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THEATER: Uncle Vanya
I don't think Chekhov ever used the term "creep" to describe his characters, and yet that perfect word choice is one of the little joys that makes Annie Baker's adaptation of Uncle Vanya so enjoyable...
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THEATER: Sovereign
Photo/Deborah AlexanderRest assured, there are no Ewok-equivalents in Sovereign, the third and final part of Mac Rogers's epic work of science-fiction theater, The Honeycomb Trilogy. In fact, after...
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THEATER: The Bad and the Better
Photo/Monica Simoes"I'll have like this different level thing going for me where like the revolutionaries are all sentimental lovers and they all die because of it. It'll really just be a story about...
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THEATER: 3C
Photo/Joan MarcusWhy are sitcoms so popular in America? Perhaps it's because nothing bad ever really seems to happen, at least nothing that can't be shrugged off and reset by the end of the episode....
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THEATER: Mary Broome
For my first review back after an unusually long "vacation," and for a show being produced by the normally wonderful Mint Theater Company, I wish I had more positive things to write. But this dull,...
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THEATER: Job
Photo/Hunter CanningIt doesn't feel particularly ambitious or adventurous of Thomas Bradshaw to adapt the biblical story of Job to the stage -- even the title, Job, is straightforward, and there's...
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THEATER: Red Dog Howls
Photo/Joan MarcusThe thing you need to know about Red Dog Howls, before you get frustrated or restless, is that Alexander Dinelaris is deliberately pacing his play in a fashion that will pay off, to...
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THEATER: Violence Is Hard to Understand, So Let's Be Vague and Comedic About It
Photo/Sandra CoudertWriter/director Adam Rapp's latest play, Through the Yellow Hour, has once again transformed the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: one enters through a narrow graffitied corridor as...
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THEATER: Time Enough At Last: A Review of the New York Neo-Futurists' "On the...
Thirty plays an hour. Two to twelve new plays a week. All year long. Even with a revolving ensemble, that's a daunting task for any theater company, especially a non-illusory one like the New York...
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THEATER: If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It: A Review of "How to Break"
Photo/Benjamin Heller If How to Break were an actual hip-hop track, it would be defined by the solid chorus and rhythmic structure that bridges the dramatic beat(boxing) surrounding the cancer...
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THEATER: Performance Anxieties: Reviews of "The Performers" and "Barking Girl"
The Performers is about adult industry stars and their large endowments, but the Broadway stage must be cold or something, because these outsize-stars are shriveling up under the lights. (The fact that...
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THEATER: I'll Be Home For "A Civil War Christmas"
Photo/Carol RoseggIt's Christmas Eve, 1864, and Paula Vogel is shining a spotlight on three wise American men as they momentarily step back from the brink of their war and enjoy a moment of peace....
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THEATER: I Heart Theater at "Hearts Like Fists"
Flux Theatre Ensemble @ The Secret Theatre44-02 23rd StreetLong Island City, NYthrough December 15, 2012Running Time: 100 minutes (no intermission)Photo/Isaiah TanenbaumIs there such a thing as a...
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THEATER: Fine Animal Instincts Shown in "Volpone, or the Fox"
Photo/Carol RoseggGreed, despite what you may have heard, isn't good. Comedies about greedy men, on the other hand are. And while Red Bull (every bit as energetic as the drink) is best known for its...
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THEATER: The Surprisingly Heartwarming "P.S. Jones and the Frozen City"
Is there anything more important in the theater than confidence? Without it, Robert Askins could never have written his Obie-award winning Hand to God (in which a boy's Satanic sock puppet terrorizes a...
View ArticleTHEATER: It Could Happen to Anyone in "Bethany"
Crystal (America Ferrara) would like you to buy a new car, preferably within the next week. Because that's when her Saturn dealership is shutting down. And she works on a straight commission. Which she...
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THEATER: "Collision" is a Disaster in Slow, Slow Motion
Photo/Russ RowlandOnce upon a time, to borrow the banal storytelling mechanic used by playwright Lyle Kessler's pretentious philosophers, there was a critic who thought he'd seen more than his share of...
View ArticlemetaDRAMA: What Are You Writing For?
In a recent issue of The New Republic, Adam Kirsch writes of the decline of the essay, describing even good writers such as John Jeremiah Sullivan (or, one would imagine, Michael Pollan) as performance...
View ArticleAn Ode to King of the Nerds
There's a mistaken belief out there that reality television is a cheap substitute for scripted programming: you don't have to write anything, the cast is generally replaceable after fifteen minutes or...
View ArticleMakes No Sense At All
"Yes, but it is art?" is entirely the wrong question, if for no other reason than that it doesn't matter. We're talking about an entirely subjective thing here, and while we may get wrapped up in the...
View ArticleSo, Steven Soderbergh Is Quitting Cinema Because People Are Stupid (And the...
Mary Kaye Schilling catches the always candid and often eloquent Steven Soderbergh on the eve of his retirement in an article for New York's February 4, 2013 issue, and for me, the most interesting...
View ArticleHere's Looking At You, Resident Evil 7
Enough has been said about how terrible Resident Evil 6 is, from the ridiculous story and the lack of horror to the spotty controls, awkwardly laid-out zones, poor scenarios (driving sequences?), and...
View ArticleA Note to Readers
It's been one week of the experiment over at http://thatsoundscool.wordpress.com/; the hits aren't quite the same yet, but I'm finding Wordpress far more useful, and more in line with the sort of...
View ArticleTHEATER: Belleville
Come join me over at the new site, won't you, as I talk about the ticking trust bomb at the suspenseful heart of Amy Herzog's quite enjoyable Belleville.
View ArticleTHEATER: rogerandtom + Trevor
Oh yeah, we're still covering off-off-Broadway -- Trevor deserves a larger venue (and much larger audience) pronto . . . I'm looking at you, Second Stage! And rogerandtom breaks the fourth wall in an...
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