‘Little Fish’ adapts New York stories for the stage
Deborah Eisenberg, whose short stories have been popping up in the New Yorker and in acclaimed collections since the 1980s, began writing when she stopped smoking. She stopped because her...
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All the world’s a lovely stage in First Folio’s ‘As You Like It’
On a clear and pleasant July evening, with just enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay, First Folio Theatre's pastoral setting gives the forest of Arden a run for...
Nothing succeeds like excess in the Shakes-spoof ‘Something Rotten!’
If the Reduced Shakespeare Company and Forbidden Broadway had a musical baby, it would probably look and sound a lot like "Something Rotten!" No insult intended to the appearance of...
‘In the Soundless Awe’: Terror and heroism in story of USS Indianapolis
The story of the USS Indianapolis perhaps remains best known in popular culture through "Jaws." Robert Shaw's Quint delivers an unforgettable monologue outlining his experiences in the shark-infested waters of...
‘The Nance’: Love hides behind double-entendres in 1937 New York
In 1937, Marc Blitzstein's famous pro-labor musical, "The Cradle Will Rock" (created through the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration) was shut down by federal authorities. Orson Welles...
Lively wit and tangled love interests in ‘London Assurance’
City Lit Theater's current staging of 1841's "London Assurance" marks the first local production of Dion Boucicault's comedy in 120 years. Felicitously, it opens just a month ahead of Definition...
Festival Theatre delivers a ‘Macbeth’ to the fates and the night sky
"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir." In that one line, William Shakespeare lays bare the central paradox of "Macbeth" — the play...
Political satire ‘King Ubu’ starts out loud and has nowhere to go
Alfred Jarry's 1896 absurd and grotesque "Ubu Roi" should be the perfect play for our current political moment. After all, it involves an impulsive vulgarian who, while utterly unacquainted with...
Our parents’ secrets, lost in the ‘Rain’
One of the markers of adulthood is recognizing that your parents had lives of their own that had nothing to do with you. Often you don't see it until at...
‘Her Majesty’s Will’ is a heady, silly romp that works
Nature may abhor a vacuum, but holes in the timeline offer catnip to authors of historical fiction. Where facts cannot be found, imagination runs wild. In "Her Majesty's Will," David...