1,037 stories by "Jk Clarke"
By Ron Fassler . . . Before getting to the question of how a sixty-two-year-old comedy like Ossie Davis's Purlie Victorious can remain current in its social concerns without changing a l…
By Marilyn Lester . . . When a playwright chooses a topic to write about, the roots of that choice can be intriguing indeed. In this case, T.J. Elliott was fascinated by the tale of Sain…
By Marcina Zaccaria . . . Can piano music save the soul? This is the question I kept asking myself as I watched the courageous performance in 20 Seconds, written and performed by Thomas …
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . In a number of ways, Swing State, Rebecca Gilman's (Spinning Into Butter) often compelling, well-acted drama being presented by Audible at the Minetta Lane, res…
By Brian Scott Lipton . . . One won't spot an "Audrey II" among the neatly ordered plants inside the store that lends Theresa Rebeck's involving new play, Dig its name. But even if the w…
By Brian Scott Lipton . . . Walk into any Target or CVS and you'll see shelf upon shelf stacked with Halloween decorations. But big-box stores aren't the only ones getting a head start o…
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . Job, a two-hander by Max Wolf Friedrich at the SoHo Playhouse, begins like a thriller, with a young woman pointing a pistol across the small stage at a much older m…
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . Tripping on Life is a one-woman play now running at Theatre Row, written by and starring Lin Shaye. I admit to not knowing who this septuagenarian character act…
By Samuel L. Leiter . . . Psychic Self Defense"created, written, designed, and directed by Normandy Sherwood"is a throwback to the kind of cleverly cheesy experimental theater work of ha…
By Tania Fisher . . . Don't let its title mislead you. Sure, Sex Work / Sex Play (now playing at the TADA 28th Street Theater through October 29) is a play about a college student's side…
By Ron Fassler . . . Stand back, world! Rachel Bloom has arrived in Greenwich Village with a show sprung from the deep well of her startlingly creative imagination . . . and Christopher …
By Alix Cohen . . . If you can untangle this one, you likely both understand Spanish language and Mexican myth, though that may not be sufficient. In Christine Stoddard's Mi Abuela, …
By Carol Rocamora . . . "Who are the normal, happy people?" asks Sofi, a character in Annie Baker's tantalizing new play Infinite Life that just opened at the Atlantic Theatre Company's …
By Ron Fassler . . . The York Theatre's "Musicals in Mufti" series is truly the place to see minimally staged, maximal entertainments. Case in point, their latest offering: the 1975 musi…
By Walter Murphy . . . At the risk of diminishing the importance and insights of Michael Tucker's new comedy, may I open with an illustrative joke? Two fellows"one a tailor, the other a writ…
By Ron Fassler . . . All hail the return, after four long years, of the York Theatre Company's Musicals in Mufti series. For those who don't know what is meant by mufti, it's always defi…
By Ron Fassler . . . The smile, the sheer enthusiasm and the musicianship of Jaime Lozano & The Familia made for a delightful evening of original songs, part of Lincoln Center's Summ…
By Carole Di Tosti . . . In the off-Broadway world premiere Pay the Writer, Tawni O'Dell (author of Back Roads), presents a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist through the viewpoint of his s…
By Ron Fassler . . . It's hard to believe that the first off-Broadway edition of Forbidden Broadway was forty-one years ago. I remember it all too well as I saw it at the old Palsson's S…
By Ron Fassler . . . Credit where credit is due: someone figured out how to put on stage the drama and comedy that came with the delays a trio of actors endured while filming Jaws in the sum…
By Ron Fassler . . . When a show dedicates itself to Vanna White as the source of its inspiration, you know things are bound to be a bit bent. Remember, this is the same Vanna White who once…
By Alix Cohen . . . Yes, you have to have seen the film Jaws. It's not, however, necessary to remember the publicized adversity suffered by its production. Having paid $175,000 for the right…
By Stuart Miller . . . Amie Enriquez's one-woman show, Lightweight, is difficult to review. In part because it feels cruel to criticize someone who bares their deepest trauma"in her case…
By Ron Fassler . . . Liz Kingsman is onto something. She pretends she doesn't know what she's doing, but folks, it's all an act. Her seventy-minute show at the Greenwich House Theater fi…
By Ron Fassler . . . He's back, darlings! It's been almost exactly a year since I last saw Isaac Mizrahi perform on the 54 Below stage. A cabaret entertainer, sure, but Mizrahi is certai…
