Critic's Notebook
Forget Twitter. I’d Rather Binge Theater.
Our critic Charles Isherwood prizes epic theater. Here’s his take on two inspired long-form works coming to an end in New York at roughly the same time.
Highlights
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Credit ‘Hand to God’ to Have 13 Productions This Season
The irreverent play is being embraced by artistic directors in American nonprofit professional theaters, American Theatre magazine says.
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CreditBryan Derballa for The New York Times Liev Schreiber, the Reluctant Rake
Starring in the revival of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” Mr. Schreiber doesn’t see himself as a womanizer: It’s “an awkward, uncomfortable mismatch.”
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CreditGer Holland Critic's Notebook
When Life’s a Crazy Mess, Try Going Onstage
Brian Quijada and Sonya Kelly are performing in plays they have written that illustrate the hoops people go through when they join another culture.
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CreditMichelle V. Agins/The New York Times Review: Between Disbelief and Despair, Lewis Black’s ‘Black to the Future’
In his latest show, at the Marquis Theater, the comedian sounds not so much angry as defeated during an election year in which fiction and reality intersect.
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CreditJoan Marcus Review: A ‘Hamlet’ That Wants to Get Closer
The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit took on the challenge of presenting this play in a nontheatrical space in Harlem; now the cast will continue it in a theatrical one.
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CreditT. Charles Erickson Review: ‘Bathing in Moonlight’ Tests a Priest and Boundaries
In this Nilo Cruz play, Father Monroe grapples with the intimate feelings he shares with a woman whose family attends his church.
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CreditSara Krulwich/The New York Times Review: In ‘What Did You Expect?,’ a Potluck of Election-Year Anxiety
Richard Nelson portrays life in a political season as a bewildering mirage for an extended family that finds itself in reduced circumstances.
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An Appraisal
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CreditFred R. Conrad/The New York Times Edward Albee, a Playwright Intent on Naming, and Goading, the Beast Within
Throughout his work, Mr. Albee insisted that our most primitive instincts keep asserting themselves in even the most civilized settings.
