THE HANGOVER REPORT – NYGASP’s buoyant revival of Gilbert and Sullivan’s THE PIRATES PENZANCE is the ideal show to usher in springtime

This past weekend at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, I caught one of only a handful of performances of New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’ production of the beloved … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Debra Messing stars in BIRTHDAY CANDLES, Noah Haidle’s amiable, predictably sentimental examination of life

Last night, Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of Birthday Candles by Noah Haidle opened at the American Airlines Theatre. Mr. Haidle’s new play begins on one Ernestine Ashworth’s 17th birthday and … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Cast and director imbue Stefano Massini’s clinical, idea-based 7 MINUTES with impassioned specificity

Italian playwright Stefano Massini made a splash earlier this theater season when his epic The Lehman Trilogy played Broadway for a limited run during the winter months (the celebrated Sam … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The York’s traditionally constructed new musical PENELOPE is a pleasant, breezy spin on Greek mythology

This week, the York Theatre Company’s new musical Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written opened Off-Broadway at the Theatre at St. Jean’s on the Upper East Side. The … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – NPR’s Ari Shapiro seamlessly and affectingly incorporates his journalism work into his cabaret act BEHIND THE MIC

Earlier this week, I swung by Feinstein’s/54 Below to catch one of the handful of performances of Behind the Mic, Ari Shapiro’s new solo cabaret act. Mr. Shapiro is perhaps … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Shaina Taub’s highly anticipated and ambitious new musical SUFFS has great potential but needs some retooling

Last night, the Public Theater’s world premiere production of Shaina Taub’s Suffs opened Off-Broadway at the Newman Theater (note that, due to positive Covid-19 cases in the cast, performances through … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Nina Stemme and Lise Davidsen overwhelm in the Met’s searing revival of Richard Strauss’s ELEKTRA

Last night, I was back at the Metropolitan Opera to catch the revival of Patrice Chéreau’s 2016 staging of Richard Strauss’s Elektra (the production was previously seen in 2013 at … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Two decades onward, Richard Greenberg’s Tony-winning TAKE ME OUT returns to Broadway in a punchy revival courtesy of Second Stage

Last night at the Hayes Theater, Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out returned to the Great White Way just about two decades since its original Tony-winning run (has it really been … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – A pair of fierce leading performances and Bill T. Jones’s choreography elevate the otherwise workmanlike PARADISE SQUARE

Last night, the new musical Paradise Square opened on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The show – with music by Jason Howland; lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare; … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In CONFEDERATES, Dominique Morisseau broadens her playwriting by dissecting institutional racism through melodrama and satire

This weekend at the Pershing Square Signature Center, I caught Signature Theatre Company’s production of Confederates by Dominique Morisseau. Morisseau, one of the preeminent Black playwrights of her generation, is … Continue Reading →