All stories by Jesse Green on BroadwayStars

Monday, February 25, 2019

Critic's Pick: Review: After Apartheid, Who Are 'Boesman and Lena'? by Jesse Green

The fine Signature Theater revival of Athol Fugard's 1969 play shows how a classic seemingly fixed in one era nevertheless keeps evolving.

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Sunday, February 24, 2019

Critic's Pick: Review: In 'Hurricane Diane,' the Perfect Storm Hits Suburbia by Jesse Green

Madeleine George's new play brings back the god Dionysus to convince the women of Monmouth County, N.J., that the ecological end is near.

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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Why 'Tootsie,' 'Beetlejuice' and the Temptations Hit the Road by Jesse Green

The path to opening night in New York used to pass through several cities. Now it rarely does " but are shows better off for it?

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Thursday, February 14, 2019

Critic's Pick: Review: Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge Face Death Onstage by Jesse Green

In "Sea Wall/A Life," at the Public Theater, a pair of monologues gives the two stars ample opportunity to shine and mourn.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Critic's Pick: Review: At 'Freestyle Love Supreme,' Attention Must Be Paid. Really. by Jesse Green

Since you provide the content for this group's delightful hip-hop musical improvisation, you really have to lend them your ears (and phones).

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:36PM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 7, 2019

Review: Without Ethel Merman, a Limp 'Call Me Madam' at Encores! by Jesse Green

This 1950 musical has some charming numbers, but without a monster personality at its center it seems like less of a comedy than a requiem.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 03:54PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Review: In 'God Said This,' a Hot Mess of a Daughter Heads Home by Jesse Green

A prizewinning play by Leah Nanako Winkler puts the traditional "crazy family" dramedy in a new social and racial setting.

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Sunday, January 27, 2019

Critic's Pick: Review: 'My Fair Lady,' Illuminated With New Stars by Jesse Green

Laura Benanti and three other recently arrived principals adjust the focus of the hit revival from the political to the personal.

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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Review: Finding Their Inner Goddesses in 'The Convent' by Jesse Green

With the help of fresh air, a Mother Abbess and a mild hallucinogen, six women spend a week in search of a female spirituality.

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Sunday, January 20, 2019

Review: 'About Alice' Brings a Husband's Eulogy to Life by Jesse Green

Calvin Trillin has turned his heartbroken memoir into a stage play that reincarnates his beloved wife and muse.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 14, 2019

Review: In 'Maestro,' a Downbeat Look at the Great Toscanini by Jesse Green

The Italian conductor (and philanderer and anti-Fascist) gets the Great Man treatment from Ensemble for the Romantic Century.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:54PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Critic's Pick: Review: Raising a Joyful New Voice in Tarell Alvin McCraney's 'Choir Boy' by Jesse Green

Something groundbreaking on Broadway: The story of "an effeminate young man of color" who finds his strength through singing.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:04PM[SHARE]

Obsession, Mourning and Migration at Under the Radar by Ben Brantley and Jesse Green

Offerings at the festival include a riff on "Uncle Vanya"; a "Frankenstein" adaptation highlighting a mother's grief; and an intimate tale of displacement.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 04:54PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 7, 2019

Theater Reviews: Hate, Hope and Healing at Under the Radar by Ben Brantley and Jesse Green

An eclectic opening weekend included sketches and songs by Nigerian women, two unsettling monologues and a punk-rock reminiscence (with mixtape to follow).

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Thursday, December 13, 2018

Critic's Pick: Review: A Broadway 'Mockingbird,' Elegiac and Effective by Jesse Green

Glossy and bristling with fine performances, this adaptation of the 1960 Harper Lee classic gets the Aaron Sorkin treatment.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Review: Downward Mobility Is Upward Morality in 'Fabulation' by Jesse Green

A revival of Lynn Nottage's 2004 satire puts an unexpected spin on the religion of American reinvention.

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Monday, December 10, 2018

Review: In 'Noura,' an Iraqi Refugee Leaves More Than Home Behind by Jesse Green

In her new play, loosely inspired by "A Doll's House," Heather Raffo is radiant as a New York architect caught between cultures.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:06PM[SHARE]
Sunday, December 9, 2018

Critic's Pick: Review: Race and Sex in Plantation America in 'Slave Play' by Jesse Green

In a staggering professional New York debut, the playwright Jeremy O. Harris unpacks interracial relationships both antebellum and postmodern.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:04PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Review: Look! It's 'The Making of King Kong'! (No, Not That One.) by Jesse Green

A new play mocks the gender and racial ickiness of the 1933 movie " on a one-paw budget.

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The Best Theater of 2018 by Ben Brantley and Jesse Green

It was a year when classics were reincarnated in deceptively modest interpretations, conventional story forms were tossed aside and strong voices roared.

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Monday, December 3, 2018

Review: In 'The Cher Show,' I Got You, Babe. And You. And You. by Jesse Green

The three faces of Cherilyn Sarkisian Bono Allman are the subject of a new Broadway jukebox musical that's big on sequins, low on insight.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM[SHARE]
Friday, November 30, 2018

5 Shows to See in New York: Not Just Cher but Cher Horowitz by Jesse Green

Off Broadway productions in December consider migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Manhattan, plus one well dressed emissary from Beverly Hills.

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Thursday, November 29, 2018

Review: Joan Didion's 'The White Album,' Now in Living Color by Jesse Green

A gorgeously illustrated stage version of the classic essay about 1960s California ennui may miss the point.

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Thursday, November 15, 2018

Critic's Pick: 'The Prom' Review: Bringing Jazz Hands to the Heartland by Jesse Green

A delicious new musical about Broadway narcissists, Indiana homophobes, the possibility of accommodation " and zazz.

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Review: 'A Chorus Line,' Still High-Stepping but Showing Its Age by Jesse Green

City Center's production of the landmark musical from 1975 is a pleasure, an education and a problem.

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Monday, November 12, 2018

Review: Going From Schlub to Slick in 'The Other Josh Cohen' by Jesse Green

After eight years of development, a peppy musical about the value of persistence proves its own point.

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Thursday, November 8, 2018

Review: 'King Kong' Is the Mess That Roared by Jesse Green and Ben Brantley

The one-ton, 20-foot marionette is impressive, but the $35 million musical he stars in doesn't even succeed as camp.

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Monday, November 5, 2018

Review: In 'The Thanksgiving Play,' Who Gets Roasted? by Jesse Green

Larissa FastHorse's theatrical debunking of the Pilgrims and Natives narrative is really a satire of theatricality itself.

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Sunday, November 4, 2018

Critic's Pick: Review: 'American Son' Puts Kerry Washington in a Maternal Nightmare by Jesse Green

As a black mother with a son in danger, Ms. Washington is up against a situation she may not be able to fix.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Review: In 'Days of Rage,' the Revolution Will Be Trivialized by Jesse Green

Steven Levenson's new play about young '60s radicals has the unintentional effect of making all protest seem childish.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:05PM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 28, 2018

Review: In 'Thunderbodies,' War, Sheeple and Psychedelic Muumuus by Jesse Green

Soho Rep continues its laudable tradition of sure-to-be-divisive plays with Kate Tarker's word-drunk new satire of … well, something.

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