All in Play
The Royal Shakespeare Company is at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater with the U.S. premiere of their well-appointed 2016 production of “King Lear”, starring Sir Antony Sher. Director Gregory Doran presents a stately and unfussy production with a refreshingly diverse ensemble and striking visuals.
The Park Avenue Armory imports The Young Vic’s visceral, cinematic, and disturbing production of “Yerma” by Simon Stone, starring Billie Piper, who performs an astounding portrait of a woman’s descent into madness fueled by infertility. Do what you can to see this heart-stopping and jaw-dropping play.
Tony Kushner’s 1993 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece “Angels in America” is back on Broadway in a transcendent and timely production sleekly staged by Marianne Elliot and featuring a superb ensemble cast; one of the greatest plays ever written and certainly the most important of the past 25 years, get tickets now or live to regret it.
Edward Albee’s 1994 Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece “Three Tall Women” is ferociously compelling under the smart hand of director Joe Mantello, and features a trio of astonishing performances by Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf, and Alison Pill. This limited engagement of a towering work by a towering playwright and featuring three towering performances is not to be missed.
“Lobby Hero” is a funny, simple, and engaging play that follows the morally fraught actions of a quartet of uniformed personalities: two security guards and two police officers. Despite an anti-climactic ending, Michael Cera and Chris Evans give excellent performances and the play, touching on issues like workplace sexual harassment and racial bias in criminal justice, is eminently entertaining.
“The Winter’s Tale”, one of Shakespeare’s notorious “problem plays”, is given a solid new production by Arin Arbus with a terrific troupe of actors. While not a canonical favorite of mine, this play offers fascinating insights, is well-designed and performed, and is sure to delight any lover of Shakespeare.
Billy Crudup is simply captivating and astonishing as he seamlessly summons 15 characters in David Cale’s one-person thriller “Harry Clarke”. At once funny, sexy, and scary, the elements of this crisp production exist in exquisite harmony, balanced and honed by the production team to achieve a memorable and chilling evening at the theatre. You do not want to miss Mr. Crudup’s performance in this superb play.
Two new plays that opened Off-Broadway recently document finer points of the immigrant experience—in the United Kingdom and the United States. "An Ordinary Muslim" and "queens" are long-winded but well-acted, and offer important, thought-provoking, and memorable perspectives that buck common perception, making for rewarding theatre.
“Admissions” is a provocative new play by Joshua Harmon that pierces the veil of “white liberalism” to reveal simmering interpersonal issues that contradict beliefs in institutional ideals. Smartly staged and exquisitely acted, this play poses uncomfortable but important questions about race, identity, and privilege as our country navigates an increasingly divisive and siloed discourse.
Jeff Hiller is hilarious and captivating as a disgruntled gay guest at a same sex wedding in Drew Droege’s one man show, “Bright Colors and Bold Patterns”. If you like to laugh, this is one show you will not want to miss.
“Three Wise Guys” is a charming new comedy based on Prohibition-era short stories by Damon Runyon, featuring a lovable cast of thieves, bootleggers, socialites, and chorus gals on a zany, Christmas Eve romp. Cleverly designed, it offers light, low-budget, fun fare guaranteed to deliver laughs, smiles, and a carefree chance to escape for a little while.
“Amy and the Orphans”, a new comedy by Lindsey Ferrentino based on her family, both features a title character and stars an actor with Down syndrome, an important milestone in New York theatre. The play, which examines the relationships among three disparate, adult siblings and explores the meaning of “family” and “home”, is stunted and static in character and plot development. I sense the playwright is too close to the material.
