The Dinosaurs @ Playwrights Horizons

-


The Play: The Dinosaurs, an earnest but ultimately disappointing play about the importance of 12-step programs like AA, filtered through the time-jumping experiences of a group of women who meet weekly to support one another as they share their stories and their struggles to maintain sobriety  

Written by: Jacob Perkins        Directed by: Les Waters

One good thing: Any chance to see master actors like April Matthis, Elizabeth Marvel and Kathleen Chalfant is a treat

One not-so-great thing: The play doesn’t really say anything new about the challenges of recovery that hasn’t been said in scores of other plays and movies

 

 

 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ava: The Secret Conversations @ New York City Center's Stage I

-
Image
The Play: Ava: The Secret Conversations; a too-lightly fictionalized recreation of the testy relationship between the midcentury movie star Ava Gardner and the journalist she hired to ghostwrite her memoir Written by: Elizabeth McGovern        Directed by: Moritz von Stuelpnagel One good thing: The video projections of scenes from Gardner’s movies and the photos of the actress with her many famous husbands (Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, Frank Sinatra) and other lovers convey a sense of the star’s mystique One not-so-great thing:  McGovern, who also stars as Gardner, and Aaron Costa Ganis—playing the journalist and all three of the husbands—work hard but are unable to make it clear why we should care about either of these people or their woes    
Read more

Rolling Thunder: A Rock Journey @ New World Stages

-
Image
The Play : Rolling Thunder; a concert-style revue in which iconic songs from the ‘60s illustrate stories about the soldiers who served in Vietnam and the families who anxiously waited for them to come home Book by: Bryce Hallett        Directed by: Kenneth Ferrone One good thing: The singing by a talented cast (all young enough to be the grandkids of people who actually served in the war) is across-the-board terrific, particularly the performances by Deon’te Goodman, channeling all of the soul of Motown; and Drew Becker just as strongly representing the San Francisco sound that also defined the era One not-so-great thing: The narrative adds little to the now-familiar stories of the Vietnam soldiers killed, addicted to drugs and generally alienated when they return home     
Read more

Art @ The Music Box

-
Image
The Play: Art, the first Broadway revival of the 1998 Tony-winner about three longtime male friends who fall out when one pays a lot of money for a trendy all-white painting Written by: Yasmina Reza      Translated from the French by: Christopher Hampton     Directed by: Scott Ellis One good thing: The show’s three stars—Neil Patrick Harris, as the guy who buys the painting; Bobby Cannavale, as the one who’s most critical of the purchase; and especially James Corden as the would-be peacemaker between them—are all thoroughly entertaining and should satisfy those willing to pay up to $500 for a ticket to see them One not-so-great thing: But the decision to go for the big laughs sacrifices the complexities Reza built into the play about the men’s true bonds of friendship and their fear of losing them     
Read more