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Review: “Job”
I’ve said it before, but what the hell: I think there is a difference between being a reviewer and being a critic. A reviewer is someone you check with to decide whether you want to see something. A critic is someone who discusses the work in some kind of depth, on the assumption that you’re Continue reading
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References
I’ve seen something north of 5000 plays in my life. I saw Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, The Penny Wars and La Strada on Broadway, and When You Coming Back Red Ryder? in its original off-off-Broadway run over a shoe store. I saw David Hare and Howard Brenton’s Pravda at the National in London, Continue reading
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THE PIANIST and Two Saints
There are times when it’s not appropriate for me to review works that I’ve seen. I am primarily a playwright. A lot of my friends are playwrights. I also teach playwriting, and a number of my former and current students get produced. Sometimes I feel I can maintain objectivity, sometimes not. I avoid conflicts of Continue reading
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Musicals in London
I saw eight shows in London. I chose mostly productions I thought would be unlikely to move to New York, including three musicals. The immersive staging by Nicholas Hytner of the Broadway classic Guys and Dolls at the Bridge turned out to be as joyous as promised. I sat in a gallery and it was Continue reading
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Review: “PATRIOTS” by Peter Morgan
Writing from London … I wonder if Peter Morgan is familiar with a similarly titled play by Sidney Kingsley called The Patriots. In 1943, to remind America what we were fighting for during WWII, Kingsley wrote about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Though he was obviously on Jefferson’s side philosophically, Kingsley used Continue reading
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Small-Town Drama
During lockdown, not being able to see plays, I read them. I made a particular project of plowing through the first ten years of Pulitzer Prize winners. What struck me about those ten is that there were two dominant themes – the economic and social subjugation of women, and the repressive nature of small towns. Continue reading
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Homeless, Lizzie Borden and Three Plays With Brooklyn Connections
A few days ago, as I was leaving the Upper West Side building where my wife and I live, I ran into one of our neighbors, a former state Supreme Court judge. She knows I’m a playwright and a theater journalist and she wanted my take on a play. A minute or two later we Continue reading
A Doll's House, A Raisin in the Sun, Alexander Zelden, Anne Kauffman, August Wilson, Becomes a Woman, Betty Smith, Brooklyn, Crumbs From the Table of Joy, David Mamet, Eric Tucker, Fall River Fishing, Frederick Wiseman, Herman D. Farrell III, Jamie Lloyd, L:loyd Richards, Lorraine Hansberry, Love, Lynn Nottage, Mint Theater, National Theater of Great Britain, Oscar Isaac, Rachel Brosnahan, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window -
“The Far Country,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and Revues
I should declare a conflict of interest. Lloyd Suh is a former student of mine. I have no idea what, if anything, he got from our classes a couple of decades ago at the New School, but he made a vivid impression on me at the time and I have followed his work with particular Continue reading
Adolph Green, Atlantic Theater, Betty Comden, Daniel Radcliffe, Dramatists Guild, Eric Ting, George Furth, George S. Kaufman, Hal Prince, Hello Dolly!, Jerry Herman, John F. Kennedy, Jonathan Groff, Lee S.Wilkof, Lindsay Mendez, Lloyd Suh, Milk and Honey, Moss Hart, New York Theater Workshop, Roger Ailses, Stephen Rosenfeld, Stephen Sondheim, The Far Country -
A New “1776”
I’m going to guess I’m not the only person who learned about the triangle trade from a musical. Late in the action of the show of 1776, a delegate to the Continental Congress from South Carolina named Edward Rutledge reacts to his northern colleagues’ concern for black people held in bondage in the south by Continue reading
"Molasses to Rum", 1776, AnnMarie Milazzo, Benjamin Franklein, Carolee Carmello, Clifford David, Crystal Lucas-Perry, Declaration of Independence, Diane Paulus, Eddie Sauter, Edward Rutledge, Jeffrey L. Page, John Adams, John Cullum, Patrena Murray, Peter Hunt, Peter Stone, Roundabout Theater, Sara Prokalob, Sherman Edwards -
As You Kink It
Because of serendipitous scheduling, I saw Kinky Boots on a matinee and the New York Shakespeare production of As You Like It that night. Kinky Boots is about a guy who gets to say and do some things because he dresses up as a woman. As You Like It is about a woman who gets Continue reading
Jeffrey Sweet--Making the Scene 