What the Constitution Means to Me
Written by and starring Heidi Schreck
Directed by Oliver Butler
New York Theatre Workshop
October 26, 2018 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
Great things come in the most unexpected of places.I am not sure what attracted me to spend a night in New York watching a one woman show about the U.S. Constitution – but that is how I chose to spend the night and boy, was I grateful for the choice.It is a mighty odd show to put down in simple terms.Essentially it is set in the meeting room of every American Legion in the middleof anywhere America as they are holding one of their annual oratorical contests for high school students to compete with their knowledge of the U.S. Constitution.Continue reading What the Constitution Means to Me→
The Hard Problem
Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Jack O’Brien
Lincoln Center Theatre Company
October 25, 2018 Production website
💉💉 out of 5.
In all my theatre going days, I don’t think I have ever been to the FIRST preview of any play.The very first time a New York audience was going to see the play – pretty cool!I was surprised to see the imperfections I did see a few.Light cues were bringing up lights on audience members when the audience was not involved in the story.It certainly made a few people last night very self conscious as they were pointed out in plain view for several minutes.Set pieces got spun around to face the wrong direction and there were a few traffic jams with all the cast moving too much furniture around this thrust stage. Continue reading The Hard Problem→
Shame or the Doomsday Machine
Written by Crystal Field
Directed by Mark Marcante
Theatre for the New City
August 5, 2018 Production website
💉 out of 5.
Here is where we are with this production. We entered the Theatre for the New City on 10th Street, and then were directed out back to the street where all was blocked off and a portable stage was erected. Music was blaring, sun barreling down, kids were running around screaming – my ideal theatre setting. This was not going to be a good show, I get it, by almost any standard. The performers were lost – some seem totally unprepared as they were just offstage discussing their lines, movements, exits/entrances and on and on. Performers were spending more time socializing with the audience then focusing on the stage. Non-professional, community generated, we’ll-take-everyone-who-shows-up kind of theatre. Continue reading Shame or the Doomsday Machine→
The Pattern at Pendarvis
Written by Dean Gray
Directed by Joseph Megel
New Dog Theatre Company
August 3, 2018 Production website
💉💉 out of 5.
New York is full of gay theatre! That’s for sure. Gay men of the city love to hear themselves talk and talk! These stories are mainly set in Greenwich Village or Castro Street, in Fire Island or Provincetown. They are set in Boys Town in Chicago or on the beaches of Miami – but were there any gay folk outside of major cities? Were there any gay people in Rust Belt, Corn Belt, middle of America? Pattern at Pendarvis answers that question with a resounding or, perhaps, more quiet, “yes.” Continue reading The Pattern at Pendarvis→
The Boys in the Band
Written by Mart Crowley
Directed by Joe Mantello
BoothTheatre
August 1, 2018 Production website
💉💉💉 out of 5.
I have always had a morbid fascination with cutters.Who in their right mind would pick up a sharp object and stab themself in the arm or leg over and over?Crazy.I mean seriously crazy.As best I can tell the cutter wants to FEEL something and to be the one in charge as to why and when it will be felt.The ORIGINAL Boys in the Band that I saw decades ago felt like that.Why would gay men put themself in such places of self-hatred and why would they continue to remind themselves how ugly and unloved they are- – – or at least were in this revival of the classic from the gay theatre of the 1970’s. Continue reading The Boys in the Band→
What the Constitution Means to Me
