TDF Stages Archive
An online theatre magazine
Read about NYC’s best theatre and dance productions and watch video interviews with innovative artists
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Lea Salonga (Finally) Has Company
When I was a little kid, I wanted to be Lea Salonga. Of course, back in the ’90s, all little Asian girls who loved to sing wanted to be the Miss Saigon star. She was the Asian musical theatre Cinderella, a young Filipino girl with a beautiful voice, plucked out of obscurity and turned into […]
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When Naughty Congressmen Inspire Funny Plays
By MARIO CORREA A closeted gay Congressman hits on your boyfriend, and presto, an Off-Broadway comedy is born! So it was with Tail! Spin!, a verbatim recreation of four preposterous, real-life political sex scandals (now playing at Culture Project) inspired by my days batting back the wandering hand of a very friendly Congressman. See, back […]
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Once, Twice, Three Times Your Savior
Welcome to Building Character, our ongoing look at performers and how they create their roles — It’s not every day you sit down with three Jesus Christs. Wait, what’s the plural form of Jesus? Jesi? Jesuses? “Jesees!” says Donald Warfield, one of three actors playing the son of God in 3 Christs, now at Judson […]
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This Play Seems Predictable (Until You Listen Closely)
By MARK BLANKENSHIP The Fatal Weaknesssneaks up on you. Superficially, George Kelly’s 1946 play, about a woman discovering her husband’s affair, seems like a typical pre-War comedy, with well-heeled New Yorkers snooping on each other and making droll statements about the ways of love. But the more you listen, the more you realize there’s something […]
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Where Did This Raunchy Musical Come From?
By MARK BLANKENSHIP There aren’t that many places in New York City where you can see a musical that lets you lick whipped cream off the leading lady. Or lift her up on your feet so she can “play airplane.” Or hand her your glass of chardonnay after she accidentally breaks the bottle she’s toting […]
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The Modern Soul of “You Can’t Take It With You”
By MARK BLANKENSHIP You Can’t Take It With Youis a wonderfully slippery play. You think you’ve got it nailed as a loopy comedy, and then it delivers a tender love scene. You’re convinced it’s breezy good time, and then it dismantles the fantasy of American success This complexity—this ability to be funny and lovable and […]
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Tom Stoppard’s “Indian Ink” Finally Comes to New York
Tom Stoppard’s characters are seldom at a loss for words, and the chatty creatures of Indian Ink are no exception, debating subjects of art, language, and empire. So it’s striking that one of the first significant arguments in the play—originally written in the mid-1990s, and now making a belated New York debut at the Roundabout’s […]
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When Art Is a Matter of Life and Death
By MARK BLANKENSHIP When you’re writing a play about a real person, where do you start? At the day she’s born? At the moment he becomes “significant?” The entry point not only dictates the shape of your script, but also underscores who you are as a playwright. Consider Lauren Gunderson’s Bauer, now at 59E59. Inspired […]
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This is Radically Intimate Theatre
The Representatives are an underground theatre sensation — This week The Representatives — the most beloved theatre troupe you may not have heard of — stage their newest show, Of Orient Are. If you’re in the mood for hyper-intimate, socially relevant comedy, leap into action; they only play through the weekend. But if you’re busy […]