Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

 

Neil LaBute (Broadway, Reasons to Be Pretty) leads an impressive lineup of writers for Mile Square Theatre’s 2013 7^th Inning Stretch, with his newest work Squeeze Play. LaBute is joined by some of America’s finest playwrights in this annual event that has thrilled theatre fans for over 10 years. Contributing new plays this year are Brooke Berman (Helen Merrill Award Winner), Eric Conger (Walnut Street Theatre), Edith Freni (Steppenwolf Theatre), Jay Koepke (O’Neill National Playwrights Finalist), Jon Marans (Pulitzer Finalist), and Mat Smart (McKnight Advancement Grant). Chris O’Connor, MST Founder and Artistic Director, says of this year’s event, “Once again, we’re fortunate to have a stellar group of writers contributing to this unique evening.

Retro Productions (18-time New York Innovative Theatre Awards nominee) presents Peter Nichols' play.

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg follows Bri and Sheila, a British couple dealing with the severe challenges of parenthood; their only daughter Josephine is wheelchair-bound with cerebral palsy and cannot communicate. With their marriage on the line due to the stress of raising Joe, Bri and Sheila must also contend with their friends Pam and Freddy’s pleas to put Joe in a proper facility and live their lives. The piece’s dark humor is rooted in life’s difficulties as well as the fantasy world that Bri experiences to cope with his family’s hardship.

After a successful run on London’s West End, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg premiered on Broadway in 1968.

 On May 19, 2013 at 4:00p.m., the lower east side-based theater company, Alacrity Project, will present, The Dinner Party, an original short play at the popular venue, Arlene’s Grocery. A Monologue Jam comprised of various actors performing monologues and songs, will follow directly afterwards. A marriage gone stale. A fantasy gone wild. How long can they co-exist? An elegant dinner party hosted by husband and wife team, Jane and John, goes awry when the guest of honor may be unwelcomed for many reasons. The Dinner Party is an exploration of relationships, desires and the human psyche.

About the Company: Alacrity Project

 Alacrity Project provides performance opportunities for self-initiated artists.

Forbidden Broadway, the fall-down funny musical roast of Broadway that has picked up 9 Drama Desk Awards, a Special Tony®, an Obie, a Lucille Lortel and Drama League Award, is back at last with a blast, and not a moment too soon.

This New York sensation is returning with an all-new, fresh view of the highs and lows of recent seasons including Porgy and Bess, Anything Goes, Follies, Spiderman, Book of Mormon, Nice Work If You Can Get It, Once, and Death of a Salesman, and features outrageous costumes, hilarious rewrites of the songs you know, and dead-on impressions by an stellar cast!

Whether you're a seasoned theatre-goer or new to Broadway, Forbidden Broadway is your one-stop ticket to non-stop laughs.

Gym Shorts: The Show is made up of 5 hilarious short vignettes, that examine the triumphs and tragedies of life set against the world's most explosive backdrop: The Gym!

At its core, Gym Shorts: The Show is about relationships. The kind of relationships we’ve all experienced in our own lives, and can all identify with. The agony of betrayal. The ecstasy of true companionship. The struggle to be accepted for who you are. All the great dramas and comedies of the ages have hinged on these profound human experiences. So, what is it that makes this rendition new and unique? And, of course, hilarious? The one place that can hold this amount of human triumph and tragedy, the blood, sweat and tears that make up the human experience (particularly the sweat): THE GYM!!! Come see the strength and resilience of these flawed

Passajj Productions will present Madame Bovary - a musical, based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert, at Roy Arias Stage IV, beginning May 17, 2013. Marlene Thorn Taber will direct this musical adaptation by renowned composer and lyricist Paul Dick. Hayley Hoffmeister will portray Emma Bovary and Roger Rathburn is cast in the role of Charles Bovary. Madame Bovary - a musical brings to life Flaubert's characters as they transition from youthful romanticism to mature reality except for Emma Bovary. This is the story of her passion.

 

Serbian playwright Jelena Kajgo (Director, Bitef Festival and Theatre) presents a super-charged, hyper-real world where five people – a psychiatrist locked in a love triangle with two of his patients, and another super successful couple -- struggle with modernity, money and power in a newly fashioned capitalist culture.  Whether it’s romance or a job, everything is up for grabs and usually goes to the highest bidder. Realists skewers American-style capitalism and its encroachment on Serbian daily life amidst the global financial crisis. The characters in Realists feel the sting of a changing worldwide economy, and the uncertainty of a society losing its traditional footing.

Leading the cast of RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA are Laura Osnes as Cinderella and Santino Fontana as the Prince, along with Tony winner Victoria Clark as fairy godmother Marie, Tony winner Harriet Harris as Madame, Cinderella's stepmother; Ann Harada as stepsister Charlotte; Marla Mindelle as stepsister Gabrielle; Peter Bartlett as Sebastian, Prince Topher's mentor and Lord Chancellor, and Greg Hildreth as the rebel Jean-Michel.

Additional casting to be announced.

Mr. Beane's book for RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN's CINDERELLA offers a new romantic twist on the ultimate makeover story of a maid-turned-princess, mixing fresh comedy and wit with the beloved tale's classic elements -- the pumpkin, glass slipper, masked ball and more.

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Artsat Brooklyn College (BCBC)presents Sing-a-long-a Sound of Music onSunday, May 19, 2013 at 1pm. All tickets are $15 and can be purchased by phone at 718-951-4500 (Tues-Sat, 1pm-6pm), or online at www.BrooklynCenterOnline.org.  Recommended for ages six and up.

 

Sing-a-long-a Sound of Musicis an interactive screening of the Academy Award-winning movie musical, The Sound of Music.  The film is screened with subtitles and the audience is encouraged to sing along.  Before the movie begins, the host will lead the audience through a vocal warm-up, teach the group activities that will unfold at certain moments of the show, and host a costume competition.

F.I.T.R. Productions presents The Pillowman, an award-winning drama by Martin McDonagh.  Laura Moss directs a cast of four including Jon Dalin as Tupolski; Matt Kelley as Ariel; Priyank Rastogi as Katurian;

This May & June, Spontaneous Shakespeare Players (“SSP”) are back to bring the Bard's The Comedy of Errors & Hamlet to New York City—the way Shakespeare’s own players performed it.

The Comedy of Errors & Hamlet marks the fifth annual FREE Shakespeare productions that SSP has shared with New York audiences at Central Park's Summit Rock and the first year of being produced by Mercia Entertainment.  Dedicated to bringing the Shakespeare of olden times to modern audiences, SSP uses original Elizabethan performance techniques—involving audience interaction, cue scripts-in-hand and LOTS of spontaneity—to bring Shakespeare's words to life in a thrilling and hilarious way.

 What I’m Failing to Learn is a personal journey of a child colored by both positives and negatives of growing up unsheltered from certain truths of our human world.  As 14-year-old singer songwriter Schuyler Iona Press learns, truth holds both comedy and tragedy, but most importantly, truth holds hope.