Postcard: Mad Forest

QED Productions presents
Mad Forest
A new production of Caryl Churchill's play.
Directed by Julia O'Brien
Final Week: thru March 4th
Hudson Guild Theatre
441 West 26th Street
For Tickets & Info: www.qedproductions.org

Postcard: H.M.S. Pinafore

The Vortex Theater Company presents
H.M.S. Pinafore
A radical new version of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic.
Directed by Dave Dalton
March 5 - March 31, 2007
Sanford Meisner Theater
164 11th Avenue
For Tickets & Info: www.vortextheater.com

Journey's End: 02/21/2007

If ever there was a case to be made for giving a Tony Award for for an ensemble of actors, that case is being made at the Belasco Theatre where Journey's End is currently blowing away audiences nightly. Based on the real-life experiences of playwright R.C. Sherriff, the play is a tight, tense, emotional portrait of several days on the front line in France during World Ward I. It's a pleasure to see an audience as involved and engaged in a two-and-a-half-hour, almost plot-less drama as the one I sat with this evening. David Grindley, who directed the play a few years ago in London, has assembled a perfect, mostly American cast, lead by the superb Hugh Dancy and Boyd Gaines. Let's hope that Journey's End, bucks the trend and a thought-provoking intense drama can find success on Broadway.

For tickets & Info: Telecharge

All That I Will Ever Be: 02/20/2007

Alan Ball's All That I Will Ever Be is an interesting mess of a play. There are parts that are absolutely riveting and there are parts that are absolutely stage-y in the worst sense of the word. Peter Macdissi plays a bisexual male prostitute who is constantly reinventing himself as much for his own sake as for the “pleasure” of his clients. We constantly question who Omar is, if that is even his real name. And then we question who anyone is – are we the sum of our past experiences and if so how is that different (if at all) from the story we tell to others. Its a fascinating premise and when All That I Will Ever Be plays on that premise it borders on brilliant. And then there is the rest of the play, in which characters are able to all-too-eloquently sum up their emotions, and glibly confront each other. The cast is uniformly excellent and I'm beginning to think Jo Bonney's accolades as director are truly the result of the talented casts she is lucky enough to assemble.

For tickets & info: www.nytw.org

Send Off-Off Blogway Your Show Postcard!

Off-Off Blogway loves show postcards.

If you e-mail your show postcard we will post it on the site: LudlowLad3000@aol.com

Postcard: Hotel Oracle

The Sum of Us Theatre Company presents
Hotel Oracle
A New Play About Peregrinations And Post-Its
by Bixby Elliot
directed by Stephen Brackett
March 8 to 31, 2007
at Walkerspace
46 Walker Street (in Tribeca)
For Tikets and Info: www.hoteloracle.org

Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

...well, at least "alive", but not for long - this revival is about to close. As for "well" ...well, not really. The group numbers really soar, as does Gay Marshall in her solo songs. Former American Idol, Constantine Maroulis is charming if a bit mannered. But the real problem is the tone of the evening...cheap laughs, sentimentality, song and dance...it's all there, but jarringly so from song to song. Maybe audiences today expect more than they did in 1968, they certainly pay more.

For Tickets & Info: Telecharge