Reviewed for GaySocialites.com.
Entries from October 2009
October 27, 2009
Review: Memphis
I love this show! Another show that Memphis director Christopher Ashley directed, All Shook Up, featured the early Elvis Presley song “That’s All Right.” That song is deceptively simple, but Ashley’s staging of it mined all of its implications, most vividly the racial tensions that lay under the success of Elvis, “the white man who [...]
October 12, 2009
Review: The Royal Family
I’ve really been looking forward to The Royal Family, more than any other show at the Friedman Theatre since Manhattan Theatre Club reopened it (as the Biltmore) in 2003. It’s a classic by Georgre Kaufman and Edna Ferber, and Kaufman is one of my favorite comic playwrights of all time. Although it feels like director [...]
October 10, 2009
Review: Hamlet
Jude Law’s a fine Hamlet, but he’s in a production that, aside from his passionate and crystal clear performance, is undistinguished. Yes, it’s great to see an actor as smart and energetic as Law in the role, but that alone is not reason enough to do Hamlet.
In this, Shakespeare’s most accomplished tragedy, the King of [...]
October 9, 2009
Review: Wishful Drinking
As celebrity one-person autobiographical shows on Broadway go, Wishful Drinking doesn’t suck. That may not be saying much, but thankfully Carrie Fisher’s abundant wit as a writer and her staunch refusal to take even her worst problems that seriously (for the purposes of this show anyway) make this a reasonably enjoyable evening in the theatre.
In [...]
October 7, 2009
Review: Superior Donuts
Is Tracy Letts a “Great American Playwright” in the tradition of Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams? Or is he simply a playwright with a gift for engaging, entertaining characters who gives them just enough grit to make his plays seem weighty?
The truth probably lies somewhere in between, and we probably won’t actually know until he’s [...]
October 4, 2009
Review: Love, Loss, and What I Wore
A friend who couldn’t remember the name of this show kept calling it “How I Lost My Shoes.” Oddly enough, that title captures the general tone of the show better than the more pretentious title it actually has. Someone else described it as “The Vagina Monologues for clothes,” and that’s pretty accurate, too (only playwrights [...]
October 2, 2009
Review: A Boy and His Soul
Boy, do I feel Coleman Domingo! A Boy and His Soul is an autobiographical one-man show, but it escapes almost every single pitfall of that genre. Domingo views his own story through the life-giving lens of soul music (which I love very nearly as much as he does), imbuing that story with a glowing, rich [...]
October 1, 2009
Review: A Steady Rain
Originally reviewed for Gay Socialites.com.
Make no mistake, A Steady Rain is the hottest ticket in town because it features two of the hottest male movie stars on the planet. Sure, the first few minutes I found myself mostly admiring Hugh Jackman’s broad figure and striking face and Daniel Craig’s square jaw and brooding demeanor.
After that, [...]
