TDF

To play Billy Elliot’s gruff but big-hearted coal miner father, the stocky, impossible-to-dislike Gregory Jbara seems an obvious, almost inevitable choice. He sings well and he’s a consummate actor, but above all he blends a solidity of will and generosity of spirit in a package that makes him an ideal father figure. “I can remember […]

Ms. Fonda isn’t the only strong, sexy senior-citizen Jane onstage in New York. When Tina Howe’s new play Chasing Manet begins performances on March 24, 69-year-old Jane Alexander—one of America’s finest actors, and seldom sufficiently appreciated as such—will trod the boards again after a four-year absence. “I need to keep my hand in,” says Alexander, […]

Veteran choreographer Eliot Feld claims he’d rather “remain cryptic” about his work at the company he founded, Ballet Tech. But get him started talking about Mandance Project (Mar. 25-Apr. 5 at the Joyce Theatre), for instance, and it turns out that this innovative, feisty artist has plenty to say. “I kind of come from ballet, […]

How do you convey a sarcastic tone in sign language? And how do you describe in words a silly visual gag to someone with little or no vision? These were just a few of the unique challenges faced by interpreters working as part of Theatre Development Fund’s Accessibility Programs at two recent matinees of the […]

What’s a nice Jewish boy from Philadelphia doing writing so many songs about Jesus? Composer Michael Friedman, who follows last year’s musical Saved with the Civilians’ new show about Colorado Springs, This Beautiful City (at the Vineyard Theatre through Mar. 15), seems as puzzled about it as anyone. “It’s the weirdest thing ever,” Friedman says. […]

“Upsettable” may or may not be a real word, but it’s an apt adjective for the kind of role Marylouise Burke is often typecast in. In plays ranging from Kimberly Akimbo to the sparkling new religious-themed comedy The Savannah Disputation, the diminutive, button-eyed Burke specializes in sweet, sensitive, often underestimated characters—the sort that more selfish […]

“I think we’re shaped by really silly things,” begins David Cromer, the Chicago-based director of last year’s unlikely Off-Broadway hit, a musical of Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine, whose take on Thornton Wilder’s classic Our Town is now playing at the Barrow Street Playhouse. “Things you watched on television when you were a kid show […]

Most Broadway understudies get rushed onstage when the star is sick or off shooting a movie; if they get a rehearsal with the director and most of the cast present, they’re the lucky ones. Very few, though, have the good fortune of Javier Muñoz, who last week took over the lead role of Usnavi in […]

Darrell Dennis has a message for the white man (and woman) who comes to see Tales of an Urban Indian, his new solo show at the Public Theatre: It’s OK to laugh. “I’ve performed this piece all across Canada and the U.S., and the native audiences laugh hysterically,” says Dennis, a young Indian from British […]