Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

I keep trying to write this review of John Patrick Shanley 's new and personal work, Prodigal Son . I just can't get authentically passionate about anything in the play. Prodigal Son  takes place at the Thomas More Prep School in New Hampshire; Bronx boy Shanley attended Thomas More as an adolescent. This play is his portrait of the artist as a young man. It's well-written (as you might expect from the author of Doubt ), though Shanley's directing could use some work; and it's mostly well-acted (the cast includes Robert Sean Leonard , and I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the irony of the Dead Poets Society  star playing a teacher at a boys' prep school). Like in Arcadia , there are notions of picking up the breadcrumbs the greats have left behind. And the central tension lies is Shanley's stand-in, Jim ( Timothee Chalamet ), struggling to square the possibly opposing forces of free will and destiny. But by the end of the day, it's...

You’ve seen those classic detective films, the ones with the snappy dialogue recited by men in sharp trench coats. Nick Jones ’s Important Hats of the Twentieth Century is detective flick pastiche, complete with radio addresses and some mad-cap antics thrown in for good measure. We begin in the early twentieth century, just after the Great Depression. Fashion reporter T.B. Doyle ( John Behlmann ( Significant Other )) is investigating a theft (he’s been asked to cover more hard news). We don’t yet know what’s been stolen, but we know a scientist was the victim. Next we meet Doyle’s secret paramour, fashion designer Sam Greevy (a delightful Carson Elrod ( Peter and the Starcatcher )). He believes clothes should make women feel beautiful, and takes pride is being Savile Row-ready. His nemesis, Paul Roms (a deliciously zany Matthew Saldivar ( Honeymoon in Vegas )), was not a model student in design school, but is now working on a new fashion item: a sweatshirt. Greevy, of course, i...

A quick note about David Lindasy-Abaire 's latest, Ripcord . The play, directed by David Hyde Pierce ( La Bete ), finds two senior citizens, Marilyn ( Marylouise Burke ( Fish in the Dark )) and Abby ( Holland Taylor ( Ann )), sharing a room at an assisted living facility. The are most certainly an odd couple, with Marilyn being upbeat and continually nattering on about something or other, trying to get to know her roommate, and Abby the buttoned-up woman of manners, cool and collected throughout. After a trip to a haunted house (seriously), the ladies make a bet: If Marilyn can scare Abby, Marilyn gets the better bed. If Abby can anger Marilyn, Marilyn moves out. And so the stakes are set and all sorts of silly shenanigans ensue, including a sky diving sequence (again, seriously). It's fun to watch the two ladies needle each other. They are sometimes visited by Scotty ( Nate Miller ( Of Good Stock )), who works at the facility, as well as Marilyn's daughter and son...

I don't know much about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I know, as the name suggests, that it has something to do with uncertainty. Through my online, thoroughly unscientific research, I find that the principle boils down to the idea that there are certain fundamental relationships that put limitations on knowing other things with certainty. In his new play, Heisenberg , Simon Stephens ( The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time ) explores the implications of the principle in interpersonal relationships. One relationship, in particular. Stephens's two-hander focuses on Alex (a subdued Denis Arndt ) and Georgie Burns (a present, wiry Mary-Louise Parker ( The Snow Geese )). Through a series of linear scenes, we see Alex, a 75-year-old man, and Georgie, a 42-year-old woman, meet, lie, reveal themselves, come together, come apart and reach an inconclusive conclusion. The play is only a brisk 90 minutes (direct by Mark Brokaw ) yet it covers about two-months...

Lisa D'Amour 's Airline Highway, like some of her other plays ( Detroit ), looks in on the lives of fringe people, those misfits who get lost along the way and end up on the outskirts of town, making the best of being outcasts and forming their own community. The action takes place at the Hummingbird Motel, located on Airline Highway in New Orleans. The time is now, the first week in May, to be exact, when Jazz Fest takes over and bros from Michigan infiltrate the city. The motel is home to a colorful, eclectic group, most of whom have a good heart (but that's not enough to pay the bills), including Sissy ( Tony nominee K. Todd Freeman ) and Tanya (Tony winner Julie White , who also earned a Tony nomination for this performance). During the time we get to know them (as some residents of the Hummingbird will tell you, you can't really know them in one afternoon) Sissy, Tanya and the others put together a living funeral for the ailing Miss Ruby (a feisty Judith Ro...

The multiverse theory suggests that multiple realities exist, that every choice a person could make, every thing a person could do, is made and done simultaneously, and that what we know as reality is simply one version of the infinite possibilities of outcomes. It's a theory that's tested, for example, in the original musical, If/Then (in particular, listen to the song, "Some Other Me"), and in one of the greatest episodes of Community , "Remedial Chaos Theory." Now, the multiverse theory plays out, beautifully, in Nick Payne 's play, Constellations . This two-hander sees Marianne (Ruth Wilson) and Roland (Jake Gyllenhaal) as they play out various possibilities of the same situation. For example, the first set of scenes is set at a barbecue where the pair meet. The very first iteration of the meeting ends quickly when Roland mentions his girlfriend. The lights change, the actors reset and we see another possible iteration, one in which both are si...

What makes a lion? That’s what Benjamin Scheuer endeavors to discover in his personal coming of age tale. He begins and ends by telling of the cookie-tin banjo his father made for him, his father giving his boy the gift of music. In between, Scheuer struggles with loss, love and sickness, all of which help him uncover the strength and people needed to be a lion.  The accomplished musician (he records with his band, Escapist Papers ) brings his story home to New York in a beautifully staged performance, using multiple acoustic guitars (and one electric), which make the most glorious sounds. Delicate and effective direction by Sean Daniels and a warm and intimate set by Neil Patel and lighting design by Ben Stanton bring us close to Scheuer (like Sawyer but with a “sh” sound to start), who is raw, charming and brave.  He also is doing something so simple yet so important in sharing his journey. The Lion is storytelling + family + love, which is what our past, ...

If you’re looking for a juicy soap opera, look no further than David Grimm ’s Tales from Red Vienna . Set in Vienna circa 1920, Grimm’s tales follow Helena (Nina Arianda), who is trying to keep her life together—often by taking up the oldest profession—after losing her husband in the war. She’s been in mourning—wallowing in it, really—for almost a year when Bela (Michael Esper) enters her life and awakens in Helena something she thought was gone forever. Lots of other dalliances, twists and turns abound (truly; I’m leaving out four other characters and plot details) and it’s all quite fun. While Tales from Red Vienna is set in the past, it is not meant to be a significant historical drama. While it deals with the fall out from the war, it is not meant to reveal layers of depth about political conflict and the costs of war. (There’s some commentary to that end, but it’s filler, mostly.) With moments of humor and soapy drama, Grimm and director Kate Whoriskey keep things just...