TDF

Rinne Groff has counter-intuitive instincts–just the sort you’d expect from the playwright who brought the world Jimmy Carter Was a Democrat (a play about a labor historian and some air traffic controllers, and not our 39th president) and The Ruby Sunrise (in which she reimagined the inventor of television as a feisty farmgirl), and who […]

Queens native Ravelle Brickman was raised by theatre-loving parents who “loved City Center when it was really a palace for the people–they used to sit up in the balcony and use their opera glasses.” As much as she cherishes that memory–along with memories of her parents taking her to original productions of Oklahoma!, The Threepenny […]

Sometimes art imitates life; sometimes it’s vice versa. Other times, it’s much more complicated than that; sometimes fiction becomes destiny. “I’d been in umpteen productions of Arsenic and Old Lace as the guy who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt,” says Michael O. Smith, who currently stars in a self-penned solo show, The Bully Pulpit, at the […]

From True West to The Grapes of Wrath, from Buried Child to The Pain and the Itch, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre has made Middle American family dysfunction a signature preoccupation, even as the nearly 35-year-old company has developed one of the nation’s most durable and versatile acting ensembles–a kind of extended family in itself. Both Steppenwolf’s […]

With the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations announced this week, there’s been a lot of the usual chatter about who was overlooked and who was boosted by the recognition. What you probably haven’t read as much about is the one thing YOU really need to know– namely, which of these hot, acclaimed […]

“I read the play 25 years ago, and I was lost,” Mary Beth Hurt admits of Top Girls, the contemporary feminist classic by the English playwright Caryl Churchill currently enjoying a first-rate revival at the Biltmore. “I was pleased to have a chance to address it again.” Hurt, who may be best known to filmgoing […]

“There are no jazz hands here, and no spangles,” says Lori Wilner, now appearing in the new Broadway musical A Catered Affair. Indeed, the sepia-toned show, an adaptation by Harvey Fierstein of Paddy Chayefsky’s 1955 teleplay, is a telling reminder that “musical” need not automatically mean “musical comedy.” “It is a unique theatrical experience,” says […]

Even folks who aren’t in the business of theatre tend to remember their very first live show: The vivid colors and sounds they saw opened up a whole world of undreamed-of possibilities. For those who were lured into a life on the wicked stage, though, that “first time” has a special magic. That’s the kind […]

The spring weather may be holding back its full glory from New Yorkers, but three of the city’s preeminent dance companies are putting youth and innovation centerstage with 1.2.3. Festival, a biennial presentation by Taylor 2, ABT II and Ailey II, at the Joyce Theatre. These troupes are the more intimate touring companies of a […]