New Shows: Feb. 5-11

I'll pick an oddball for this week's spotlight: Nectarine EP at the Flea. It's a sort of radio-play based on The Odyssey. But before you skip ahead, note that it's not a simple adaptation―it's a weird aural experience, crazy downtown theater in a hip sonic style, the sort of work you're more likely to catch at Ars Nova or St. Ann's (see This Clement World below). Frankly, I'm not sure what to expect but I love sonic experiments and radio drama. And I also enjoy the Bats, the Flea Theater's young, in-house troupe. But there's plenty more to see if that doesn't interest you. I'd like to catch Zorro and a robot double-bill at the Japan Society. How about you?

Ageless, Timeless, Eternal

where: The Wild Project

first night: Wednesday, Feb. 6

I mention this dance piece because it's based on the love poetry of Will Shakespeare. The concept is that it looks at the romances of three couples―aged 20, 40, & 60―to gain perspective on Shakespeare's own views.

Donnybrook!

where: Irish Rep

first night: Thursday, Feb. 7

A musical adaptation of The Quiet Man, that classic cinematic slice of Irish-American cornpone by John Ford and John Wayne. An American prizefighter, retires to Ireland after killing an opponent in the ring, falls for a lass, and tries to avoid a fight with her mulish brother. Actually, it's perfect material for a musical adaptation.

Foodacts

where: Theater Row

first night: Wednesday, Feb. 6

A sort of essay on food and life leavened with literature and staged for audiences. A half-dozen actors take on roles from Homer to Hemingway. Inexplicably, food is neither cooked nor served during the performance.

From White Plains

where: Signature Theater

first night: Friday, Feb. 8

This show's creative process sounds great. The company mounts a work, from script to production, within four months. It opens opportunities for more relevant and current drama. But this play―which is about coming out, gay violence, and taking responsibility for youthful indiscretion―doesn't sound especially a la mode.

Hamlet

where: Access Theater

first night: Friday, Feb. 8

The Bedlam Theater had a surprise hit last season in Saint Joan. Their fresh take on Shaw will be revived in March. In the meantime, catch their new work, a four-person Hamlet. Such a small cast should make this famously long play move briskly.

I, Worker and Sayonara

where: The Japan Society

first night: Thursday, Feb. 7

These two one-acts address the integration of robots into the home as caretakers and servants. Unlike most scifi theater, however, robots and androids actually play the roles! A Japanese theater company has collaborated with Osaka University's cybernetics department to stage this show. It raises all sorts of cool questions about live performance, doesn't it?

Lady Han

where: Incubator Arts Project

first night: Friday, Feb. 8

A classic Noh drama by the master of the form (a 17C gent by the name of Zeami) gets a 21C American upgrade. The sentimental script has a prostitute pine for her aristo lover till she goes mad. The staging, however, sets this Zen tale of seasons and emotions in a modern context of maximalism and plastic disposability.

The Madrid

where: City Center Stage 1

first night: Tuesday, Feb. 4

MTC builds their winter programming around strong middle-aged actresses, and everybody wins! Laurie Metcalf has lifted the company's Broadway show above a mediocre script; this premiere stars Edie Falco. She's a woman who abandons her comfy life. So it's a middle-class comedic drama. But a woman wrote this play, another directs; it's great to see that.

The Mark of Zorro

where: New Victory Theater

first night: Friday, Feb. 8

A rapier slashes the letter Z―the mark of Zorro! The masked avenger from Mexican California, the original Hispanic-American hero, takes the stage of the New Vic, to the delight of kids and youthful adults like me. This Scottish production has three actors play all the roles of a rousing adventure.

Passion

where: Classic Stage Company

first night: Friday, Feb. 8

Sondheim's '94 musical divided audiences in its premiere & led to his temporary devaluation. CSC gives the show its first NYC revival and hands the reins to John Doyle. He's the Brit who reinvigorated SS by putting musical instruments into his perfomers' hands.

Talley's Folly

where: Roundabout at the Laura Pels

first night: Friday, Feb. 8

Lanford Wilson's two-hander about a last chance at romance won the Pulitzer in '80;  in recent years, its quiet, heartfelt style has come back into style onstage. This Off-B'way revival costars Danny Burstein and Sarah Paulson, a brilliant pair of actors perfectly cast, but the director (Michael Wilson) has rarely impressed me.

This Clement World

where: St. Ann's Warehouse

first night: Tuesday, Feb. 4

If you haven't seen the work of Cynthia Hopkins, you really ought to. Here's another chance, with her eclectic music and fiction backing documentary footage of her trip to the Arctic Circle. The subject, naturally, is the environment, but it's less pessimistic on the subject than you'd predict.

New Shows: Jan. 29 - Feb. 4

It's a man playing a woman playing a man
-- and it's not by Shakespeare!
(photo: Matthew Snead)

Some Shakespeare for Will-watchers this week, but I'll put Brecht in my spotlight instead. The Good Person of Szechwan isn't just politically radical & intellectually cynical, it's also theatrically forward-looking, at least in the Foundry Theater's production. GPS stars Taylor Mac, a genius of performance who goes way beyond drag to ultra-individual expression. He plays Shen Tei, the over-generous prostitute who's in danger of squandering her windfall fortune. To protect herself, she impersonates a ruthless―and male―businessman. Question is, which one is the titular good person? GPS is one of my favorite plays, but I've never seen it performed. I have, however, seen the director produce another Brecht drama several years ago, and that knocked me out. If all that weren't enough, GPS has live performances by “indie rock vaudevillians”!

The Good Person of Szechwanwhere: La MaMafirst night: Friday, Feb. 1

But if you're feeling more conservative, there's also a Much Ado this week that looks good. That show and more get the rundown below.

Isaac's Eye

where: Ensemble Studio Theater

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 30

A period drama about Newton, whose experiments in optics and light led him to insert a needle into his own eye! It has a fine cast of young Off-Off-Broadway talents, and a solid director in Linsay Firman, whose previous work (Photograph 51) brought another era of high science, the 1950s, to life pretty vividly.

The Man Who Laughs

where: Urban Stages

first night: Thursday, Jan. 31

One of those off-the-wall concepts that might be cool: this live show is performed in the style of a silent film. So title cards, piano accompaniment, gesticulating, and even black-&-white set and costumes! The source material, a 1928 German Expressionist film of a Victor Hugo novel, is similar to his Hunchback, only this time the monstrous hero has a knife-disfigured grin. Supposedly, it inspired the guys who created the Joker.

Much Ado About Nothing

where: TFANA at the Duke on 42nd Street

first night: Saturday, Feb. 2

Shakespeare's most realistic comedy and also his tightest: no cross-dressing gals, and the low-comedy subplot ties into the romantic plot nicely. But the best part, or parts, are Beatrice and Benedick, whose witty anti-romance is so charming it dominates the show. Maggie Siff takes on Beatrice a year after she played Kate in Shrew, with the same director; she had presence and intellect, so she should prove a fine Beatrice.

The Netflix Plays

where: Ars Nova

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 30

Ars Nova stages their annual showcase of short plays and hip music, the hook being that the evening's thematically linked by some bit of ubiquitous cultural technology. This year it's Netflix (obviously), which I'd think gives the writers plenty of leeway.

The Pilo Family Circus

where: The New Ohio Theater

first night: Thursday, Jan. 31

A horror show about a circus of immortal weirdos. A kid runs off to join them, but his clown alter-ego wants to kill and replace him. Sounds perfect for Valentine's Day!

Really Really

where: MCC at the Lucille Lortel

first night: Thursday, Jan. 31

David Cromer directs, which should be enough to get you curious; his work has brought deep pleasures, from Adding Machine and Our Town to Tribes. He shifts pace for Really Really, which is a campus comedy about sex, class (in the Marxist sense, not the pedagogical), and gossip. Cross your fingers for something dark and cynical.

Women of Will

where: The Gym at Judson

first night: Sunday, Jan. 27

According to the press release, the ratio of men to women in Shakespeare's plays is 4:1. Actor/creator Tina Packer offers a sort of lecture, an overview of Shakespeare's women that focuses on the gals we know, the Rosalinds & Juliets. Then later in the 6-month run, she'll delve into each phase of Will's career with five “episodes” that look more closely at his changing approaches and attitudes. It sounds fascinating!

New Shows: Jan. 22-28

I'm curious to see if All in the Timing holds up after 20 years, but I'm eager to revisit Wallace Shawn's The Fever, this week's spotlight. It's ninety minutes of monologue recounting a sick-dream by an upper member of the consumer class. The piece shifts from an admission of culpability (shared by the audience) in global human exploitation to a defensive justification of the status quo. Deeply disturbing and revelatory, a cynical filleting of its own audience that offers no solutions, a script worth reading and rereading.

The Feverwhere: La MaMafirst night: Thursday, Jan. 24

This new mounting arrives from France (though it's performed in English). Shawn himself performed the piece in '07, mesmerizing audiences; this version swaps genders, which shouldn't be a problem. Go get your tickets and then see if there's anything else this week you'd like:

All in the Timing

where: Primary Stages at 59E59

first night: Tuesday, Jan. 22

Theater in the 1990s wasn't just about AIDS―as the first revival of this popular, witty absurdity will remind you. It's a six-pack of vigniettes and sketches with a sophisticated approach to time (see title) and language. The script's a delight, so if the company does it any justice, it'll be a fun evening.

Bodega Bay

where: Abingdon Theater

first night: Friday, Jan. 25

A Staten Islander ventures out of Richmond County for the first time in her middle age, to find her troubled brother, her missing mother, and (presumably) the soul of America.

Cinderella

where: Broadway Theater

first night: Thursday, Jan. 24

The official title is Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway but that's just embarrassing. Plus the book's been reworked by Douglas Carter Beane. His snark may offset director Mark Brokaw's dullness. The lead is Laura Osnes, who took a bullet in the terrible Bonnie & Clyde last season but still grabbed a Tony nomination. Her prince is Santino Fontana, another young talent worth your time.

Hot Dust

where: Incubator Arts

first night: Friday, Jan. 25

Richard Foreman's former house has become a great staging ground for a new generation of experimentalists. This work, by the company Exploding Moment, demands its audience focus by whispering and incanting its subject. Appropriate, since  Hot Dust examines 1890s Spiritualism and 1920s Pentecostalism, two weird movements that allowed women to flourish in leading roles. 

Katie Roche

where: The Mint Theater

first night: Saturday, Jan. 26

Roche got strong lauds in its 1936 premiere and, though it's been revived in Ireland regularly, it's been forgotten everywhere else. On the other hand, the material sounds sentimental: a “fiery” servant girl of uncertain birth is alternately angelic and devilish. I've always found the Mint's productions to be creaky and their mission of theatrical archaeology too conservative.

Luck of the Irish

where: LCT3

first night: Monday, Jan. 28

Another angle on neighborhood integration in the 1950s & today, inevitably to be read partly as a response to Clybourne Park. Here, a black couple pays Irish Bostonians to act as proxy in buying a home; 50 years later, the white descendants want “their” house back. The last play written by Kristen Greenidge & directed by Rebecca Taichman had electrifying elements of racial analysis but stumbled a bit into didacticism. Let's figure Irish will have more of the provocation and less of the pedagogy.

The Man Under

where: 59E59

first night: Friday, Jan. 25

An urban romance in one act, with a subway setting―closing doors and missed connections. One subplot has a man chasing a mysterious woman across the third rail; the other follows a meet-cute scenario between Yankees fans.

New Shows: Jan. 15-21

I shine my spotlight this week on Life and Times: Episodes 1-4. This one, all the cool kids are buzzing about. The Nature Theater of Oklahoma has become a big deal in NYC's experimental scene over the last few years, big enough that their latest piece is a co-production with the Public, Under the Radar, and Soho Rep (as well as Vienna's Burgtheater). Which is to say, the companies are lending legitimacy and a subscriber base to NTO's work in return for cache. Life & Times is a long-form biodrama, one person's response to the question: “Can you tell me your life story?” Catch the work in four chunks or better yet, see all 4 parts in an 11-hour marathon.

Life and Times: Episodes 1-4

where: The Public Theater

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 16

And here are the other notable productions who raise their curtains this week:

All the Rage

where: PJ Sharp Theater

first night: Saturday, Jan. 19

A one-man show about the mechanism of fury. A mild-mannered man attacks his step-mother and later investigates an act of torture.

Clive

where: The New Group at Theater Row

first night: Thursday, Jan. 17

Ethan Hawke directs this adaptation of Brecht's 1918 debut, Baal. In this version, it's a 1990s songwriter whose hedonism leads him into a self-destructive nightmare of redemption. Hawke also acts, alongside Zoe Kazan, Vincent D'Onofrio, and adaptor Jonathan Mark Sherman. But the true theatrical temptation is music by GAINES, a duo of sculptors who invent instruments. Their work turned Hawke's Lie of the Mind from a well-done classic into a mind-blowing sensory experience.

The Red and the Black

where: Theater at St. Clement's

first night: Friday, Jan. 18

Julien Sorel, fueled by ambition, climbs the social ladder of post-Napoleanic France. Stendahl's novel is revered for the psychology of its protagonist and the social analysis of the period. The former quality is incredibly hard to adapt from prose to drama, making Red/Black an iffy choice.

Silence: The Musical

where: New World Stages

first night: Friday, Jan. 18

This musical parody of Silence of the Lambs reopens after a holiday hiatus. By all accounts it's a fun evening.

The Suit

where: BAM Harvey

first night: Thursday, Jan. 17

Peter Brook returns to BAM once more, this time adapting a short story from South Africa. If you haven't seen Brook's primal approach to stagework, you should take this opportunity. It's supposed to be his best work in years, and he's getting old (88 in March).

The Vandal

where: The Flea

first night: Friday, Jan. 18

Actor Hamish Linklater (who I generally like) moonlights as a playwright this winter. Fortunately he and his director have cast a strong trio of performers behind his writing debut―even without Holly Hunter, who bailed around the first rehearsal. Despite that, advance word is strong on this dark, emo drama.

New Shows: Jan. 7-14

Contact sports meet Mad Men
in the Ike-era action-thriller
The Jammer

The first full week of 2013 has a massive amount of theater starting up, from 19C intersex diarists to the original robot uprising. But I can't pass up the chance to shine my spotlight on a period drama—about roller-derby! Set in 1950s NYC, The Jammer investigates an underground pro circuit with hard-boiled style. Men and women competing in contact sports for fame and cash! The script's by Rolin Jones, whose The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, a witty '04 adventure about a girl and her robot, was shortlisted for the Pulitzer.

The Jammer
where: Atlantic Stage 2
first night: Wednesday, Jan. 9

And here's what else starts a run off-Broadway this week:

Airswimming

where: Irish Rep

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 9

A period piece set in 1920s England, where two young women are incarcerated in an asylum for having illegitimate children. This Beckettian absurdity was the debut effort by Charlotte Jones, a Brit who won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Humble Boy a few years later.

Bethany

where: City Center Stage II

first night: Friday, Jan. 11

The redoubtable Women's Project returns with this dark comedy set in the deserted exurbs of the Great Recession. It stars America Ferrara, who won an Emmy as Ugly Betty, as a woman trying to keep the hearth burning in the face of foreclosure, even if that means moral compromise.

A Crucible

where: The Wild Project

first night: Thursday, Jan. 10

Subtitled “John Fucking Proctor”, and summarized on the website as “Pregnant Catholic school girls destroy American theater”. I'm not sure you need to know anything else to tempt you to get tickets!

City Love Song: Home

where: 59E59

first night: Tuesday, Jan. 8

A sort of staged lecture on urban life around the globe. The performer traveled from the slums of New Dehli & the markets of Marrakesh to the skyscrapers of Tokyo and the megalopolis of Buenos Aires. Now he returns to America's cultural capital to share his observations.

COIL Festival

where: various stages in NYC, Brooklyn, & Queens

festival run: Jan. 3-19

PS 122's annual winter series showcases over a dozen experimental works. It's a great primer on the state of the avant garde. I can already recommend one peice, Inflatable Frankenstein by Radiohole. Another, There There, has been drawing good buzz for its subversive take on Chekhov.

Collision

where: Rattlestick Theater

first night: Thursday, Jan. 10

A black comedy set on a campus in Middle America from the Amoralists, that over-earnest company of hungry artists on the make. Curiously, it's also the latest play by Lyle Kessler, a stalwart of the 1970s scene, whose greatest success (Orphans) will soon be revived on Broadway starring Alec Baldwin.

The Future Is Not What It Was

where: Walkerspace

first night: Saturday, Jan. 12

I can't nail down much about this drama. Publicity materials suggest that it's set on a parallel Earth, at a campus where a love triangle starts to spark. TFINWIW marks the debut of the Kindling Theater Company, a troupe of 20-somethings.

I, Malvolio

where: The Duke on 42nd Street

first night: Friday, Jan. 11

An intro to Shakespeare's comic villain for children & an entertaining reversal of Twelfth Night for their parents. This comedy is part of Tim Crouch's I, Shakespeare series, which also takes the perspective of Caliban, Banquo, and even Peaseblossom. Crouch himself did charming work in his “hypnotist” act, An Oak Tree, Off-Broadway several years ago.

In Acting Shakespeare

where: Pearl Theater

first night: Thursday, Jan. 10

The Pearl presents a one-man show based on Ian McKellan's own monologue on Will's power to transform actors and transport audiences. A Long Island longshoreman provides his own take on Shakespeare, representing speeches in the context of his own second career as an actor.

Midsummer (A Play with Songs)

where: Theater Row

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 9

Co-winner of the Best of Edinburgh award (with Mies Julie, now closed). I really like the playwright, David Greig, who wrote the book for this hybrid drama/musical based incredibly loosely on Shakespeare. It follows an ill-advised love-match on a lost weekend of weddings, bondage, car chases, and more zaniness.

Opus #7

where: St. Ann's Warehouse

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 9

Already nearly sold out, this work comes to Brooklyn from Moscow's Theater School of Dramatic Art. Expect it to shoulder bruskly past your preconceptions of theatrical design and performance. Advance word paints a show of breathtaking originality and scenic ingenuity. The subject is quintessentially, morbidly Russian: the legacy of Soviet Jewish artists under Stalin.

Prototype: Opera|Theater|Now

where: Here Arts

festival run: Jan. 9-15

Here Arts curates this festival of the avant-garde, heavy on the musical end of theatrical performance. It all sounds tempting. One work (Aging Magician) is a collaboration between Rinde Eckert and Julian Crouch; another (Timur and the Dime Museum) stages a galactic punk-opera that name-drops Bjork and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

R.U.R. and The Truth Quotient

where: Theater Row

first night: Wednesday, Jan. 9

Two dramas about robotics playing in rep. The first is a rare glimpse of Rossum's Universal Robots, a 1920s Czech Expressionist drama famous for coining the word “robot”. It also popularized that hoary trope of a robot uprising. The second show is a contemporary drama that has a wealthy, lonely bachelor buy a fembot.

Under the Radar

where: The Public Theater

festival run: Jan. 9-20

The third of this week's festivals, UTR presents fare that's only conventional in comparison with the others. With acts such as the Nature Theater of Oklahoma and the Debate Society as well as Iranian deconstructions of Shakespeare and the ever-popular Belarus Free Theater, this Public Theater-curated fest has bona fides that're just as edgy as Prototype and COIL.

Working on a Special Day

where: 59E59

first night: Thursday, Jan. 10

Inspired by a 1977 Italian film, this pocket drama stages a Roman romance against the backdrop of fascism. A harried housewife and a mysterious bachelor meet cute on the day that Hitler visited Mussolini in '38. This revival is the show's second airing, after a test run at the Flea a year ago.

Theater: New Shows (Sept. 25 - Oct. 1)

Ars Nova will be transformed
into a Russian salon not unlike this one.
Dress accordingly.

The stages are revving up for the autumn season. So with plenty to choose from, I'll shine the spotlight this week on Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. That's a fantastic title. Tasha & Pete are two protagonists of War and Peace, Tolstoy's epic about Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia. This show adapts a small, lovely segment of the novel into a pocket-opera that fuses Russian folk and classic music with “electro-pop” music. The staging, by the sharp Rachel Chavkin, promises to turn Ars Nova into a Moscow salon, its tables set with vodka and dumplings! Imaginative, theatrical, and forward-looking, this sounds like a cool evening.

Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 

where: Ars Nova

first night: Monday, Oct. 1

And here's the rest of the week's new shows:

Don't Go Gentle

where: MCC at the Lortel Theater

first night: Thursday, Sept. 27

Judicial conservativism seems like a great subject for modern American dramatists, but DGG is the first play I've come across about the movement. Michael Cristofer (Intelligent Homosexual's Guide…) plays a right-wing justice whose pro bono work leads to conflict, internal and external.

Falling

where: Minetta Lane Theater

first night: Thursday, Sept. 27

An autistic teen gets thrown out of his rhythm when an estranged relative visits. That sounds formulaic, so let's hope the Midwestern creators (writer Deanna Jent and director Lori Adams, both unknown to me) devise new theatrical tools to get the audience into the strange mind of the protagonist.

Heresy

where:  The Flea Theater

first night: Saturday, Sept. 29

A.R. Gurney in realistic mode bores me silly, but when he gets theatrical and political he gets my attention. Heresy is him in the latter manner, adapting a passion play for election season. Mary and Joe visit Homeland Security to learn from Pontius Pilate (Reg E. Cathey, always good) why their son Chris has been arrested.

Him

where: Primary Stages at 59E59

first night: Tuesday, Sept. 25

A dishwater drama about a small-business inheritance to be split between siblings. The script is by Hallie Foote, who mines the same Last Picture Show milieu as her late father Horton. Their quirky, quotidian realism has come into fashion in the last decade, though I can't see why.

Motherboard

where: The Secret Theater

first night: Friday, Sept. 28

Four magic words: “After the robot uprising…” LIC's Secret Theater has become The Place for science fiction onstage. The venue's latest follows a nanny-bot across a post-apocalyptic world of the 25C, after humanity quashed the robo-revolution. See you there?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

where: Broadway (Booth Theater)

first night: Thursday, Sept. 27

Albee's alcohol-soaked masterwork just played a stupendous run in '05 but it's good enough to stand another viewing. This Steppenwolf production got hossanahs a few seasons ago; with Pam McKinnon (Clybourne Park) directing Tracy Letts and Amy Morton, it's not hard to guess why. This is only Letts' second NYC stage appearance, tho' his scripts (like August: Osage County, which earned Morton a Tony nom) have made his reputation rock-solid.

Last chance!

Bullet for Adolf

where: New World Stages

my review

Fly Me to the Moon

where: 59E59

Heartless

where: Signature Theater

Us

where: Theater Row

Theater: New Plays (Sept. 11-17)

This week's spotlight is Through the Yellow Hour by Adam Rapp. His spiky pessimism may not be for all audiences but his grungy style and horror-movie tone feels more contemporary than many glossy works of realistic drama. Rapp pursues his imagination down dark alleys, as in this week's debut Through the Yellow Hour. Set in a US that's been attacked (but by whom? from without or within?) and its populace terrorized, a feral woman comes out of hiding to change the world.

Through the Yellow Hour

where: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

first night: Thursday, Sept. 13

But there's plenty more to see if that doesn't strike your fancy.

The Anderson Twins Playthe Fabulous Dorseys!

where: 59E59

first night: Tuesday, Sept. 11

Rip-snorting swing jazz from the WW2 era is the main draw of this bio-musical. A pair of twins play Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, bandmates whose rise to fame caused their family and band to rupture. The drama was filmed a few years later in The Fabulous Dorseys, which this staging takes footage from.

Cyrano de Bergerac

where: Roundabout on Broadway (American Airlines Theater)

first night: Friday, Sept. 14

The musketeer with the long nose returns to Broadway, a mere five years after his last visit. This time, the ultra-talented Douglas Hodge dons the prosthetic schnozz; he impressed New Yorkers in La Cage aux Folles a few years back, but Londoners knew his work in Pinter & Shakespeare as well.

Einstein on the Beach

where: BAM Opera House

first night: Friday, Sept. 14

I'm ashamed to admit I have no desire to see this modernist masterpiece, a seminal work of the 20C. Usually I love the dilation and abstraction of time that occurs during a play. And coupling that conceptual theme with Einstein's theories of spacetime is a brilliant idea. But I've always been underwhelmed by Robert Wilson's work and I've given it so many chances. Go, and tell me that I'm missing out.

The Exonerated

where: The Culture Project

first night: Saturday, Sept. 15

Produced during W. Bush's first term, this piece seemed a theatrical tonic in that bitter conservative era. Astonishing and effective, it shapes interviews, letters and court documents about innocent death-row inmates cleared by DNA evidence into a galvanizing work of journalistic theater. Agitprop can be incredible theater.

Grace

where: Broadway (Cort Theater)

first night: Thursday, Sept. 13

Paul Rudd, shorter but also more confident onstage than you'd figure, leads Ed Asner, Michael Shannon, and Chicagoan Kate Arrington to Broadway, a solid line-up for a straight drama. It's a rather dark comedy about faith and Florida, whose sober tone and weighty themes stick with you longer than the plot.

Marry Me a Little

where: Theater Row

first night: Tuesday, Sept. 11

Stephen Sondheim gets top billing here, since this musical features his work. But this show is a set of SS's songs removed from their context and slotted into a new story by Craig Lucas & a writing partner. Their subject is a neighboring pair of lonely urbanites and their romantic fantasies. It sounds pretty un-Sondheim, but may possess its own satisfactions.

Red-Handed Otter

where: Cherry Lane Theater

first night: Wednesday, Sept. 12

A quirky comedy about a set of night watchmen who must comfort one of their own after he's lost his cat. Every part of that description—from quirk to cat—should raise your guard. But the Playwrights Realm have a good record of producing writers worth getting to know, so they deserve the benefit of your doubt.

Sounding Beckett

where: Classic Stage

first night: Friday, Sept. 14

A trio of works from Beckett's twilight years—when he'd gone past abstract, beyond abstruse to obscure. Dark, dark stuff. But the staging might be worth your time, with DC doyene Joy Zinoman directing in collaboration with the Cygnus Ensemble, a famously tight chamber orchestra whose style should match Beckett's well.

Last chance!

New Girl in Town

where: Irish Repertory Theater

Space Captain: Captain of Space

where: Kraine Theater

my review

Theater: New Shows (Sept. 4-10)

A low-wattage week, maybe due to Labor Day. But that doesn't diminish my spotlight pick, Strange Tales of Liaozhai. An evening of Chinese folk tales (that alone should be enough to hook you) gets treated via semi-abstract puppetry (which should tempt you even more). The auteur is Hanne Tierney, who manipulates silks, lanterns, & bamboo poles with a complex system of counterweights. Her collaborator, Jane Wang, has composed a modernist score, which she'll perform live on toy pianos & constructed instruments (which should close the deal).

Strange Tales of Liaozhai

where: Here Arts Center

first night: Thursday, Sept. 6

And here's the rest:

Belgrade Trilogy

where: Fourth Street Theater

first night: Friday, Sept. 7

It's hard to keep the pulse of theater in Eastern Europe. So take the opportunity to check the English-language premiere of this Serbian trilogy, written just before the Kosovo War of '98-'99. It's a epic & a comedy, covering a family's diaspora from their home city during the Cold War. The playwright, Biljana Srbljanovic, has a strong rep but expect dramaturgical quirks due to cultural differences.

An Enemy of the People

where: Friedman Theater

first night: Tuesday, Sept. 4

MTC mounts a Broadway revival of An Enemy of the People, Ibsen's noble-minded classic. A doctor discovers a toxic contaminant in a resort-town's spring-water. The local authorities want to shut him up, lest he wreck the spa's reputation. Swap a shark for ground seepage and you've got Jaws!

Fly Me to the Moon

where: 59E59

first night: Wednesday, Sept. 5

An Irish comedy―which is to say, a black comedy―about a corpse who wins a fortune at the racetrack. The Great Recession has hit Ireland particularly hard, and this import finds some mirth in the Celtic Tiger's collapse. By Marie Jones, whose Stones in His Pockets was fondly received a decade ago.

Red Dog Howls

where: New York Theater Workshop

first night: Wednesday, Sept. 5

Kathleen Chalfant takes the lead in this drama about an essential theme of our time, genocide. In this case, the subject is the Armenians, victims of the Ottoman Turks in WW1. Press materials imply that RDH is of the “family secrets unearthed” subgenre & offers a sense of redemption―neither of which suggest a strong drama.

Last chance!

The Best Man

where: Schoenfeld Theater

Rent

where: New World Stages

Saturn: A Play about Food

where: The Wild Project

Theater: New Shows (August 27 - September 3)

In a parallel universe, I have gotten a PhD in a comparative religion. That universe's blogpost celebrates Job at the Flea, but this one shines its spotlight on Space Captain: Captain of Space! I've been Inspired by the interplanetary movie serials of the 1930s, this Off-Off-B'way show is staged entirely in black-and-white. A crackerjack preview promises to show us futuristic swashbuckling, puppet starships, and a general tone of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Sounds like a fun way to end the summer season!

Space Captain: Captain of Space!

where: Kraine Theater

first night: Thursday, Aug. 30

And here's the rest:

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side

where: 9th Space Theater

first night: Tuesday, Aug. 28

An encore engagement of this hit from Off-Off that put its company, the Amoralists, on the map. A fine bit of domestic melodrama, this show hangs out with an ad hoc family of anarchists as they're gentrified out of their neighborhood.

Saturn: A Play about Food

where: The Wild Project

first night: Thursday, Aug. 30

A smart young couple inherit a farm, which forces them to tackle science, food, and other Michael Pollan-type preconceptions. Produced by an environmentally conscious troupe, this drama adds a whimsical thread of magical realism, in the form of magic beans and “defiant vegetables”. Dunno what that last phrase means, but it's evocative!

Job

where: The Flea Theater

first night: Friday, Aug. 31

Fans of black comedy already know Thomas Bradshaw, an expert at lancing our hang-ups about race and sex. Now he bravely takes on issues of faith in an “honest, uncynical adaptation” of that biblical masterpiece, the Book of Job. Bradshaw pairs off with those Tribeca ragamuffins, the Bats, who should work well with Bradshaw's loose, brash aesthetic.

Normalcy

where: Peter Jay Sharp Theater

first night: Friday, Aug. 31

It's brave to tackle tough subjects like race and class, but too many shows end up flinching from brutal truths. In this piece, a white couple decide to adopt a black child out, a noble-minded intention that will probably have unforeseen consequences. Question is, just how far will the show go with that?

Last chance!

Clybourne Park

where: Walter Kerr Theater

Into the Woods

where: Delacorte Theater

The Last Smoker in America

where: Westside Upstairs

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side

where: 9th Space Theater

Potted Potter

where: Little Shubert Theater

Traces

where: Union Square Theater

Zarkana

where: Radio City Music Hall