Off-Broadway Reviews

'Mrs. Warren’s Profession' review - Shaw's classic play still 'tickles the brain'

Mrs. Warren's Profession, George Bernard Shaw's tart and tangy play about prostitution — and more — written in 1893 and first performed in 1902, looks good for its age.Chalk it up to director David Staller's surefooted staging for the Gingold Theatrical Group led by Karen Ziemba as prostitute-turned-madam Kitty Warren and Nicole King as her down-to-earth daughter Vivie. Credit, too, the evergreen smarts and acerbity of Shaw, a writer with a piercing point of view who knew how to push buttons. In...

'Fairycakes' review — 'a gorgeous array of theatrical royalty' thoroughly enjoying themselves

Early in Douglas Carter Beane's new comedy Fairycakes, a cricket randomly bursts onto the stage. That cricket's brief and exceedingly strange appearance gives a good taste, it turns out, of exactly what we're in for. The scene is busy even before the cricket arrives. The fairy Cobweb (Z Infante) has given Cinderella (Kuhoo Verma) her makeover and is sending her off to the ball. They are interrupted by Pinocchio (Sabatino Cruz), pursued by his harried creator Geppetto (Mo Rocca). Alongside...

'Autumn Royal' review — an endless waiting game bogged down by the past

The 2017 world premiere of Autumn Royal in Ireland was met with critical acclaim, but Kevin Barry's play is making its North American premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in an altogether different world, one where the premise might be a tougher sell. The play sees 30somethings May and Timothy, who have been taking care of their ill father presumably for years, gripe about wanting to get rid of him and move on with their lives. We've collectively mourned so much illness and death these past...

‘Letters of Suresh’ review – all talk and little action in Rajiv Joseph’s play

In theatre, an oft-cited rule is that acting is reacting. So what are the characters of playwright Rajiv Joseph's Letters to Suresh to do when all they've been tasked with is reciting the contents of their exposition-heavy letters aloud in direct address to the audience? The answer is to serve as talking heads for material that feels better suited for an article in The New Yorker than it does for an Off-Broadway play. The plot revolves around an origami genius named Suresh (Ramiz Monsef) who...

‘Regina Comet’ review - featherweight new musical is forgettable fun

There is a tantalising, but all-too-brief moment in A Commercial Jingle For Regina Comet when the influence of another musical master can be felt. The number is "Connecting the Dots," and it's about writing a song. It most strongly echoes "Color and Light," Stephen Sondheim's painfully precise distillation of the artistic process from Sunday in the Park with George, though with a bit of "Opening Doors" mixed in as well: Connecting the dots Going note by note We're crossing out line after line...

‘Persuasion’ review - an Austen adaptation that revels in awkwardness

Persuasion has none of the opulence you'd expect from Regency England — the walls and floor are nearly bare, making the characters, in full period costume, feel like they've been plucked out of their era and dropped into a dingy basement. It's not the most romantic setting for an adaptation of a novel known for its love story. This particular one sees Anne Elliot hoping to rekindle her love with one Frederick Wentworth, who has the trappings of a war hero and is the most eligible bachelor in...

'Sanctuary City' review - powerful new play questions who is allowed to feel safe

We're all searching for some version of safety. A place where one is free to think, speak, live, and love that is exempt of judgement and ridicule. Sanctuary City, a new play from Pulitzer Prize winner Martyna Majok, questions if this sort of place exists, and if it does, is everyone welcome.Imagine being transported, as a child, to a strange new country and being ignorant of its language, culture, and people. Picture yourself, as a result of this "forced" situation in the land of opportunity,...

'The Last of the Love Letters' review - a haunting meditation on isolation

A woman languishes in her room. One moment she's sprawled across the bed, burrowing beneath the covers, the next she bolts upright and pulls the sheets tight, trying to align her inner and outer worlds. When she opens her mouth to speak ("It's important that you know..."), it's as though an overstuffed hallway closet has tumbled open in her mind, demanding she make sense of its unwieldy mess.We've all been there, perhaps more often in the recent past than ever before: Alone with our thoughts,...

‘Semblance’ at New York Theatre Workshop raises more questions than it answers

Black women are not a monolith. Our skin tones range from coffee, light and sweet, to dark rich licorice. We enjoy different genres of music, eat a variety of cuisines, journey down a host of career paths, and have original styles of dress. And still, the world constantly lumps us all together as if we are one, all living the same experience. Whitney White, writer and director of the new filmed theatrical experience, Semblance, attempts to initiate an examination of how the New York Theatre...

Bioh and the Bard make an imperfect marriage in 'Merry Wives' at Shakespeare in the Park

In one scene in The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare in the Park, Falstaff (played by Jacob Ming-Trent in top form) declares his intentions to dishonor the wealthy Mister Ford by seducing Ford's wife: "I shall hang like Lebron James on his cuckold's horns!" The fact that the line, a mash-up of contemporary lingo and Shakespearean verse, works so well is a testament to Trent's committed performance.Playwright Jocelyn Bioh has adapted Shakespeare's Merry Wives into a modern play. She does so...