Here is some unfair competition…  "Master Class," a play by Terrence McNally inspired by the series of public master classes that soprano Maria Callas held at the Juilliard School decades ago, imagines a sequence of master class sessions at which Callas bullies three vocal students, displays her trademark temperament, and narrates fantasy sequences recalling some of her tense moments as a performer.  The unfair competition comes in the casting of the current Broadway revival, in … <Read More>

As part of its Americas Off Broadway series, 59E59 Theater is presenting Jeff Key in "The Eyes of Babylon."  I saw yesterday afternoon's performance.  The show is running through July 3.  It is definitely worth seeing.

Jeff Key served in the U.S. Marines in Iraq during the early months of the war.  He is a gay man who enlisted in 2000, determined to comply with the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy so he could serve … <Read More>

Thursday night I went to a preview performance of "Unnatural Acts" at Classic Stage Company.  I'm not sure when the official opening is, but this is a limited run, so I thought I would write about it briefly to encourage people to see it while some tickets remain available, because I think this is a "must-see" production for anybody interested in LGBT history in the U.S.

The play is described as "conceived by Tony Speciale" … <Read More>

Last night I went with friends to see the current Broadway revival of John Guare's farcical "The House of Blue Leaves" at the Walter Kerr Theatre.  Ben Stiller, Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh head a stellar cast in a knock-out production.

Unlike my friends, I was unfamiliar with this show.  As is sometimes my problem, I found my attention wandering during the expository first act, only to be totally riveted in the second act.  … <Read More>

Tuesday night I attended a performance of Tony Kushner's adaptation of Pierre Corneille's play "L'Illusion Comique," at Signature Theatre Company on 42nd Street.  This is part of Signature's year-long Kushner retrospective, which included the stunning revival of "Angels in America."  Kushner took the musty old 17th century French play of Corneille and adapted it in splendid English verse, revising, expanding, adding, cutting, and producing an evening's length entertainment that I thought quite splendid.

The idea of … <Read More>

Yesterday I attended the matinee performance of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.  This is presented as an ensemble production (no names above the title), and this is an ensemble that performs together very well. 

Particular standouts are Billy Crudup as the crude literature professor, Bernard Nightingale, Tom Riley as the early 19th century tutor, Septimus Hodge, and Lia Williams as the botanical scholar Hannah Jarvis.  Raul Esparza as the modern scion of … <Read More>

Atlantic Theater Company in NYC presents a series of 10-minute plays annually in the spring, divided into three evenings.  I attended "Series A" on Thursday night, which present 8 brief one-act plays of striking diversity.

Of course, at an event like this there will be hits and misses, but I thought there was a very high percentage of hits.  I was especially engaged by John Guare's tribute to a once-famous Polish film star, Elzbieta, performed … <Read More>

It's actually kind of amazing to think about Larry Kramer's play, "The Normal Heart," now being presented at a Broadway theater (The John Golden Theatre) and drawing full houses.  I went last night, the house seemed very full for a Tuesday evening, and the experience was overwhelming.

This play has a special resonance for me, not only because I've had various contacts with Larry over the years but also because I came to know several … <Read More>

This week I attended performances of two off-Broadway shows: "Knickerbocker," part of the PublicLab series at the Public Theater, and "Picked" at the Vineyard Theatre.  While each of these plays had their strengths and weaknesses, both ultimately struck me as entertaining and thought-provoking.

[I've been requested to hold my comments about Knickerbocker until after the official opening.]

"Picked," written by Christopher Shinn and directed by Michael Wilson with, essentially, no sets, just some prop … <Read More>

Last night I saw a performance of Tony Kushner's latest big play, "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures," at New York's Public Theater.  The show officially opened just a few days earlier, generating a spate of reviews in the daily newspapers on Friday, so I was reasonably well-informed about what to expect, and the reviews seemed reasonably accurate.

This is a very lengthy "dysfunctional family" saga, with … <Read More>