Pass Over Written by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu Directed by Dana Taymor August Wilson Theatre October 10, 2021 Production website 💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5
This play was perfection. There was not a single word or gesture that was extraneous. Visually the play made sense on the bare stage to a stage full of smoke and affects. Very seldom have been so moved by a play.
In many ways Pass Over uses the play, Waiting for Godot and applies this story and its absurdist rules to an urban black culture. Gogo and Didi have been replaced with Moses and Kitch. The bare stage with a single tree has been replaced with a concrete median with a single imposing streetlight. Even the classic bowler hats of the hobos Gogo and Didi are replaced by baseball caps that become treasured props to them. I could go on and on with the comparisons and revaluations made in seeing Godot through this new lense – it was brilliant.
GNIT
Written by Will Eno
Directed by Oliver Butler
Theatre for a New Audience
Polonsky Shakespeare Center
March 10, 2020 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
I loved, loved, loved this show. It is one of the very few “5 needle” productions I have given out over the past few years. Every single moment of the play was a treasure. I couldn’t wait for the next scene or the next change in plot. Even after its 2+ hour run time, I wanted more and more. I have read so many posts in Facebook over Spring Break of my friends and former students taking in Moulin Rouge, Come From Away, The Inheritance, and on and on and rightly raving about each show. BUT, if they miss Gnit, they are missing New York theatre at its very best! If my friends and former students value my opinion, then THIS must become their must see! Here are a few reasons this play thrills:
Greater Clements
Written by Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Davis McCallum
Lincoln Center Theater at the Mitzi E. Newhouse
December 31, 2019 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Tonight was one of the most disturbing evenings I can remember having in the theatre in a long long time.Again, this was another play that I did no preparation for.Boy was I surprised!Tonight I saw two of the best acting performances of the year – for sure!
Edmund Donavan as Joe and Judith Ivey as Maggie just took me away!Never have I seen acting that just took my breath away and truly scared me.Usually I am not such a fan of realism – finding it a bit too much like so much of TV – but this is modern realism done right.Three hours went by and I never checked my watch. Continue reading Greater Clements→
Ink
Written by James Graham
Directed by Rupert Goold
Manhattan Theatre Club
June 21, 2019 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
Ink is an explosion and of far more than just ink.I have never found a play that winds up so hard and so fast.The punch that it delivers at the end of Act 1 truly hit me viscerally and left me limping back to the lounge for the men’s room. It is one fast furious roller coaster.I had thought that I was going to see one of those comparatively gentle, sentimental plays such as “The Front Page” that explores the backstory of what it takes to put out a daily newspaper in the American 40’s.Well, this is London and this is nothing but brutal.Continue reading Ink→
The Prom
Book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin
Music by Matthew Sklar
Lyrics by Chad Beguelin
Longacre Theatre
June 8, 2019 Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.
This show is “enough” is the best possible way.It has enough humor, enough dance, enough music, enough laughs, and enough of a message.It is the best time I have had watching a good ol’ musical comedy in years.It is damm near perfect.If felt like the writer of the book and director watched this show very carefully and made sure that everything was in the right portion.I was worried that since it is about “show people” it was all going to be uncomfortably over the top – but, again it was just perfect.The silliness and making fun of itself was just right. Continue reading The Prom→
