The Pushover Play

Characters tolerate far more than they should in ‘Embraceable Me’

ROOTING FOR A couple to overcome their neuroses to be together is almost impossible when one half of them is as downright grating as Allison is in Embraceable Me. Her friend and occasional boyfriend Edward isn’t exactly a prize himself, but he certainly deserves better than the manipulative user Allison reveals herself to be over the course of Victor L. Cahn’s annoying two-hander. Read more Read it in print

Pressed for Time: Quartett

Experimental theater director Robert Wilson adapts Les Liaisons Dangerous into a semi-accessible, stylized and brightly colored work. Isabella Huppert, the French actress I would most like to sleep with, stars. Read more

Back to Black

‘Memphis’ reminds us of how blindingly white most Broadway musicals typically are

Who could have known that the season's most unsettling Broadway experience would be amiable musical Memphis? Never mind the shrill Oleanna or the strained A Steady Rainfor sheer seat fidgeting, try the musical about integration set in the Civil Rights-era South. Read more

The West End on the East Side

British writers and performers are washing up on the shores of Manhattan over the next two months, and it has nothing to do with splashy Broadway imports that shamelessly show up the weaker American offerings. Instead of the Great White Way, they’ll be taking over the theater complex at 59E59 Theaters for the sixth annual Brits Off Broadway festival, the yearly reminder of just how shockingly talented British theater artists really are. Read more

A Family Affair

SITI Company takes a stab at Antigone

Let me ask you a question. What would you do if your daddy killed his own daddy and then fucked his mommy by mistake? OK, he didn’t know they were flesh and blood, but that’s rather carele Read more

Theater of Celebrity

Two new shows explore the lives of the rich and famous

THANK YOU, Judith Ivey, for reminding me why I fell in love with the theater. After a brief break, the theater and I are firmly back together, and all because of the unlikeliest of offerings: a one-woman show about advice columnist Ann Landers. Read more Read it in print

The Roundabout Hates You

With two new productions, the Roundabout Theatre Company proves it no longer cares about quality

Sienna Miller, despite some truly sublime film performances, is still primarily known for her outré fashion sense. Following her line of thinking in accepting a role in Patrick Marber’s adaptation of Miss Julie isn’t hard: a one-act set in 1945, in which her upper-class character dallies with a servant and runs the gamut from flirty to deranged? Perfect for showcasing her skills! Read more

Light Those Torches

‘The Diary of Anne Frankenstein’ plumbs the depths of mediocrity

CHALK IT UP to another instance of a fabulous title coming before the idea for a show, because the funniest thing about The Diary of Anne Frankenstein is its name. Another in a long line of attempts at reviving the anarchic spirit of Charles Ludlam and other celebrated Downtown theater artists, Anne Frankenstein only succeeds in killing and hour and a half in the most excruciating way imaginable. Read more Read it in print

Doug Hughes Just Keeps Working

Broadway’s favorite director contributes to two ill-advised revivals this month

What a dreary lot the Cavendish family turns out to be in the dull revival of 1927’s The Royal Family. Director Doug Hughes and his design team have polished George S. Kauffman and Edna Ferber’s satire of the Barrymore acting clan to a high sheen, but all the Pledge in the world can’t disguise the fact that the play is imitation junk. Read more

Star Light, Star Bright

Two film icons take to the Great White Way in 'Wishful Drinking' and 'Hamlet'

Anyone interested in Carrie Fisher’s one-woman show Wishful Drinking would do well to steer clear of her memoir of the same title, because the whole show is in there. Having read the book prior to seeing the show, I can attest that only a few of Fisher’s anecdotes benefit from her martini dry delivery. What mostly remains charming in its move from page to stage, however, occasionally annoys as the evening wanders towards its second hour. Read more