This was a BIG week for theatre both On- and Off-Broadway!
There are many Off-Off-Broadway festivals (the main one being Under The Radar at The Public Theater) happening with shows from all over the globe.
BROADWAY:
Picnic, presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company at The American Airlines Theatre, is a revival of a once-scandalous forbidden romance story. But in this day and age does a shirtless drifter with ample pecs still make the ladies swoon or does today's audience demand a deeper cut of beefcake? Find out in our full review!
UNDER THE RADAR AT THE PUBLIC THEATRE
The producers of C'est du Chinois claim that its actors will teach you basic comprehension of their language -- Mandarin Chinese, in which the entire play is performed. In a way this is the universal claim of any avant-garde theatre: "We will perform in a way foreign to you but you will understand it because our art is strong." Did we comprehend it or leave the theatre scratching our heads? Find out in our full review!
Blood Play is a thriller, a genre most theatre shies away from, and rightly so. The action unfolds in a recently renovated basement rec-room in a Jewish suburb of Chicago. Hoping to ingratiate themselves into the cliquey neighborhood, the new couple on the block hosts an impromptu cocktail party while their single child camps out in the backyard, an outcast. The adults seem to be suffering from collective PTSD, willing themselves into a state of eternal adolescence fueled by ever more absurd cocktails and party games while their son deals with the the brutal realities of being the new kid. Is this a neighborhood we should buy a place in or would we rather just visit for a polite dinner party? Find out in our full review!
COIL AT PS122
Inflatable Frankenstein, now playing at The Kitchen as part of PS122's COIL festival, is a valiant attempt by Radiohole, stalwarts of the Brooklyn scene, to stitch together a Frankenstein monster of their very own. Instead of body parts, their raw materials are the various incarnations of this modern monster myth. Is Inflatable Frankenstein "Alive!" or dead on arrival? Find out in our full review!
