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Monday, May 9, 2016

Review: 'Happy Days,' an Unsettling Glimpse Into the Existential Abyss by Charles Isherwood

Dianne Wiest delivers a fearless performance in a play that examines the trap that human life can become, at Yale Repertory Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:02PM[SHARE]

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

'Hamilton' Aside, Where the Real Tony Competition Lies by Michael Paulson, Scott Heller and Charles Isherwood

A New York Times theater critic, the theater reporter and the theater editor discuss how the awards derby shapes up from here.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:52PM[SHARE]

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Review: 'Dear Evan Hansen' Puts a Twist on Teenage Angst by Charles Isherwood

In this play at Second Stage Theater, Ben Platt plays a student with no friends who suddenly finds people drawn to him for the wrong reason.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:43PM[SHARE]

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

The Week Ahead: In 'Dear Evan Hansen,' an Outsider Is Upended by Charles Isherwood

This musical, directed by Michael Greif, stars Ben Platt as a teenager whose life takes a sudden turn.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:38PM[SHARE]

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Review: 'Tuck Everlasting,' a Lyrical Meditation on Life, Death and Immortality by Charles Isherwood

Casey Nicholaw's Broadway musical avoids flashy tricks and easy sentiment, showing a natural feel for this story about a secret fountain of youth.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:22PM[SHARE]

Monday, April 25, 2016

Review: 'Fully Committed,' on How the Elite Dine, Has a Different Flavor Now by Charles Isherwood

Becky Mode's one-man play has moved to Broadway, starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson as the poor guy who arranges five-star restaurant reservations for five-star people.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM[SHARE]

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Review: Jessie Mueller Serves a Slice of Life (With Pie) in Sara Bareilles's 'Waitress' by Charles Isherwood

This musical, set in a diner and scored by Sara Bareilles, centers on a woman stuck in an unhappy marriage.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:23PM[SHARE]

Monday, April 18, 2016

Critic's Notebook: Politics Takes Center Stage in 'Carlyle' and 'Hillary and Clinton' by Charles Isherwood

James Earl Jones II plays a Republican lawyer in "Carlyle," while "Hillary and Clinton" portrays a fictionalized Mrs. Clinton running for president.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:19PM[SHARE]

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Review: 'Mary Page Marlowe' Traces a Woman's Evolution in Phases and Fragments by Charles Isherwood

This new drama by Tracy Letts follows the life of its title character at various stages, moving in a nonlinear progression.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:36PM[SHARE]

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Review: 'Nathan the Wise' Brings a Morality Tale to Today by Charles Isherwood

This Gotthold Ephraim Lessing work, translated and updated, includes a loaded question as it focuses on the themes of faith and family.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:25PM[SHARE]

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Review: In 'Exit Strategy,' Scrambling Before School's Out Forever by Charles Isherwood

Ike Holter's drama at the Cherry Lane Theater depicts a Chicago high school's faculty, and some students, trying to save their institution.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:25PM[SHARE]

Monday, April 11, 2016

Critic's Notebook: Humana Festival, Turning 40, Looks at Mortality, Dystopia and Change by Charles Isherwood

This year's Humana Festival of New American Plays includes "This Random World," "Wellesley Girl" and Sarah Ruhl's "For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PM[SHARE]

Monday, April 4, 2016

Review: Royal Shakespeare Company's 'King and Country' at BAM by Charles Isherwood

This cycle presents four Shakespeare history plays, both parts of "Henry IV" bookended by "Richard II" and "Henry V."

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:18PM[SHARE]

Monday, March 28, 2016

Review: 'Stupid _____ Bird' Is Chekhov for the 21st Century by Charles Isherwood

This Aaron Posner play loosely adapts "The Seagull" and notably breaks the fourth wall with regularity.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM[SHARE]

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Review: 'Bright Star' Beams Nostalgia Underscored by Fiddles and Banjos by Charles Isherwood

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell are behind this slice of vintage Americana that gives Carmen Cusack her Broadway debut.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:34PM[SHARE]

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Review: 'Dry Powder,' a High-Finance Comedy Drama by Charles Isherwood

Claire Danes and John Krasinski are rival partners at a private equity firm in Sarah Burgess's play about shenanigans in the world of big money.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:28PM[SHARE]

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Review: 'The Way West' Features a Cheerfully Defiant Plunge Into Financial Ruin by Charles Isherwood

This Labyrinth Theater Company production depicts a mother in denial about her insolvency and two daughters who seem to share her heedlessness.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:00PM[SHARE]

Review: 'Ironbound' Stars Marin Ireland as a Struggling Immigrant by Charles Isherwood

The New York stage veteran Marin Ireland gives a performance of beautiful complexity in Martyna Majok's quietly gripping play.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:22AM[SHARE]

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The Week Ahead: Money Zombies Without a Clue by Charles Isherwood

In the comedy-drama "Dry Powder," at the Public Theater, an equity firm and its top executives behave very badly.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:49PM[SHARE]

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Review: In 'Southern Comfort,' a Family Not Bound by Blood by Charles Isherwood

Members of a tight-knit transgender community come together to support a dying friend in this musical.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM[SHARE]

Friday, March 11, 2016

Review: In 'Brodsky/Baryshnikov,' One Friend Recalls Another by Charles Isherwood

In this piece presented by the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Mikhail Baryshnikov recites poetry by Joseph Brodsky, the Nobel laureate who died in 1996.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:03PM[SHARE]

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Review: Nathan Lane, You've Got a Part (This Time) in 'White Rabbit Red Rabbit' by Charles Isherwood

The play, which is performed just once a week, features a new actor who doesn't know the script.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:22PM[SHARE]

Onstage, the Pain Behind the Political Posturing by Charles Isherwood

A look at "The Humans," "Sweat" and other works that explore middle-class anguish and anxiety.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:03PM[SHARE]

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Review: Mayhem! Gambling! Disco! In 'Disaster!' It's All There for the Spoofing by Charles Isherwood

The musical, at the Nederlander Theater, combines the cheesiness of disaster films with the questionable pleasure of pop hits of the K-Tel era.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:27PM[SHARE]

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Review: In 'Eclipsed,' a Captive Lupita Nyong'o Is Captivating by Charles Isherwood

This Danai Gurira drama set during Liberian civil war focuses on the choices and survival skills of several women brutalized by a rebel officer.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:28PM[SHARE]

Review: Carnegie Hall's 'West Side Story' at the Knockdown Center by Charles Isherwood

This production, a culmination of the Somewhere Project, a citywide exploration of that classic musical, mixes professional actors with high-school-aged apprentices.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 01:26PM[SHARE]

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Review: 'Familiar,' a Comic Clash of Assimilation on the Path to a Wedding by Charles Isherwood

In Danai Gurira's fiercely funny new play, impending nuptials expose a culture clash and deep fissures within a Zimbabwean-American family in Minnesota.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:28PM[SHARE]