Michael Dale - Page 25

The recent Signature Theatre revival of Suzan Lori-Parks' VENUS, based on the true story of Saartjie Baartman, depicted a 19th Century African woman who was subjected to exploitation because of white people's fascination with her prominent posterior.  But the mood is considerably lighter over at Playwrights Horizons these days, where the title character of Kirsten Childs' joyfully old-fashioned, but sneakily subversive new musical, BELLA: AN AMERICAN TALL TALE, is a 19th Century African-American woman who celebrates the attention her queenly derriere receives and uses it as a source of empowerment.

Ask any New York Mets fan and they'll tell you that one of the unique quirks about watching a game at the teams' Flushing home - be it the now-demolished Shea Stadium or the current Citi Field - is the frequent rumbling of planes coming in and out of LaGuardia airport.

When playwright/actor Jim Brochu was announced as the 2010 Drama Desk Outstanding Solo Performance Award winner for his loving tribute to the great Zero Mostel, ZERO HOUR, circumstances of the evening set up an opportunity for him to open his acceptance speech with an incredibly funny, totally filthy line involving something Mitzi Gaynor supposedly told him to do.

The new Off-Broadway production of SWEENEY TODD just got a whole lot meatier.  No, the chef hasn't been adding more filling to the tasty meat pies audience members can enjoy before the performance.  The new reason for checking into the Barrow Street Theater is a chance to see two top shelf singer/actors, Norm Lewis and Carolee Carmello, transform a production that opened in March as an amusing Grand Guignol melodrama into a deeply moving and gorgeously sung evening of thrilling musical theatre.

Though the lonely, out-of-work truck driver Eddie continued to text love notes to his estranged wife's cell phone number long after her death, he never expect to get an answer.

For the past 400+ years, the title character in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar has been traditionally regarded as one of the good guys. Oh sure, there was that time back in '37 when Orson Welles staged a production that had the Roman ruler interpreted as a stand-in for Mussolini, but The Bard's text is generally taken as a case where a powerful, but ultimately benevolent leader is assassinated by a group of questionably motivated, dagger-wielding senators who paint him as an ambitious populist seeking absolute power.

The confusion one might feel trying to follow Atlantic Theater Company's production of British playwright Clare Lizzimore's psychological study, Animal, is no doubt an intentional reflection of the emotional state of its central character.

In the opening scene of MCC's American premiere production of THE END OF LONGING, playwright/star Matthew Perry, playing the drunk, caustic and cocky Rolling Stone photographer Jack, looks deeply into the eyes of Stephanie, his latest attempt at a cocktail lounge pickup.

Though Anton Chekhov popularized the notion that there's nothing sadder than a Russian comedy, playgoers seeking a few more yuks than can be found in a night at THE CHERRY ORCHARD can look to one of The Good Doctor's countrymen, Nikolai Gogol, whose rip-roaring classic The Government Inspector is granted a gloriously silly mounting by Red Bull Theater.

By necessity, Robert Schenkkan's tense and frightening political drama, BUILDING THE WALL, had to be a rush job written with the understanding that national events could sap it of its impact at any moment.

As with her first Pulitzer-finalist play, BECKY SHAW, the title of Gina Gionfriddo's sharp-tongued comedy CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? is a literary reference.

"In a whirligig of grief" is how one character describes the emotional state of another in Hamish Linklater's ambitious new play, THE WHIRLIGIG, receiving a fine premiere mounting by The New Group's artistic director, Scott Elliott.

One look at the country home setting designer Vicki R. Davis has devised for The Mint Theater Company's intriguing revival of A.A. Milne's rarely visited THE LUCKY ONE and a playgoer wouldn't be blamed for anticipating a night of vintage bon mots and comedy of manners gracefulness.

Traditionally, the human beings with uncommon attributes who are featured as carnival side-show attractions can hold a certain degree of power in their profession. It is their indisputable reality that adds an illusion of legitimacy to the flim-flam and shenanigans that fill out the rest of the show. Those who may appear to audiences as the most pitiable and exploited might very well be the ones taking in the biggest cuts of the profits.

Kat, the woman who's at the center of the wildly fun and unpredictable new two-person musical comedy Ernest Shackleton Loves me, is not exactly in a good emotional place when the show begins.

Most people don't like war. We know that. So when a playwright sets out to write an anti-war drama, it helps to present some kind of specific angle that offers a clear, and hopefully original, message.

Visitors observing the United States Senate in session from the chamber galleries are instructed to refrain from applauding, booing or - perhaps most crucial - laughing at their public servants as they undergo official business.

In the late-night hours of June, 14, 1994, when hockey's New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup championship in 54 years, there were fans visiting the gravesites of loved ones, armed with six-packs of beer and radios, to share with long-gone fans a moment they thought they might never live to see.

As it pertains to the 2016 presidential election, the title HER OPPONANT doesn't necessarily refer to Donald Trump. As the first woman to top the ticket of one of America's major political parties, the name of co-creators Joe Salvatore (who also directs) and Maria Guadalupe's fascinating theatre piece could also refer to a number of Hillary Clinton's opponents, such as the public's lingering prejudices against women, the perception of her as an elitist Washington insider or just being a politician cursed with accusations of not being likeable.

The best thing about Classic Stage Company's small-scale, extensively trimmed production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's extraordinarily-written 1976 musical, PACIFIC OVERTURES, is a chance to see a terrific ensemble of actors taken from the New York stage's severely underutilized pool of Asian-American talent. The company includes notables of the musical stage such as Ann Harada, Orville Mendoza, Thom Sesma and Marc Oka.