Standing Room Only

April 23, 2020 Stagebuddy What do you do when the show you are working on goes on hiatus and you are self-quarantined? If you are a member of a theater union like Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 764 IATSE or United Scenic Artists Local USA 829, you may find yourself with lots of time your hands […]

May 7, 2020 Stagebuddy The statistics are staggering and heartbreaking. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 out of 7 children was food-deprived. Now it is estimated that 1 out of 4 children is going hungry. With schools closed, an estimated 850,000 NYC kids are missing meals every day. Over the entire country, that means close to […]

March 6, 2020 Photo by Carol Rosegg Nothing can defeat the spunky Molly Brown – not poverty, hunger, illiteracy or even a sinking ship. She reminds us of her feisty spirit when she sings “till I leave the rear / It’s from the rear you’ll hear/ I ain’t down yet.” It has taken years, and […]

The Island Now – March 6, 2020 Margaret, played by Kathleen Chalfant, sets the mood by going through a litany of issues she has with our present-day government and, specifically, the president.“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Don’t I wish we were in Denmark.”  She continues to enumerate the weaknesses and problems, and, […]

The Island Now – February 24, 2020                                                     (Photo: Playbill.com) There are seven basic plots in literature. The challenge is how to be innovative since we’ve seen it all before. […]

February 17, 2020 Stagebuddy Even seemingly well-adjusted families can be messy. In the new play “Grand Horizons,” by Bess Wohl (“Small Mouths,” “Make Believe,”) a retired librarian, Nancy (the wonderful Jane Alexander) and her husband Bill (James Cromwell) have recently moved to a senior community. The community has a progressive living arrangement, and once someone […]

The Island Now – February 12, 2020 For people of a certain age, a single image epitomizes the movie “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” written by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker and directed by Mazursky. It depicts four obviously naked, attractive people sitting in bed together, all clutching a sheet up to their […]

February 6, 2020 Stagebuddy Romeo lives! At the end of the famous tragedy by Shakespeare, the young hero drinks poison and dies, but in “Romeo and Bernadette,“ the original Off-Broadway musical, an Amas Musical Theatre production, presented at the A.R.T. / NY Theaters, Romeo actually consumes Friar Laurence’s sleeping potion, causing him to sleep for years. […]

January 31, 2020 Avid Laura Linney fans will be delighted at her powerful performance in the stage adaptation of Elizabeth Strout’s book, “My Name Is Lucy Barton.” Linney plays the title character, a writer who is hospitalized for nine weeks after she develops complications from an appendicitis attack. Lucy misses her two young daughters and […]

December 17, 2019 Stagebuddy It opens in a whirlwind of activity. The chef chops, minces, slices and dices, rushing between stove and counter. He throws in spices, tastes, then adds sauces, all to the jazz playing in the background. Like a skilled performer in a well-choreographed dance, he removes the salmon from the oven, adds […]