1,092 stories by "Victor Gluck, Editor-In-Chief"
There is a fascinating story to be told in Franz Kafka's involvement with the Yiddish theater in Prague during 1912 but Lu Hauser's play isn't it. "Prague, 1912 (The Savoy Café Yiddish Thea…
The problem is that under Albert Bonilla's stolid and matter-of-fact direction, Elizabeth Ingham and Zack Calhoon's characters never come alive. Just trading quips is not a sophisticated sty…
Leave it to George S. Kaufman and collaborator Morrie Ryskind (the Marx Brothers' "The Cocoanuts," "Animal Crackers," "A Night at the Opera" as well as the Gershwins' "Strike Up the Band"), …
While the script describes the setting as simply a "rural place," British and European productions apparently have set the play in medieval times. It is definitely pre-industrial as the farm…
Well-meaning and sincere," Occupied Territories" is both generic and stereotyped, offering a story television and the movies have been offering for years: the traumatic effect of a father's …
King's "Dolores Claiborne" would seem a strange choice for dramatization as the book is a monologue told entirely by its protagonist at a police interrogation over a murder on Little Tall Is…
Boycott gets to sing a bounty of scintillating songs including "It's A Perfect Relationship," "Is It A Crime?," "I'm Goin' Back" and her duets with Heuser in "Better Than a Dream" (written f…
In Jonathan Silverstein's production, Arnie Burton and Matt McGrath as two friends who handle their fears of an unnamed epidemic in opposite ways do not seem to connect as real friends would…
Director John Collins, founder of ERS, has set the play in an office or conference room with three long tables (in Jim Findlay's design which eventually grows tiresome) Â and a great many …
It is possible to enjoy Brian Friel's "The Home Place" without knowing the background to this historical play set in rural Ireland in 1878 as a Chekhovian representation of a world about to …
While the acting is compelling, the threesome does not reveal many layers to their characters; they establish a persona and stick to it, without divulging any further information. As Mae, Ni…
While not all musicals from Shakespeare have worked and updates are particularly risky, "Desperate Measures" avoids all of the pitfalls and is a refreshing and satisfying work in its own rig…
Director Ralph Lewis, apparently not trusting the material " or finding the play too dated " has staged a carnival-esque version (adapted by S.M. Dale in June 2016) which includes 16 songs a…
Part of the problem is the lack of innovation in Ray Roderick's staging in this show which calls out for invention and clever handling of sets and props. Devin Vogel's colorless stage design…
Although director Kimberly Senior who also piloted the Chicago production has staged the play with elegance, she never really turns up the heat so that there are not many sparks in Carter's …
The central character is actually Mrs. Fisher who worries about her children and plots to open Amy's eyes to her husband's faults. Unfortunately, Annette O'Toole has been directed to play he…
The new story concerns Wayne Hopkins, an American boy whose parents die tragically and his Uncle Dave informs him that he is a wizard and must attend a special school in England. Wayne is so…
Known as the Shakespeare play with the most song lyrics, the production also includes a deliciously bouncy new score by Stephen Schwartz in different musical styles from the 1920's " 1950's,…
Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins makes a memorable New York debut with an involving and engrossing play which at the performance under review you could have heard a pin drop, so rapt was th…
The play isn't just about social climbers but those who want to game the system and live beyond their income, and their sense of entitlement rivals that of the 1990's. However, this is 1901 …
Neil Pepe's production of Simon Stephens' "On the Shore of the Wide World" will not please all. The pace is consciously slow " like the life lived by these characters. However, the wait is w…
This 1877 operetta, now celebrating its 140th anniversary, has been reduced to the nine major roles and the chorus has been eliminated. The result is a streamlined version that moves along a…
Although the plot has been reset in Loveless, Texas and New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1929, it is an improvement over the original story as a romantic comedy: Shakespeare's version ends with…
As Blixen, Pelletier is riveting as she wraps her cocoon around the unsuspecting but susceptible young man. Catlike and sinuous as she stalks him and the stage, she is cajoling, seductive, m…
The newly reconstituted New York City Opera opened its second full season with a shared production of Puccini's rarely performed "La Fanciulla del West" created in collaboration with the Tea…
