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An Adventure
For those who have noticed, I didn’t post post for a long time before my notes on Vanya. That’s because, for a long time, I wasn’t in New York seeing new shows but in London putting up one of my old ones. Though I keep my hand in as a theater journalist — posting here Continue reading
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Andrew Scott and “Vanya”
Vanya is a love story. Not between any of Chekhov’s characters but between Andrew Scott and the play. His passion for it leads him to share it with us in a great rush of enthusiasm. As you probably have heard, Scott plays all of the characters. The main task of doing a solo show featuring multiple characters Continue reading
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“The Merchant of Venice”
The production of The Merchant of Venice that opened recently at CSC was among the most dismaying evenings I’ve had in the theater in recent memory. It’s particularly dismaying because the director, Igor Golyak, recently staged in the same space a play called Our Class from a script by Tadeusz Słobodzianek that I thought, though Continue reading
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“Babe”
One of my students once went to the administration of the school where I taught to complain about the language being used in my class. It was frequently graphic and sexist and she felt that this made the class an unsafe environment. And so I had to sit down with people who had the power Continue reading
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“Shit. Meet. Fan.”
When a character in one of my students’ plays says, “Let’s play a game,” alarm bells go off. Almost invariably, the game is some version of the so-called truth game in which the ensemble share a fairly predictable series of embarrassments, betrayals and secrets. The problem is that these revelations don’t come from credible motivations Continue reading
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“Mrs. Stern Wanders the Prussian State Library”
A few years back, the New York Times ran a piece on a librarian in a small Southern town who found herself locked in a political battle with the town’s mayor. He didn’t approve of her programming and taste in books, and he didn’t see why she should be paid a salary of any consequence. Continue reading
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Notes on SUNSET BOULEVARD
I doubt you need my advice to help you make up your mind about whether to see the revival of the musical version of Sunset Boulevard. There are a few silly bits in which people run around the stage to no particular purpose, but mostly it is as impressive as it intends to be. Jamie Continue reading
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Review: “Hold Onto Me Darling”
Once in a blue moon, I have a strong sense of what a playwright was thinking when they wrote a text. I may well be wrong, of course. But, as I was watching Hold Onto Me Darling (my fingers itch to put in the missing comma), I fancied I could hear Kenneth Lonergan in the Continue reading
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Review: “The Counter”
Much drama focuses on conflict. Two or more points-of-view building to the point where they bang away at each other. What we’ve come to expect from Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, August Wilson, Tennessee Williams and Tony Kushner. I’m not saying I don’t love it when the adrenaline kicks in and the metaphoric swords start clanging. Continue reading
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“Our Class” and “Fatherland”
Compare and contrast. Does anybody use that phrase any more in high school English? I remember the groan that would arise when one of our teachers assigned a paper and began with that phrase. Compare and contrast The Great Gatsby with To Kill a Mockingbird, or whatever two titles could be randomly paired together. And Continue reading
Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 