a new york-based theater blog
Perhaps this production of King Lear was never going to live up to the story: after twenty-three years in Parliament, Glenda Jackson returned to acting with the most challenging Shakespearean role, typically reserved for actors of her caliber as a final achievement, one that spawns nostalgic reflections on a career that began with an historic performance […]
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First, the set breaks in half.
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In All My Sons, the play that would precede Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller offers another portrait of an American family withering under the pressures of capitalism. The entire play is set in the backyard of Joe Keller (Tracy Letts), a successful suburban businessman who sold parts to the military during the war. A scandal involving […]
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Late in Ink, Larry Lamb (Jonny Lee Miller), the editor of the Sun, asks his boss, “What does Rupert Murdoch want?” Murdoch (Bertie Carvel) demurs, talking instead about his love of hotels: “You can check in, turn it over, spill a glass of wine, take a shit in the toilet, fuck in the bed, make a mess […]
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Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Hamlet that stages the action of the play from the perspective of the prince’s childhood friends, Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus locates the drama in supporting characters. The eponymous Gary (Nathan Lane) is a clown who has been promoted to maid and dreams of one day becoming […]
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Who do you step on to get to the top?
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First things first: Hadestown is the best new musical I have seen in years. Anaïs Mitchell’s gorgeous adaptation of the myth of Orpheus (Reeve Carney) and Euridyce (Eva Noblezada) takes its cues from folk, bluegrass, and jazz, with the band onstage and eventually introduced, one by one, by a heavy-drinking, husky-voiced Persephone (Amber Gray). A sharply-dressed […]
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