THE HANGOVER REPORT – Cast and director imbue Stefano Massini’s clinical, idea-based 7 MINUTES with impassioned specificity

Italian playwright Stefano Massini made a splash earlier this theater season when his epic The Lehman Trilogy played Broadway for a limited run during the winter months (the celebrated Sam … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The York’s traditionally constructed new musical PENELOPE is a pleasant, breezy spin on Greek mythology

This week, the York Theatre Company’s new musical Penelope, or How the Odyssey Was Really Written opened Off-Broadway at the Theatre at St. Jean’s on the Upper East Side. The … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Shaina Taub’s highly anticipated and ambitious new musical SUFFS has great potential but needs some retooling

Last night, the Public Theater’s world premiere production of Shaina Taub’s Suffs opened Off-Broadway at the Newman Theater (note that, due to positive Covid-19 cases in the cast, performances through … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In CONFEDERATES, Dominique Morisseau broadens her playwriting by dissecting institutional racism through melodrama and satire

This weekend at the Pershing Square Signature Center, I caught Signature Theatre Company’s production of Confederates by Dominique Morisseau. Morisseau, one of the preeminent Black playwrights of her generation, is … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – C. Julian Jiménez’s scrappy but buoyant BRUISE & THORN empowers queer youths to envision a fabulously uninhibited world for themselves

Last night, I got the chance to catch up with Pipeline Theatre Company’s production of C. Julian Jiménez’s new play Bruise & Thorn, which is currently playing Off-Broadway at the … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Heather Christian’s bizarre, profound, and altogether singular ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS asks big questions from a cosmic perspective

Last night, Heather Christian’s Oratorio for Living Things opened Off-Broadway at the Greenwich House Theater. The immersive production, which comes courtesy of the folks at Ars Nova, was one of … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Exploring our humanity through speculative science: Michel van den Aa’s UPLOAD & Sam Chanse’s WHAT YOU ARE NOW

We live in rapidly changing times in which technological and scientific advances are threatening to outpace our ability to fully assess how they fundamentally alter the human experience. Recently, I … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Led by a sensational April Matthis, Claudia Rankine’s philosophical and confrontational HELP demands attention

Last night, Claudia Rankine’s Help opened Off-Broadway at The Shed in Hudson Yards. The production was actually in previews this time two years ago when the pandemic emphatically shut down … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Page 73 presents MAN CAVE, John J. Caswell, Jr.’s uneven but ultimately empowering psychological thriller

Last night at the Connelly Theater in the East Village, I attended Page 73’s Off-Broadway production of Man Cave by John J. Caswell, Jr. Set in the claustrophobic basement of … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In a ferociously committed performance, Laiona Michelle uncannily channels the great Nina Simone in LITTLE GIRL BLUE

This past weekend, I also caught a performance of Little Girl Blue, which is in the midst of an open run at Off-Broadway’s New World Stages (after having previously premiered … Continue Reading →