Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania A Transparent Musical is special — more for what it is about than what it actually is. The ambition and sentiment are admirably high, but the execution needs serious work. Director Tina Landau gathers an excellent cast who perform strongly, but the text gives them too little with which to produce … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw What happens when ethnic identity stops being a gift and starts being a curse? In Nicholas Pilipal’s The Bottoming Process, a gay Filipino American man becomes so obsessed with how his Asian-ness —and his sexuality — is perceived that he torches a mutually loving relationship with someone who, it would … Read more
Martίn Hernández – Stage Raw. After actor-playwright Michael Shayan’s years of pestering his Iranian-Jewish immigrant mother Roya to tell her life story, she finally relented to being recorded. After a writing retreat exercise, he took his mother’s interview and his own imagination and melded them together to craft a compelling one-person show. Part stand-up comedy … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Aerosol in the air as Tracy Turnblad, Penny Pingleton, and the teens of Baltimore bring politics and pizzazz to Hollywood with a stunning production of one of the best and beloved musicals of all time… It’s a thrilling, unsinkably upbeat show, gleefully over the top, with colorful characters, costumes, and sets. … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Despite the sex comedy aspects of the show, a vein of melancholy runs throughout it, much of it being told through the lens of regret. This isn’t encapsulated any better than in Desirée’s lament “Send in the Clowns,” which is hopeless and hopeful and remorseful and accepting and existential all bound … Read more
Katie Buenneke – Stage Raw. At moments, the play is an absolute delight. Melville seems born to play a Coward crank, and really shines in the role. Chalsma is charming, especially when Amanda is at her most flustered. Charles is also strong as Victor, a gentleman who reaches his breaking point as things cycle out … Read more
Jonas Schwartz – Theatermania Ava: The Secret Conversations, written by and starring Elizabeth McGovern, looks at the life of golden-age movie star Ava Gardner. But oddly, it focuses more on a periphery character, a sycophantic hack writer. This might come as a disappointment to those who want to spend time with Gardner rather than this … Read more
Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld. Notwithstanding that they fell into many textbook Shakespeare traps, and that there was zero chemistry between any single one of the characters, the Foolish Production Company cast actually knew what they were doing. And mostly their 1-hour rendition of TWELFTH NIGHT (playing in rep with MEASURE FOR MEASURE at The Broadwater) … Read more
Harker Jones – BroadwayWorld. Tony-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s THE THIN PLACE is an eerie meditation on grief, regret and the need for closure, though it is undermined by the lack of a satisfying conclusion… Obie Award- and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning Hnath (“Red Speedo”; “A Doll’s House, Part 2”) carefully delineates each character with precise … Read more
Tracey Paleo – BroadwayWorld. There are defining moments in our lives where we either shrink away in fear or make a stand at all costs. In 2020, at the beginning of a global health crisis, under the order of a shelter-in-place lockdown, Kristina Wong faced such a moment. And in that moment, Kristina Wong became … Read more