NYTHEATRE REVIEWS

Therese Raquin: Potomac Theater Project, a company originally based in Washington, D.C. and now in residence at Atlantic Stage 2, presents a bare bones production of Therese Raquin, adapted for the stage by Neal Bell. With nothing on stage but two wooden chairs, director Jim Petosa utilizes a strong ensemble of eight actors and Bell's sharp text to tell this dark and erotic tale.
Read the full review by Shelley Molad

Night Lights: Italian director Dario D'Ambrosi has just introduced his own new genre of theatre (how often can you say that?), so in writing about Night Lights I'm put in the interesting position of assessing both the play and the unique way he's chosen to present it. Let's start with the latter topic, because it's far more interesting: it's "The Drive-In Stage," in which the audience watches the action on an empty city street from the comfort of a parked car (the vehicle is provided if you don't drive), with the audio piped in through headphones.
Read the full review by Russell M. Kaplan

Caucasian Chalk Circle: A maid named Grusha, played by Rachel Jablin, whose performance emanates sweetness, finds a child abandoned by her mistress, the Governor's Wife, played by Rachel Schwartz with despicable nose-in-the-air affectation, after an overthrow of the Governor's government. Grusha has the "terrible temptation to do good," and decides to care for the orphan. Her journey throughout the play is one where she must often choose between her own life's good and the good of the child. She comes to love the child that is represented by a small sack with a metal circle as its head, not merely as a burden, but as her own.
Read the full review by Mitchell Conway

Behind the Bullseye: If you're still holding onto that cherished myth that there's no such thing as a class system in the United States of America, well, hasten to the Ontological Theater to see Sponsored by Nobody's Behind the Bullseye and be prepared to have that myth blown to smithereens right before your eyes. This performance art investigation of consumer culture and all that it implies, as exemplified by the collisions of classes at a Target store in Brooklyn, is sharp and incisive and brilliantly funny.
Read the full review by Martin Denton

Third Wing : Claudio Tolcachir's Third Wing (Tercer Cuerpo) retains a feeling of a long improv piece, with interactions between quirky characters serving as the driving force. The play takes place in a crumbling office in an obsolete department; we gradually learn the secrets each of the office workers within is hiding. While the dramatic heft of this device is needed to move the plot along, the real delight lies in the nuance and insight the company brings to the banal space of the workplace.
Read the full review by Megin Jimenez

December: Guillermo Calderon's December (Diciembre) is ambitious in its scope, but relies equally on the strength of the characters established. The play takes place on Christmas Eve, 2014, in a Chile at vicious war with Peru and Bolivia. Such themes as national character, violence, racism, and history are passionately approached through the point of view of three siblings.
Read the full review by Megin Jimenez

Brief Shorts: I was lucky enough to catch the Xoregos Performing Company on the lawn in front of Central Park's Delacorte Theater. The sun was setting on a lovely day and seeing the Brief Shorts presented by the company was just the thing to begin a fine evening. They will be all over Manhattan and Queens in libraries and in parks through July 20th, so bring a picnic and even the kids. It's just the thing to fill an hour of your summer evening (or afternoon) with a bit of culture, color, and fun.
Read the full review by Nicole Higgins

Reed in the Wind: The initial story that serves as the foundation for Joe McDonald's Reed in the Wind has the potential to be riveting and original theatre. Unfortunately, the lasting impression that this current production leaves is just that: potential. Billed as an "unusual Irish love story," the author has offered up the bones for a unique play, grounded in varying degrees of love, violence, metamorphosis, and a quest for understanding. Yet by the time the excessive, and under-directed, scenes have come and gone, shrouding the earlier story with a less compelling subplot of religious intolerance, one is left wondering exactly what McDonald wants his audience to see.
Read the full review by Matt Roberson

Darling: One of the staples of the horror genre is the art of deception. Make your audience think one thing, and suddenly surprise them with another. While director-choreographer-performer Sue Kim utilizes this art in Darling it does not work to her advantage.
Read the full review by E. Michael Lockley

The Trouble With Doug: a Modern-Day Metamorphosis: The Trouble with Doug, a new musical by Will Aronson (music and book) and Daniel Maté (lyrics and book), is billed as a "modern-day Metamorphosis," referring to the famous story by Kafka in which a man awakens one morning to discover that he's turned into a giant bug. Here, the title character turns into a human-sized slug, and the transformation doesn't just happen overnight. But don't come to this remarkable and heartfelt new show expecting either Kafkaesque alienation and angst or snarky postmodern spoof.
Read the full review by Martin Denton

The Full Monty: The Full Monty at Paper Mill Playhouse, directed by Mark S. Hoebee with choreography by Denis Jones, has a fun, playful cast with great comedic timing and—pardon the saying—great big balls. Though overlong at almost three hours and hampered by Terrence McNally's meandering book, The Full Monty is an enjoyable romp.
Read the full review by David Ian Lee

Twelfth Night: It was only a matter of time before the actress who shares a name with Shakespeare's wife appeared in one of his plays. And what better choice for recent Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway than to play Viola in Twelfth Night, or What You Will, the Bard's romantic comedy of mistaken identity and cross-dressing? With Hathaway, director Daniel Sullivan has assembled a cast so exiting that it could only be for a limited summer run at the Delacorte. Raul Esparza and Audra McDonald are Orsino and Olivia to Hathaway's Viola; Michael Cumpsty is the puritanical Malvolio; David Pittu is Feste the Clown; Jay O. Sanders and Julie White are the feisty Sir Toby Belch and Maria.
Read the full review by David Gordon