Off-Broadway Reviews

'You Will Get Sick' review — side effects of new play include both laughter and confusion

Kicking off a play with a piercing, guttural screech is certainly a way to make an impression. It is one of multiple moments in Noah Diaz's You Will Get Sick that make an impression. A man with an unnamed sickness floating in a burst of strobe lights as hay spills out of him like a torn scarecrow. A waiter taking burger orders while on the verge of sobbing. Linda Lavin singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with the intensity of "Last Midnight." This spiky 85-minute show packs itself with bold...

'My Broken Language' review — English, Spanish, and dance tell a vibrant family story

On paper, My Broken Language at Signature Theatre is a stage adaptation of Quiara Alegría Hudes's (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful) same-named memoir, about finding the right blend of languages to capture the full vitality of her vibrant Puerto Rican family. On stage, the show is a living museum to the Pulitzer-winning playwright's family, constantly in motion, as the perfect cocktail of expression includes more than words. Visuals and movement are just as necessary to honor her family as...

'Where the Mountain Meets the Sea' review — heartfelt new play soars with magnetic performances

Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, a heartfelt little show by Jeff Augustin, is a story that takes us from coast to coast, decade to decade. But for such an expansive story, a decidedly no-frills production. It doesn't need them. All it has, and needs, are a couple performers delivering a solid script, with music flowing throughout like waves. The magnetic storytellers are Billy Eugene Jones and Chris Myers, perfectly cast. They respectively play Jean, a Haitian immigrant to America, and his son...

'A Man of No Importance' review — Jim Parsons leads a simple yet stirring revival

With audiences on three sides of a small, knickknack-laden stage, which actors frequently spill off of with instruments in hand, A Man of No Importance at Classic Stage Company perfectly captures the feel of scrappy community theatre in a church basement. That's a high compliment, to clarify. In fact, it's the entire point of the show, a stirring and gorgeous one in its simplicity. The musical is set up as a play-within-a-play, with bus passengers in Dublin introducing the story of their...

'Straight Line Crazy' review — Ralph Fiennes towers like a skyscraper over a flat play

On Straight Line Crazy's poster art, a pensive Ralph Fiennes towers above a diminutive New York skyline, in character as the notorious city planner Robert Moses. The image is an apt representation of the production. One can always count on Fiennes to deliver a riveting performance, but it's not quite enough to make David Hare's flat play as indelible as its subject matter. Moses, as head of multiple planning committees in the 20th century, oversaw the building of numerous bridges, highways,...

'A Raisin in the Sun' review — Tonya Pinkins and Lorraine Hansberry's script are the stars of this resonant revival

A revival of a landmark American play that enables you to appreciate it with fresh eyes and ears counts as a success – but not necessarily an unqualified one. So it goes for director Robert O’Hara’s hit-and-miss vision of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, an enduringly resonant 1959 drama of a Black family in Chicago chasing their dreams and desires. There are consistently fine performances by the cast, led by the estimable Tonya Pinkins as the ferociously determined, widowed matriarch...

'I'm Revolting' review — dark comedy about cancer crackles with a superb cast

There are certain places that, at first glance, don't exactly scream "comedy." The gallows. The White House. A Neo-Nazi meeting. The end of the world. And yet, playwrights have not only set shows at each of these places, but received acclaim and awards for doing so. Gracie Gardner, in her Off-Broadway-debut play I'm Revolting, adds "skin cancer clinic" to that list. Whether she wins any awards for it has yet to be seen (she already has a Relentless Award, among others, for her show PussySludge),...

'Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge' review — a mesmerizing historical recreation

Why watch theatre instead of a YouTube video? That’s a question that might pop into your head upon seeing the synopsis for Baldwin and Buckley at Cambridge, the new play from Elevator Repair Service currently running at The Public Theater. It is a beat-by-beat recreation of a real-life televised debate between the writer James Baldwin and the conservative William F. Buckley in 1965, around the question, “Has the American Dream been achieved at the expense of the American Negro?” That debate is...

'american (tele)visions' review — a technological marvel with a static narrative

Two words best describe american (tele)visions at New York Theatre Workshop: sensory overload. The play is the theatrical equivalent of flipping through dozens of channels on the television, never being able to land on something to watch. On this channel, the characters are on a video game quest. Now they’re in a Walmart. Now they’re on a cop show. Now they’re witnessing a meteor show. In other words, american (tele)visions is a lot. Victor I. Cazares's play opens up at Walmart, as an...

'Stranger Sings' review — musical parody turns the hit TV show upside down

If Stranger Things Twitter, theatre Twitter, and '80s kids all created a show together, it would look something like Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical.Jonathan Hogue, who wrote the show's book, music, and lyrics, seems to represent all those culture niches in one. Stranger Sings! is not only stuffed to the brim with nostalgic jokes, but it is also perfectly on the pulse with fan conversations around the show (speaking from personal experience, as a Stranger Things fan), perhaps even more so now...