By EDWARD RUBIN In or out of drag, whether on stage or page, the 65-year-old actor playwright Charles Busch, with some 40 years of show business under his belt, is a force to be reckoned with. His signature calling card is in his allover inventiveness, his humorous tongue-in-cheek playfulness, looking outrageously spectacular in a gown […]
By EDWARD RUBIN I cannot remember any play that unnerved me to such a degree as the Vineyard Theatre’s production of Tina Satter’s brilliantly conceived Is This A Room. Not only did this one hour and ten minute play keep me glued to my seat, it set me on tenterhooks, and scared the bejesus out […]
By EDWARD RUBIN First things first. Before I delve into the Irish Repertory Theater’s marvelous production of London Assurance by Dublin-born playwright Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) – extended now through Sunday, February 9 – I must say that the award-winning Irish Rep is a gift from heaven. Their choices of what to produce coupled with the […]
By EDWARD RUBIN Will Arbery’s latest play, Heroes of the Fourth Turning, having been extended two times by popular demand, is now running Off-Broadway through Sunday, November 17, 2019 at Playwrights Horizons. With more religious, personal, and political exposition (read talk) than many a mind can absorb at one sitting, Heroes of the Fourth Turning […]
By EDWARD RUBIN There are probably greater painters than Noël. Greater novelists than Noël, greater librettists, greater composers of music, greater singers, greater dancers, greater comedians, greater tragedians, greater stage producers, greater film directors, greater cabaret artists, greater TV stars, and so on. If they are, they are fourteen different people. Only one man combines […]
By EDWARD RUBIN While New York City recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising with much hoopla and an enormous traffic-stopping Gay Pride parade that went on well into the night, New York’s Lincoln Center Theater chose to feature the other side of the coin by mounting the American premiere of playwright Chris […]
By EDWARD RUBIN In the past year (or five), there have been a healthy number of beautifully crafted, wonderfully acted, and solidly produced black-centric plays both on Broadway and Off Broadway. What it means to be black in the United States has been examined from every conceivable angle – historically, sociologically, and psychologically – both […]
By EDWARD RUBIN April Matthis, as Toni Stone (1921-1996) the first woman to play professional baseball in the Negro League, is knocking it out of the ballpark every night at the Laura Pels Theatre through August 11. The play, lightly based on Martha Ackmann’s book “Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone,” is overwhelmingly inspirational, […]
By EDWARD RUBIN Once again, following in the footstep of their mega-hit Carmen Jones, the Classic Stage Company is setting the New York Theater World on fire with two of August Strindberg’s most riveting plays, the sexually charged Mies Julie, adapted from the play Miss Julie by Yael Farber, and Conor McPherson’s searing adaption of […]
By EDWARD RUBIN The Glen, written, produced, and directed by Peter B. Hodges is a ‘must see’ play. Currently running through Saturday, February 16 at Shelter Studios’ intimate 60-seat theater, The Glen is one of those plays, due to its short run, that sadly disappears as quickly as it appears. Hopefully, future productions will keep […]