Blackout Songs @ the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space

-


The Play: Blackout Songs, an Olivier-nominated two-hander about the destructive relationship between a pair of co-dependent alcoholics

Written by: Joe White        Directed by: Rory McGregor

One good thing: Abbey Lee and Owen Teague give the kind of intense and sexy performances that are sure to be catnip for generations of drama school students eager to show off their own acting chops

One not-so-great thing: The play’s elliptical structure successfully mimics the hazy memories that people who drink to the point of blacking out often have but it also left me unsatisfactorily confused about what had and hadn’t actually happened

 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Call Me Izzy @ Studio 54

-
Image
The Play: Call Me Izzy; a one-person show about a rural woman who tries to use her gift as a naturally-talented poet to escape her life as a longtime battered wife Written by: Jamie Wax        Directed by: Sarna Lapine One good thing: Jean Smart, who’s won all kinds of awards for her TV work especially in the HBO series “Hacks”, makes an equally praiseworthy return to the New York stage for the first time in 25 years One not-so-great thing:  The play seems somewhat gratuitous since it offers no fresh insights about domestic abuse and its ending is particularly unsatisfying    
Read more

The Imaginary Invalid, a Red Bull Theater production at New World Stages

-
Image
The Play : The Imaginary Invalid, a trimmed-down version of the 17th century French farce about a hypochondriac whose obsession with his health blinds him to all the machinations that are going on around him Written by: Moliere      Adapted by: Jeffrey Hatcher        Directed by: Jesse Berger One good thing: The cast includes some of the funniest theatrical clowns in the business, including Mark-Linn Baker, Arnie Burton and Stephanie Styles One not-so-great thing: The pacing is sluggish, which can be the kiss of death for a farce      
Read more

The Gospel at Colonus @ The Amph on Little Island

-
Image
The Show: The Gospel at Colonus; the story of the death and redemption of Oedipus that Sophocles dramatized in the second of his plays about the tragic mythological king is filtered through the spirituals and other rituals of a Black Pentecostal church service Conceived and adapted by: Lee Breuer        Music by:   Bob Telson      Lyrics by:   Lee Breuer and Bob Telson                Directed by: Shayok Misha Chowdhury One good thing: The music is gloriously performed and the setting looking out over the river from Little Island on a warm summer night is almost as awe-inspiring One not-so-great thing:   Following the narrative can be tricky because three different actors play Oedipus; on the other hand, they—Stephanie Berry, Davón Tines and Frank 
Senior—are all so fantastic that it barely matters    
Read more