"The Columnist' and "The Best Man' on Broadway

Wheeling and dealing, '60s style

Mitt Romney might well seek consolation in the theater these days, where the spring season seems to be imitating the current political one in terms of accusations and revelations. The stage candidates, of course, are far more colorful than the real ones.

Carol Rocamora

May 15, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

"Behanding in Spokane' by Theatre Exile

Man with a mission

A Behanding in Spokane combines Martin McDonagh's trademark violence and humor. It's a 90-minute play that requires great performances to succeed. Fortunately, Theatre Exile provided them.

Steve Cohen

May 12, 2012 · Articles · 2 minute read

1812 Productions does Mamet's "Boston Marriage'

David Mamet's woman problem

David Mamet supposedly wrote Boston Marriage to prove he can write substantive roles for women. He still hasn't.

Marshall A. Ledger

May 12, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Pinter and Chekhov in Brooklyn

Doom and gloom in London and Russia

Hopelessness seems be a recurrent theme at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this spring. Witness Pinter's unforgiving The Caretaker, and Chekhov's Three Sisters, taken to an expressionistic level that's just not Chekhovian The Caretaker. By Harold Pinter; directed by Christopher Morahan. Theatre Royal Bath/Liverpool and Everyman and Playhouse production through June 17, 2012 at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harvey Theatre, 651 Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y. www.bam.org.

Carol Rocamora

May 12, 2012 · Articles · 6 minute read

"Chimera': DNA anomalies at Swarthmore

Cooking in the DNA kitchen

Is a little knowledge about DNA a dangerous thing? Chimera is a dizzyingly smart, awfully witty yet ultimately tragic play about a new medical phenomenon.

Merilyn Jackson

May 01, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Bruce Graham’s “Outgoing Tide” by PTC (3rd review)

What Bruce Graham doesn't know about Alzheimer's

To judge from The Outgoing Tide, Bruce Graham has mastered the basic elements of drama and comedy but not the subject of his play: Alzheimer's disease.

Steve Cohen

May 01, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

Bruce Graham's "Outgoing Tide,' by PTC (2nd comment)

That ‘Better off dead' mindset, reconsidered

Bruce Graham's The Outgoing Tide buys into a widespread assumption: that people with Alzheimer's disease are better off dead. How and where can a dissenting theatergoer voice her objection?

Kelly George

Apr 28, 2012 · Articles · 3 minute read

"One Man, Two Guvnors' on Broadway

Marvelous mayhem by the seaside

Richard Bean, a standup comic, has reached into the oldest traditions of theater to deliver a hybrid farce of the highest order. Just don't sit too close to the stage.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 28, 2012 · Articles · 4 minute read

Shakespeare Theatre's "Titus Andronicus' (1st review)

The Bard as Revenger

Titus Andronicus is early Shakespeare, more gore than glory, but still well worth seeing in Aaron Cromie's canny and inventive staging.

Robert Zaller

Apr 28, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read

"Tribes' and "4000 Miles' in New York

The sounds of thinking, feeling and listening

A rare spring season of compelling new work brings two gems to the New York stage, both revealing something new about what it really means to hear and to listen.

Carol Rocamora

Apr 21, 2012 · Articles · 5 minute read