Off-Broadway

Writer: Gerard Alessandrini Director: Gerard Alessandrini Reviewer: Alithea Howes Forbidden Broadway is as delightfully brutal as it’s always been. For the uninitiated: Forbidden Broadway is a theatrical roast, which rewrites hit songs to lovingly lampoon the current shows on Broadway. It was created in 1982 and has been updated countless times since then. One might expect that premise to wear thin after ...

Book: Jessica Hagedorn   Music: Fabian Obispo   Lyrics: Jessica Hagedorn   Choreographer: Brandon Bieber   Director: Ralph B. Pena   Reviewer: Solace   Watching the hands of the protagonist Felix (Alan Ariano) grasp slimy innards of his patients and drop the “negatives,” as he calls them, into a nearby bin feels like observing a birth and a death. This ...

Writer: Joseph Scott Ford Director: Kelsey Claire Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers The opening scene of Not Even the Good Things feels like contemporary realism. A couple arrives at a vacation rental in the Catskills, flirting and dodging important conversations as one person becomes belligerently drunk and the other tries to corral her. Oh, but wait, there’s also a dirty young girl ...

Writer: Aziza Barnes Director: Robert O’Hara Reviewer: Solace As one enters MCC’s Robert W. Wilson Theater space, the bass pumping, rhythms pulsating, and trap music seducing the eardrums, one cannot help but wonder if this is the correct place. Is this the Off-Broadway theatre where Aziza Barnes’ BLKS is being performed? Yes, it is. And as the play unravels, it ...

Writer: William Shakespeare Director & Adaptor: Erica Schmidt Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers The politics of being a preteen girl are dark, complex, and can feel like life-or-death stakes are involved. Whispers and rumors fuel hormone-charged energies and create tension and high drama. So it stands to reason that Red Bull Theater’s production of MacBeth, ably adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt, ...

Writer: John Webster Director: Louisa Proske Reviewer: Solace Murder, Mayhem, and Fun! This is John Webster’s The White Devil, currently running at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in New York’s West Village. Webster, who wrote his plays in the 17th century, usually collaborated with others; however, scholars believe The White Devil was the first play he wrote by himself. The White ...

Writer: Chisa Hutchinson Director: Jessi D. Hill Reviewer: Solace The first production of Keen Company’s 2019 season is the New York premiere of Chisa Hutchinson’s Surely Goodness and Mercy, directed by Jessi D. Hill, at Theatre Row. Set in an underfunded public school in Newark, Surely Goodness and Mercy tells the story of two friends who, against the odds, help each other ...

Writer: Richard Saudek Director: Wes Grantom Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers Before any given theatrical performance, one can spot several patrons with their mobile devices out (and on infuriatingly but blessedly rare occasions, some audience members use their devices during performances, but that is another matter altogether). Screens illuminate faces in the house, with theatregoers sending off texts to cement post-show plans, ...