VIEWPOINTS – Two performers and a crack design team: Taking a look at the commonalities between KENREX and NEW OWNER

Also currently Off-Broadway, you’ll find a pair of shows that have striking aspects in common — namely, that they’re each animated by two performers and one crack design team. But … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Work that (literally) kills in a dystopian world: Assessing the Off-Broadway revivals of THE ADDING MACHINE and THE RECEPTIONIST

Currently on the boards this spring theater season, you’ll find a pair of Off-Broadway revivals depicting the fraught psychological minefield of employment in a dystopian, not so unfamiliar corporate world. … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – This spring at Irish Rep: Camouflaging the darkness within in David Ireland’s ULSTER AMERICAN and Mark O’Rowe’s THE APPROACH

This spring down in Chelsea at the Irish Repertory Theatre, I caught a pair of productions that managed to camouflage the dark underbelly of our human nature — until they … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – The experiment’s the thing in Michael Oluokun’s HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT and Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s RHEOLOGY

In a pair of intriguing productions developed by the always adventurous Bushwick Starr, the experiment was the thing — both in terms of form and content. As per usual, read … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – HAMLET/HAMNET: Britain’s National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company tote their productions stateside

Over the past month or so, two of Britain’s most prominent theater companies — the National Theatre (based in London) and the Royal Shakespeare Company (based in Stratford-upon-Avon) — have … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – The Chicago report: New works at STEPPENWOLF, GOODMAN, CHICAGO SHAKES, and COURT enliven the spring theater season

This past week, I found myself in the Windy City, where I was able to bask myself in Chicago’s storied theater scene. This spring season, diverse new works were the … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Robert Wilson’s avant-garde production of MOBY DICK cracks open the Melville classic, dropping viewers into another dimension

When the legendary Robert Wilson passed away last year, the art world lost one of the indisputable giants of avant-garde theater. An uncompromising auteur who spanned and was equally at … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Burning down the house: Wallace Shawn harshly lifts the veil in THE FEVER, James Scruggs uncomfortably interrogates in OFF THE RECORD

This past week, I encountered a pair of caustic Off-Broadway productions that strove to reveal the vast inequities on which our society is built on, namely as it relates our … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – An Andrew Lloyd Webber renaissance: THE JELLICLE BALL and MASQUERADE re-animate warhorse musicals from fresh perspectives

Following Jamie Lloyd’s triumphantly stripped down re-imagining of Sunset Boulevard last season (featuring a knockout, Tony-winning performance by Nicole Scherzinger), the improbable Andrew Lloyd Webber renaissance continues this season with … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Propelling drama through movement: Luke Murphy’s SCORCHED EARTH at St. Ann’s Warehouse and YOAH at New Victory

When it comes to theater, many of us often times underestimate how integral of a role movement can play in conveying story and character. In two shows I recently caught … Continue Reading →