News

Still Life

By Alexander Dinelaris

Directed by Elizabeth Bove

Players Club, Royal Theater

August 2-5, 2012

Elisabeth Bove is a fine actor, as abundantly evident by the three plays in which she was featured and which I have reviewed on this site. Her portrayal of Ms. Venable in Suddenly Last Summer was particularly outstanding. She also appeared in a rollicking production of Larry Shue's venerable farce, The Foreigner, which was ingeniously directed by Noel MacDuffie. In Still Life, the tables have turned: Ms. Bove proves herself an excellent director and Noel MacDuffie, as a featured player, shows himself to be a skillful actor.

Still Life is an intriguing rumination, and moving examination of a group of Generation X'ers as they confront “What’s it all about?” -- romance, work, friendship, and mortality. The play centers on Carrie Ann (Leticia Diaz), a successful photographer, who, subsequent to her father’s death three months previously,...

Look for the Woman Richmond Shepard Theatre

I am leery about attending "slice-of-life" plays. The phrase is credited to French playwright Jean Jullien of the late 19th/early 20th Century, as a goal for those who wished to emphasize naturalism as an antidote to the stiff artificial theater of his era. For me, the phrase had come to mean gritty, often vulgar and clichéd dramas about colorless people "trying to be a somebody" against the odds of their circumstances, and on and on. Yet, how delightfully pleased I am to have attended Look for the Woman, a new play by Christie Perfetti. Look for the Woman, with fine direction by Matilda Szydagis, skillfully elevates and exalts the slice-of-life family drama and generously presents a thoughtful and moving evening of theater.

The play takes place over two days, a wake and the following day of the funeral, in an unidentified small town in Upstate New York,...

The Foreigner

The Heights Players

The Foreigner is rock solid hilarious -- I have not laughed this hard or as continuously during a play in quite some time. The Foreigner, as performed by Brooklyn Heights' venerable theater company, is farce at its most pure: unrelentingly absurd, energetic, ridiculous, and downright funny. All the compounded twists and turns, all of the comic potential of the play written by the late Larry Shue, are artfully and skillfully displayed to the max by a spirited and talented cast, carried along by Noel MacDuffie's ingenious direction.

The premise is simple. In the early '80s, British Charlie Baker (Steve Velardi) is taken to a fishing lodge in Georgia by an old army buddy, Froggy LeSueur (William Barry). Charlie's marriage back in England is falling apart, according to him, due to the fact that he possesses no personality. Charlie is alarmed when he finds...

White Horse Theater Company Tennessee Williams: Suddenly Last Summer Hudson Guild Theater September 16 - October 2, 2011

Suddenly Last Summer is considered to be Tennessee Williams's most poetic play. Williams's carefully crafted words are heard primarily in two long monologues within the play, around which the action takes place. The 1959 film version is a staple of Turner Classic Movies, and I was curious to attend a version based on the original stage script, apparently mounted in honor of the hundredth anniversary of Williams's birth.

The story, for those who have been watching American Idol, The Hills, and Dancing with the Stars, concerns a New Orleans dowager, Mrs. Venable. She is attempting to use her wealth to manipulate both her poor relations and a doctor (who is researching a radical surgical approach to mental illness) into lobotomizing her niece by marriage. The niece, Katherine, has been hospitalized in an hysterical state...

Opening tonight - Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm is The Cardinal Group (D.H. Johnson & Richard Pepenella) production of ?Avow? by Bill C. Davis, Off Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 West 45 Street. Previews began Thursday, February 19, 2009 for the limited Off Broadway engagement. The play takes a timely and poignant look at contemporary religion's role in shaping social issues, especially with Proposition 8. The cast for this warm, insightful and balanced meditation about who we are in relationship to the vows we make to the people and institutions in our lives includes Joy Franz, Elizabeth Bove, Jaron Farnham, Christopher Graham, Kate Middleton, Timothy Sekk and Jeremiah Wiggins. It is directed by Jerry Less and the set design is by Stephanie Tucci, costumes by Emily Lippolis, lighting design by Chris Weston. The production is supervised by Mr. Davis. Http://www.CardinalGroupNYC.com...

The Cardinal Group (D.H. Johnson & Richard Pepenella) presents "Avow" by Bill C. Davis, Off Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 West 45 Street. Previews begin Thursday, February 19, 2009 and the opening is Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm for the limited Off Broadway engagement which takes a timely and poignant look at contemporary religion's role in shaping social issues. The cast for this warm, insightful and balanced meditation about who we are in relationship to the vows we make to the people and institutions in our lives includes Joy Franz, Elizabeth Bove, Jaron Farnham, Christopher Graham, Kate Middleton, Timothy Sekk and Jeremiah Wiggins. It is directed by Jerry Less and the set design is by Stephanie Tucci, costumes by Emily Lippolis, lighting design by Chris Weston. The production is supervised by Mr. Davis.

The Cardinal Group (D.H. Johnson & Richard Pepenella) presents "Avow" by Bill C. Davis, Off Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 West 45 Street. Previews begin this Thursday, February 19, 2009 and the opening is Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm for the limited Off Broadway engagement. The play takes a timely and poignant look at contemporary religion's role in shaping social issues, especially with Proposition 8. The cast for this warm, insightful and balanced meditation about who we are in relationship to the vows we make to the people and institutions in our lives includes Joy Franz, Elizabeth Bove, Jaron Farnham, Christopher Graham, Kate Middleton, Timothy Sekk and Jeremiah Wiggins. It is directed by Jerry Less and the set design is by Stephanie Tucci, costumes by Emily Lippolis, lighting design by Chris Weston. The production is supervised by Mr. Davis.

Tickets Now On Sale for "Avow" Off Broadway at 45th Street Theatre Previews begin February 19 Opening Wednesday, February 25 The Cardinal Group (D.H. Johnson & Richard Pepenella) presents "Avow" by Bill C. Davis, Off Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 West 45 Street. Previews begin Thursday, February 19, 2009 and the opening is Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm for the limited Off Broadway engagement which takes a timely and poignant look at contemporary religion's role in shaping social issues. The cast for this warm, insightful and balanced meditation about who we are in relationship to the vows we make to the people and institutions in our lives includes Joy Franz, Elizabeth Bove, Jaron Farnham, Christopher Graham, Kate Middleton, Timothy Sekk and Jeremiah Wiggins. It is directed by Jerry Less and the set design is by Stephanie Tucci, costumes by Emily Lippolis, lighting design by Chris Weston. The production is supervised by Mr. Davis.

The Cardinal Group (D.H. Johnson & Richard Pepenella) presents Avow by Bill C. Davis, Off Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 West 45 Street. Previews begin Thursday, February 19, 2009 and the opening is Wednesday, February 25 at 7:00pm for the limited Off Broadway engagement which takes a timely and poignant look at contemporary religion's role in shaping social issues. The cast for this warm, insightful and balanced meditation about who we are in relationship to the vows we make to the people and institutions in our lives includes Joy Franz, Elizabeth Bove, Jaron Farnham, Christopher Graham, Kate Middleton, Timothy Sekk and Jeremiah Wiggins. It is directed by Jerry Less and the set design is by Stephanie Tucci, costumes by Emily Lippolis, lighting design by Chris Weston. The production is supervised by Mr. Davis.

The Cardinal Group (D.H. Johnson & Richard Pepenella) presents "Avow" by Bill C. Davis, Off Broadway at the 45th Street Theatre, 354 West 45 Street. Previews begin Thursday, February 19, 2009 and the opening is Wednesday, February 25 at 8:00pm for the limited Off Broadway engagement which takes a timely and poignant look at contemporary religion's role in shaping social issues. The cast for this warm, insightful and balanced meditation about who we are in relationship to the vows we make to the people and institutions in our lives includes Joy Franz, Elizabeth Bove, Jaron Farnham, Christopher Graham, Kate Middleton, Timothy Sekk and Jeremiah Wiggins. It is directed by Jerry Less and the set design is by Stephanie Tucci, costumes by Emily Lippolis, lighting design by Chris Weston. The production is supervised by Mr. Davis.

NEW YORK -- MPI Media Group's Dark Sky Films has begun production on its first original film, David Gregory's horror thriller Plague Town.

First-time feature writer-director Gregory's story revolves around a dysfunctional family that goes on vacation and discovers an even more dysfunctional Irish town full of zombies.

Plague, the first in-house production from the theatrical/DVD genre distributor, began principal photography Monday in Hamden, Conn. Josslyn DeCrosta, Erica Rhodes, David Lombard, Lindsay Goranson, Elizabeth Bov and James Warke star.

British documentarian Gregory previously produced the feature film The Manson Family and wrote, produced and directed the IFC production The Spaghetti West. He co-founded of the controversial U.K.-based home video label Exploited.