THE HANGOVER REPORT – Gustavo Dudamel and young superstar pianist Yunchan Lim kick off the NY PHILHARMONIC’s 2025/2026 season

This past week, the New York Philharmonic kicked off its 2025/2026 season with a highly anticipated program led by incoming music director Gustavo Dudamel. The concert commenced with a world … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – In the uncompromising pursuit of authenticity: Eisa Davis’ THE ESSENTIALISN’T and Robert Ashely’s CELESTIAL EXCURSIONS

This past weekend, I was able to sink my teeth into a pair of experimental music theater pieces in pursuit to authentically articulate nuanced aspects of the human experience. As … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – David Eldridge’s assured, intentionally acted adaptation dusts off the cob webs from Ibsen’s THE WILD DUCK

Last night, Theatre for a New Audience’s fall presentation of Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck — a co-production with Washington DC’s Shakespeare Theatre Company — opened at the Polonsky Shakespeare … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – As La Divina, opera star Anthony Roth Constanzo leads an inspired revival of Charles Ludlam’s GALAS

This past weekend, the inspired revival of Charles Ludlam’s Galas opened at The Amph on Little Island, concluding a successful summer of theatrical offerings — which have given audiences breathtaking … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Major Curda fearlessly delves into the heart of darkness in the mesmerizing stage adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s KINKAKUJI

This fall, Japan Society in Midtown East is hosting the Yukio Mishima Centennial Series in celebration of the controversial yet influential Japanese novelist’s 100th birthday. Presented under the thematic banner … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS — Big-voiced chanteuses take to the cabaret stage: WENDY MOTEN at Birdland and RIZO at Joe’s Pub

This past week, I had the great pleasure of basking in the considerable talent of a pair of big-voiced chanteuses, both of whom took to the cabaret stage with the … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In the hard-to-categorize COLOR THEORIES, Julio Torres brings a dreamy disposition to his incisive musings

Also this week, Julio Torres’s Color Theories opened Off-Broadway at Performance Space New York in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Perhaps best known for his award-winning HBO series Fantasmas … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT – A searing André Holland headlines a breathtaking revival of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s THE BROTHERS SIZE

Last night, the anticipated revival of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size opened Off-Broadway In Hudson Yards at The Shed’s Griffin Theater. A co-presentation with Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles … Continue Reading →

VIEWPOINTS – Serving up fashion: Trajal Harrell’s MONKEY OFF MY BACK OR THE CAT’S MEOW and Luke Newton in HOUSE OF MCQUEEN

This week saw the opening of two shows — one avant-garde dance, the other an elaborately staged Off-Broadway play — with intrinsic connections to the world of fashion. As usual, … Continue Reading →

THE HANGOVER REPORT — ARIEL QUARTET gives a full-bodied account of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 131 in the Green-Wood catacombs

Last week at the atmospheric catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery, I had the opportunity to catch the acclaimed Ariel Quartet’s account of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. … Continue Reading →