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Mortal Engine
I saw GLOW, the short original on which Chunky Move’s one-hour MORTAL ENGINE , now playing at BAM, is based, two or three years ago. It was startling in its merger of technology and honed, conditioned, athletic movement. For one who experienced the progenitor, MORTAL ENGINE is less impactful in its technological wizardry – at…
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Last Tango in Berlin
LAST TANGO IN BERLIN is the current show by the sort of legendary Ute Lemper (even though I have never warmed to her recordings), tango themed, in an intimate venue, around the block from my office. Of course I was going to go: she is a consummate performer, technically flawless, with a good band, deft,…
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Where the Wild Things Are • Antichrist
If you want to see a film in which a child goes into the snow because his mother gives a higher priority to pleasing the man in her life, in which psychological and spiritual insight is attained through encounters in the wilderness with talking animals and acts of symbolic violence and dismemberment, followed by a…
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Bär-bõ-né
The eccentrically punctuated Bär-bõ-né (vaguely evoking its Avenue B location) is ostensibly Italian, and the menu bears out the claim – antipasti, primi, secondi – but there is something unmistakably different about the place. The pasta is a little denser than one is used to, the flavors a little earthier, the presentation paradoxically more stylish.…
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26 Seats
When I first moved to the East Village in New York City, 26 Seats was an okay bistro around the corner with decent but not terribly memorable food or ambiance. I tried it once, was indifferently satisfied, and moved on to other spots. Then I started to hear great things about it, noticed that its…
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After Miss Julie
It would be nice to see a production of Miss Julie in which Strindberg’s instructions for a naturalistic setting which exists largely in the wings, and that we see only a corner of, were actually followed. There are too many boxed-in containment units that improbably and without deviation follow the exact dimensions of the stage.…
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Lincoln Center Festival
Two from this year’s LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL: I saw Les Éphémères in two parts on Saturday and Sunday at Park Avenue Armory. There’s a lot I could write about it (of the French genius for extracting poetry from the quotidian, of the remarkable way in which the production cinematizes the stage, of the festival atmosphere…
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Everyday Rapture
EVERYDAY RAPTURE, now playing at 2econd Stage Theatre, is a reminder that some theatrical genres, and some specific works, arise from the urgent need for certain personalities possessed of particular talents to express themselves. Sherie Renee Scott has one of those personalities and a wealth of such talents (from singing to legerdemain), as well as…
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Exit the King
The Broadway revival of EXIT THE KING is an opportunity to revisit Ionesco‘s absurdist critique of the logical fallacies of political power and entitlement, even if, in this adapted version, the topical references are strained and overly obvious. Of the two leads, Geoffrey Rush comes off best. His mannerisms have always struck me as a…