Blogcritics Author: Tulis McCall

Theatre Review (NYC): Edward Albee's Occupant

Tulis McCall — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:57:21 EDT

This fabulous production has been extended so there is still time to see it.
What I knew about Louise Nevelson you could fit on a pin. There is a wall of hers at the Lincoln Center. She wore fake eyelashes and flamboyant clothes. She is dead. And, frankly, I had no interest in knowing any more than that. After seeing this exquisite play, I know she was a tough babe, a passionate creature, a lousy mother, and a driven...

Theater Review (NYC): Vendetta Chrome

Tulis McCall — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:17:13 EDT

You have less than a week to hustle on over to this fine show.
There is something so peculiar and, yes, charming (they would probably hate that word, but too bad) about Clubbed Thumb. It is not actually a rep company, but a company in spirit. And that spirit is theater that is engaging and raw. Just my cuppa tea, thank you very much.As with their earlier production, Amazons and Their Men, Vendetta Chrome...

Theater Review (NYC): Coming Home - the Fourth Annual Festival of One Act Plays

Tulis McCall — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:07:15 EDT

This is a trio of plays worth your bother, and it closes too soon!
Coming Home, The Fourth Annual Festival of One Act Plays by Living Image Arts, is a trio of plays worth your bother. I don't know who curated this collection, but there is some excellent writing and acting here. Over the 90-minute evening, each of these three plays hits home more than once. In addition, the designers of the festival only add...

Theater Review (NYC): Armor of Wills

Tulis McCall — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:48:19 EDT

The Beggars Group loves theater, but this production does not match the quality of their commitment.
The most charming moment of this play comes after the curtain call when Harrison Williams steps forward to thank the audience for coming to the show and mentions information we can find in our programs. He is enthusiastic and captivating.The production itself is the opposite. Although the work is presented with gusto, and the audience, including...

Theater Review (NYC): The Sound And The Fury (April Seventh, 1928)

Tulis McCall — Wed, 7 May 2008 15:53:59 EDT

This company's considerable strength is sourced in ritual, chance, focus, and risk. The combination is glorious.
I don't know who told Elevator Repair Service they could get away with turning The Sound and The Fury into a play. Whoever it was had a great idea.I had never heard of this 17-year-old theater company. More and more I feel like Gertrude Stein, who, when discovered by Professor James weeping on the steps of the Harvard Library, was asked the cause...

Theater Review (NYC): Cherry Docs

Tulis McCall — Mon, 5 May 2008 15:56:47 EDT

A Jewish attorney defends a skinhead in this snappy little play that won't bust your billfold.
This is a snappy little play that won't bust your billfold. It's in the same building that houses the Abingdon Theatre (Another Vermeer), but in another tiny theater altogether. Theater is being nurtured on West 36th Street.Cherry Docs is the story of a Jewish attorney defending a skinhead. Could be trite, but in the hands of this author...

Theater Review (NYC): The Country Girl

Tulis McCall — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:14:14 EDT

No one could be sadder than I. Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher: what could possibly go wrong? A lot.
No one could be sadder than I. Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher: what could possibly go wrong? A lot. According to Laban Acting Techniques -- based on Laban Dance Notation -- everyone has a center of movement, a place from which your movement originates. There are four: the head, the heart, the solar plexus, and the sex. When you...

Theater Review (New York): Chamber Music and The Day The Whores Came Out To Play Tennis

Tulis McCall — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:30:51 EDT

There are pauses in these two plays during which you could unload a banana boat.
There are productions that make you marvel at theatre and its endless ability to amaze, and then there are productions that amaze you because of their ability to do the exact opposite. Just before the curtain goes up on this production, the stage-manager/light board operator/house manager makes an announcement about cell phones and then says,...

Theater Review (New York): The Little Flower of East Orange

Tulis McCall — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:49:10 EDT

LAByrinth Theater Company is not neat and tidy-making. It bubbles and evolves with every production.
Michael Shannon always seems to be listening to a voice I cannot hear. I saw him in Bug, and he pretty much plays the same character in this play, though he comes way short of self-immolation this time. Still, as he tells us the story of the last part of his character's mother's life, we just keep straining to hear that voice inside his...

Theater Review (NYC): Another Vermeer

Tulis McCall — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:22:18 EDT

It is in spaces like the Abingdon that New York theater is truly born.
Another Vermeer is based on a true story: Dutch painter Han Van Meegeren is in prison awaiting execution for selling a lost Vermeer painting to Hermann Goring that was really a forgery he painted himself. In order to get out of his predicament, he plans to paint another forgery while in prison to prove his innocence and guilt at the same time.It...