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No Gossip - No Spoilers - No Plot Summaries
Just bite sized theater reviews from a pint sized puppy!
What started as quick little Instagram stories has garnered enough attention, encouragement and a following to merit living in a more permanent setting! I still like to keep the reviews super short, without divulging any plot details or covering what the show is about, since I personally like to go into most shows fairly blind and I'm highly spoiler averse. Let the show tell you what it's about, y'know? I'm just gonna tell you if I think you should see it or not! (Highly under construction, I'll make this blog better soon!)
Rainbow Paw Scale
Must See!
Worth Seeing!
It's Decent!
Meh, Skip It
Oof. Sorry Gurl.
School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play
This is the best thing I’ve seen in a long, long time!! Period! Everything about it is actually perfect to me, no notes. (I’ve never used the word “perfect” to describe a play before.) I will concede my biases: there are many aspects of this production (the cast and creatives involved, a non-profit theater I love and support, Black culture and music, women being glamorous and fighting, fat girls on stage…on and on) that are just in my wheelhouse of favorite things, and the ki
The Body of Mary: A Play in Three Acts (of God)
It’s an important and distressingly timely subject matter: tackling how women’s bodies and reproductive rights have been colonized and controlled by the patriarchy since the literal Birth of Jesus. Presented through three separate vignettes, one biblical, then near-future, and finally right now. Each scene centers on a “Mary” and all three are played stunningly by Annalisa D’Aguilar as Mary of Nazareth, Tracy Sallows as Mother Mary Joseph, and Gracie Conn as Mary of Nazareth,
Lean-To
Severely lacking in conflict and dramatic tension until the very end. A small moment makes patently obvious what that eventual tension will be, and once it finally arrives it is satisfying, but it takes far too long to get there. Larissa Oleynik (a beloved face from my 90s childhood in The Secret Life of Alex Mack and 10 Things I Hate About You) does get one excellent, long monologue towards the very end. The last twenty minutes might as well be the whole show, because the co
Safe House
A rather gripping family drama, led by a fearsome, commanding performance from Broadway stalwart Marc Kudisch. It has some solid secrets and reveals, which I find to be one of the most captivating elements that keep my attention in playwriting. At times the writing feels a little contrived or somehow inauthentic. My biggest question was that I didn’t know exactly when it was supposed to take place, and if the election being referenced was meant to be a specific one. It’s clea
The Real Ivanov
I cannot tell a lie. This one just didn’t do much for me. I didn’t understand what was supposed to make this different or a “new adaptation” more than just a straightforward (rather low budget) production of Chekhov’s Ivanov. At the time of its writing, I’m sure it was groundbreaking for its portrayal of depression. Today, in a world full of mental health stories and awareness, it doesn’t offer anything particularly noteworthy outside of its historical significance. Sam Under
To Have and To Hold
It's an interesting choice to have an adaptation of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew that acknowledges and exists in a world where its source material also exists. The characters could use more development, most especially the charming and adorable Peter (Yuriy Saradov, who bears a resemblance to a young Pedro Pascal), a dream man so sweet, doting and flawless, you wonder why he would instantly fall for Kate (playwright Laura Lapidus leads the show). Unlike Shakespeare’s wom
Paranormal Activity
Okay! Maybe it’s because I was so afraid of being truly traumatized, but this wasn’t quite as scary as I expected! Still had a few jump scares for sure and plenty of slow suspense building, but nothing gory at all or torturous, no violence. There are some small, subtle scary moments that are hard to see from far away (we were front mezz, not even that far) and it’s a dollhouse-style (or simultaneous) set design, which makes it hard to know where to look to catch these few qui
Hungry Women
The initial concept- men went extinct in 1891- is fascinating and rife for imaginative alternate reality scenarios…but it does not always live up to the promise of its premise. There was at least one plot hole that bothered me in “Part Two” where they mention all history before 1891 being forgotten and banned, but later in the same scene say they had a seance evoking the spirits of Joan of Arc and Cleopatra. Given the constraints of Soho Playhouse, there were several moments
The Pass
This one took a long time to get interesting for me. It’s fully two hours without an intermission, and it wasn’t really until about an hour in where something happened that got me intrigued. Before that, it’s just a lot of toxic British jock energy. I did notice people leaving throughout. Nice set, lighting and sound design, good performances…the lead actor, Matisse, who plays Jason, certainly has a traditionally Adonis-like eye-candy body on full display, and an unclockable
An American Daughter
Upon examining the program, it’s clear that this is actually just a vanity project, solely produced by the actress in the lead role, Jean Lichty. She is severely outclassed in acting prowess and performance by everyone else on the stage, and has a strange, stilted and stiff manner and way of speaking. Also, frankly, she appears about 30 years too old to be playing a mother of school age children, and an age peer of Montego Glover. The play as a whole doesn’t have a strong re
The Winter's Tale
It’s absolutely beautiful and TOTALLY worth seeing! Lily Rabe and Raul Esparza have always been world class talents, but this whole cast is excellent, the staging is wonderful, it moves quite briskly, I was engaged and the time (nearly 3.5 hours!) flew. It’s also a fascinating Shakespeare play that feels so different tonally and structurally than any of this other works. GO SEE THIS! And it’s FREE!!
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