Tweet this article !

                                                                                                                                           Dressed in a well-cut tuxedo, and sporting a short-cropped hairstyle, Jessica Walker has the appearance of a handsomely feminine male youth. It’s a fitting image for The Girl I Left Behind Me, her exploration of male impersonators that she wrote with her director, Neil Bartlett. Unfortunately, while the history she unveils is often fascinating, her performance is not as engaging.

Tweet this article !

                                                                                                                               There are pictures missing from several of the frames that hang suspended in the air on invisible walls. This clever component of Brian Prather’s set design for The Memory Show – presented by Transport Group at The Duke on West 42 Street under Joe Calarco’s direction – serves as a telling metaphor for the early onset of Alzheimer’s in this slender yet engaging new musical.

Tweet this article !

                                                                                                                Mark Nadler's unbridled enthusiasm for the music and historical circumstances surrounding Weimar-era cabaret is a joy to behold. In his solo musical revue I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Musik from the Weimar and Beyond, his face positively lights up as he describes the songwriters he so admires and sings a range of material either from the period or heavily influenced by it.

Tweet this article !

                                                                                                               Of all the heap big divas surviving today, there is still no one to approach the eminence of … Barbra. Sure, you have your Madonnas and Chers and Bette Midlers and Diana Rosses, along with younger upstarts like Beyoncé and Rihanna, but there is something about La Streisand’s achievements... 

Tweet this article !

                                                                                        Pop icon Cyndi Lauper and Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein have teamed up for the fabulously entertaining new Broadway musical Kinky Boots, at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre. Based on the 2005 movie of the same name – which was in turn inspired by a real-life story – the show has a buoyant energy that helps to cover up some of its imperfections.  The plot follows

Tweet this article !

                                                                                                                 Bill Irwin and David Shiner are performing a master class in the art of clowning in Old Hats, at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Superb comic timing, marvelous physicality and a nostalgic nod to the age of vaudeville are all on display in this highly entertaining show, directed by Tina Landau.

Tweet this article !

                                                                                                                   Were Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung in love? That is the question that writer/director Ken Wydro explores in his new play, Secrets: The Untold Story of Sigmund Freud & Carl Jung. Based upon the correspondence between these two giants in the field of psychoanalysis, the play lays out an intriguing premise, even if the production is not as compelling as one might hope.  

Tweet this article !

                                  As the old saying goes, "Seeing is believing." That may not be 100% the case in the plot of Love Song, a play at The Seeing Place Theater --- no, it's not a musical. But it IS about different forms of love, in its way. And if you are looking for committed, talented theater people who bring to life an unusual story for an affordable price (How does twelve dollars sound?), then The Seeing Place must be the place to go.

Tweet this article !

                                                                                   Fifty years after her death, "Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe" is still alive, though now she is living in the body of Louisa Bradshaw who wonderfully portrays the famed icon in Siren's Heart...Norma Jean & Marilyn in Purgatory, written by Walt Stepp, who also composed the original music/lyrics, and directed by Lissa Moira. I saw this show last year when it premiered at Theater for the New City and a year later, it's still great!

Tweet this article !

                                                                                     Only human cloning would allow a reviewer or theatre fan(atic) —even one with roller skates or a private helicopter --- to see more than a small number of theatre offerings in the The NYC International Fringe Festival, in its 16^th year of summer marathon of theatre offerings.  Presenting many dozens of shows over 17 days, it is the theatrical equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. This latest round-up looks at three odd musicals: