by Samuel L. Leiter   James Wallert’s The Winning Side is a biographical drama about Wernher von Braun (1912-1977), the German rocket scientist. Von Braun (played by Sullivan Jones), one of the greatest scientists of his time, was the man behind the creation of the...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   Revivals of anything by Tennessee Williams from the generally undistinguished days that followed Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1962’s rewritten version of 1948’s Summer and Smoke), are always of deep interest. That’s especially so for fans who believe some...

      by Samuel L. Leiter   Scraps is an angry play. Not that it doesn’t have plenty to be angry about. However, the solution it takes to dealing with its issues suggests a course in anger management may be in order. Written by Geraldine Inoa, the inaugural recipient of...

        by Samuel L. Leiter   R.R.R.E.D., one of the most annoying show titles for anyone who has to type it out, refers to the Redheaded Revolutionary Evolutionary Defiance, a secret society of revolutionaries from whom this broad, campy, musically patchy, and...

    by Samuel L. Leiter   Sometimes theatregoers need a break from a diet of high protein shows like Angels in America and want something that goes down easily, theatrical comfort food, so to speak. If that’s you, may I suggest you binge on My Life on a Diet, the comical sundae...

          by Samuel L. Leiter   Tickets are reportedly scarce but here are three reasons why you should nonetheless try your damnedest to see The Damned, Dutch director Ivo van Hove’s startling stage version of Italian director Luchino Visconti’s 1969 film of...

        by Samuel L. Leiter   Playwright Rinne Groff (The Ruby Sunrise) rubs her dramatic sticks together vigorously in Fire in Dreamland, now at the Public after its world premiere at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. The resulting sparks, though, set off no alarms....

        by Samuel L. Leiter   Although hardly a household name in New York theatrical circles, John Wulp, now 90, has had a rather abundant career as a playwright, director, designer, and producer, as well as in the fields of art and photography. His first play, The...

    by Samuel L. Leiter   During the mid-20th century, American theatre was dominated by three playwrights: Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and William Inge. The latter two also happened to be good friends. Not long after Inge’s suicide, in 1973, Williams wrote an homage to...

      By Samuel L. Leiter   Replay, part of the annual Brits Off-Broadway Festival at 59E59 Theaters, is an hour-long, one-woman play written by and starring the talented Nicola Wren, with direction by George Chilcott. Performed in the three-quarters round under the...

    By Samuel L. Leiter   Sharon Washington is an African-American actress of a certain age. I’ve seen her on stage before but never, in my recollection, in a role that demonstrated her considerable talents as vividly as in Feeding the Dragon, the one-woman play that she both...

  Samuel L. Leiter Says:   Religion, artistry, politics, opera, romance, and, most distinctively, culinary achievement are among the many delicious ingredients in Babette’s Feast, Rose Courtney’s amiable stage adaptation of the 1950 short story of that name by Danish author Karen...

  by Samuel L. Leiter   The word “refugee” in Old Stock’s subtitle is as fraught as ever but the refugees depicted in this unusual musical are not from any current world crisis. Instead, they return us to the days of the early 20th century when the Jewish diaspora was sending...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   Admissions, by Jonathan Harmon (Bad Jews), is one of those provocatively electric plays that, even as it bugs you with disagreeable ideas, annoying characters, or dramatic contrivances, nonetheless holds you firmly in its grip because you feel you’re watching...

      by Samuel L. Leiter   If you grew up during the mid-twentieth century you didn’t have to be a classical music fan (or even Jewish) to recognize, and probably recite, the names of the four internationally renowned, Jewish violin maestros who dominated the concert...

    By Samuel L. Leiter   Did dinosaurs and humans coexist? I always thought not but an online search suggests alternative opinions. At any rate, they certainly do in Alexander V. Thompson’s bizarre comedy, Pete Rex, performed by the Dreamscape Theatre. Actually, for all the...

    by Samuel L. Leiter     Sports fans! Don’t be deceived by the glam promo shot of actress Terri Mateer, star of A Kind Shot, showing this tall drink of Gatorade in high heels, a black bustier, and miniskirt, made up, with her blond hair blowing in the wind and a...

      by Samuel L. Leiter   I first heard of the Bengsons (Shaun and Abigail), a married, indie-folk-punk-rock duo, in 2016 when they arranged and consulted on the music for a funky show at the Flea, Sarah Gancher’s The Place We Built, set in a Budapest...

  by Samuel L. Leiter   During the early 1950s, Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), one of twentieth-century Japan’s greatest and most unusual writers, wrote many original plays for both the modern and traditional theatre; he even combined these interests by writing nine modern noh plays....

    by Samuel L. Leiter   The spectrum my headline mentions isn’t the new name for Time-Warner; it’s the syndrome of incurable neurological disorders called autism. Autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD)—and the related Asperger’s Syndrome—comes in many shades and colors; it...

          By Samuel L. Leiter   If you love physical comedy in the manner of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin or, to cite more recent exemplars, Bill Irwin and David Shiner, you owe it to yourself to witness the comedic art of Jos Houben and Marcello Magni in...

      by Samuel L. Leiter   It’s not till near the end of William Donnelly’s No Wake that the playwright clarifies the meaning of his title; by then, sleepy theatregoers at this lugubrious 90-minute effort will have come up with alternative interpretations. Originally...

  by Samuel L. Leiter   No one says “the cat’s pajamas” in George Kelly’s The Show-Off  but, in 1924, when this drawing-room, domestic comedy in the well-made play tradition opened, ran for 571 performances, and nearly won the Pulitzer Prize, it’s likely that’s what Broadway’s...

    By Samuel L. Leiter   The trickle of Shakespeare-to-musical comedy adaptation business that began on Broadway in the 1930s with The Boys from Syracuse and Swingin’ the Dream has swelled over the years to where it’s now something of a flood. Just last week there was a...

      by Samuel L. Leiter   Despite this show’s poorly punctuated slogan, “There’s smoke, and fire,” anyone worried that Come Light My Cigarette might expose them to secondhand smoke can breathe easy; tobacco—even of the herbal variety—has no role in it. There are, though,...