606 stories by "Joel Benjamin"
"Travels" at Ars Nova isn't just a story of the many places James Harrison Monaco has been. That's part of it, the most superficial part. "Travels" is far more:  a deep look at the pe…
Peter Brynolf and Jonas Ljung, two coolly elegant Swedes"who wrote the show with Edward Af Sillén (also the show's director)"perform one mind-boggling feat after another, fed by information…
For those interested in both theatrical history and the lives of our former artistic heroes, Pendleton doesn't disappoint, even if he exaggerates and manipulates the facts a bit. He does…
"The Look of Love" was filled with Morris' least complex choreography, relying on repetition, walking, running and soft leg extensions along with simple arm gestures. Considering the sop…
Dongpo's travels through life is set forth in the lovely poems"projected in Chinese script and in English"full of observations of nature, sad inner monologues and thoughts intimating the end…
In this Roundabout/Scott Ellis production, Amy Ryan's Sister Aloysius (stepping in for the originally cast Tyne Daly) comes across as less absolute in her suspicions while Liev Schreiber's F…
Kahn has a good ear for the subtleties of each character and the period. However, "Fair Winds" doesn't handle all the major themes smoothly and the use of the narrator sometimes feels li…
How the metaphor of rabbits fit into this was puzzling, yet the dreamlike (nightmarish?) rabbit imagery was the strongest visual idea and pervaded the work, from a toy stuffed bunny to grote…
Lynn's dialogue is astute and subtle, following the heartbeat of this strange, but understandable couple lifting it out of soapiness and melodrama. She has written a very modern drama. .…
This York Theatre Company production at the New World Stages, following a presentation at Goodspeed Musicals in 2016, shoehorns these songs into a book by Lindsey Hope Pearlman from a story …
"This is not a time of peace" has a stream of consciousness feel effectively handled by the director Jerry Heymann. There is never any confusion about who is who and what they represent des…
Does the New York City Center Encores! new production of "Jelly's Last Jam" hold up against the original Broadway production (1992-1993) which starred Gregory Hines (Tony Award), Savion Glov…
Like her masterful Sinatra solo for Mikhail Baryshnikov, "Brel" takes Cornejo from a strolling meditating figure ("Quand On N'A Que l'Amour") to an anguished lover ("Ne Me Quitte Pas"). Â …
The host company, WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company ended the short, well-run program with the longest work, the three-part "Eternal NOW."Â It also had the most complex costumes, ge…
The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre (CAMT) is presenting "an innovative re-interpretation of a classic, combining live performances with puppets" at the resourceful Theater for the …
Of course, in true American musical theater form the elegant Princess has been transformed into the bedraggled and uncouth Winnifred (Foster, in her best goofy guise, proving her talent know…
This hotbed of virtuosity, indeed, made his troupe one gorgeous community of physically exuberant and fearless citizens. Whether he communicated any deeper existential or human truths pr…
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, the Brooklyn-based dance company founded in 1985 is back at the Joyce Theater presenting two works by Brown showing off the exuberance, sensuality and technical bri…
Harmon meticulously fuses the domestic ups and downs of this bright, well-educated extended family with the overwhelming and unavoidable social upheavals that surround them whether it's the …
How the ten dancers of Momix create so many beautiful and mysterious images is a credit to artistic director Moses Pendleton and his associate Cynthia Quinn who, along with the dancers, crea…
There are few issues that raise the ire of the religious as a member changing religions. Apostate is the mildest term used for such a person. Mikhl Yashinsky's "The Gospel According to C…
Dressed in a glittery, silver suit"costumes by Kristin Isola"Bloom immediately takes control of an audience who already admire her from her standup comedy and her bitterly funny TV show, "Cr…
Through a technologically astute production and fine acting, their intertwining stories unfold in a dramatic tapestry that reveals the sad business of mail-order brides. Using an intrica…
Despite its fairy-tale plot, Axemas isn't really suitable for children because of language and sexual situations, but everyone else will find something amusing in this rag-taggle production.…
"Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion," starring the genial, but daffy, Henry Lewis, is part of the "gone wrong" franchise by Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields: "Peter Pan Goes Wro…
