145 stories from Mildly Bitter's Musings
Andrew Garfield in Angels in America (Photo: Helen Maybanks)Sometimes a show is a time capsule to another part of your life. I saw Tony Kushner's Angels in America on Broadway just after I m…
Photo: Play Co.Guillermo Calderón's play Villa is about three women asked to resolve the impossible--how should they treat the remains of General Pinochet's demolished Villa Grimaldi…
(Photo: Johan Persson)Can a play be both rich and slight? Jez Butterworth's The Ferryman makes me believe so. Set in Armagh, Northern Ireland in 1981, it is inevitable that The Fe…
We ended up not doing this piece for Exeunt...but I had these fake Obie awards that I wanted to give out for work in 2016 so I thought I would share. Best Play About Economic AnxietyDominque…
Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (Photo: Tammy Shell)When your show involves two virgin checks on your leading lady, you may want to rethink everything you did to get yourself there. E-v-e-r-y-t-h…
For months I've struggled to write about my time at Taylor Mac's A 24-Decade History of Popular Music. I could not head into 2017 with this piece hanging over my head any longer. …
In 2016 I promised myself I would cut back on theater. I saw 90 less shows in 2016 (180) than I did in 2015 (270). <pats self on the back>Here are the 10 shows which made m…
Courtesy of Touretteshero"Hands on buzzards.""Biscuit wave.""Pony cunts."Suddenly, Jess Thom looks sheepish. That last phrase was unplanned. Language is slippery and in Backstage In Biscuit…
Marin Ireland & Morgan Spector. Photo by Sandra CoudertMartyna Majok's new play Ironbound slyly lures you in with a well-set snare. She gets you comfortable watching a couple fight…
I didn't know how much I needed Rey until I met her. Image: Lucasfilm I'm one of those children of the Return of the Jedi generation--in the sweet-spot of Kenner marketi…
It's no secret I love plays. But it certainly comes out more when you see what shows I prioritize when I travel. I did see some musicals but I didn't like them. This Top 10…
Another year of broken promises to myself. An effort to see less theater this year resulted in me seeing 60 more shows over last year. New personal record: 265 shows. Eeeek. Stop…
Watching artists you love make a show that fails to achieve lift-off can be rough. You know they have the talent and vision, but after two hours of waiting for it to appear you realize…
Anne Washburn loves her meta-narratives and with 10 Out of 12 we watch a play about tech-ing a play. Although this is for all intents and purposes a "backstage" drama that is at times wicked…
Photo by Sanne PeperAs mother and son wrap their hands around each other's hands, there is kindness, understanding, frustration, control, and acquiescence. Sam Gold's minimalist produc…
In a massive room full of people seated in hammock chairs wearing noise-canceling headphones, you could still hear coughing. I gave up counting the coughs after 40 but a healthy remind…
I reviewed only a handful of the 70 shows I saw at EdFringe. So here are my links to those reviews and just a few notes on works I didn't get to write about otherwise (and I have a separate …
Somehow this review got left in my drafts...so I'm reviving it now...with some spoilers. Annie Baker peels back the layers of a relationship in crisis in her new play, John. With an eerie …
Scottish poet, storyteller, and artist Ross Sutherland arrives in New York this week with a show called Stand By for Tape Back-Up. It's a meditation on grief, nostalgia, and the odd bi…
Some thoughts on Forest Fringe 2015. Another year of exciting work by artists who were largely new to me. Week OneThis Is Not A Magic Show: Vincent Gambini's sleight of hand show like his c…
Walking out of I Heart Catherine Pistachio, my first thought was "What the ever-loving fuck was that?" My second thought was, "Damn, I really didn't want that to end." Lee Mattinson's unusu…
Signature Theatre hosted a short pre-show talk with Annie Baker and Sam Gold to discuss their artistic collaboration. This coincides with the fifth show they are working on together, J…
There is toe-tapping and foot-stomping in Daniel Fish's production of Oklahoma! but with the first crash of electric guitar reverb in the show, it quickly becomes apparent this iteration is …
With perhaps a nod too far into camp at times the Red Bull Theater production of John Ford's famous, bloody, incest tragedy still managed to show the hypocrisy and vanity of men, the power o…
Self portrait, 1985Ink on boardCollection of Harvard University© The Al Hirschfeld Foundation.www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.orgAl Hirschfeld's career as the dynamic, visual chronicler of the…
