THEATER: Two Of Our Best Playwrights Return To NYC

THE THIN PLACE ** 1/2 out of ****
PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS

DANIEL KITSON: KEEP ** 1/2 out of ****
ST. ANN'S WAREHOUSE

It's the end of the year, the end of the decade and the lists keep coming. Clearly, I am very aware of what everyone else believes to be the best shows of the decade, but what did I think? Intrigued or bullied or most likely just procrastinating before writing a review (not this one!) I pored over my lists of each and every work of theater I've seen since 2010. Grabbing together all the shows I gave three and a half stars or a very rare four stars, the result was a good pile of stuff and some happy memories.

Certain names popped up again and again: PigPen Theater Co., Philip Glass, Bedlam, Mark Rylance, Harriet Walter, Lucas Hnath and Daniel Kitson. PigPen is a theater company/rock band poised to find its biggest audience yet with their new show The Tale of Desperaux. I finally saw all three of composer Philip Glass's "portrait operas" this decade thanks to remarkable revivals of Satyagraha in 2011, Einstein On The Beach in 2012 and -- just under the wire -- Akhnaten a few weeks ago. Bedlam created some of the best revivals, pivoted to bold new works and has now fissioned into two companies one hopes will produce twice as much heat. Rylance and Walter are obviously two of the best actors around. And Hnath and Kitson are two of our best playwrights.

Watching Lucas Hnath produce one intriguing, thoughtful, playful work after another; seeing him smartly create pieces that are challenging but easy to produce for companies around the country (he's no fool); marveling as he grew in reputation until his triumphant Broadway debut with the brilliant, Tony-winning A Doll's House, Part 2 has been a thrill. This is exactly how it's supposed to work.

Daniel Kitson creates and performs his own pieces and would likely hide at home rather than appear on Broadway. Like Hnath, Kitson has his own regional support system to try out and refine new pieces. But his goal is not greater and greater attention. He keeps ticket prices and production costs low, always, and that gives him the freedom to do precisely what he wants. The result is a remarkable body of work I might compare to Spalding Gray or Eric Bogosian but that's wrong. It's not confessional or personal; it's certainly not stand-up (which Kitson also does) though I think of him and Eddie Izzard in the same breath. It's work that is uniquely his own -- funny, piercing, deeply human, sneakily complex and open-hearted.

Any time Hnath or Kitson come to NYC with a new show, it's an event. Neither quite sticks the landing in their new piece. But I wouldn't miss either of them, ever.

First, the Hnath.

Lucas Hnath's new play is stripped down to almost the bare essentials. The stage is bare and unadorned. The set consists of two chairs with a small table between them. The cast consists of four actors. But I think it should have been stripped down even more.

Hnath's plays love to explore public performance from scientific debate (Isaac's Eye) to the Sunday sermon (The Christians) to a reading (A Public Reading Of An Unproduced Screenplay About The Death Of Walt Disney). Now with The Thin Place he tackles one of the oldest performance genres of all: the ghost story.

Hilda slips onto the stage rather apologetically, carrying a cup of tea. She sits down and begins to talk. A lonely child, a beloved grandmother who played games where they tried to read each other's minds and -- when the grandmother dies -- secret seances where the child Hilda tries to pierce the veil to the other side. She tries and fails to find the thin place, that rare physical location where this world and the next rub shoulders.

As an adult, Hilda discovers and becomes fascinated by Linda, a real psychic with a gift for talking to those who have passed over. Hilda becomes a devotee and then a disciple and then perhaps a friend of Linda. And as Hilda tells her story, Linda strides onto the stage, almost indifferent to Hilda and us. We are beneath her notice or perhaps merely beside the point. Linda carries the story forward and their onstage pas de deux is intriguing, a little mystifying and even creepy.

Then Linda carefully makes clear to Hilda that what she does isn't exactly real. She doesn't say, "I'm a fraud" exactly. But you can't help sitting up straight and wondering how the gullible and odd Hilda will react to Linda patiently explain how she does what she does. It's a genuine service and provides comfort to her clients. But she's not precisely speaking to the dead so much as telling the living what they desperately want to hear: you are loved, I forgive you, there is something more than this life.

And then two more people burst onto the stage. Jerry and Sylvia are friends of the psychic Linda, which is no surprise since you don't imagine Hilda has any friends to speak of. Suddenly, all sorts of new threads are introduced: Linda is working as a consultant for a politician, Sylvia supports Linda financially and is clearly jealous of Linda's new friendship (and perhaps romance) with Hilda. Just when we get a handle on these interlopers, they fade away and we get back to the purpose at hand, telling a spooky tale.

Despite a few effective bumps in the night, that final story didn't get under my skin. It's easy to imagine Hnath had a two-hander, got stuck and decided to give his story a jolt by having two new characters barge their way in. But a ghost story needs a relentless focus and distractions are not welcome. Since everything Jerry and Sylvia introduce is beside the point, it's a shame Hnath didn't disappear them and stick with what works so well here: the complicated and uncertain relationship between Linda and Hilda.

I think the technical team and director Les Waters gave Hnath everything he wanted, though I'd need to return to the show to decide how I felt about a few abrupt touches. And while it's easy to think Mimi Lien could hardly go wrong with a bare stage, two chairs and a table, they feel like exactly the right two chairs and table. Oana Botez's costumes are also perfectly judged.

As the two interlopers, Triney Sandoval and Kelly McAndrew do what they can with limited roles and no certain purpose. But Emily Cass McDonnell is very good as the unobtrusive Hilda, a character that recedes into the background as much as possible while always making her presence felt. (After a long stretch of saying nothing, when Hilda finally speaks up at a party the effect is hilarious.) And Randy Danson is a treat as the psychic Linda, commanding the stage with aplomb from start to finish. Her British by way of the Caribbean (?) accent wavers a bit, but it doesn't matter. I generously took that as adding to the unreliability of everything Linda says, though the dodgy accent is not intentional. Danson is wonderful, utterly convincing as she explains away her psychic gifts one minute and just as passionately defends them the next. I can't read minds, but just as Hnath worked again with Laurie Metcalfe I'll bet he'll find another piece to showcase Danson's talents soon.

And now Kitson. He's a busy man, doing stand-up, hosting benefit shows with other comics, deejaying on his local radio station for two weeks every year and traveling the globe doing his "story shows." His Wikipedia page gives a sense of that prodigious output. I've sadly never seen his stand-up and while gladly catching every single work of theater he's staged in NYC, that still means I haven't seen half of what he's done. So any guess as to the shape of his career is naturally blinkered.

The likely mistaken impression I've received is that increasingly passionate critical raves were a little unsettling to Kitson. Wary of adulation or simply believing his success was coming too easily, he turned his Rube Goldberg-like plays into truly dense Borgesian contraptions. And if god forbid he felt a climax proving too emotional or touching, Kitson ran in the other direction.

Bollocks. His plays have always been dauntingly complex, despite the ease with which he pulls them off. And though it briefly seemed Kitson was trying to make things difficult for himself (one show involved reel-to-reel machines with pre-recorded bits; it didn't work), he's delivered the goods before and since. In 2014 (just five years ago), Kitson created his most open-hearted piece with A Show For Christmas. And four of his plays are among my favorites of the 2010s, more than any other artist.

Keep won't be on it, but it's often very funny. The stage is bare and plunged into darkness except for a table and chair and behind that a filing cabinet with dozens of drawers containing index cards. Kitson tells us he spent six months cataloguing every single item in his rambling home. Each item gets one index card. And he's going to read them off to us, one by one. It will, he assures, have a fascinating cumulative power but it's not for the faint-hearted. If you want to leave, by all means do so now and you'll get a full refund. And then he begins.

Problems ensue and with them pleasures. The shape of the show slowly reveals itself, along with what seem to be digressions and diversions and casual improvisations. By and large, not a word is wasted since we realize every offhand comment has a purpose. The audience -- fans one and all -- are with him every step of the way, laughing at jokes that are set-up with an aside at one moment and then landed with a quick jab maybe half an hour later. It demands attention and receives it.

Kitson's plays are often labyrinthian pieces, letting us wander through his idiosyncratic worldview. But at the heart of the maze is not some minotaur-like beast, but a willingness to embrace humanity in all its quirks and failings. They often click into place with a delightful snap at the end, like placing the final piece of a puzzle into place. That doesn't quite happen here, for some stray details muddy the effect and confuse the finale. If I sound like the Emperor in Amadeus by declaring Keep has "too many drawers!" it's not because the show needs to be shorter, as such. It's because once we know the shape it's taking, filling in the dots should happen as quickly as possible. I'd spend hours in Kitson's brain but once we know where we're going the play needs to get there quicker.

And yet, what a performer. I often think of Kitson the writer and Kitson the wit. But I don't often think of Kitson the actor. His pieces are fiendishly elaborate and difficult; Keep might just be the trickiest of all to pull off. A lifetime of stand-up, of delivering complex stories with ease and of winning over an audience to the challenges he's going to set them allows Kitson to be at his best here. Keep may not be a keeper, but Kitson along with Hnath remains on the short list of artists I'd follow anywhere.



THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam) *** 1/2
Pump Girl ***
A Christmas Carol (Bway w Campbell Scott) **
Barber Shop Chronicles ***
Anything Can Happen In The Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston ** 1/2
The Gospel Of John ** 1/2
The Thin Place ** 1/2
Daniel Kitson: Keep ** 1/2


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: THE GOOD NEWS, OR AT LEAST ONE FOURTH OF IT

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN ** 1/2 out of ****
THE SHEEN CENTER

Have you heard the good news? Anyone tired of A Christmas Carol on stage or A Christmas Story marathon on TV has a new option. Actor Ken Jennings is at the intimate black box space at The Sheen Center to share the Gospel of John. He offers up the entire gospel in a casual, confiding tone and it doesn't get more Christmas-y than that. Unless of course you want to hear the Nativity Story, in which case you probably want the Gospel of Luke (or Matthew).

For many years, actor Alec McCowen performed the Gospel of Luke as a one-man show. He brought it thoroughly to life, painting various apostles as specific, unique people; drawing out the humor and compassion of Jesus and building to the awful and bloody climax. Like John Gielgud with his Ages Of Man tribute to Shakespeare or Patrick Stewart with the Dickens' Carol, St. Mark's Gospel was McCowen's annuity, a show he performed and returned to again and again. When a member of the audience once asked McCowen where she could get a copy of the script, he said, "Any hotel room." It's a good joke but not an honest answer. McCowen was faithful to the text but he shaped it into drama in ways large and small.

Ken Jennings does none of that. This evening is described as "conceived and performed" by him, but I prefer to say he's sharing it. It's not quite a recitation, but he certainly doesn't shape the gospel into drama. Jennings most assuredly does not bring to life a host of characters. He stands on a lovely wooden stage, whose edge has a wavy curve to it. That platform stands a little off the ground. Towards the back, stage right, is a small wooden bench he moves here and there. A simple, rough-hewn cloth curtain hangs at the back, stretching down but never touching the stage. (The scenic design is by Charlie Corcoran.) That's it. Jennings stands in front of the stage, makes the sign of the cross, quietly collects his thoughts and then he begins.

By deciding not to create a galaxy of characters, by not dramatizing the gospel, Jennings subtly places the emphasis not on the stories within but the message. He memorized the Gospel of John during tough times and used it as a prayer. That's precisely what his recitation feels like here, a straightforward, sincere act of communion both with the gospel and with the audience.

That's not to say Jennings is a mere reader. His Gospel of John is surely theatrical, complete with lighting and sound effects. I wish his performance had been just as committed to using every tool at his disposal. Almost everyone but Jesus blurs into one another and usually they sound like angry, kvetchy characters. Each outburst -- whether a pharisee or a woman at a well or an apostle that doubts Jesus has risen from the dead -- dims the impact of the one that follows. That creates a wearying sameness to the many other voices found in the Gospel of John.

Worse, every once in a while Jennings will be speaking as Jesus when the sound design of M. Florian Staab gives his voice an echo-y, God-like sound, just in case we don't quite grasp the fact that this Jesus of Nazareth isn't just merely the latest in a line of prophets. For a while, I thought this effect was going to be used to underline the moments when Jesus declares "I Am...," a key motif of John that links back to the voice of God that spoke to Moses from the burning bush.

I don't think that was done, but whatever the motivation for this hokey effect's appearance, the show would be better without it. Staab's other, more subtle touches (the sound of water, of crowds and the like) are far more beneficial. Ditto the nice lighting of Abigail Hoke-Brady, which suggests water lapping against the stage at certain points, paints the backdrop with vivid color, closes in as night falls and so on. Hoke-Brady also aids Jennings mightily at the finale with an excellent fade-out.

Presumably director John Pietrowski wasn't going to convince Jennings to change his approach to the text. But since Jennings was happy to make use of lighting and sound, why not use all his skills as an actor to more fully dramatize the Gospel of John? We'll have to agree to disagree on that, as well as who wrote the Gospel in the first place. Because of his choice, the inherent drama is lessened and the show blurs a bit when the stories drop away and all we have are passages of sermonizing.

Scholar Karen Armstrong makes clear in her new book The Lost Art Of Scripture that for most of human history, religious texts and tales didn't come alive until they were performed. So Jennings is following in a grand tradition. One can easily sit alone and read any one of the four gospels in half an hour. But it's far more true to the spirit of tradition (and perhaps to the Spirit) to do precisely what he's doing: to share it in public with others.


THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam) *** 1/2
Pump Girl ***
A Christmas Carol (Bway w Campbell Scott) **
Barber Shop Chronicles ***
Anything Can Happen In The Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston ** 1/2
The Gospel Of John ** 1/2


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: Reviewing The Revue Of Maury Yeston

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN THE THEATER: THE MUSICAL WORLD 
OF MAURY YESTON ** 1/2 out of ****

YORK THEATRE COMPANY 

It's no secret that Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway shows are mercilessly funny valentine's to the musicals they spoof. His genuine love for the theater takes the sting out of some pretty waspish observations. Well, here Alessandrini plays it straight. In what may be his first musical revue, he's crafted a classically conceived tribute to the work of lyricist/composer Maury Yeston.

Yeston needs no boost. He's got multiple Tonys, two huge Broadway hits in Grand Hotel and Nine and a masterpiece with Titanic. (That one's going to be a big hit whenever it's properly revived.) But boost him Alessandrini does. Sure, Nine dominates, with five of the 25+ shows on hand. In contrast, Grand Hotel has three, his off Broadway hit Death Takes A Holiday just one and Titanic doesn't appear until the finale, since its numbers perhaps don't make as much sense out of context.

That leaves more than half the show celebrating songs new to most, a far cry from most revues for artists of Yeston's stature. His work is lovingly showcased in a pitch perfect setting. The design by James Morgan is simple and clean, the choreography by Gerry McIntyre modest as it should be, the lighting by Jacob Zedek supportive without calling attention to itself, the costumes by Melinda Hare no-fuss until they add some Forbidden-like humor and pianist/musical director Greg Jarrett is the hardest working person in the room.

Alessandrini oversees it all with impeccable taste. The show is a tight 75 minutes, the song choices intelligently balanced, the transitions between numbers thoughtfully done and ensemble moments balanced out by duets and solo turns.

The problem, I fear, is the cast. They let down a revue that deserves better. With stronger performers, this revue would be a home run. As it is, they shine best when working in groups and of course the songs of Yeston lift them up time and again. Of course,  revues should work the other way around.

Happily, while everyone falters at some point, they also have high points. Benjamin Eakeley plays the leading man capably, Alex Getlin's soft-rock vibrato is a treat the first time around, Jovan E'Sean does his best when introducing "Mississippi Moon" and both Justin Keyes and Mamie Parris make the most of any humor on tap. (Keyes' vocals simply aren't up to the demands of "Sant n' Pepper" while Parris has more to offer with her pipes throughout the night.)

Any time the cast works together the results are stronger, whether it's the tribute-to-actors ensemble opener "Anything Can Happen In The Theater," the sweet duet "You're There Too" (E'Sean and Keyes) or the far more comic "No Women In The Bible," featuring Getlin and Parris.

Like any revue worth the name, this one makes you want to revisit (or visit) Yeston's shows. Only the written to order title song feels a little by the numbers. The rest intrigue, like his own spin on The Phantom Of The Opera and the four songs from In The Beginning, a Biblical romp Alessandrini once directed in Maine, apparently. (That's a line worthy of Forbidden!) And the finale of "Godspeed, Titanic" never fails to raise goosebumps for me, whether during its original run on Broadway, at my niece's high school production a few years ago (full orchestra!) or by the cast here for their curtain call. That stirring drama will certainly have new life someday soon. Given the quality of the songs and the sturdiness of its construction, I'm sure this revue will too.

And fans of Alessandrini should keep an eye out for Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation, which re-opens at the York starting January 15. It's one of his best.


THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam) *** 1/2
Pump Girl ***
A Christmas Carol (Bway w Campbell Scott) **
Barber Shop Chronicles ***
Anything Can Happen In The Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston ** 1/2


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: "Barber Shop Chronicles" Offers A Clean Shave

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES *** out of ****
BAM -- HARVEY

Apparently, wherever you go in the world, men will boast about their sexual prowess, watch sports, bicker, joke and old men casually dismiss young men as clueless. Oh and occasionally get a haircut.

Playwright Inua Ellams captures this with his globe-spanning comic drama. It's set in barber shops dotting Africa -- Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana -- with the sixth one in London. The action occurs on a single day when Chelsea plays Barcelona in a major football championship, Barber Shop Chronicles does precisely what you hope and expect it to do. It showcases a strong terrific cast, introduces us to a talented playwright and while it most definitely has much on its mind, it never fails to entertain.

The fun begins before the show as the cast mingles with the audience, urging people to come onstage and get a haircut. (Not a real one, naturally.) Music is played, actors sing along on certain tunes, dance in small groups and then suddenly the entire cast is dancing and moving together to make real the unity they will embody despite playing so many people from so many different cultures. This intro climaxes with all of them focused a terrific moment in that soccer match and boom, the show has begun.

Stories and ideas bounce all over the place as easily as the show shifts from one barber shop to the next. Some customers are new, eager to get a haircut before the store is even open, while others are old friends. Employees fester over old slights and try to win new clients. And everyone has something to say about politics, language, the lineup of their favorite team competing that day, women, white people, black people, how to raise a kid, reparations and so on. Casual references are rarely casual: if a person in one shop in Zimbabwe mentions someone they know is in London, you can be certain that person will show up at the barber in that capitol to get a fade. Soon, it's not just the ideas that crisscross the globe as those interconnections grow in significance.

Ellams easily juggles a dozen modest storylines here, ably assisted by director Bijan Sheibani. Each scene change happens smoothly, with the cast gleefully dancing and moving around props while singing a song or chant or cheer, usually one connected in some way to the site of the next barber shop's location. The movement direction by Aline David is crucial here and deserves special mention as David and the director Sheibani manage to make all these transitions a treat while moving the story forward -- key players from the previous scene remain in character just long enough to add substance to the controlled chaos.

The design by Rae Smith is easily adaptable to the space the play is performed in, simple and effective, from the signs of barber shops that adorn the walls to the globe that hangs from the ceiling and shows us what city we're traveling to next. Ditto the lighting by Jack Knowles and crucial music direction of Michael Henry. But again it's the movement you remember best, like the way the cast uses the barber's cloth draped over customers as a cape to vibrantly assist in so many dances.

In all, it's an accomplished and often pointed work. The positive vibe and effective humor also allow the piece to give voice to men with bloody anger over colonialism and brutality, resentment towards their fathers, praise for Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and other uncomfortable opinions. Audiences are always ready to embrace a shared humanity, but they'll also hear the hard truth that centuries of oppression just might bear bitter fruit. The ensemble of a dozen actors bring to life some thirty complex characters. No wonder Barber Shop Chronicles has played around the world.

But it could be better. The actors juggle accents for six distinct parts of the world. While I can't speak to their effectiveness in making each dialect accurate, I can say it was a struggle at times to understand them, especially in the first 20 or so minutes. Onstage, suggesting an accent is often enough; clarity for the audience is far more important than approval from say, someone in Nigeria commenting they "got it right." The challenge for the actors was immense but director Sheibani and dialect coach Hazel Holder should have erred on the side of making the text clear and understandable.

Worse, the show's most conventional element is also its least effective. Barber Shop Chronicles has a compelling structure. Seeing how the lives of these different people are literally connected to one another or just hearing the same joke told and retold again in shop after shop provides all the plot we need. However, I fear either Ellams or some dramaturg urged a noisier engine to drive the story. Thus we're given a big mystery and a little one. The big mystery revolves around Samuel, a resentful young man in the London barber shop. His dad is in prison and Samuel blames his father's partner in the shop for that and continually disrespects Emmanuel because of it.

Needless to say, there's more to the story than Samuel realizes and the facts are hinted at until they come tumbling out at the climax of the show. A smaller mystery involves Emmanuel's never-seen wife. From his expression, it's obvious to the audience she has left him or perhaps is seriously ill or at least something is up. We just don't know what. That too is revealed right towards the end.

Making this conflict a mystery is far more pedestrian than the clever web Ellams weaves throughout the rest of the play. We should have been told the facts much earlier, or this story could be removed entirely and the show would be stronger for it. Worse, while Mohammed Mansaray is fine as the peeved Samuel, actor Anthony Ofoegbu is the show's weakest link as Emmanuel. It's a pity these two are surrounded by much stronger actors and yet are the focus of the biggest storyline.

Those others actors do wow, with many tackling three or four roles with aplomb, making each one so distinct you never confuse them for a moment. (Presumably the effective costuming falls under the zone of Rae Smith's design.) Adé Dee Haastrup was especially compelling in multiple roles while Emmanuel Ighodaro limned a broken down alcoholic with heartfelt specificity.

Fresh-faced Elmi Rashid Elmi gave the show the perfect grace note at the end, one which would have been all the more effective if it weren't for the heavy plotting that got in the way. But his scene begs for one obvious touch. Elmi's character says he doesn't know what it means to be a strong man (a preoccupation of most of the men in the show) because he's had no male role models in his life. The strongest person he knows is his mom. You just wait for the barber to say, "Well, if you want to know what a strong person is like, think of your mom!" Sadly, the possibility is left hanging.

Finally, Demmy Ladipo stole the show with his hilarious turn as a loud-mouthed braggart retelling his encounters with white women and black women, all of whom call him a "lover lover." In a play filled with good laughs, he got the biggest. If there's a sequel -- and why shouldn't Ellams deliver Beauty Parlor? -- let's hope that character can barge his way in for a scene or two.


THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam) *** 1/2
Pump Girl ***
A Christmas Carol (Bway w Campbell Scott) **
Barber Shop Chronicles ***


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

Theater Best Of The 2010s

THE BEST THEATER OF THE 2010s


Akhnaten (2019 dress rehearsal of ENO at Met)
All's Well That Ends Well (2011 at Shakespeare's Globe in London)
As You Like It (Lily Rabe for Shakespeare In The Park, 2012)
The Band's Visit (Off Bway at Atlantic or on Bway)
Boy (w Bobby Steggert)
The Divine Sister (2011, w Charles Busch)
A Doll's House, Part 2
Einstein On The Beach (2012 at BAM)
Giant (2012 Public w Kate Baldwin, Bobby Steggert)
Guys and Dolls (one night only Carnegie Hall w Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Patrick Wilson)
Hadestown (2016 at NYTW)
Hamilton
Happy Days (w Dianne Wiest at BAM)
The Interminable Suicide Of Gregory Church (Daniel Kitson 2011 at St. Ann's)
It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later (2012 Daniel Kitson)
Julius Caesar (2013 revival at St. Ann's, all women w Harriet Walter)
Lypsinka! The Boxed Set
The Merchant Of Venice (2010 Bway w Al Pacino and Lily Rabe)
My Name Is Asher Lev (2012, w Ari Brand)
Nellie McKay at Joe's Pub (Joan Rivers bio-musical)
An Octoroon (Soho Rep 2014)
The Old Man and the Old Moon (PigPen Theater, 2012)
Once (2012 Bway)
Parsifal (2013, at the Met)
Satyagraha (2011 ENO revival at Met)
The Scottsboro Boys (2010 Bway)
Sense and Sensibility (Bedlam, 2014)
A Show For Christmas (Daniel Kitson, 2015)
Shuffle Along
Sleep No More (Punch Drunk immersive Macbeth at McKittrick Hotel)
Sons Of The Prophet (2011 Off bway w Santino Fontana)
Spring Awakening (2015 Bway revival by Deaf Theatre West)
Sunday In The Park With George (Bway w Jake Gyllenhaal in 2017)
Travesties (Bway 2018 w Tom Hollander)
Tribes (w Mare Winningham)
Twelfth Night (2013 Bway, all male cast w Mark Rylance, Samuel Barnett)
When Father Comes Home From The Wars, Parts 1, 2, and 3




ALL SHOWS RATED A PERFECT FOUR STARS

**** shows (nine in all, less than one a year)

All's Well That Ends Well (2011 at Shakespeare's Globe in London)
As You Like It (Lily Rabe for Shakespeare In The Park, 2012)
Boy (w Bobby Steggert)
Einstein On The Beach (2012 at BAM)
Julius Caesar (2013 revival at St. Ann's, all women w Harriet Walter)
Lypsinka! The Boxed Set
Once (2012 Bway)
Satyagraha (2011 ENO revival at Met)
Sunday In The Park With George (Bway w Jake Gyllenhaal in 2017)


ALL SHOWS RATED 3 1/2 STARS

*** 1/2 shows (88 in all, or about eight a year)

A Doll's House, Part 2
Ain't No Mo (at Public)
Akhnaten (2019 dress rehearsal of ENO at Met)
Allegro (CSC revival)
Arcadia (2011 revival w Billy Crudup, again)
The Band's Visit (Off Bway at Atlantic or on Bway)
Bend In The Road (Anne of Green Gables musical at NYMF, 2013)
Betrayal
Blanche, The Bittersweet Life of A Prairie Dame (2011 NYMF)
Bob (show about Robert Wilson)
The Book Of Mormon
Catch Me If You Can (Bway w Aaron Tveit)
The Children (Bway)
Clybourne Park
The Crucible (by Bedlam)
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (Bway)
Derren Brown: Secret
The Divine Sister (2011, w Charles Busch)
Familiar
The Ferryman
Follies (Bway 2011 w Bernadette Peters)
The Fortress Of Solitude (musical at Public)
Forty Part Motet: Janet Cardiff Installation at PS1)
Frog Kiss (2010 NYMF)
A Gentleman's Guide To Love & Murder (Bway)
Germinal (Public UTR Festival)
Ghost Quartet
Giant (2012 Public w Kate Baldwin, Bobby Steggert)
The Glass Menagerie (Bway w Sally Field)
Guys and Dolls (one night only Carnegie Hall w Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, Patrick Wilson)
Hadestown (off bway)
Hamilton
Happy Days (w Dianne Wiest)
The Heir Apparent (David Ives at CSC)
Heisenberg (w Mary-Louise Parker)
Here Lies Love (at Public)
The Humans (Bway)
The Hurrican Katrina Comedy Festival (2011 FringeFest NYC)
Independents (2012, FringeNYC)
The Interminable Suicide Of Gregory Church (Daniel Kitson 2011 at St. Ann's)
It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later (2012 Daniel Kitson)
King Charles III
Leonard Cohen Koans (NYC Fringe Fest 2011)
The Liar
Matilda The Musical (Bway)
The Merchant Of Venice (2010 Bway w Al Pacino and Lily Rabe)
Les Miserables (Bway 2014)
The Mountain Song (2011 PigPen)
Mouse: The Persistence Of An Unlikely Thought (Daniel Kitson, 2016)
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie
My Name Is Asher Lev (2012, w Ari Brand)
Nellie McKay at Joe's Pub (Joan Rivers bio-musical)
The Nightmare Story (2011 PigPen)
Nixon In China (2011 revival at the Met)
Octet (at Signature)
An Octoroon (Soho Rep 2014)
The Old Man and the Old Moon (PigPen Theatre)
The Orphans' Home Cycle (2011 mounting at Signature)
The Painted Rocks At Revolver Creek (Signature revival)
Parsifal (2013, at the Met)
Passion (2013 revival at CSC)
Peter and the Starcatcher
The Piano Lesson (2012 revival at Signature)
Porgy & Bess (2012 w Audra McDonald)
A Raisin In The Sun (Bway 2014 w Denzel Washington)
The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (2013)
The School For Lies (2011 revival at CSC by David Ives, w Mamie Gummer)
The Scottsboro Boys (2010 Bway)
Sense and Sensbility (Bedlam, 2014)
Septimus & Clarissa (2011)
A Show For Christmas (Daniel Kitson, 2015)
Shuffle Along (Bway)
Sleep No More (Punch Drunk immersive Macbeth at McKittrick Hotel)
Sons Of The Prophet (2011 Off bway w Santino Fontana)
Spring Awakening (2015 Bway revival by Deaf Theatre West)
STePz (Savion Glover dance piece)
Strictly Dishonorable (1929 Preston Sturges play)
Three Sisters (2011 revival at CSC w Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard)
Travesties (Bway 2018 w Tom Holland)
Tribes (w Mare Winningham)
Twelfth Night (2013 Bway, all male cast w Mark Rylance, Samuel Barnett)
The Twentieth Century Way (2010 NYC FringeFest w Tom Jacobson)
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Volleygirls (2013 NYMF)
The Weir (2013 revival at Irish Rep)
What You Will (Or Twelfth Night) by Bedlam
When Father Comes Home From The Wars, Parts 1, 2, and 3
Without You (2010 NYMF Anthony Rapp)

THEATER: Another "Christmas Carol," God Bless 'em

A CHRISTMAS CAROL ** out of ****
LYCEUM THEATRE

Who wants to be a Scrooge when reviewing A Christmas Carol in any form? Not me, hence the generous two stars and a shout outs to some of the pluses in this holiday production imported (much like our modern conception of Christmas) from Merrie Olde England. It's a warm, inviting stage on display, with lots of lamps casting a cheerful glow, the cast appropriately garbed (by and large) and some Christmas snow (that's not a spoiler; you know there's going to be snow) that's quick melting and fun rather than boring confetti.

Campbell Scott is a fine Scrooge that can hold his head high next to his dad's solid work in the same story. He harrumphs and galumphs and melts just as quickly as that snow. But it's a real performance, not a panto bit of fun winking at the audience and not too hard-edged either. Indeed, Scott has a twinkle when dismissing his nephew early on that hints at an even fuller characterization he might tackle someday in a better version.

But here's the main thought I had upon leaving A Christmas Carol. The story is endlessly malleable of course and has been done in every setting from TV sitcoms to lavish feature films. But the vast majority of them remain pretty darn faithful to the details of the novella by Charles Dickens. From versions starring Mr. Magoo to Alistair Sims to Patrick Stewart, they know the bones of a good story when they see it and leave well enough alone.

So the many, many diversions and additions by Jack Thorne this time out are all the more notable. And unnecessary. And harmful. A story that's larded with well-earned sentiment doesn't need more. of it.  A tale positively full of lessons -- as full as a child's stocking by the fire on Christmas morning  -- does not need those lessons repeated again and again. A show with warmth to spare does not need bonus hugs.

What it does need is a black box space or a theater in the round. This Carol was conceived in the round and Broadway desperately needs more spaces that can accommodate immersive productions. They can't all be squeezed into Circle In The Square, after all. Lincoln Center would be the other ideal space for this, but shows like Hadestown deserve an ideal setting, not a compromise. So if you go, sit close and on the side to glimpse the in-the-round pleasure of being amidst the fun that director Matthew Warchus charmed up in London.

In general, the vibe is the winner here and you can overlook the silly changes and enjoy yourself. Carolers and musicians begin playing long before the show begins. Cast-members and others like Tim (one of the gift givers wandering the aisles in good cheer ,not the lad in the show) cheerfully hand out clementines and cookies before it begins. Bells are rung. The entire space of the theater is used, an echo of the London staging but a poor substitute when Scrooge's nephew must shout his lines from the upper level. And at the very, very end they play a lovely carol on the handbells that is sweet and simple and just right for the evening's end.

Scott is quite good and that counts for a lot. But as much as I want to applaud the generally fine production design and costumes (both by Rob Howell), the lighting (Hugh Vanstone) and sound design (Simon Baker), they also make some odd choices. The stage is littered with piles of old, discarded lamps, giant piles of junk that menacingly capture the ugly spirit of the miserly Scrooge. I assumed these would rise up and out of the way or be transformed into something nice or do...something. But those inert piles remained throughout most of the show, serving no purpose and ultimately proving a distraction. And did the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future have to be garbed in bathrobes quite so garish and awful? (Andrea Martin and LaChanze embody two of them with good grace if little effect.)

My guest rebelled when the Spirit of Christmas Future was embodied by Scrooge's sister Little Fan. I found it unbearable when Scrooge literally hugged his inner child. And no one needed to see Scrooge's funeral where his employee Bob Cratchit (a fine Dashiell Eaves), his nephew and his lost love all repeated their sad feelings we'd already heard before. All these lardings onto the classic tale have a modest pay off when Scrooge speaks to his one-time love Belle. Sarah Hunt gins up some genuine emotion and her talk with him at least covers some new emotional ground, rather than rehashing what Dickens did so much better before. One can almost overlook Thorne turning the delightful, jovial Mr. Fezziwig (her father here) into an undertaker of all things. 

Oh dear, I'm bah humbugging again. The tale is indestructible, though Thorne takes some awful mighty whacks at it. Say rather it's indestructible if you leave it alone. But god bless 'em for trying. God bless them.... See, you wouldn't change that line would you? Why change anything? You should have a darn good reason and they don't. Still, God bless Jack Thorne and indeed, everyone.



THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam) *** 1/2
Pump Girl ***
A Christmas Carol (Bway w Campbell Scott) **


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.

THEATER: "Pump Girl" Finds A Gusher At Irish Rep

PUMPGIRL *** out of ****
IRISH REPERTORY THEATRE 

A strong, satisfying production of a strong, satisfying play and precisely the sort of work that makes The Irish Rep so important. Take this and their acclaimed O'Casey Cycle earlier this season and you've got reason enough to support this company for years to come.

The 2006 drama Pumpgirl and Irish playwright Abbie Spallen are both new to me. The story centers around three people we slowly realize are interconnected. They alternate monologues addressed to the audience, but the overlapping plots and rising tension keep the story pulsing along. These aren't set pieces that stand alone so much as lonely voices that slowly merge into one confused cry of pain and need.

It begins in a gas station in the North, but only just, as the program notes put it. Pumpgirl is a tomboyish woman who works there, dealing with obnoxious regulars but waiting for visits from her pal Hammy. Our second character is a man who competes at the local motor raceway when not avoiding the burden of his wife and kids. And the third is a woman who dreads the moment each night her drunken husband comes home, ping-ponging up the stairs and then slipping into bed beside her, a bed with barbed wire strung right down the center.

The wife cheats on her husband with some random man at a local market. Pumpgirl goes off with Hammy for quickies in his car. And the cocky but lost lad who competes as a race car driver when not cleaning out bird shite at the local chicken farm (off the books of course, so the dole doesn't know) is both the husband and the "mate." He's the central, empty fact in both their lives amnd no happier on his own then with either of them.

Photo ©2019 by Carol Rosegg

The cramped little theater at the basement level of the Irish Rep is made full use of here. Set designer Yu-Hsuan Chen ably creates three distinct spaces for each character, with the gas station brought to life via a counter crammed with junk food like Tayto's and a diesel pump. Hammy has a car seat for his racing scenes and the many times he takes Pumpgirl for a ride or just tries to escape his screwed up life. And propped against the wall stage right is the marital bed of Sinead. This combines very well with the just-right costumes of Molly Seidel, the crucial lighting of Michael O'Connor and the sound design of Fan Zhang, who smoothly works in everything from the music of Glenn Campbell to bar sounds, a terrifying dream, the sounds of racing and much more.

Full credit to director Nicola Murphy for marshalling that talent in service of the text and a superb trio of actors. Labhaoise Magee is heart-rending as Pumpgirl, still hoping to hang out with her friend after he's abused her trust in the most shameful way imaginable. Clare O'Malley is equally good as the stronger Sinead, a woman who wakes up to her needs only to be blindsided by a husband who suddenly wants to mend his ways. What the bloody hell is up with that? Did her cheating subliminally stir his guilty conscience. And Hamish Allan-Headley is an ideal Hammy, just good enough to be the handsome stud of a small town without being so good-looking you can't quite buy it. He nails Hammy's conflicted combination of bad choices, regret, shame and yearning to maybe, maybe get something right for once. I look forward to seeing all three of them again, soon.

Towards the very end, the play gets quite a bit darker. For me, the stakes were already high enough so I resisted this, even though nothing was out of whack with what came before. It's a small reservation about Pumpgirl itself, not the sterling and loving presentation it's been given here.


THEATER OF 2019

Frankenstein: Under The Radar Fest at the Public ** 1/2
Minor Character: Under The Radar Festival at the Public ***
Ink: Under The Radar  Festival at the Public  ** 1/2
Choir Boy ** 1/2
White Noise ** 1/2
Kiss Me, Kate ***
Ain't No Mo' *** 1/2
Ain't Too Proud **
The Cradle Will Rock * 1/2
Mrs. Murray's Menagerie *** 1/2
Oklahoma! (on Broadway) ** 1/2
Socrates **
The Pain Of My Belligerence *
Burn This **
Hadestown *** 1/2
All My Sons * 1/2
Tootsie ** 1/2
Ink ***
Beetlejuice **
Estado Vegetal ***
Hans Christian Andersen * 1/2
Cirque du Soleil: Luzia ***
BLKS ** 1/2
Moulin Rouge ** 1/2
Bat Out Of Hell **
Unchilding **
Sea Wall/ A Life ** 1/2
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child ***
Betrayal *** 1/2
Fifty Million Frenchmen ** 1/2
Freestyle Love Supreme ** 1/2
Derren Brown: Secret ***
(A)loft Modulation * 1/2
The Great Society **
I Can't See *
Heroes Of The Fourth Turning ** 1/2
Chasing Rainbows: The Road To Oz ***
The Glass Menagerie (dir Austin Pendleton & Peter Bloch) **
Terra Firma (debut of The Coop theater company) **
Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation ***
Dublin Carol ** 1/2
Soft Power **
The Decline and Fall of The Entire World As Seen Through The Eyes Of Cole Porter ***
For Colored Girls ** 1/2
Scotland, PA **
The Sound Inside *** (great cast, clumsy ending)
User Not Found **
Enchanted April **
DruidShakespeare: Richard III * 1/2
Broadbend, Arkansas **
Einstein's Dreams * 1/2
The Crucible (by Bedlam) *** 1/2
Pump Girl ***


Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s best friend. It’s a website that lets you browse for books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive info on new releases every week in every category and offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with top journalists and opinion makers as guests. It’s available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes.