American Son
Written by Christopher Demos-Brown
Directed by Kenny Leon
Starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale
Booth Theatre
January 3, 2019 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
This was by FAR the best play that I have seen in many months.In only about 75 tight moments on stage this play prepares you for a kick in the gut that my entire row in the theatre AUDIBLE recoiled at the play’s conclusion.It started with a slow wind-up as the mother (Kerry Washington) paces around the stage in complete agitated silence checking her cell phone again and again.It seems like forever.The lady next to me actually thought someone had forgotten to enter.But the pain of the wait was oh so necessary. Continue reading American Son→
Nassim
Written and performed by Nassim Soleimanpour
with guest actor Thom Sesma
Directed by Omar Elerian
New York City Center Stage II
January 2, 2019 Production website
💉💉 out of 5
Man did I want to like this play – because I adore Performance Art.A week at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland is my idea of theatre heaven!But tonight it was Nassim at NY City Center Theatre.Nassim Soleimanpour is an actual playwright from Iran known here in the US for his big hit White Rabbit Red Rabbit – a play that Nassim, himself was never able to see in America as he was having trouble leaving his country and coming to the US. Continue reading Nassim→
Choir Boy
Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Trip Cullman
Manhattan Theatre Club
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
January 1, 2019 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
I loved this play, and I NEVER realized the power of gospel music in igniting passion and brining an audience in.Choir Boy centers on the tensions in a prestigious prep school for African American boys when a flamboyantly gay youth is named leader of their celebrated gospel choir.Essentially is a coming-of-age story for a gay student surviving and thriving in a mostly straight prep school with the strongest and most stringent of values to create “ethical black men.”Continue reading Choir Boy→
I would like to offer my list of the TOP TEN BEST PLAYS and the TOP FIVE WORST PLAYS that I saw in 2018.. This year I was able to take in 33 plays – and I assure you that my list is totally unlike ANY of the various people that review NYC theatre. Please do click on the title of the following plays to read the full review:
The Slave Play
Written by Jeremy O. Harris
Directed by Robert O’Hara
New York Theatre Workshop
December 26, 2018 Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
“White people still have the whip” claims Jeremy O’Harris in his crazy, rollarcoaster of a work, Slave Play. It is perhaps the kinkiest and most unapologetic play I have seen in years. The crux of the play is a montage of three interracial couples (1. a young slave girl and her master; 2. An older plantation mistress with a biracial house slave; and 3. A white indentured laborer and the black male slave who oversees his work. At the beginning of the play, these three couples are caught in the throughs of their erotic fantasy of domination and submission. Continue reading The Slave Play→
American Son
