THE HANGOVER REPORT – The immersive COUNTING SHEEP thrusts its audiences deep into revolution

I recently had a chance to catch Counting Sheep, aptly subtitled “an immersive guerilla folk opera” at the 3LD Art & Technology Center in downtown Manhattan. The piece, created by … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Geoff Sobelle creates a resonant HOME onstage, beguilingly and quite literally

Last night, I took a trip out to Fort Greene to catch Geoff Sobelle’s Home at the BAM Harvey Theater. I couldn’t have asked for a better theatrical experience for my final … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS — Not too big to fail: DESCRIBE THE NIGHT and A ROOM IN INDIA implode under the weight of their ambition

Last night, two highly anticipated large-scale plays opened Off-Broadway, Rajiv Joseph’s Describe the Night and Ariane Mnouchkine’s production of A Room in India. Unfortunately, both new works collapse under the … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT — Bedlam’s confounding, playful PETER PAN dissects and jumbles J.M. Barrie’s text

I recently had a chance to catch up with Bedlam’s fascinating, scatterbrained Off-Broadway adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Duke on 42nd Street. Bedlam, as led by artistic … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Good musicals come in all sizes: The winning SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS and HUNDRED DAYS open

Last night, New Yorkers unwrapped a pair of early theatrical Christmas presents – one an unabashedly lavish Broadway spectacle, the other an affecting small-scale autobiographical musical. The good news is that … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT — Seth Zvi Rosenfeld’s DOWNTOWN RACE RIOT, starring Chloë Sevigny, is languorous, aimless

Last night, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld’s languorous new play Downtown Race Riot opened Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center, courtesy of the New Group. Set in 1976 in Greenwich Village, … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – THE FOUNTAINHEAD and SLEEP: Two smashing stage adaptations of literary works seduce at BAM

After a couple of disappointing offerings (notably Thaddeus Phillips’ uninspired A Billion Nights on Earth and the Wales Millennium Centre’s stylish staging of Manfred Karge’s otherwise tedious Man to Man), BAM’s Next Wave Festival has come … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT — The Public’s fast-moving Mobile Unit production of THE WINTER’S TALE is well-told, if a bit two-dimensional

Shakespeare’s late-career romance The Winter’s Tale has, in recent years, enjoyed an unprecedented number of stagings — many of them memorable (I particularly remember swooning over a production a couple … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Alison S.M. Kobayashi’s obsessive SAY SOMETHING BUNNY! is pure genius

This weekend, I caught Alison S.M. Kobayashi’s ingenious, uniquely immersive solo show Say Something Bunny! at UNDO Project Space in Chelsea. Meticulously researched and lovingly performed by Ms. Kobayashi, the show attempts … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST and SCHOOL GIRLS: Setting shows in the past to shed light on the present

This weekend, I caught two new Off-Broadway plays that set shows in the past – and in one case in Africa – to shed light on the ongoing plight of women in the world. … Continue Reading →