‘THE BALUSTERS’: (clockwise from left) Ricardo Chavira, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Richard Thomas, Anika Noni Rose, Jeena Yi, Marylouise Burke & Kayli Carter. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

THE BALUSTERS
By David Lindsay-Abaire
Directed by Kenny Leon
Through June 21, 2026
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th St.
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2025-26-season/the-balusters

By Scott Harrah

Everyone in Vernon Point thinks they are progressive and open-minded. That is the first misconception and the most revealing one in this blisteringly funny look at bigotry, bias, and 21st-century culture wars. The play draws big laughs even as it cuts close to the bone. In The Balusters, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire sets the scene for a neighborhood association meeting where civility feels carefully staged. At first, the group debates mundane topics like safety, zoning, and aesthetics. Soon, the tone shifts.

What begins as a polite discussion about community values quickly turns into a competition over who can sound the most enlightened, while revealing just the opposite. Brooks (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) recounts a visit to a local store and describes a man’s glare as “an I-hate-gay-people look.” The comment sets off a wave of narrow-minded conclusions about religion, identity, and intent. Vernon Point may be fictional, but The Balusters mirrors modern American tensions around prejudice and identity. As a result, the satire lands with uncomfortable precision. Laughter ripples through the audience. Often, a brief hush follows as the implications sink in.

Civic pride and prejudice

The play opens in the stately Victorian home of Kyra (Anika Noni Rose), a newcomer eager to make a good impression. She and her housekeeper Luz (Maria-Christina Oliveras) prepare for the meeting. Luz knows the neighborhood well because she has worked for several families, including association president Elliot (Richard Thomas).

Kyra’s hopes for a pleasant evening dissolve quickly. First to arrive is Melissa (Jeena Yi), the sharp-tongued vice president, whose awkward misstep with Luz sets the tone. Penny (Marylouise Burke), a well-meaning but often oblivious longtime secretary, follows. Then comes Ruth (Margaret Colin), the blunt and dry-witted treasurer who says what others avoid.

Soon, the room fills with clashing personalities. Isaac (Ricardo Chavira) bristles at political correctness. Alan (Michael Esper) tries to be the “nice guy” but retreats when challenged. Willow (Kayli Carter) polices language with earnest intensity. Brooks observes it all with dry, knowing detachment. Elliot, the self-appointed guardian of the neighborhood’s traditions, arrives ready to preside. As Brooks puts it, “It’s not too late, Kyra. You can still escape.”

Biases simmer beneath the surface

At first, the meeting sticks to routine business. Then an innocuous conversation about safety and whether or not to put up a stoplight exposes deeper biases. What begins as practical concern quickly turns personal. A passing remark about suspicious activity spirals into a debate over racial profiling. Meanwhile, attempts at inclusive language spark their own tensions. The terminology some use starts petty squabbles. For example, one character pushes back against being labeled “Latinx,” calling it “retro woke bulls**t.” Another character objects to the term “lame” as being “ableist.”

The script spares no group. It shows how quickly good intentions give way to defensiveness.

Gavel down, gloves off

Under Kenny Leon’s direction, tensions build steadily before everything unravels into something far messier. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire’s rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue creates strong momentum. Punchlines land in quick succession and often overlap, as if the characters are racing to outdo one another. The staging turns Kyra’s stately home into a pressure cooker. As a result, polite conversation gives way to barely concealed hostility. Each character struggles to maintain composure.

The ensemble is uniformly strong. Anika Noni Rose anchors the production with quiet authority and holds her ground as the room spirals around her. Richard Thomas balances Elliot’s easy charm with an undercurrent of control. Carl Clemons-Hopkins delivers the evening’s driest humor. Marylouise Burke finds both comedy and pathos in Penny’s well-meaning obliviousness. Margaret Colin is especially sharp as Ruth and lands her barbed observations with precision. Together, the cast maintains cohesion even as their characters pull in opposite directions.

Nothing off-limits

By the end, The Balusters shows that nothing is off-limits. Early jabs at anti-fur activism, introduced with Ruth’s arrival, establish the tone for a play that steadily widens its target. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire takes aim at everything from debates over Muslims and gays to casual bigoted perceptions of Jews, Black, and Latino communities. As a result, the play becomes an equal-opportunity lampoon where no one is spared. The humor is relentless and at times uncomfortable. It underscores how true to life the story feels.

Few recent Broadway comedies land laughs this consistently or this uncomfortably.

The Balusters plays like a sharply observed slice of American life. The effort to be thoughtful, inclusive, and aware often veers into something far messier. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire captures both good intentions and high-wire tension in a culture that talks over itself. Every word is scrutinized and every misstep is amplified. In Vernon Point, everyone wants to get it right. That may be the problem. David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Balusters may be the funniest and most incisive look yet at political correctness in American life.

Published April 21, 2026
Reviewed at press preview on April 19, 2026.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: (seated) Jeena Yi, Marylouise Burke & (standing) Michael Esper & Richard Thomas. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Anika Noni Rose & Carl Clemons-Hopkins. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Margaret Colin, Michael Esper & Jeena Yi. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Kayli Carter, Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Anika Noni Rose & Jeena Yi. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Anika Noni Rose & Marylouise Burke. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’ (collage, left to right): Margaret Colin & Maria-Christina Oliveras. Photos: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Ricardo Chivira & Margaret Colin. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘THE BALUSTERS’: Richard Thomas & Anika Noni Rose. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

The post ‘The Balusters’: ‘Woke’ wars on the block appeared first on StageZine.

‘BUG’: (left to right) Carrie Coon, Jennifer Engstrom, Steve Key & Namir Smallwood. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

BUG
By Tracy Letts
Directed by David Cromer
Through March 8, 2026
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47^th Street
(212) 239-6200
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2025-26-season/bug/

By Scott Harrah

Bug may sound like the title of a schlocky 1970s exploitation horror film, but it is, in fact, a solid psychological thriller and one of the earlier plays by Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning playwright Tracy Letts. Originally produced in Chicago in 1996, the play later ran for nearly a year at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York from 2004 to 2005. Now revived on Broadway, Bug arrives in a riveting production that proves its unsettling power has not diminished. Nearly three decades later, the play remains a socially relevant suspense drama focused on drug abuse, paranoia, conspiracy theories, and psychological collapse.

Motel room from hell

The action unfolds almost entirely inside a rundown Oklahoma motel room—something like Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho relocated to the Great Plains. “White Lotus” star and Tony nominee Carrie Coon (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) plays Agnes White, a waitress with a drug problem and a troubled past. Coon’s portrayal of a woman in free fall is instantly powerful and haunting. It is difficult to look away as Agnes spirals, her profanity-laced dialogue revealing someone crying out for help while lacking the means to save herself.

Agnes soon meets Peter Evans (Namir Smallwood), a quirky drifter and Gulf War veteran who seems highly educated, his elaborate vocabulary hinting at intelligence, yet also mentally erratic. From there, the two develop a romantic attraction. As they grow closer, their relationship intensifies, revealing psychological fractures and dark secrets on both sides.

The exes

Two additional characters further complicate Agnes’ fragile reality. Her ex-partner and drug dealer, R.C. (Jennifer Engstrom), reinforces dependency while maintaining control through access to drugs, money, and a false sense of protection.

Agnes is also shaken by the sudden reappearance of her ex-husband Jerry Goss (Steve Key), a loud, abusive presence from her past. Jerry represents the danger Agnes already understands—immediate, physical, and unmistakably real—a threat that makes the play’s later paranoia feel less like a rupture than an extension of what she already knows.

Paranoia or reality?

Much of Bug centers on Peter’s belief that the motel room is infested with bugs—first bed bugs, later parasitic aphids implanted beneath the skin. Agnes soon adopts these fears as her own. As the story progresses, however, it becomes clear that neither Peter nor Agnes has a firm grasp on reality. Matters grow even more unsettling with the arrival of Dr. Sweet (Randall Arney), a mysterious figure claiming to be a military doctor who appears to understand both Peter and the alleged infestation.

Fine ensemble

With the action confined to a single space, Bug depends heavily on its ensemble to anchor the production.

Carrie Coon’s Agnes is both dynamic and arresting, capturing a woman whose loneliness and fragility leave her susceptible to nearly everyone in her path. Back in 2012, when Coon appeared in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, this reviewer described her performance as Honey as “manic virtuosity from start to finish.” Fourteen years later, Ms. Coon has sharpened her skills even further, delivering one of this Broadway season’s most physically punishing and relentlessly demanding performances. She is very much an actor at the top of her game.

As Peter, Namir Smallwood brings skillfully restrained and unnerving conviction to a role that demands sustained psychological pressure. His performance balances intimidation with moments of intimacy, allowing Peter’s beliefs to feel sincere even as they grow increasingly outlandish and chart his descent into madness. Together, Ms. Coon and Mr. Smallwood sustain the play’s escalating tension, their dynamic tightening as skepticism gives way to shared certainty.

Great supporting cast

The supporting cast complements the ensemble with equally assured performances.

Jennifer Engstrom gives R.C. a hard-boiled edge that never fully eclipses her concern for Agnes. Though clearly a corrosive influence, Ms. Engstrom suggests a long history of loyalty beneath the bravado. Her R.C. feels less like a villain than a deeply compromised lifeline to the outside world—someone capable of care, but unequipped to offer real help.

Steve Key is sharply effective as Jerry Goss, playing Agnes’ ex-husband as a loud, domineering presence driven by entitlement rather than affection. His scenes crackle with aggression, while Randall Arney’s Dr. Sweet provides a cooler counterbalance. Mr. Arney’s composed authority briefly promises clarity before the story veers toward a more tragic conclusion.

Superb direction and set design

Bug relies heavily on pacing and atmosphere, and director David Cromer keeps the tension tightly coiled throughout, never allowing the production to tip into cheap sensationalism. Takeshi Kata’s scenic design turns the motel room into more than a mere setting, while Heather Gilbert’s lighting and Josh Schmidt’s eerie sound design heighten the sense of claustrophobia and psychological confinement. Together, the visual and sonic elements reinforce the characters’ unraveling and the play’s pervasive sense of dread.

Quietly compelling revival

In the end, Bug proves far more complex than its pulpy title might suggest. While it may not rank as Tracy Letts’ finest play, what begins with the trappings of genre drama ultimately unfolds as a stark examination of belief, isolation, and human fragility. Written long before such thinking felt culturally familiar, Bug reveals Letts’ understanding of how fear can evolve into rigid, all-encompassing belief—an insight he would later expand in August: Osage County, his portrait of a very different, yet equally fractured, American family. For all its discomfort, Bug proves quietly compelling in this Broadway revival.

Published January 11, 2026
Reviewed at press performance on January 9, 2026.

‘BUG’: Carrie Coon. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG’: Namir Smallwood. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG’: Steve Key & Namir Smallwood. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG’: (top photo) Jennifer Engstrom & Carrie Coon. (Bottom) Namir Smallwood. Photos: Matthew Murphy.

‘BUG”: (top) Steve Key & Namir Smallwood. (Bottom) Carrie Coon. Photos; Matthew Murphy.

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‘PUNCH’: (left to right) Sam Robards, Victoria Clark, Camilla Canó-Flaviá & Will Harrison. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

PUNCH
By James Graham
Based on the book Right from Wrong by Jacob Dunne
Directed by Adam Penford
Through November 2, 2025
Manhattan Theatre Club
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47^th Street
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/2025-26-season/punch/

By Scott Harrah

Punch is an intense drama based on the true story of Jacob Dunne (Will Harrison), a British man who killed another with one single punch. The play is also based on Mr. Dunne’s autobiographical book Right from Wrong, telling how a moment of violence in a small English town changed his life forever.

The crime

The play opens as Jacob, a 19-year-old working-class guy, stands on a bridge over the River Trent in Nottingham, U.K. Jacob lives for drugs, parties and violence. He gets into a fight with James Hodgkinson, a 28-year-old trainee paramedic. The audience never actually sees the victim. A single punch kills James, and Jacob’s world is immediately shattered.

After a trial, Jacob is convicted of manslaughter and goes to prison. In a strange twist, he is offered a chance to participate in a “restorative justice” program. He is asked to meet with James Hodgkinson’s parents, Joan (Victoria Clark) and David (Sam Robards). This is an attempt to give Jacob a sense of mercy and rehabilitation while helping the victim’s parents heal emotionally.

Restorative justice

The second act chronicles Jacob’s journey through the restorative justice program. He first starts writing letters to the victim’s parents and eventually has an in-person meeting with them. With the help of caseworker Nicola (Camila Canó-Flaviá), Jacob must come to terms with the gravity and scale of his crime. In the process, Joan and David learn more about the details of the night their son was killed, allowing them to move past the trauma and have a sense of closure.

Does the message work for U.S. audiences?

Considering that Punch is a British play, the idea of restorative justice might work across the pond. However, in 2025 America, the concept on the surface seems too idealistic in our divided nation, one in which mass school shootings and political violence are so common that many feel inured by the news about them. Or could the concept work here? Many believe in reform for the criminal justice system in the U.S. due to a high incarceration rate, overcrowded jails and the need for decriminalization of misdemeanors. So, restorative justice is a concept that has both pros and cons, depending on one’s political views.

Razor-sharp direction of fine ensemble

Director Adam Penford does an outstanding job directing the fine ensemble. With unique staging—including a metal bridge—and great sound design, this production conveys the requisite sense of violence and danger in this dark setting.

Will Harrison as Jacob is consistently brilliant. He is the narrator, tortured protagonist and vulnerable all at once, and has the unique ability to make us feel true empathy for a not-so-likeable character.

Equally noteworthy is Victoria Clark as Joan, the victim’s mother. She never comes across as mawkish or saccharine, and conveys a true sense of wanting to forgive the man who killed her son. Sam Robards is also sublime as the husband and grieving father, frustrated by the whole bleak situation.

The ensemble cast members often take on multiple roles, and do so with deft precision.

Punch is an incisive drama packed with emotion and a sobering, thought-provoking message about crime, punishment and the criminal justice system in both the U.K. and USA.

Published October 9, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on October 4, 2025

‘PUNCH’: Cody Kostro & Will Harrison. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘PUNCH’: Victoria Clark and Sam Robards. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘PUNCH’: James Harrison. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

The post ‘Punch’: ‘Restorative justice’ in the U.K. appeared first on StageZine.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: (Collage, left) Lea Salonga & (collage, right) Bernadette Peters. Photos: Matthew Murphy.

STEPHEN SONDHEIM’S OLD FRIENDS
Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Devised by Cameron Mackintosh
Choreography by Stephen Mear
Direction & musical staging by Matthew Bourne
Through June 29, 2025
Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47^th Street
https://sondheimoldfriends.com/

By Scott Harrah

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is a not a “new” effort. Instead, it is a compendium revue of 40 songs from 14 classic musicals, performed by a cast of 19 actors. The show was originally devised by Cameron McIntosh and directed and staged by Matthew Bourne. Stars and featured performers include Sondheim veteran and three-time Tony Award winner Bernadette Peters, Tony winners Lea Salonga and Beth Leavel, among others.

The late, great Stephen Sondheim’s works have been featured in many musical revues. Previously, his songbook specialty musicals were produced in 1977 in Side by Side by Sondheim, and in 1999 in Putting It Together. Mr. Sondheim’s last Broadway musical medley show was Sondheim on Sondheim back in 2010, starring the late Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat, Leslie Kritzer, and more.

How Sondheim changed musical theater

Mr. Sondheim remains a legend long after his death in 2021. True Sondheim aficionados are downright fanatical about his contributions to American musical theater.

“His skill of the rhyme and key changes are second to none,” the late StageZine.com critic David NouNou wrote in a review of Sondheim on Sondheim.

“He has changed the face of musical theater and turned it into a serious adult art form. If he would have written nothing more than simply the lyrics to musicals such as West Side Story (music by Leonard Bernstein), and Gypsy (music by Jule Styne), he would still be in the pantheon of musical prodigies, for they are two of the most brilliant and perfect scores ever written. However, Sondheim wrote full scores for countless musicals, and his shows have been awarded the Tony five times as Best Musical of the Year. They are A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to The Forum, Company, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Passion. Not to mention the ones that were nominated but didn’t win, such as Sunday in the Park with George, Pacific Overtures, Into the Woods, and my own favorite musical of all time, Follies.”

Songs from these musicals are included in Old Friends.

Sondheim’s hit parade

There is no true narrative included in the show. It’s not a “jukebox musical,” after all. Instead, a short prologue written by James Lapine is introduced in the beginning by Ms. Peters and Ms. Salonga.  Next, the two stars sing “Side by Side,” and then join Jason Pennycooke and Gavin Lee to perform “Comedy Tonight.” The titular “Company” from the 1970 musical Company follows.

Ms. Leavel, Bonnie Langford and Joanna Riding all team up for a rousing rendition of another Company gem, the patter song “You Could Drive a Person Crazy.”  “Getting Married Today,” from the same show, is a particularly fun number featuring Ms. Riding, Kevin Earley, Maria Wirries and company.

Bernadette Peters shines

Bernadette Peters performed in several Broadway productions of Sondheim shows. Her name is often synonymous with Sondheim’s work, and one can see why based on her highly emotional depth when singing such standards as “Send in the Clowns” and “Losing My Mind.” Granted, although her voice sounds strained at certain times, she still brings passion and poignancy to each lyric she sings, and the near-operatic quality remains intact.

Ms. Peters is lots of fun in “Hello, Little Girl” from Into the Woods, and Jacob Dickey is hilarious as the beefy Big Bad Wolf. In addition, she’s also one of the funniest aging strippers when singing “You Gotta Get a Gimmick” from Gypsy with Ms. Leavel and Ms. Riding. As the middle-aged stripper Mazeppa, Ms. Peters even plays the trumpet and gets huge laughs from the audience.

Lea Salonga’s incredible range

Equally important, Lea Salonga shows incredible range in a variety of songs, including her marvelous duet with Ms. Peters, “Children Will Listen” to a zany twist on Ms. Lovett from Sweeney Todd, singing the darkly comic “The Worst Pies in London.” What’s more, Ms. Salonga is at the top her game (and vocal range) while singing a gorgeous “Somewhere” from West Side Story—a golden oldie that creates frisson and sends aesthetic chills up one’s spine. She is at her outstanding best when belting out Mama Rose’s signature song “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy.

Ms. Peters and Ms. Salonga are in perfect harmony on “Being Alive” and “Side by Side” at the end of the second act.

Other cast performance surprises

There is so much amazing talent in the show. It’s almost impossible to mention them all without being verbose. That said, another performer truly stands out here: Beth Leavel, especially when singing “The Ladies Who Lunch” from Company. Ms. Leavel has all the flamboyant mannerisms and clipped vocal phraseology down to a science. She sings with the wit and sarcasm of a jaded Manhattan woman, bored with the wealthy elite. Elaine Stritch originated the song in Company.

Also noteworthy is the incredible Bonnie Langford and her razzle-dazzle take on “I’m Still Here” from Follies.  She brings back to glorious life the story of a show-biz “has been” who, despite many career ups and downs, has survived the travails of Hollywood and Broadway.

Great direction, choreography, costumes & sets

Director Matthew Bourne does an excellent job with this amazing cast and these timeless Sondheim treasures. Jill Parker’s gorgeous costumes and Matt Kinley’s engaging sets evoke the glorious world of Manhattan sophisticates from Company while also capturing the dark whimsy of Mr. Sondheim’s more daring musicals like Sweeney Todd. Stephen Mear’s vivacious choreography pulls out all the proverbial stops, especially when several cast members are all onstage for the showstopping numbers.

Old Friends is a marvelously entertaining and often poignant tribute to Stephen Sondheim and the unforgettable music and songs he created that will live on for many generations to come.

Published May 26, 2025
Reviewed at performance on May 22, 2025

‘OLD FRIENDS’: (Collage, left & right) Beth Leavel. Photos: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Lea Salonga. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Bonnie Langford. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Jacob Dickey & Bernadette Peters. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Joanna Riding & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Beth Leavel, Bernadette Peters & Joanna Riding. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Jeremy Secomb & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Kyle Selig, Daniel Yearwood & Jacob Dickey. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘OLD FRIENDS’: Jacob Dickey & Bernadette Peters. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

The post ‘Old Friends’: Stephen Sondheim’s greatest hits appeared first on StageZine.

‘EUREKA DAY’: Thomas Middleditch, Amber Gray, Bill Irwin, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz & Jessica Hecht. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

EUREKA DAY
By Jonathan Spector
Directed by Anna D. Shapiro
Through February 16, 2025
Manhattan Theatre Club
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 W 47th Street
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/shows/24-25-season/eureka-day/

By Scott Harrah

The American culture wars and the divisive anti-vaccine movement collide at a private school in Berkeley, California in Jonathan’s Spector’s provocative Eureka Day. The show was originally produced in 2018. It has played in different venues across the country as well in London at the Old Vic. Eureka Day is an often hilarious but politically charged dark comedy about “woke” politics, social justice and the anti-vaccine movement that is both topical and uncomfortable to watch in these tense times in America.

The show starts out with a group of parents on the executive committee at Eureka Day, a progressive private school. The group sits around discussing “politically correct” terminology such as “transracial adoptee” and “all gender bathrooms.” It’s the type of “inclusive” chatter that sends conservative TV media hosts into a frenzy.

Anti-vaccine vitriol

There’s a sudden twist when group leader Don (Bill Irwin) reads aloud a letter from a local health official warning of an outbreak of mumps. A Eureka Day student has been confirmed as having the disease. Suddenly, chaos ensues when everyone discusses the public health doctor’s demand that any child who has not received the MMR vaccine must not be allowed to attend school unless he or she has been vaccinated.

Suzanne (Jessica Hecht) is especially opposed to mandating vaccines at school. While Suzanne on the surface appears to be a stereotypical affluent Bay Area liberal, she is actually a control freak. She immediately tears into others on the committee that disagree with her, including Carina (Amber Gray) and full-time dad Eli (Thomas Middleditch). Suddenly, their bubble of “social justice” and left-wing coastal elitism becomes as nasty and polarizing as anything on right-wing TV news programs.

An online livestream discussion about the mumps outbreak is one of the highlights of Eureka Day. As Don and group leaders discuss mumps and its symptoms, the online chat comments—projected onto a screen behind the cast—veer into madness, with parents ranting about alternative medicine, anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and some calling others “Nazis.” It’s hilarious and disturbing but so true to life. What’s so illuminating and shocking is how these upper-middle-class, well-educated parents of Eureka students are just as vile and nauseating as any thread of online trolls.

A prophetic play

Jonathan Spector’s play, first produced nearly seven years ago in 2018, was remarkably prescient, considering it was originally mounted two years before the COVID-19 pandemic. While it’s not exactly a perfect story, it is amazing how much of Mr. Spector’s play was an omen of things to come in 2020. He brilliantly captures all the conflicts that arise from misinformation, individual choice and the greater responsibility of community leaders protecting the public when a disease starts spreading rapidly.

Director Anna D. Shapiro does a nice job of helping the cast shine amongst all the pandemonium. Bill Irwin is brilliant as Don, the head of the school who loves to quote the poet Rumi incessantly. Jessica Hecht is wonderful as the annoying, entitled Suzanne. Amber Gray as Carina is a great foil for Suzanne, and her scenes with Ms. Hecht are incredibly tense and riveting. Thomas Middleditch as Eli, Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz as Meiko and Eboni Flowers as Winter are all equally powerful in their respective roles.

Eureka Day is hardly holiday fare. It rings with contemporary veracity about the ugly divisions in America and is not a play for anyone anxious about historical revisionists and science deniers who might wreak havoc in this country in the near future.

Published December 16, 2024
Reviewed at press preview performance on December 14, 2024

‘EUREKA DAY’: Bill Irwin & Jessica Hecht. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘EUREKA DAY’: Amber Gray, Bill Irwin & Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘EUREKA DAY’: Thomas Middleditch. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘EUREKA DAY’: Amber Gray & Chelsea Yakura-Kurtz. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

The post ‘Eureka Day’: Anti-vax chaos at Berkeley school appeared first on StageZine.

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: (left to right) Molly Ranson, Nael Nacer & Aria Shahghasemi. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
By Joshua Harmon
Through March 3, 2024
Directed by David Cromer
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47^th Street
www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com
 

By Scott Harrah

Antisemitism unfortunately became a worldwide crisis in the wake of the Israel-Gaza conflict when the terrorist group Hamas broke the ceasefire with Israel on October 7, 2023 by attacking the Jewish state in a one-day massacre that is to date the worst slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust. However, hatred and violence aimed at Jewish people was a problem long before Joshua Harmon wrote Prayer for the French Republic, a three-hour epic about a French Jewish family’s centuries-long battle with antisemitism. The show was first mounted Off-Broadway in 2022, nearly two years before the current Israel-Hamas war began. Now on Broadway, the play is more timely, topical and all too real—one of the best dramas in at least a decade.

The story unfolds in a Paris apartment as Marcelle Salomon Benhamou (Betsy Aidem) is chatting with Molly (Molly Ranson), a distant American cousin visiting France on a study abroad program. She tells Molly about their convoluted family tree and how the Salomon family has been in France for centuries, with a renowned piano business on Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, run by Marcelle’s octogenarian father, Pierre (Richard Masur). As a secular American, Molly feels almost no connection to her Jewish roots. Marcelle discusses the Salomon family’s Jewish roots and many tragedies—some living through the Nazi occupation of France while others had the misfortune of living in Poland and Russia and were killed in concentration camps. Marcelle and her brother Patrick (Anthony Edwards) grew up with a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. She explains that her brother Patrick is mostly secular. Although Marcelle wasn’t orthodox, she is married to Charles Benhamou, a devout Sephardic man who grew up in French Algeria in the colonial era but had to leave once Algeria gained independence in 1962 because the country was no longer safe for Jews. Marcelle is a psychiatrist and has two grown children who still live at home, including son Daniel (Aria Shahghasemi), a math teacher who proudly wears a yarmulke at all times. Daughter Elodie (Francis Benhamou) is a lost soul but has strong opinions on Zionism and her Jewish identity.

When the rest of the Benhamou family arrives home, we see that Daniel has a bloody face and has been beaten in an antisemitic attack. Marcelle feels Daniel has made himself a target and could avoid violence by simply wearing a baseball cap to cover up his yarmulke.

The story is also told via flashbacks. Although most of the play takes place in 2016/2017,  there are flashback scenes to 1944 when Patrick and Marcelle’s great-grandparents Adolphe Salomon (Daniel Oreskes) and Irma Salomon (Nancy Robinette) are living in hiding in Paris during the Nazi occupation—having miraculously eluded the Gestapo. They are running the family piano store while they wait patiently for their son and grandson to return from a concentration camp.

The play begins in 2016 when Donald Trump was running for president of the United States, and right-wing nationalist candidate Marine LePen was running for president in France one year later in 2017. The Benhamou family believes LePen may eventually become president and Jews in France will be in grave danger as a result. Much of the play deals with Charles (Nael Nacer), a successful physician with a thriving practice, and his desire to move the entire family to Israel because he believes France is no longer a safe country for Jews. Marcelle has spent her whole life in France and does not wish to leave her aging father behind, but as antisemitic incidents in Paris continue to be on the rise, she is left with a tough choice.

Although the play has some true flaws and is long and rambling in parts, playwright Joshua Harmon’s tale is always fascinating and is must-see theatre for anyone. Director David Cromer keeps the action flowing at a rapid-fire pace, but should have done some tighter editing in act three. There are some amazing performances here as the cast works together as a cohesive ensemble.  Standouts include Nael Nacer and his gripping portrayal of Charles, the husband and father who will do anything to keep his family safe and is willing to risk everything to relocate to Israel. Molly Ranson does a fine job playing the show’s most unlikeable character Molly, the naïve, misinformed American cousin who knows almost nothing about Judaism and dismisses her roots as simply being “of Jewish extraction.” Ms. Ranson isn’t afraid to portray Molly as a clueless yet gutsy twentysomething who speaks her mind, even when her comments are inappropriate. The play’s best performance is given by Francis Benhamou as Elodie, an angry misanthrope who steals the show when she tells off Molly with her vitriolic rant about “ahistorical” young people who don’t read and get all their historical information from social media.

Anyone in America—especially New York City—who has Jewish friends or family knows these are some of the darkest days Jews have experienced since World War II. Perhaps that is why Prayer for the French Republic is so sobering and truth-telling right now, at a time when the very existence of Jewish people is being maligned by misinformed media and a growing faction of bigots on college campuses and social media. This is as epic as another Jewish stage saga, Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy; and as emotionally volatile and searing as Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. Yet it has an urgent message that most plays do not: Jewish people in 2024 are afraid and feel nowhere is safe; not France, Europe, America, Israel—or anywhere.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 9, 2024
Reviewed at January 5, 2024 press performance.

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Betsy Aidem & Molly Ranson. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Molly Ranson & Francis Benhamou. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Aria Shahghasemi & Molly Ranson. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Nancy Robinette, Daniel Oreskes, Richard Masur, Ari Brand & Ethan Haberfield. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

The post ‘Prayer for the French Republic’ a divine epic appeared first on StageZine.

‘JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING: Brittany Adebumola & Dominique Thorne. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING
Written by Jocelyn Bioh
Directed by Whitney White
Through November 19, 2023
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street

(212-239-6200), www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com

By David NouNou

It’s a busy day at Jaja’s African Hair Braiding salon. The events take place in a 12-hour period from opening time at 9am in the morning to 9pm closing time on a very hot day in Harlem. We know the clients and their relentless demands; that’s nothing new. What is new is getting a better understanding of the hardworking women that are on their feet all day long working in this shop. These working women are all different and each one has her own aspirations.

For the most part, nothing special is going on in the shop (except for the unique design of David Zinn’s exceptional authentic set) other than the masterpieces being created. The specialty is the showcasing of the women themselves. They are indeed all talented in hair braiding. There is the usual bickering, the usual dishing, and the uncomfortable awkward situation of (whether you are a woman or a man) going to a hair-dressing salon or a barbershop and deciding you want to change the person who has been doing your hair and the dilemma it presents. That one particular incident is a sidesplitting moment in the play. Amidst all the hilarity, there is a curve ball thrown in to illustrate the complexities that life can present to these women.

Some of these women are African immigrants: Miriam (Brittany Adebumola) is from Sierra Leone. She has been here for a few years to make money and returning back to her country to return here with the daughter she left behind. Owner Jaja (Somi Kakoma) has been here for many years and is getting married today to a white man, and her daughter Marie (Dominique Thorne)— who has been running the shop—has great misgivings about the event. Bea (Zenzi Williams) has been working at Jaja’s for more than 10 years and dreams of opening her own top-notch salon, and she has a meltdown scene with her best friend, Aminata (Nana Mensah), for taking back an unfaithful husband.

Although this is an ensemble piece, there are genuine performances worth noting: Ms. Adebumola is a standout in retelling her life story up to this point, and is simply wonderful. Ms. Williams is indomitable and Ms. Mensah is formidable as the feuding friends. Maechi Aharanwa as Ndidi, the youngest of the stylist, is terrific as the “can’t we all just get along” member of the group. Kalyne Coleman does a mean Beyonce after she gets her hair braided like Miss B. Lakisha May plays three distinct customers to perfection.

The one flaw in the show is Whitney White’s inconsistent direction. She takes time in fleshing out and presenting the characters, but I’m sure that is due to playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s writing. However, Ms. Bioh has packed and tangled so many issues in the last 15 minutes of the play that it is very difficult for Ms. White to properly unravel them and make them fully comprehensible for the audience to digest.

That being said, one must admire the play because it has an important message. It pays homage to all the hardworking immigrants who come here to find a better life. In this case, it is a hair-braiding salon in Harlem. For every immigrant who has come here to perform a service, she or he has a story of their own and deserves the respect of each of their clients.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 6, 2023
Reviewed at October 5, 2023 press performance.

‘JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING’: Nana Mensah, Dominique Thorne (in background) & Somi Kakoma. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING’: Kalyne Coleman & Maechi Aharanwa. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING’: Rachel Christopher & Zenzi Williams. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING’: Lakisha May (seated) & Nana Mensah (in mirror). Photo: Matthew Murphy.

The post ‘Jaja’s African Hair Braiding’: Ensemble shines appeared first on StageZine.

‘SUMMER, 1976’: Jessica Hecht & Laura Linney. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

SUMMER, 1976
Written by David Auburn
Directed by Daniel Sullivan
Through June 10, 2023
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com

By David NouNou

Most New York theatregoers know that this is Tony crunch time and a plethora of shows open back-to-back in the last two weeks of April, jockeying for the best position for the prestigious and coveted awards. Some succeed in this maneuvering, but most of them fall by the wayside because they are all crashing into each other and ultimately face closure due to the glut in the market.

However, sometimes a beautiful gem manages to enter the fray, and this one is David Auburn’s Summer, 1976, an ode to women and friendship. You enter the theatre seeing an unassuming backyard. Two women walk in from opposite sides of the stage and sit across from each other. They are Diana (Laura Linney), the frosty, well-put-together, always neat woman, who has to have everything in its place; and Alice (Jessica Hecht), the more bohemian, disheveled, not-too-well-put together woman whose house is always a mess. Sort of like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie might have been 30 years earlier, with one big difference: These women are real.

They start talking, breaking the fourth wall; they are talking to us and telling us how they met and had an instant dislike to each other. Their friendship resulted from each of them having a daughter and the two daughters bonded together, being inseparable and thus forcing the two women to warm up to each other and form a cordial friendship and opening up to us with their backstories; one sees the friendship and co-dependency growing and the events that took place that summer of 1976.

After being worn down from seeing my sixth consecutive show, I was amazed how I was being enveloped by this story. I was actually investing in these women and wanted to know more and more about them and what happens to them. Not that they were extraordinary wonder women; they were everyday women, who are moms, and some of them are wives; they are just navigating everyday life. What makes them so interesting is David Auburn’s brilliant, sensitive, and naturalistic writing. The humor comes from genuine feelings and conversation, not sitcom dialogue. There is honesty in the writing, and this filters out into the audience.

I have seen both Laura Linney and Jessica Hecht in about six different shows each, and I’ve admired their formidable talents. However, I have never seen them be so touching and vulnerable. They are both great technicians who deliver very good performances, but here I got to see two women and not actresses who let their guards down and see what a friendship and bond means to these two women. Their chemistry is theatrical magic.

Daniel Sullivan is a good director, but when given a great script, he outdoes himself. He has fine-tuned these two performances to shine brilliantly. Long after one leaves the theatre, as I am writing this review, I am still thinking about these two women and what became of them.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 30, 2023
Reviewed at April 29, 2023 press performance.

‘SUMMER, 1976’: Laura Linney & Jessica Hecht. Photo: Jeremey Daniel.

‘SUMMER, 1976’: Jessica Hecht & Laura Linney. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘SUMMER, 1976’: Laura Linney & Jessica Hecht. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

The post ‘Summer, 1976’ an ode to women & friendship appeared first on StageZine.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

THE COLLABORATION
Written by Anthony McCarten
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah
Through February 11, 2023
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.manhattantheatreclub.com


By David NouNou

When one sees The Collaboration, keep in mind that, for dramatic purposes, this play is an abbreviated, slightly altered, condensed time frame of two art giants Andy Warhol (Paul Bettany) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeremy Pope) to fit the parameters of a stage play and still make it interesting for the general public, some of whom might not be familiar with art, the artists and their individual or collaborative work.

Warhol and Basquiat were introduced by art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger (Erik Jensen), in 1982 and had a tumultuous friendship with many ups and downs that lasted for many years. They spent a lot of time together, working out, painting and going to parties together and many collaborative art pieces until their 1985 joint exhibition Paintings, shown at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York that was slammed by critics and torn apart by the media. This ultimately was the final rift that practically all but ended their relationship.

As playwright Anthony McCarten writes it, Bischofberger worked with and displayed both artists. He indeed brought the two together because Basquiat was on the rise with his raw-energy paintings and Warhol was on the decline due to his repetitious lithographs. Although the two had nothing in common, Bischofberger thought a collaboration between the two would benefit both and leave a lasting legacy for the art world to enjoy.

McCarten shows the slow argumentative start between the two and a lot of the play centers around them asking each other questions of what art means to each of them. This is displayed by the films and pictures Warhol took of Basquiat’s art process, and Basquiat forcing Warhol to start painting again after 25 years of not touching a brush. With this process, they built a deep and meaningful friendship that intersected with their personal lives. This is where one of Basquiat’s girlfriends, Maya (Krysta Rodriguez), is introduced.

Upon hearing of the death of fellow artist Michael Stewart by police officers for painting graffiti, Basquiat is overwhelmed and is about to resort to heroin use again only to be intervened by Warhol after a fight they had earlier. This is when Warhol returns and becomes the father figure to encourage him to paint together and release their emotions.

The key performance here is Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol. He is iconic, consistent, absorbing, fascinating and intimately raw.

Jeremy Pope has the harder part, that of the rebellious Black artist who has hit it big in the art world because of his unconventional work. He comes across as petulant and, at times, childlike because of his young age. When the two met he was only 22. Mr. Pope has proven his talents in both The Choir Boy and Ain’t Too Proud, earning him two Tony Award nominations in the same year. However, his performance here is gripping at times but mostly inconsistent.

For art connoisseurs, The Collaboration may be a fond remembrance of these two artists. For most theatregoers, it will be an interesting viewing of two formidable, diametrically opposed artists having mutual respect for each other, their works, and their common grounds.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 6, 2023
Reviewed at January 5, 2023 press performance.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Erik Jensen. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Paul Bettany & Erik Jensen. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Jeremy Pope & Paul Bettany. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

‘THE COLLABORATION’: Krysta Rodriguez & Jeremy Pope. Photo: © Jeremy Daniel, 2022. Scenic & costume design by Anna Fleischle.

The post ‘The Collaboration’: Warhol vs. Basquiat appeared first on StageZine.

‘COST OF LIVING’: David Zayas & Katy Sullivan. Photo: Julieta Cervantes.

COST OF LIVING
Written by Martyna Majok
Directed by Jo Bonney
Through October 30, 2022
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com

By David NouNou

Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living is a poignant and touching play that is so ethereal in nature but wallops a heartbreaking punch to the guts. Everything seems and feels real. Everyone has the need to have someone in their life that with whom they can interact and communicate.

Cost of Living examines the relationship of two couples, where in each case one is disabled and the other is able. Eddie (David Zayas) is an unemployed truck driver whose ex-wife, Ani (Katy Sullivan) became a quadriplegic following a tragic accident. John (Gregg Mozgala) is a graduate student with cerebral palsy and has hired Jess (Kara Young) as his caregiver.

The scenes take place at different times. Eddie is in a bar on a Friday night recalling the texts his wife used to send him. In a different scene, Jess is being interviewed by John and needs the job of caregiver desperately. Both Eddie and Jess are extremely lonely, and both have a need to fill their lives. They both need a reason to survive another day. Extraordinary events take place, some real, some by invention of the mind. Their experiences are extremely real and palpable to each which brings them to an intersection to the truth and to connect.

What’s extraordinary for the audience is twofold. The play begs us to ask the question, “What is the cost of living, especially when you can’t put a price on it?” They must connect the dots to reality as well as experience the palpable and heart-wrenching performances given by the four cast members: Gregg Mozgala, Katy Sullivan, Kara Young, and David Zayas. They are further abetted by the excellent and seamless direction provided by Jo Bonney.

There is a haunting quality to Cost of Living that lingers long after leaving the show, and that is the true gift of a night well spent in the theater.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 7, 2022
Reviewed at October 6, 2022 press performance.

‘COST OF LIVING’: Gregg Mozgala & Kara Young. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘COST OF LIVING’: Gregg Mozgala. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘COST OF LIVING’: Kara Young. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘COST OF LIVING’: Katy Sullivan. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘COST OF LIVING’: Katy Sullivan & David Zayas. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

‘COST OF LIVING’: Gregg Mozgala & Kara Young. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

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