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Theater Review: Kristina - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Kristina - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

With 1999 international musical comedy juggernaut "Mamma Mia!" entering its second decade, Swedish duo Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus seem to be making an effort to revitalize their earlier theatrical efforts. The much-revised "Chess," which folded after eight weeks on Broadway in 1986, recently returned on DVD and is sparking revival rumors; now New York concertgoers get to hear the former Abba frontmen's 1995 musical epic "Kristina." The show was a major hit in Sweden, but one suspects its local fate will echo that of "Chess" rather than that of "Mamma Mia!"

Theater Review: Othello - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Othello - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

With Peter Sellars at the helm, you'd expect this new treatment of "Othello" to be provocative. After all, the director has worked in theater and opera houses throughout the world, winning acclaim for such avant-garde work as "Nixon in China" and "The Death of Klinghoffer." But quirky is a long way from innovative, and Sellars misfires here with a fusillade of theatrical effects that, while initially arresting, fail to hit any obvious conceptual target. The most provocative thing about this eccentric production, in fact, proves to be Philip Seymour Hoffman's offbeat casting as Iago.

Theater Review - 'The Bereaved' - Thomas Bradshaw Has a New Play at the Wild Project - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'The Bereaved' - Thomas Bradshaw Has a New Play at the Wild Project - NYTimes.com.

The first scene of Thomas Bradshaw’s latest and funniest work, “The Bereaved,” finds Carol (McKenna Kerrigan), a corporate lawyer, walking in on her underemployed husband, Michael (Andrew Garman), as he snorts cocaine off the kitchen table. After a moment of disapproval, she tries some herself, collapsing on the ground before being sent to the hospital, where she makes an unusual deathbed request, asking her husband to marry her best friend. Michael, surprised at first, flashes a smile that seems to express one clear thought: Jackpot!

Theater Review: Summer Shorts 3 - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Summer Shorts 3 - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Short-play anthologies are like books of short stories, except that you can skip through a book of short stories if you're not enjoying one of the entries. Producers of the "Summer Shorts" series would do well to bear that in mind the next time they have a forgotten gem like William Inge's "The Killing" or a tight little drama like Neil LaBute's "A Second of Pleasure" on their hands. Just because you can force your audience to sit and wait for the good stuff to start doesn't mean you should.

Theater Review: The Receptionist - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: The Receptionist - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

"Will and Grace" star Megan Mullally dominates the stage as surely as her character, Beverly, dominates the Northeast Office's anteroom in "The Receptionist," Adam Bock's miniature postmodern comedy-turned-paranoid chiller. If Bart DeLorenzo's Evidence Room co-production with, and at, the Odyssey lacks some of its intended whip-crack impact, its sterling professionalism is well worth making an appointment for.

Theater Review: Herringbone - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Herringbone - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

In the opening moments of "Herringbone," the unique musical fable now occupying La Jolla Playhouse's black-box space, the affably sinister title character announces, "What's life without a window ledge?" For a thesp, few window ledges are narrower than single-handedly performing 11 roles and 17 songs (including duets and production numbers), and BD Wong proves triumphantly up to the challenge even though his vehicle, first unveiled in 1975, inspires more admiration than warmth.

Theater Review - 'Al's Business Cards' - A Shuffle of Cards From Josh Koenigsberg at the Lion Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Al's Business Cards' - A Shuffle of Cards From Josh Koenigsberg at the Lion Theater - NYTimes.com.

Plenty of young writers hit on a good opening gimmick for a play but don’t know where to go with it after the first scene or two. Josh Koenigsberg doesn’t have that problem in “Al’s Business Cards,” a zippy new comedy receiving a very funny staging at the Lion Theater by the company called At Play. The setup is beautifully simple. A blue-collar type named Al Gurvis (Azhar Khan) has, preposterously, had business cards made for himself (“professional gaffing assistant,” they say), but the print shop mistakenly gives him the wrong cards, those for “Eileen Lee, Executive Realtor.” So of course Al and Eileen (Lauren Hines), two people living in very different worlds, have to meet to straighten out the mix-up. Where Mr. Koenigsberg goes from there is rarely anyplace you’re expecting, which is what makes this play so tasty. By the time he’s done, Al’s dumb-as-dirt co-worker (Bobby Moreno), Eileen’s estranged husband (Malcolm Madera) and a private detective (Gabriel Gutiérrez) have been woven into the story, which has been given just enough depth to elevate the play above sitcom level. The director, Lauren Keating, has the cast clicking nicely, with Ms. Hines giving a particularly sharp performance and Mr. Madera turning in a hilarious version of the suspicious spouse. Amid the jokes, though, Mr. Koenigsberg gives Ms. Hines a devastatingly bleak monologue, a particularly sublime touch considering that the play’s other high points include a ridiculous typographical error and one perfectly timed pratfall. “Al’s Business Cards” continues through Aug. 22 at the Lion Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton; (212) 279-4200, ticketcentral.com.

Theater Review - 'George Bataille's Bathrobe' and 'Blood on the Cat’s Neck' - Fassbinder and Foreman on the Limits of Language - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'George Bataille's Bathrobe' and 'Blood on the Cat’s Neck' - Fassbinder and Foreman on the Limits of Language - NYTimes.com.

“George Bataille’s Bathrobe,” by Richard Foreman, takes place, or so it would seem, in the mind of a writer named Frank. “We are alone on earth,” he says as the play opens. “Therefore to speak is an exercise in futility.”

Theater Review - 'A Lifetime Burning' - A Memoir So Compelling It Just Has to Be Phony - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'A Lifetime Burning' - A Memoir So Compelling It Just Has to Be Phony - NYTimes.com.

The embellished memoir has practically become a genre unto itself in recent years, with scandals about fiction masquerading as fact hitting the news media with the regularity of hurricanes threatening Florida during the storm season. Cusi Cram takes inspiration from this abiding form of aesthetic fraud in her unwieldy if intermittently amusing new play, “A Lifetime Burning,” which opened on Tuesday night at the 59E59 Theaters in a production from Primary Stages starring Jennifer Westfeldt as the literary poseur.

Theater Review: Life Could Be a Dream - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Life Could Be a Dream - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

The creators of "The Marvelous Wonderettes" have presented the male equivalent, "Life Could Be a Dream," but the results in this world premiere are mixed. Whereas in "Wonderettes" writer-director Roger Bean created a memorable group of femme singers and an effective plot device of 20 years passing between acts one and two, in "Life," the characters couldn’t be more generic and the plot less compelling. There are a few strong voices in the show and plenty of classic 1950s songs, but some of the singing is uneven.

Theater Review: Caroline in Jersey - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Caroline in Jersey - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Things are going down the tubes for Caroline: She's playing a dog in a way Off Broadway musical called "Petz." Her actor-husband knocked up a young babe in the cast. And she's now reduced to renting a crummy apartment in Jersey to which she is strangely drawn. But things aren't much better for the audience, either, in this jokey, hokey work, which has the feel of a failed sitcom pilot despite late-play efforts at seriousness centering on grief issues.

Theater Review: Al's Business Cards - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Al's Business Cards - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Consider it a backhanded compliment to say that "Al's Business Cards," a sweet-tempered sitcom by Josh Koenigsberg, ends too soon. The twisty plot turns on complications that arise when a New Jersey print shop mixes up the business cards of a non-union electrician and a pretty real estate agent. Koenigsberg smartly shows that the mistakes and misunderstandings -- both comic and hurtful -- are largely based on assumptions about gender, class and ethnicity. But having made his larger point, the scribe neglects to resolve the dilemmas he's raised for his characters, who have too much life in them to be hung out to dry.

Theater Review - 'After Luke' and 'When I Was God' - Generational Bonds, in All Their Knots, at Irish Rep - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'After Luke' and 'When I Was God' - Generational Bonds, in All Their Knots, at Irish Rep - NYTimes.com.

Fathers and sons and the damage done: this is the theme, with variations, of the Cork writer Conal Creedon’s fine one-acts “After Luke” and “When I Was God,” which can be seen in a nearly pitch-perfect production at the Irish Repertory Theater. The first updates the parable of the prodigal son in Luke; the second looks at the father-son bond through the warping lens of sports.

Theater Review: Catch Me If You Can - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Catch Me If You Can - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

The new musical version of "Catch Me If You Can," based on the DreamWorks picture, is an aqua-and-tangerine trip to the early '60s. And like some of the pop-cultural touchstones of that era -- Twiggy, the Corvette, "The Avengers" -- it's most appealing when it keeps things stylish and upbeat. On the flipside, when it pauses for a backstory ballad or a cry-in-your-beer confessional, "Catch Me" feels heavy and slow. At nearly three hours, the musical could stand to lose a few pounds of psychological motivation. But there's every indication that this show can undergo the diet it needs and lighten up. It's got great bones.

Theater Review - Summer Shorts 3 - At 59E59, a Death Requested and Other Tales - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - Summer Shorts 3 - At 59E59, a Death Requested and Other Tales - NYTimes.com.

After watching “The Killing” by William Inge, it’s best to take a slow, quiet walk home. This is a play that benefits from reflection, a story that sticks in the mind and demands further thought, no matter how dark those thoughts may be.

Theater Review - 'Slipping' - At Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, a Past Love Affair Haunts a Troubled Teenager - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Slipping' - At Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, a Past Love Affair Haunts a Troubled Teenager - NYTimes.com.

“Slipping,” Daniel Talbott’s play now at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, might well be titled “Gay Rebel Without a Cause,” packed as it is with adolescent angst and starring a handsome leading man, Seth Numrich. If there is a cause, it’s the hero’s quest to find love and heal wounds left by an earlier affair. That’s as deep as it gets, although there’s plenty of gay wish fulfillment too.

Theater Review - 'Dreyfus in Rehearsal' - Resurrecting a Comic Flop by Garson Kanin - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Dreyfus in Rehearsal' - Resurrecting a Comic Flop by Garson Kanin - NYTimes.com.

Garson Kanin, the multitasking writer and director who died in 1999, had more than his share of hits, among them his play “Born Yesterday”; the scripts for two Tracy and Hepburn films he wrote with his wife, Ruth Gordon; and the Broadway productions he directed of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Funny Girl.”

Theater Review: Burn the Floor - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Burn the Floor - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Let's call it "So You Think You Can Step It Up and Dance Your Ass Off With the Stars of America's Best Dance Crew." While ballroom blitz "Burn the Floor" has been touring internationally for 10 years, its arrival on Broadway clearly aims to cash in on the resurgent popularity of dance on television reality shows. But if you're going to invade the turf of Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins and Michael Bennett, you need to bring something beyond adrenaline and aggressive sizzle. Something like grace, style or wit. While there's only about 15 ounces of collective body fat onstage, there's also about 15 ounces of imagination.

Theater Review - 'Burn the Floor' - At the Longacre Theater, Shimmying Under the Disco Ball - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Burn the Floor' - At the Longacre Theater, Shimmying Under the Disco Ball - NYTimes.com.

The good news about “Burn the Floor,” a ballroom dancing extravaganza that opened Sunday at the Longacre Theater, is that it is every bit as flashy and tacky as you would expect.

Theater Review - Summer Shorts 3 - Series A - Works by Nancy Giles, John Augustine, Neil LaBute and Bill Connington at 59E59 Theaters - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - Summer Shorts 3 - Series A - Works by Nancy Giles, John Augustine, Neil LaBute and Bill Connington at 59E59 Theaters - NYTimes.com.

Among the plays in Series A of Summer Shorts 3 are a one-woman show, a chaotic comedy, a piercing drama and a musical set in 1913. If seeing a variety of works is high on your list of priorities, you may be pleased. If overall quality is your yardstick, however, you could be disappointed.

Theater Review: Click, Clack, Moo - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Click, Clack, Moo - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

The world finally has the musical about computer-literate livestock it deserves -- Brad Alexander, Kevin Del Aguila and Billy Aronson's tyke-tastic tuner, "Click, Clack, Moo," based on the Caldecott-winning kids' book. Hourlong Theaterworks USA show boasts adroit direction by "Urinetown" helmer John Rando and udderly charming turns from a cast that is having at least as much fun as its audience. Latter group is mostly made up of classroom field trips and relieved tot-toting parents checking out free midday perfs. Enhancement money from "Click, Clack" publisher Simon & Schuster has given the crackerjack design team plenty of room to breathe.

Theater Review - 'Black Man Rising' - James Chapman’s Drama About Race and Manhood at ArcLight Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Black Man Rising' - James Chapman’s Drama About Race and Manhood at ArcLight Theater - NYTimes.com.

Patricia R. Floyd begins her program notes for “Black Man Rising” by saying that “many of you may wonder how a woman ended up directing” such a play. Some people might wonder, but probably not those enthusiastic members of the female sex in the audience on a recent night.

Theater Review - 'Life and Fate' - An Adaptation of Vasily Grossman’s 1960 Russian Novel at the Lincoln Center Festival - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Life and Fate' - An Adaptation of Vasily Grossman’s 1960 Russian Novel at the Lincoln Center Festival - NYTimes.com.

Let’s not kid ourselves: Size matters. As powerful as a taut 90-minute drama can be, there’s just no replacing the way length and ambition can help create a memorable theatrical event. At this year’s Lincoln Center Festival European artists have presented, among other works, “Ivanov” (three hours, one intermission), “Kalkwerk” (four hours, two intermissions) and “Les Éphémères” (seven hours, in two parts) — all artistic endurance tests that inspire extreme reactions.

The Boychick Affair--The Bar Mitzvah of Harry Boychick

The Boychick Affair--The Bar Mitzvah of Harry Boychick.

Just weeks ago the American Theatre Wing announced that they were eliminating the Tony Award for Best Theatrical Event because there really wasn't any difference between these productions and plays or musicals. Well, with all due respect to the Tony committee, I must beg to differ. The Boychick Affair is truly a theatrical event—comparing it with a traditional play or musical would just be, well, silly. Boychick is a mock bar mitzvah that sprawls through three theatre spaces and features a haftorah recited rap-style and plot twists that easily could have been ripped from a Days of Our Lives script. This piece of interactive theatre is about not creating your usual kind of production, but rather a total experience for the bar mitzvah "guests." What The Boychick Affair seeks to accomplish is quite simple—that those attending the celebration have a zany, good time and feel like they are at an actual bar mitzvah in some way. After all, besides the fact that it is a coming-of-age ritual, the point behind a real life bar mitzvah is to be a celebration. Underneath an undeniably and deliciously ludicrous facade—the incessantly show-tune-belting cousin, the weed-smoking Hippie uncle, and the Bible-thumping, icon-toting stepmother with a Southern accent seemingly directly out of Auntie Mame—there is a sense of authenticity in The Boychick Affair. Anyone who has attended a bar mitzvah would recognize the proud grandfather who won't stop chewing your ear off, the weepy speech by the mother who invariably mentions the bris, the inevitable off-key rendition of "Sunrise, Sunset,"and being dragged out of your seat to dance the Macarena. The exceptionally game cast members are all funny, but there are three standouts. Greg Mikurak, who assistant directed the event, also plays bar mitzvah boy Harry Boychick, the center of all the to-do and basically everybody's straight man. Mikurak does a beautiful job providing an emotional center to the evening. Janice Markham as the pregnant lesbian Rabbi Feinman who runs a congregation located under Coney Island's Wonder Wheel, is stellar, providing hilarity through her complete earnestness in the face of utter madness. And finally there is Amy Lord. After having been the very first leading lady in that mother ship of environmental theatre, Tina and Tony's Wedding, she wrote, directed, and plays mother of the bar mitzvah boy, Cheryl Boychick, in this production. Cheryl is, in a way, the most realistic of all the characters, playing the tense, overprotective Jewish mama to a T. When a fire that starts during the traditional candle lighting ceremony has been put out, when we've all had a Hispanic nosh, and when the cheesy dancing Shalom Girls have finished gyrating, The Boychick Affair is exactly what it should be—very much like going to a real-life bar mitzvah, only with marquee lights and Broadway flair. That is to say, it's kitschy, awkward, and one heck of a fun evening.

Theater Review: The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

The Cy Coleman celebration "The Best Is Yet to Come" might as well be titled "Witchcraft" (another of his early hits), so persuasive is the case made for the tunesmith's devilish alchemy in melding pop, jazz and parody into ravishing song. The Rubicon Theater Company world premiere, reportedly eyeing a Gotham transfer, is beautifully sung with talent to spare, although the stagecraft from helmer David Zippel (lyricist of Coleman's "City of Angels") as yet lags behind the musicianship.

Theater Review: Vanities, a New Musical - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Vanities, a New Musical - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Let's hope the long list of associate producers means Second Stage landed a big chunk of enhancement money for "Vanities, a New Musical," because someone needs to be getting something out of this flavorless -- though not sugarless -- bubblegum. There's hardly a single original thought in this string of familiar Southern-fried female-friendship cliches, laced with platitudinous life lessons. And while probably nobody was expecting depth from such ultra-light material, would the occasional campy zinger have been too much to ask? Despite the three talented actresses fleshing out the gal-pal stereotypes, the only surprise here is that the show was ever considered for Broadway.

Theater Review - 'Pre-Disposal' - Brooklyn Street Talk Recycled Into Drama at Access Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Pre-Disposal' - Brooklyn Street Talk Recycled Into Drama at Access Theater - NYTimes.com.

Theatergoers are an optimistic bunch. After being treated with indifference for an hour, many will still brave another act in the hope that something interesting will occur. Yet for audience members attending John Prescod’s “Pre-Disposal,” such faith proves futile. In return for sticking around, they are soon mired in a second hour that subjects them to what feels like real disdain. In the play, at Access Theater, George (D K Bowser) and Rob (Paul Pryce) sit outside a business in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, engaged in conversation when another man, also named Rob (Joe Mullen), walks by. An extended discussion ensues, leading the two Robs into a lengthy back-and-forth about a screenplay they soon decide to write together. For the rest of the show the two mostly talk of how they’ll plot their script and make occasional digressions into conspiracy theories. Some of the disappointment of “Pre-Disposal” comes about because the play starts off so well — Mr. Prescod’s setup is promising, and his dialogue sometimes sparkles. And Mr. Pryce is impressive, delivering his lines with certainty and smoothness. But by the end — after one enraged character slices the eyeball of another, leading a bystander to take center stage and deliver a rambling, unrelated monologue about her childhood dogs Spot, Fido and Bingo — all the minor pleasures are rendered meaningless.

Theater Review - 'Levittown' - Home Is Where Emotions Are Frayed, in Marc Palmieri’s Play at Theater at St. Clement’s - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Levittown' - Home Is Where Emotions Are Frayed, in Marc Palmieri’s Play at Theater at St. Clement’s - NYTimes.com.

Marc Palmieri’s “Levittown” is as basic and old-fashioned as the houses in the planned communities of the title, but the top-notch cast sure does sell it. You may feel as if you’ve seen roughly this same domestic drama a zilli

Theater Review - 'Kalkwerk' - The Unwritten Chapters Share a Tale of Misery at Lincoln Center Festival - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Kalkwerk' - The Unwritten Chapters Share a Tale of Misery at Lincoln Center Festival - NYTimes.com.

Add up the anomie plaguing all the characters with unfulfilled lives in the plays of Anton Chekhov. Now double it, and you might come close to amassing the sense of cosmic uselessness that haunts the central character in “Kalkwerk,” a grim tale of epic futility from the Polish theater director Krystian Lupa and the Narodowy Stary Teatr that opened Tuesday night at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.

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Theater Review - 'Tin Pan Alley Rag' - Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin Meet in Bio-Musical by Roundabout Theater Company - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Tin Pan Alley Rag' - Scott Joplin and Irving Berlin Meet in Bio-Musical by Roundabout Theater Company - NYTimes.com.

If the figures in wax museums could walk, talk and play the piano, they would closely resemble the leading characters in “The Tin Pan Alley Rag,” a bio-musical about an imaginary encounter between Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin. This stodgy and soporific show, which opened on Tuesday night at the Laura Pels Theater of the Roundabout, transforms the lives and careers of two of America’s great popular composers into two hours of theatrical elevator music.

Theater Review - 'The Europeans' - After Worlds Collide (17th-Century Edition) at the Atlantic Stage 2 - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'The Europeans' - After Worlds Collide (17th-Century Edition) at the Atlantic Stage 2 - NYTimes.com.

A year ago the Potomac Theater Project came to town with a dynamite version of Howard Barker's "Scenes From an Execution," a play about a female Renaissance painter that was carried by a whirlwind performance from Jan Maxwell in the lead role.

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Theater Review - 'Ivanov' - In Chekhov, a Brutally Normal Midlife Crisis - NYTimes.com

Image via CrunchBase

Theater Review - 'Ivanov' - In Chekhov, a Brutally Normal Midlife Crisis - NYTimes.com.

When Ivanov drops his pants, the old argument about whether Chekhov plays should be performed as comedies or tragedies suddenly seems beside the point.

Theater Review - 'Behind the Bullseye' - Target Is the Target in Ontological-Hysteric Theater Production at St. Mark’s Church - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Behind the Bullseye' - Target Is the Target in Ontological-Hysteric Theater Production at St. Mark’s Church - NYTimes.com.

When Target opened in 2004 at the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn, this Minnesota-based superstore, trying to fit in, threw an invite-only party where a D.J. and local celebrities (including Maggie Gyllenhaal and Lizzie Grubman) mingled among two floors of Gatorade, kitchen appliances and reasonably priced consumer goods. But making Target cool is not easy, and inviting Sandra Bernhard to host was asking for trouble. According to a write-up in The Brooklyn Paper, when she started telling customers about designer burkas for sale, one store spokeswoman remarked, “She’s not exactly on the Target message.” Target has not attracted the controversy of the nearby Atlantic Yards project, which plans to add a stadium and a new skyline of towers to downtown Brooklyn. But for some locals it’s part of the out-of-scale corporate sheen that threatens the spirit of their leafy borough. Anxiety about this development is stylishly illustrated in “Behind the Bullseye,” an intimate Target polemic that looks like one of Reverend Billy’s nightmares staged by Robert Wilson on a budget. Based on interviews with employees and shoppers, this multimedia experimental piece, a Sponsored by Nobody production, presents shopping as a kind of religious experience complete with rituals, hypnotic music and a healthy helping of guilt. The customers, dead-eyed and dour, have only a few distinguishing characteristics. For Sarah Stephens’s White Woman, it’s her nervous eyes and breathy voice, while Sauda Jackson’s Black Woman is all exhaustion and umbrage. They describe their mundane routines, while the employees build a circular shrine of red shopping bags, bright blue drinks and cereal boxes. Kevin Doyle’s script connects the store to the global marketplace through Asian Woman (Natalie Kim), who works overseas making textiles, appliances and other goods. With a defeated look on her face, she says of her work, heavy-handedly, “Everything same same.” Most audience members will find the images more potent than the ideas. Mr. Doyle, who also directed, has a résumé that includes music videos, a talent evident in his creation of mood and the grand gesture. But his sleek style may work against him: while his message is a strident critique, it is presented in stage pictures — vivid constructions with surprising splashes of color — seductive enough to make Target look rather beautiful. “Behind the Bullseye” is playing through Saturday at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater at St. Mark’s Church, 131 East 10th Street, East Village; (212) 352-3101, ontological.com.

Theater Review - 'Boogie Rican Blvd., the Musical' - At the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater - A Bronx Tale - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Boogie Rican Blvd., the Musical' - At the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater - A Bronx Tale - NYTimes.com.

The voices in “Boogie Rican Blvd., the Musical” sure sound authentic, and it’s not surprising given the play’s provenance. Written and largely performed by the tireless Caridad De La Luz — a poet, actress, model, hip-hop and reggaetón singer, and Bronx native — it concerns the tribulations of the many characters orbiting a low-rent bodega.

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Theater Review - 'Speedmouse' - At the Joyce, Two Australians, Much Talk, Many Antics - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Speedmouse' - At the Joyce, Two Australians, Much Talk, Many Antics - NYTimes.com.

In their theatrical lark “Speedmouse” the affable Australian doofuses known as the Umbilical Brothers — whose comedy double act includes snippets of dance, puppetry, clowning and the playground gags of adolescents on a sugar rush — practice a chaotic brand of unadulterated silliness. But even while they dart around the unadorned stage, stopping, starting, rewinding and occasionally breaking down, requiring a battery change (in mime of course), the longtime performers maintain a confident chemistry that reveals itself most impressively in the way that one actor provides sound effects for the movements of the other.

'Amish Project' Comes to Life Off-Broadway | Sofa Snark at SimsScoop.com

'Amish Project' Comes to Life Off-Broadway | Sofa Snark at SimsScoop.com.

“The Amish Project” opened in workshop form earlier this year at the Cherry Lane Theater, kicking off the 2009 season at New York’s oldest continuously running Off-Broadway house. Dickey first staged the play last year in the New York International Fringe Festival, which ran from August 8-24, garnering critical praise. The first-time playwright crafted the piece as a fictionalized account of the Nickel Mines shooting in order to tell the story in a theatrical way. “I was very careful not to learn anything about the real people because I wanted full creative license to explore wherever the creative process took me,” she said one recent afternoon over coffee in a West Village café. “I really didn’t start working on the piece until about a year and a half after the event happened.” After writing most of the play while riding the subway to and from her Brooklyn residence, Dickey submitted it to the Fringe Festival. At that time the play only had four characters.

Theater Review - 'Sweet Storm' - Bride and Groom Go Out on a Limb in Scott Hudson’s New Play - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Sweet Storm' - Bride and Groom Go Out on a Limb in Scott Hudson’s New Play - NYTimes.com.

Like the best country music, Scott Hudson’s “Sweet Storm” benefits from restraint. A gentle wisp of a love story in Florida in 1960, this two-person one-act at the Kirk Theater blends a fantastical setting with a longing for spiritual and carnal rapture, and by not straining to do too much, accomplishes more than it deserves to.

Theater Review - 'Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe' - Can I Get a Witness? A Preacher and His Fancy Talk at Clurman Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe' - Can I Get a Witness? A Preacher and His Fancy Talk at Clurman Theater - NYTimes.com.

Every scene in “Archbishop Supreme Tartuffe” is so full of infectious energy that when, in the end, the plot threatens to run ragged, such a detail hardly matters. Indeed, with all the unabashed fun being had at the Clurman Theater, even a hint of disapproval seems downright prudish.

Theater Review - 'Twelfth Night' - I Love You, You’re Perfect. You’re a Girl? Anne Hathaway in Central Park - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Twelfth Night' - I Love You, You’re Perfect. You’re a Girl? Anne Hathaway in Central Park - NYTimes.com.

“Most wonderful.” The exclamation of joyous surprise that bursts from the lips of Countess Olivia at the climax of “Twelfth Night,” when she discovers that her new husband appears to have divided himself in two, seems an apt reaction to the scintillating new production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy that opened Thursday night at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

Theater Review: Shafrika, the White Girl - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Shafrika, the White Girl - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Quick, somebody -- write this woman a show, so she won't waste her gifts on another do-it-yourself project like this one. Anika Larsen, who played a hot and hilarious muse in "Xanadu," has fashioned a musical out of her own unorthodox upbringing as the child of 1960s peaceniks who adopted a United Nations of orphans and brought them up to make peace, not war, and sing folk songs. Jaradoa (Just A Roomful of Artists Doing Outreach And) Theater may be politically worthy as community theater goes, but Larsen is a natural-born musical force who belongs on Broadway.

Theater Review - 'Heart of the City' - Eric Lane’s Drama Explores Urban Life at Theater at 30th Street - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Heart of the City' - Eric Lane’s Drama Explores Urban Life at Theater at 30th Street - NYTimes.com.

The plots are not the drawing point of Eric Lane’s agreeable “Heart of the City,” now at the Theater at 30th Street, although there are many, about assorted New Yorkers. Nola (Marcia Jean Kurtz), a gruff, jaded lady on the subway, is courted by Max (Martin LaPlatney), an elderly, literate romantic; Carlos (Scott Kerns), a spry gay Spaniard, comes to Manhattan seeking love; Lynn (Eliza Foss) and Michael (Mark Setlock), an affluent couple, wrestle with their frustrations in conceiving a child; a son (Mr. Setlock) tries to reconcile with his father (Mr. LaPlatney); two siblings (Mr. Kerns and Ms. Foss) face the declining health of their mother (Ms. Kurtz).

Theater Review - 'Stunning' - In David Adjmi’s Play, a Young Syrian Jew at Odds With Her World - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Stunning' - In David Adjmi’s Play, a Young Syrian Jew at Odds With Her World - NYTimes.com.

“Stunning,” a stinging portrait of an insular Syrian Jewish community in contemporary Brooklyn, begins as stylized satire, moves quickly into urban fairy tale and finally emerges as a melodramatic tragedy. The shifts in tone and style present a high degree of difficulty, and while its virtuosic playwright, David Adjmi, nicely evokes an arrestingly skewed subculture onstage, he never makes us believe in the people who make it up.

Theater - The Three Sisters of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Delacorte Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater - The Three Sisters of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Delacorte Theater - NYTimes.com.

AT the first preview performance of “Twelfth Night” this month two newcomers to Shakespeare in the Park — the actresses Anne Hathaway and Audra McDonald — were greeted by the sort of old friend oft seen at the Delacorte Theater: a raccoon, waddling across the stage during the first scene between Viola (Ms. Hathaway) and Olivia (Ms. McDonald). Audience members giggled, but the two women did not break focus.

Theater Review: Stunning - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Stunning - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

Unless you happen to live in an insular Syrian-Jewish community, the culture shock of "Stunning" could be quite ... well, stunning. Even allowing for its overelevated emotional pitch and melodramatic ending, David Adjmi's eye-opening drama about a despotic rag merchant, his tyrannized child bride and the black maid who challenges the medieval customs of their domestic life has a chilling impact. Riveting perfs and super-stylish staging polish the play's satirical weapons of high dudgeon, while adding to the luster of LCT3, the developmental wing of Lincoln Center currently making a splash in its inaugural season at the Duke.

Theater Review: Sweet Storm - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: Sweet Storm - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

There's not much else in New York that looks and talks like "Sweet Storm." Debuting playwright Scott Hudson's tiny, tight two-hander feels like nothing so much as a staged Flannery O'Connor short story, with the play's deeply religious newlyweds trying to iron out marriage's inconveniences in a treehouse somewhere in central Florida. The script is remarkably controlled without feeling slick, and Jamie Dunn and Eric T. Miller give refreshing, uncynical perfs as a young couple troubled as much by love as by suffering. Padraic Lillis directs the subdued action to a T.

Theater Review - 'The Wiz' - Not in Kansas Anymore - Ashanti Lands on Broadway as Dorothy - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'The Wiz' - Not in Kansas Anymore - Ashanti Lands on Broadway as Dorothy - NYTimes.com.

Does that big ol’ stimulus package contain any provisions for urgent repairs to yellow brick roads? If so, some funds should be set aside to subsidize careful work on the bumpy new revival of the 1975 Broadway musical “The Wiz,” the latest, most lavish and least in the Summers Stars series from City Center Encores!

Theater Review: FUBAR - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: FUBAR - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

A flawed script with an enviable surfeit of good ideas, Karl Gajdusek's San Francisco hipster dramedy "FUBAR" is less a play than a series of theatrical character studies, some very successful. A writer for Showtime's "Dead Like Me," Gajdusek has a TV scripter's flair for snappy dialogue, but he also has a much rarer talent for deep characterization and empathy, even when dealing with his most contemptible characters. Larissa Kokernot's direction hasn't quite pulled together a cast of actors with wildly different gifts, but when "FUBAR" works, it really works.

Theater Review - 'Dov and Ali' - A Jew and a Muslim, Firing Anna Ziegler’s Words at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'Dov and Ali' - A Jew and a Muslim, Firing Anna Ziegler’s Words at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater - NYTimes.com.

In some ways “Dov and Ali” could be called a flawless play: the characters speak in precise sentences, their arguments are soundly constructed, their entrances and exits are impeccably timed. Indeed, the work, by Anna Ziegler, is so well assembled that you soon long for it to get messy, to have a character be more than just a figure who spouts partisan viewpoints or who doesn’t always have the perfect line right at hand.

Theater Review - 'The Amish Project' - At Rattlestick, Jessica Dickey’s Play Explores a School Shooting - NYTimes.com

Theater Review - 'The Amish Project' - At Rattlestick, Jessica Dickey’s Play Explores a School Shooting - NYTimes.com.

Jessica Dickey is giving such an extraordinary performance in “The Amish Project” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater that she makes it easy to overlook something else: the play is also a remarkable piece of writing. Ms. Dickey the actress has herself to thank for the compelling material; she is also the playwright. The success of the piece is all the more impressive because any description of it sends up a “cheesy exploitation” red flag. The play is inspired by the killing of five girls in a hostage-taking at an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pa., in October 2006, yet beyond a few facts drawn from the incident, it is fictional; the characters are imagined by Ms. Dickey. It’s as if someone offered a drama called “Personal Stories of 9/11 That I Just Made Up.” But any trepidation is dispelled almost as soon as the lights come up on Ms. Dickey, wearing traditional Amish dress nicely complemented by Lauren Helpern’s sparse set. Ms. Dickey, under Sarah Cameron Sunde’s direction, is completely convincing as she switches among the play’s seven characters. That is no easy feat, since those characters include both the gunman and two of his young victims.

Theater Review: August: Osage County - Theater and Musical Production Reviews

Theater Review: August: Osage County - Theater and Musical Production Reviews.

In her Broadway roles in recent years, Phylicia Rashad has cornered the market in formidable matriarchs: the strong-willed traditionalist suspicious of change in "A Raisin in the Sun"; the 287-year-old spiritual guide in "Gem of the Ocean"; the scheming ice queen in "Cymbeline"; the self-deluding Big Mama, in deep denial about her marriage and impending widowhood, in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." But no role has taken her further from warm, sensible, no-nonsense Clair Huxtable than Violet Weston, the pill-popping Oklahoma terminator who serves as the motor for a family's disintegration in Tracy Letts' Pulitzer Prize and Tony winner "August: Osage County."