Class struggle, love and the search for the Holy Grail prove a witty mix. By Lucy Komisar There‘s nothing like an outrageous political satire written by left-wing Brits! John Patrick Shanley, who won this year‘s Pulitzer Prize for “Doubt,” wondered at a Drama Desk panel on theater and politics, which I moderated last year, why […]
Hokey Burlesque Mixed With Ethics Livens the Score. By Lucy Komisar I don’t like rock ‘n roll. I loved Hairspray, where rock is the major musical motif. I don’t care for men dressing up in drag. I thought Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad, the overweight, tacky, attentive mother of a teenager, was terrific. This is […]
Brassy blues, R&B & gospel enliven poignant melodrama By Lucy Komisar This brassy, bluesy, R&B and gospel melodrama, based on Alice Walker’s novel, is a feminist cry of pain and rebellion, an operetta-style protest in the tradition of “Porgy and Bess.” It‘s a moving and memorable production. Playwright Marsha Norman generally succeeds in pulling the […]
This behind the scenes revisionist view of The Wizard of Oz is a political allegory about racism and discrimination. It’s fascinating as a literary work and stunning as theater. Based on the novel by Winnie Holzman, it’s an updated Animal Farm. It’s a play that exists on two levels, one for the kids and another for adults, who will find it intellectually stimulating. It’s Oz before Dorothy got there.
You might think this was a typical high-tech Broadway extravaganza. After all, a dragon belches smoke from the top of the proscenium and a huge witch’s hat flies around. (The set wizardry is by Eugene Lee.) Susan Hilferty’s costumes are great gobs of color and feathers.
The new Elton John smash musical in London is a stirring political work built around the Yorkshire miners‘ strike of 1984-5. It‘s a very British play, with workers mocking a giant puppet Maggie Thatcher and singing odes to labor solidarity. It tells also a universal truth that political struggle must defend personal freedom.
Should the Mother Superior act on strong suspicion if children are at risk? By Lucy Komisar ˜Playwright John Patrick Shanley, educated in Catholic schools in the Bronx, could hardly ignore the recent revelations of years of widespread abuse of children by Catholic priests. Clearly on the left of the political spectrum, he takes a careful, […]
If you are going to London, there‘s a very modern theater you should visit. It‘s not in the center of the city; it‘s in Hampstead in north London, the intellectual heart of town. Or at least that‘s the neighborhood where a lot of writers and theater people live. Giving honor to place, the theater is called the Hampstead Theatre, and its recent incarnation is the creation of Jenny Topper, artistic director from 1988 until 2003, the first woman to hold that post.
