Michael West’s Dublin by Lamplight, now playing at 59E59 as part of the 1st Irish Theatre Festival, is a vaudevillian portrayal of Dublin circa 1904. And if 1st Irish is indeed a “celebration of the best of Irish theatre,” as its mission statement declares, then West’s show should get top billing. It’s the perfect fit. [...]
Category Archives: Theater
Lust Really, Not Love
June 25, 2011 – 8:02 pm
Upon entering the Robert Moss Theater for a viewing of The Movement Workshop Group’s (MWG) presentation of Wanderlust, I had a flashback. It was the damndest thing. I was instantly transported to middle school, my mind compiling a montage of after-school special videos. “Why were the people on stage forming a semi-circle?” I pondered. “And [...]
The Promise
April 4, 2011 – 9:04 pm
Tartan Week is upon us and you know what that means: seven days of Scottish culture and history—bagpipes, Robert Burns readings, and a sudden surplus of Bellhaven ale at your local watering hole. At the culminating event—the parade on Saturday—thousands of Scottish-Americans will be clad in plaid as a sort of ode to the Old [...]
Edna O’Brien’s Haunted
December 21, 2010 – 7:08 am
Stephen Dedalus, James Joyce’s fictional doppelganger, once quipped: “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” Now, it’s a wonder how many essays, stories and reviews (just like this one) have drawn upon that line—a line from a cryptic Irish novel, that on every day besides June 16th can only be found [...]
Last Minute Christmas Gift
December 18, 2010 – 6:16 pm
Mistakes Were Made, Craig Wright’s one man play starring Michael Shannon has just been extended until February 27th at The Barrow Street Theater. Shannon is mesmerizing to watch at full speed for 90 minutes with no intermission. He plays a theater producer trying to scramble to put together a Broadway show about the French revolution [...]
Jazz Choreography Enterprises
November 23, 2010 – 7:31 pm
There was a time, quite recently, when my knowledge of jazz dance was limited to the works of Bob Fosse. And by “the works of Bob Fosse,” I mean Chicago—the film version—and I only watched that one because I was intrigued by the idea of John C. Reilly starring in an Oscar-winning musical. So imagine [...]
Wish I Had a Sylvia Plath
October 14, 2010 – 3:37 pm
Before you stick your head in the oven, consider your lasting image. Premeditated asphyxiation by carbon monoxide bears quite the posthumous stigma. Next time you’re in Starbucks, ask a fellow customer: “Who is Sylvia Plath?” Most likely, he or she will not mention her Fulbright scholarship, The Bell Jar, or her Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry. That [...]
