Off-Broadway Reviews

'Kristina Wong: Sweatshop Overlord' review - an important collective processing of the pandemic

In the beginning of the show Kristina Wong: Sweatshop Overlord, Wong gives the audience a trigger warning: "The show takes place in the pandemic." Said by almost any other artist at this point, that statement might be met with an internal groan. After all, we're still living in the pandemic and still deeply traumatized by the past 20 months, what insight can possibly be gained right now? But Wong's delightful and deeply moving one-person show at New York Theatre Workshop may be just what we all...

'Winnie the Pooh' review — an hour of bountiful joy accessible to all

There are many ways that a live-action production of Disney's Winnie the Pooh could have gone awry. Thankfully, the newly opened Off-Broadway musical adaptation of Pooh has eschewed a theme park approach and focused instead on the story's folksy charm.Anyone who grew up reading the A.A. Milne books or watching the Sherman Brothers-scored movies knows that there is not much of a plot to Pooh. The original stories follow a silly stuffed bear who comes to life and goes on adventures while waiting...

'Morning Sun' review — Edie Falco leads a trio of astounding actors in Simon Stephens's uneven play

In one crucial moment of Morning Sun, the new play by Simon Stephens, the main character, Charley, is about to have an abortion. As she's heading to her appointment, one of the characters in the play says, "Something at that precise moment makes you stop. And think. And turn around. And go back to work." Charley decides not to have an abortion. But what the play does not tell you is what exactly made Charley decide to change her life. It's only an amorphous "something." And this lack of...

‘Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992’ review — Anna Deavere Smith’s seminal work remains painfully resonant

Anna Deavere Smith is a singular artist. The transfiguration of journalistic interviews into documentary-style drama, a method Smith pioneered 30 years ago, redefined what it means to tell the truth on stage. Her solo performance style, which favors a kind of channeling over full characterization, encouraged an extension of imagination, essential to considering the questions of social justice her plays confront. Smith's revision of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 as an ensemble piece for Signature...

'The Woman in Black' review — an old-fashioned, scary communal experience

I've experienced my share of Halloween-themed theatre (including ones where I was blindfolded). But what I've rarely experienced was a room where audience members screamed in fright from all directions. And they were not screaming because of anything typically scary, such as bloody scenes, murders, or anything ghoulish. Instead, the brilliance of The Woman in Black is its use of old-fashioned jump scares and an immersive soundscape to make audiences shriek and jump in their seats.The Woman in...

'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...