All in Play
Greg Pierce’s new play “Cardinal” is bland and platitudinous, offering a superficial patina of hot-button discussion about economic and social change with little resolution or ideological point of view; too comfortable and vague, it falls back on easy tropes and says little that is new. Skip this one.
“The Homecoming Queen” by Ngozi Anyanwu is a mysterious and reconciliatory meditation on buried trauma, family history, and liberation into one’s true self through the story of a novelist returning to her native Nigeria to visit with her ailing father and confront ghosts from her past. Thematically taut but frustrating in its opacity, the play is a confident offering from an emerging playwright worth watching.
“Mankind” is a new satire from playwright Robert O’Hara (“Bootycandy”) that tackles gender, reproduction, fascism, and organized religion, but its intriguing and brilliant premise—a future in which women are extinct and men procreate—becomes too diffuse with too many targets.
“John Lithgow: Stories By Heart” is actor John Lithgow’s love letter to storytelling in which he performs two short stories by Ring Lardner and P.G. Wodehouse and shares a few of his own. Mr. Lithgow is charming as ever, and gives an impressive performance, but the show itself is disappointing and long-winded. I wanted more Lithgow, and less Lardner and Wodehouse.
British artist, actor, and lip-sync master Dickie Beau's "Re-member Me" is a hilarious and heartfelt ode to the very notion of acting and the gift of performance as he remembers and re-members the ghost of Ian Charleson's iconic performance as Hamlet using his signature style of drag-inspired human puppetry.
"After" is theatrical technician and creator Andrew Schneider's meditation on the mundanity of life, certainty of death, and the balance between; dangerous, dream-like, darkly comical, and deeply observational, it features stunning and inventive stagecraft worthy of putting Mr. Schneider on your radar.
In "The Gates", celebrated New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik brings to life stories about New York, writing, marriage, and parenting from his collected essays, weaving a delightful evening that is unexpectedly and refreshingly entertaining, witty, and poignant.
Mark Rylance shines as King Philippe descending into madness in “Farinelli and the King”, a light, present of a play granted a sumptuous, candlelit and music-infused production on Broadway. I recommend you catch a performance of this acclaimed and strictly limited import from Shakespeare’s Globe in London.
“The Children”, a new, dark tragicomedy by Lucy Kirkwood, offers an allegorical and humorous take on our doomed planet through the lens of the intergenerational guilt and responsibility of nuclear physicists in the wake of a disaster. An acclaimed transfer from London, the performances are pitch-perfect and the play both relevant and trenchant.
“Describe the Night” is an ambitious, epically sweeping new play by Rajiv Joseph that examines the relationship between observation and truth, storytelling and history. Deeply engrossing, complex, and taught, it spins a chilling reality and paints a portrait of the moral ambiguity that plagues modern Russia.
“The Parisian Woman” with Uma Thurman is a heavy handed and humorless political comedy that takes place now and captures everything we hate about politics, and the Trump era, in one 90-minute, 5-person play. Skip it, and watch the news instead.
“Meteor Shower”, an absurd new comedy, bears the unmistakable voice of its playwright, Steve Martin; Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Laura Benanti, and Jeremy Shamos give hilarious performances, but the play lacks the clever and smart depth Mr. Martin usually provides. The limited run is nearly sold out anyway, so don’t feel bad if you miss this one.
