by Marcina Zaccaria   My Dear Watson is a clever tale of mystery at The New York Musical Festival.  With Book, Music, and Lyrics by Jami-Leigh Bartschi, My Dear Watson takes the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters and puts them into a revolving chess match. This...

            One Hundred Years Remembered – 1917-2017: Tychyna, Zhadan & the Dogs   by Marcina Zaccaria   One hundred years is a long time. When considering 1917-2017 through the eyes of a Ukrainian poet, there is something quite special. From...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   “The Rose,” popularized by Bette Midler, became an iconic song in American culture. The songwriter behind this American pop classic, Amanda McBroom performed on June 5th to a packed audience at Birdland, to celebrate the release of her CD, Voices....

      By Marcina Zaccaria   Tony Nominee Christiane Noll graces The Metropolitan Room with the songs of Ira Gershwin.   With her shimmering blonde hair and sleek, black dress, Christiane Noll began with an up tempo classic.   Noll engages the audience while sharing...

  by Marcina Zaccaria   At NYTW, where I last saw The Object Lesson, the entire theater was crowded with cardboard boxes. It’s a joy, instead, to sit in plush seats and appreciate Her Portmanteau from a distance in Mfoniso Udofia’s intriguing look at Nigerian immigration spanning...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   Abrons Art Center, part of the Henry Street Settlement and originally designed as the Neighborhood Playhouse in 1915, is a fitting place to see a Eugene O’Neill play.   A different endurance test than the four hour Iceman Cometh, Mourning Becomes...

    By Marcina Zaccaria       At Cuisine and Confessions, anything can happen next. The tumbles, twists, and slides to the ground are truly extraordinary. The acrobatics and storytelling are perfectly rhythmic and absolutely stylish.   Directors Shana Carroll and...

  By Marcina Zaccaria   With bicyclists, jugglers, aerialists, and a skilled contortionist, Circus 1903 takes itself quite seriously. Evoking the Golden Age of Circus, the two hour spectacle leaves the audience captivated by images of strength, grace, and beauty.   Circus 1903...

      By Marcina Zaccaria   What starts out as a woodsy dilemma evolves into a family drama in Sundown, Yellow Moon. Twin sisters find themselves spending time in their father’s house after he gets in an altercation at the school of his employment.   While new...

  By Marcina Zaccaria     Machines matter in Dolphins and Sharks, the latest offering from Playwright James Anthony Tyler, produced by Labyrinth Theater Company.     With workers like cogs in the machine, this class warfare drama combines Nigerian NYU alums,...

   by Marcina Zaccaria     In the world of comedy improv, where anything goes, Hunter Nelson and Terry Withers maintain their roots. Former students at UCB who became house performers; they are now teachers of comedy who keep the audience on their toes.   In improv comedy,...

      By Marcina Zaccaria   A new arrival in New York in 1981, Liz Callaway stepped into the Duplex in Greenwich Village to pick up the microphone. Offered a show at The Public Theater, but passing it up to perform in the ill-fated two week Broadway endeavor, Merrily We...

  By Marcina Zaccaria       Wartime drama in Incident at Hidden Temple, produced by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, is as compelling as it gets. As the landscape shifts from a village fable to a convincing military drama, Director Kaipo Schwab skillfully coordinates...

  By Marcina Zaccaria   Forced Entertainment, based in the UK, brings a whimsical game of repetition to the stage in Real Magic.   Based in Sheffield, UK, this six person theater company has sent three of their wittiest physical comedians to shed light on their troubled human...

  Here they are! Take a look at the Best Five of the 2016 Season in Theater and Cabaret. It’s the end of 2016 . . . hard to believe it raced by so quickly with all its turbulence. Theater Pizzazz writers, in both theater and cabaret, were extremely busy seeing many, many shows. Each one...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   Celebrating Yiddish Theater, Folksbiene hosted a Gala, honoring Liev Schreiber. Honored guests at the stunning December 12 event included Fiddler on the Roof Lyricist Sheldon Harnick. Honorary Co-Chairs for the benefit were Tony Award Winning Producer...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   In the desert, sweating and praying for the divine, we find unmistakable shamanistic glory in The Portal.   Offering tribal music, it’s not Hair. Running through vast space, encountering a figure of death, Creator/ Director/ Producer Luke Comer...

    By Marcina Zaccaria     As one of the NEA-4, battling obscenity charges along with Karen Finley, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller, John Fleck was a pivotal figure in a Supreme Court battle. Conscious of his tone and tempo in Blacktop Highway, he is precise and unstoppable....

    By Marcina Zaccaria   Stepping away from the piano and to the microphone, Christopher Howatt takes the stage at Don’t Tell Mama for Hear My Song. A Music Director and Accompanist who has played for Tyne Daly, Rita Moreno, and David Hyde Pierce, Christopher Howatt is...

        by Marcina Zaccaria   Three performers explore the quiet thoughts that exist when almost no one is watching in Inner Voices at The TBG Theatre.   The evening began with Just One “Q.” What makes it special is T. Oliver Reid’s sense of storytelling. His...

      By Marcina Zaccaria   Winsome Brown has an imperious presence and light, red hair, tousled like a serpent. With the fortitude to release the word, her mastery of the material isn’t diminished by the lyrical selection of text in Hit The Body Alarm at The Performing...

  By Marcina Zaccaria   To save the Tree of Souls is a triumphant feat. The acrobats of The Cirque du Soleil show that they are up to the challenge in Toruk, The First Flight, written and directed by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon.   This enormous spectacle boasts a stage of...

      By Marcina Zaccaria   Jeane Kirkpatrick spouts political wisdom at Reagan’s Athena.   While political drama can be hard-hitting, Reagan’s Athena is more like an acute career study. UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick is the shining star of the Reagan Administration,...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   The mythology of the unicorn runs deep. In a video, Performance Artist Karen Finley introduces the glittery pinks and purples that often surround the unicorn.   This Obie Award winning performance artist clings to myth like she clings to her...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   From an empty stage, great ideas come to fruition. The New York Musical Festival always provides the opportunity to introduce new musicals. While some of them are packed with dancing and tuneful melodies, Eh Dah!, with Book, Music, and Lyrics by Aya...