999 stories by "Darryl Reilly"
Eleanor Roosevelt gets the biggest round of applause during the projected cultural icons slideshow as Queen's "We Are The Champions" is histrionically performed in "Rocktopia." It's a hokey …
Noted theater artist John Jesurun wrote the opening sequence. From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Jesurun engaged in a collaboration with Japanese playwright and director Takeshi Kawamura. They each wrot…
"We'll Take a Glass Together" is an exhilarating production number. Brandon Uranowitz's animated youthfulness is up to the task of equaling the impact of Michael Jeter's legendary turn in th…
The lithe and silvery-haired Ms. Gilbert dazzles for 90 minutes as she addresses the audience directly with her warm and joyous presence. She tells jokes, sings, and dances, all while convey…
Mr. Graber's trite scenario is rendered as a superficial by-the-numbers treatment and the presentation is overwrought. Â Near the end there is an exchange between Jim and Gavin as they sit…
Dan Hodge commandingly plays the American narrator who has written a book about his youthful experiences in Rwanda during its 1994 civil war and genocide. Mr. Hodge created the role in the 2…
One sits there for two hours numbed by the experience of watching the talented cast often vigorously playing for laughs that aren't there. They are Rand Guerrero, Ralph Guzzo, William Laney,…
Hilariously impersonating Marlene Dietrich while playing an accordion, singing and trotting about, is one of the grand highlights of performer Phoebe Legere's "Speed Queen."Â Spanning fro…
Esperance Theater Company's artistic director Ryan Quinn directed the production. Mr. Quinn's inventive staging is vigorous and aesthetic yielding in visually charged sequences that energize…
They're friends in the present. Someone picks up yellowed newspaper articles from the past. Then we're in New York City's Lower East Side in 1911. We meet the spunky 13-year-old Roselia.…
"Candide"'s giddy overture was of course the euphoric opening number of the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics & Lyricists Series: "Lenny's Lyricists." This was a splendid concert celebrating…
Author Lizzie Vieh's brilliant play "The Loneliest Number" initially appears to be a slight off-beat comedy about a swinging couple's encounters but after its first third evolves into a prof…
In the moving and affirmative final sequence, journal entries from 1989 to 1990 are projected as text that details deaths of friends. Kelly is on the floor silently drawing shapes with white…
Conceived by the Axis Company, this treatment oddly renames the characters which is just one of its many baffling qualities that perhaps seeks to comment on the present. It's really "High No…
Director Jessica Burr's fast-paced yet thoughtful staging includes over-lapping dialogue, rapid entrances and exits all over the space and striking visual flourishes. Ms. Burr's tremendous g…
The homeowner Pete is wearing gym shorts and a T-Shirt and is a biology teacher with an Associate's Degree who wanted to be a paleontologist. Bo is his childhood best friend. Pete has broken…
Employing an authentic and strong Southern dialect, Ms. Meadows sounds and looks like she really is a person in the 1840's. This vocal expertise combined with Meadows' altering of her physio…
Writer-performer Bob Martin recycles his sweater-clad disaffected "Man in the Chair" character from his 2006 Broadway musical "The Drowsy Chaperone." The conceit is that he's a disgruntled E…
The production is not helped by William Carden's heavy-handed direction. Scene transitions are punctuated by sound designer and composer Shane Rettig's blaring, pulsing and overwhelming …
Darryl Reilly, Critic Maureen Stapleton by Raphael Soyer (1968) This striking portrait of Maureen Stapleton was painted by Raphael Soyer in 1968, a pivotal year in her life and career. It's …
Mr. Cusumano has crafted a scenario that though familiar is gripping. The timeless craving for lost souls seeking a purpose in life by handing over their existence to charlatans is fresh…
"September" by Earth, Wind and Fire was gorgeously mashed up with Kool & The Gang's "Celebration" and was the soaring opening number of The New York Pops' exhilarating rhythm and blues …
The first act is a faithful and skillful hour-long condensation of "The Seagull." The second act is a clever hour-long vaudeville-style amalgam of "The Cherry Orchard," "Uncle Vanya" and "Th…
Classic movies such as "It's a Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Moonstruck" are citied in the play and author June Daniel White is clearly inspired by and seeks to emulate them…
"I never met a peanut butter junkie" is one of the many sharp zingers in Fran Handman's romantic park bench meetup, "A New York Encounter" (directed by Elowyn Castle) between an older man an…
