THE HANGOVER REPORT – Radcliffe, Cannavale, and Jones crackle in the topical THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT

Last night, Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell’s starry new comedy The Lifespan of a Fact opened on Broadway at Studio 54. In essence, the play, which is based on … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Week 3: Declan Donnellan’s timely MEASURE FOR MEASURE turns the play’s problematic ambivalence into a defiant strength

The highlight of week three of BAM’s Next Wave Festival is sure to be Declan Donnellan’s staging of Measure for Measure at the BAM Harvey Theater, a co-production between Cheek by … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Tastefully (literally) beckoning Halloween: AT THE ILLUSIONIST’S TABLE & KILLING AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE

Selecting a tasteful live entertainment to usher in Halloween can be a tricky proposition. Where does one start? On the surface, you’ll simply be faced with a barrage of generic, shock-oriented haunted … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Andrew R. Butler’s blazing folk/futuristic RAGS PARKLAND SINGS SONGS OF THE FUTURE is a powerful and soul-stirring new musical

Many of those who know me appreciate how much I adored Dave Malloy’s ravishing musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 both on Broadway, as well as its various … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – David Greenspan’s THE THINGS THAT WERE THERE succinctly meditates on loss, memory, and family

Last night, I caught David Greenspan’s The Things That Were There at the Bushwick Starr, in a co-production with the Abingdon Theatre Company. The play is a meditation on loss, … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – BAM’s Next Wave Festival, Week 2: A trio of early Trisha Brown curiosities are just that (curiosities)

Last week marked week two of BAM’s wide-reaching Next Wave Festival. The only offering I attended was a program of three early Trisha Brown-choreographed works, which were recreated for a handful … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The bewitching Jomama Jones reemerges in the West Village to shed her BLACK LIGHT on our rough times

This week, Daniel Alexander Jones’s Black Light opened at the Greenwich House Theater. In this soulful, categorically-challenged solo musical, Mr. Jones takes on the fictitious persona of the regal Jomama Jones, who, from the void, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Daniel Fish radically re-envisions an OKLAHOMA! stripped of artifice, and it’s bloody brilliant

Tonight at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, I caught Daniel Fish’s radical Off-Broadway reinterpretation (deconstruction?) of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s seminal musical Oklahoma! Long story short, it’s a stunner. What Mr. … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – James Hindman’s POPCORN FALLS is a pleasant if generic farce, for two

This week, James Hindman’s comic two-hander Popcon Falls opened Off-Broadway at the Davenport Theater. Using just two actors in a dizzying number of roles, the play tells the madcap story … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Circa’s HUMANS & SITI’s THE BACCHAE: Joseph V. Melillo’s final Next Wave Festival gets off to a rousing start at BAM

It was with bittersweet sentiment that I embarked on immersing myself in this fall’s Next Wave Festival, which commenced performances last week at BAM’s various venues in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene … Continue Reading →