Travesties by Tom Stoppard at the American Airlines Theater

After multiple attempts, a few great performances by actors I love, one turtle, and lots and lots and lots of talk of Dada, Tom Stoppard's work is officially not for me.

Comments

Apologia by Alexi Kaye Campbell at the Roundabout Theatre Company

During the writing workshops I took as a student, writers were often told, "you have all of this information in your head but none of it is on the page. We don't know what you know." Someone should've said that to Alexi Kaye Campbell while writing his play Apologia . Apologia takes place in the English countryside house of expat Kristin Miller, who was some sort of political activist (just in title, we never really know what she does per say, but Vietnam is mentioned) and some sort of super famous art historian (I know what you're thinking: those exist?) who has written a memoir that excludes all mention of the sons she basically abandoned when they were children. Oh, yes, and it's her birthday, which is just an excuse for her family to gather at that very moment. Yes, this is a classic version of what I like to call a "family gathers, secrets revealed" play. So Kristin's son, the one who has his shit together, Peter, arrives with his Ameri...

Thoughts on the 2018 Lucille Lortel Nominations

Here are a few thoughts on the Lucille Lortel Award nominations that were announced earlier this week: It seems bizarre that Mary Jane by Amy Herzog was not nominated for Outstanding Play. First of all, it received six other nominations, so the committee clearly liked it. Second, it is one of the best things of the season, in my opinion, and a much stronger offering than basically everything else in the category, especially The Treasurer and Pipeline . It also would've been nice to see Amy and the Orphans remembered for Outstanding Play. The Outstanding Musical is downright embarrassing. Bella and Hundred Days are two of the worst things I've ever seen, and the praise Desperate Measures received is baffling. It's akin to a well-done high school production, amateurish in every way. The Outstanding Revival category contains four of my favorite shows of the season: Jesus Hopped the A Train, Torch Song, Fucking A, and In the Blood . While I thought The Government Inspec...

Mankind by Robert O'Hara at Playwrights Horizons

For me, Playwrights Horizons is best described by a lyric from Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George (that, coincidentally, originated at the non-profit), "what matters is the means not the ends." I often admire how diverse their slate of artists tend to be, and how interesting, compelling, and exciting their offerings sound. And make no mistake, they have produced plays I love, by playwrights and artists I idolize. And then often times, the shows don't deliver on their promise. Especially this season. Sarah Ruhl's For Peter Pan On Her Seventieth Birthday felt half-baked, like a poor attempt at Annie Baker's brilliant mundanity, and Max Posner's The Treasurer, although anchored by a terrific performance by Peter Friedman, was a bore. Their third offering of the 2017-2018 season is Robert O'Hara's Mankind . O'Hara imagines a future where women have become extinct due to the tre...

The Play's the Thing

Search This Blog