Off-Broadway Reviews

'Approval Junkie' review — Faith Salie doesn't need approval but she still earns it

It's almost counterintuitive to be reviewing Approval Junkie — to be evaluating the merit of Faith Salie's solo show, which ultimately concludes that the approval of others is trifling in comparison to your own self-assurance. It would be more counterintuitive still to pan the show. Luckily, that, at least, isn't necessary. There's a moment in Approval Junkie where Salie recalls being rejected for an acting role created for her, and now, she finally gets to play herself and excels.Salie may have...

'Cullud Wattah' review — a gut-wrenching masterwork inspired by Flint water crisis

Erika Dickerson-Despenza's new play, Cullud Wattah, is a gut-wrenching, soul-stirring, masterwork of a production and solidifies her influence in American theatre. The play, currently running at The Public Theater, gives formidable context to the devastating effects of the Flint, Michigan water crisis that began — as far as we know — in April 2014. More than seven years have passed since the city of Flint switched its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water to the...

'Nollywood Dreams' review — a vibrant 'history lesson wrapped in sitcom'

Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play) continues to prove why she is the preeminent queen of African comedy. Exciting the palate of American audiences with works tastier than jollof rice, her new play Nollywood Dreams showcases her wit and masterful pen. Directed by Saheem Ali, the dynamic duo who previously collaborated on Merry Wives of Windsor at the Public's free Shakespeare in The Park, tag team again to bring audiences another hysterical...

'Baby' review — a 'stripped down' production struggles with exposition

A collection of beautiful Broadway-scale voices roar across the 60-seat performance space of Theatrelab in Manhattan as the musical Baby announces that it is back! The only problem is the show is entirely too much for such a small venue. That theme of too much, or doing the most with the least, is an ever-present issue that Out of the Box Theatrics never resolves in the remount of its 2019 production. But what does "too much" mean? Well, Baby follows three couples ― college sweethearts on the...

'Assassins' review — 'impeccably performed' revival goes off with a bang

If you're triggered by the sight and sound of guns (even prop replicas), it'd be wise to skip the Classic Stage Company's production of Stephen Sondheim's strange and stirring Assassins. Rifles and revolvers get plenty of play. That said, missing this show would be a shame — if you can snag a ticket. Set to open 19 months ago but delayed by the pandemic, director and designer John Doyle's take on this darkly humorous slice of history is tight, insightful, and impeccably performed. It aims,...

'Trevor: The Musical' review — too much filler slows an 'earnest and well-acted' musical

How do you turn a quirky 17-minute flick about a 13-year-old grappling with his sexuality and thoughts of self-harm into an old-school two-act musical? Trevor, an earnest and well-acted but only sometimes satisfying production at Stage 42, provides an answer.Based on a 1994 Oscar-winning short film that spawned The Trevor Project, a 24/7 LGBTQ crisis intervention and suicide prevention group, Trevor arrives off Broadway with that storied past — and evergreen urgency. Bullying, intolerance, and...

'The Visitor' review - a well-intentioned, yet out-of-touch musical

There has been much drama around The Visitor, the new Tom Kitt, Brian Yorkey, and Kwame Kwei-Armah musical. The show's opening last year was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then when it was scheduled to return this fall, the first two preview performances of the musical were postponed to, per the Public's statement, "accommodate for more time for the company to address questions about race, representation, and identity." Then one of The Visitor's stars, Tony winner Ari'el Stachel,...

'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...