133 stories by "Paola Bellu"
SWEET LIES, STICKY MEMORIES, BITTER GUILT; THE HONEY TRAP STINGS AT IRISH REP In Northern Ireland, The Troubles only ended some 25"30 years ago, though their tensions and legacies reach far …
Justice without mercy becomes punishment, and mercy without justice becomes apathy. But how do we strike the balance when the system and the society behind it seem to have forgotten both? In…
WEATHER FORECAST: FUNNY AND SUNNY WITH A CHANCE OF ARMAGEDDON In recent years, I have watched a wave of productions by Millennial and Gen Z artists who are, quite understandably, petrified b…
DIGITAL DREAMS, SUPERCHARGED What happens when you combine a century-old boiler room, an army of graphics processing units (GPUs), and some of the most imaginative digital artists? You get S…
TAKES FLIGHT AT TFANA: TRUTH, LIES AND QUACKING DELUSIONS While Shakespeare agonized over "to be or not to be," Henrik Ibsen was more concerned with "why is everyone being so fake?" It's exi…
THE FINE ART OF A THREE-MAN MASTERPIECE Yasmina Reza's Art returned to Broadway last night starring Neil Patrick Harris, Bobby Cannavale, and James Corden, and it is a tight, acidic joyride …
THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A PLAY Writing short plays is a refined art unto itself, demanding precision, discipline, and a flair for economy that borders on the surgical, a very difficult t…
When I hear the name Pericles, I naturally think of the great Athenian statesman who helped shape democracy in the 5th century BC, a true hero of history. It is amusing that Shakespeare and …
YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY WHAT YOU WILL While we are still grappling with questions of gender, identity, and societal roles like troglodytes, we need to remember that Shakespeare was exploring the…
JOIN THIS TOP BANANA FOR THE RIDE OF THE SUMMER If you're heading to the Nederlander Theatre expecting Jeff Ross to come out swinging with savage roasts about Charlie Sheen's liver or Elon M…
AMAZE TURNS SLEIGHT OF HAND INTO SLEIGHT OF HEART; THE MOST DAZZLING TRICK IS MAKING YOU CARE Jamie Allan, the UK's original technology magician, brings his new work Amaze to New York's New …
ANIMATION, POLITICS, AND THE ART OF BEING HUMAN Cameron Darwin Bossert's The Animals Speak closes his Disney-centered trilogy A Venomous Color (produced by Thirdwing) which began with The Fa…
THE WEIGHT OF WHAT REMAINS In Brooklyn's charming Fort Greene, Bubba Weiler makes his playwriting debut with Well, I'll Let You Go, a lightly funny meditation on grief and healing, brought t…
Hollywood is full of iconic love stories but none is quite as brilliantly weird and tragically sweet as the romance between Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, two comedy legends who fell madly in…
SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED: PEN PALS GETS AN ENCORE RUN Casting has been revealed for Michael Griffo's play Pen Pals, which is headed back Off-Broadway at DR2 Theatre with a rotating cast …
GHOSTS POURED NEAT Conor McPherson's The Weir, a beloved staple for Irish Rep, returns for its fourth production under the intimate, finely tuned direction of Ciarán O'Reilly. This unusua…
BLOOM WITH A VIEW In the heart of New York's Meatpacking District, beneath the High Line and Chelsea Market, ARTECHOUSE's latest immersive installation, Blooming Wonders, invites visitors in…
IN THIS BEAUTIFULLY MOODY MAZE, THE LINE BETWEEN ENCHANTMENT AND ENTRAPMENT BLURS I have yet to encounter an immersive theatrical experience that captivates me as deeply as a well-staged pla…
MIC DROP IN A MINEFIELD Last night, the Lucille Lortel Theatre unveiled Duke & Roya, a luminous new work by the compelling playwright Charles Randolph-Wright. Under the graceful directio…
ABT'S GISELLE IS A TRU RENAISSANCE OF ROMANTICISM Very few ballets have made their mark like Giselle, the jewel of Romantic dance. It emerged in 1841, at the height of an era when people wer…
Sick of It All"and Loving Every Minute: Molière's Hypochondriac Gets a Hilarious Check-Up Molière's final theatrical work, The Imaginary Invalid, is a scalpel-sharp satire of medicine and …
BUZZARDS, BOOTY, AND BECOMING NSangou Njikam's A Freeky Introduction soars with swagger, satire, and sacred disruption. "An eagle was born in a nest of buzzards," proclaimed playwright and p…
CHEKHOV WITH TEETH For those who've never bought the notion that Chekhov's The Seagull is simply about broken hearts, director Alexander Molochnikov's take on the play offers a thrilling, su…
GODDESS ISN'T JUST A SHOW, IT'S A CALLING. ANSWER IT. Goddess, which opened at The Public Theater tonight, doesn't just arrive onstage like any musical"but like a warm and joyful jazz riff. …
THIS ROLLING STONE JUST OPENED, AND ALREADY IT'S GATHERING MOSS If Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified were a device, it would be the BlackBerry of rock retrospectives. It is an earnest, well-…