THE HANGOVER REPORT – James Ijames’s smart, uproarious FAT HAM inverts the tragedy of Shakespeare’s iconic play to empower Black Queerness

Last night, James Ijames’s uproarious yet profoundly defiant Fat Ham opened at the Public Theater in a co-production with National Black Theatre. As many of you know, the play a … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Trish Harnetiaux’s playfully abstract CALIFORNIA launches the 25th edition of Clubbed Thumb’s essential Summerworks series

This week at the cozy wild project in the East Village, I caught California by Trish Harnetiaux (the playwright’s theatrical podcast series The MS Phoenix Rising tickled me during lockdown). … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Mary Wiseman turns in a star-making performance in AT THE WEDDING, Bryna Turner’s slight but emotionally bruised new comedy

This past week, I attended a performance of Lincoln Center Theater’s Off-Broadway production of Bryna Turner’s new play At the Wedding. The comedy (which I thankfully caught before it concluded … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Karen Hartman’s sturdy, cleverly-framed new drama THE LUCKY STAR affectingly excavates one family’s elusive history

This week at Theater A at 59E59 Theaters, I caught Karen Hartman’s The Lucky Star. The play dramatizes Richard Hollander’s book Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family’s Correspondence from … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Ebru Nihan Celkan’s fractured two-hander WILL YOU COME WITH ME? gets lost in translation

Earlier this week, I trekked to Gowanus in Brooklyn to catch the opening night performance of Turkish playwright Ebru Nihan Celkan’s Will You Come with Me? at MITU580. The new … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The breezy new musical ROMEO & BERNADETTE is an amusingly incongruous love letter to Shakespeare and Brooklyn

Last night, Mark Saltzman’s Romeo & Bernadette: A Musical Tale of Verona & Brooklyn opened Off-Broadway at Theater 555. The current run marks the return to New York of the … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – To leave or not to leave: Notions of home and identity explored in Mona Monsour’s THE VAGRANT TRILOGY Sanaz Toossi’s WISH YOU WERE HERE

This past weekend, I attended two thought-provoking new plays – Mona Monsour’s The Vagrant Trilogy and Sanaz Toossi’s Wish You Were Here – that explored notions of home and identity … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Funny women defiantly speaking their truths: Hannah Gadsby in BODY OF WORK and Alison Leiby in OH GOD, A SHOW ABOUT ABORTION

At its best, stand-up comedy can be as affecting as any medium out there. Case in point – this week, I had the pleasure of taking in two of shows … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – After all these years, Elizabeth Swados’s quirky and compact NIGHTCLUB CANTATA remains a visceral and theatrically charged experience

Earlier this week at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre, I had a chance to catch up with a rare revival of Elizabeth Swados’s Nightclub Cantata. Ms. Swados (who sadly passed … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Ana Nogueira’s entertaining new comedy WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE is at its best when it allows its characters to thrive

Earlier this week at the Newman Mills Theater, Ana Nogueira’s entertaining new comedy Which Way to the Stage opened Off-Broadway courtesy of MCC Theater. The play is an unabashed love … Continue Reading →