Isaac Butler

By Isaac Butler It’s that time of year again. The time when stepping out of an air-conditioned space makes you feel like a sno-cone under a radiator. That time when tempers flare and subways break down. The time that Cole Porter had in mind when he wrote the infamous Too Darn Hot. And, like the […]

By Isaac Butler John Rando has eked out a niche directing madcap, high octane entertainments by writers such as David Ives and Greg Kotis.  Having directed such shows as Dance of the Vampires, Urinetown, Pig Farm and more, he most recently lent his considerable talents to Toxic Avenger: The Musical, currently playing Off-Broadway at New […]

By Isaac Butler Summer is upon us, bringing with it New York City’s surfeit of theatre festivals. There’s fringe festivals, Shakespeare festivals, musical festivals, eco-friendly theatre festivals and more. Sitting in the midst of all of this is the Summer Play Festival, AKA SPF. Founded in 2004 by Executive Producer Arielle Tepper Madover to, in […]

By Isaac Butler It was random happenstance that paired David Adjmi-now making his New York debut at LCT3-with acclaimed director Anne Kauffman.  “David and I met in the late nineties,” the director writes via e-mail, “He found my resume on some website and contacted me. And then we didn’t see each other again until Thugs […]

By Isaac Butler The past looms large in Zakiyyah Alexander’s 10 Things To Do Before I Die. In the play, directed by Jackson Gay for Second Stage Uptown, two estranged sisters pick over their past and ten boxes of their dead father’s belongings while trying to make sense of their lives. The older sister, Vida, […]

by Isaac Butler “Alright everyone, gather round the piano.”  It’s the final day of major rehearsals during previews for the new musical Coraline, and there are a few rejiggered bars of music to integrate. Director Leigh Silverman (whom I’m observing courtesy of a fellowship with the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation) is working swiftly through […]