VIEWPOINTS – Looking to the past and present: Dance Reflections gets underway strikingly with LA(HORDE)’s ROOM WITH A VIEW and Lucinda Childs’ DANCE

This past week, the New York iteration of Van Cleef & Arpels’ Dance Reflections – a sweeping and ambitious contemporary dance festival presented in conjunction with some of the city’s … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Laurie Anderson’s upbeat LET X = X and Gregory Maqoma’s transcendent BROKEN CHORD kick off BAM’S Next Wave 2023 with a bang

This week, the 2023 version of the Brooklyn Academy of Music‘s Next Wave Festival kicked off with a bang with a pair of memorable offerings (see below for my further … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – More than two decades onwards, Heggie and McNally’s DEAD MAN WALKING arrives at the Met in a new, clear-eyed staging

This week, I was also able to catch up with the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Dead Man Walking, American composer Jake Heggie and the late playwright Terrence McNally’s opera adaptation … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Basking in Black joy and rage via rip-roaring satire: Ossie Davis’s PURLIE VICTORIOUS returns to Broadway

Earlier this week at the Music Box Theatre, I had the chance to catch up with the Broadway revival of Ossie Davis’s Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Observing Western classics through specifically feminist lenses: Jeremy Tiang’s SALESMAN之死 and Caitlin George’s HELEN.

Opening last night were a pair of new Off-Broadway plays, both of which happen to investigate Western classic through specifically feminist lenses – to fascinating (albeit at times uneven) results. … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Superb specimens of downtown theater this fall: Dmitry Krymov’s BIG TRIP at La MaMa and Max Wolf Friedlich’s JOB at SoHo Playhouse

This autumn, I had the great pleasure taking in superb specimens of downtown theater that had me reeling with their exceptional quality. Here are my thoughts on them. BIG TRIPLa … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In her exceptional NY PHILHARMONIC debut, conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla firmly leads a program comprised of Schumann, Sibelius, and Šerkšnytė

This past week at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla made an exceptional debut conducting the New York Philharmonic. Before stepping onto the podium to commence … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The unpinnable and fascinating Arca holds court as only she can in MUTANT;DESTRUDO at the Park Avenue Armory

Last night, I found myself at the Park Avenue Armory to take in Arca perform her latest work Mutant;Destrudo. Commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory, the piece straddles both pop … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Director Garry Hynes’ DRUIDO’CASEY brings searing authenticity and muscular poetry to Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy

Over the past decade or so, director Garry Hynes — the first woman in 1998 to win the Tony Award for Direction for her staging of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In the immersive and stylized (PRAY), nicHi douglas empowers Black women to preach their own truths

Last night, Ars Nova and National Black Theatre’s co-production of (pray) opened Off-Broadway at the Greenwich House Theatre. The brainchild of nicHi douglas, the immersive work – self-described as a … Continue Reading →