it tougher. His mother was planning to give up and just return to her home country. His options were to continue hiding in the shadows in fear or to find an American girl that he could marry. I am sure you can guess where we go from there.
