Time Stands Still Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Sarah, a photographer, and her partner of several years, James, a journalist, have traveled the world documenting the tragedies of war. But following an injurious accident, the couple must face the challenge of settling down to a more conventional life back in the U.S.

Broadway Review
Donald Margulies's new play Time Stands Still is a well-written and well-acted drama (the stellar cast is headed by Laura Linney and Brian d'Arcy James) that examines a couple as they try to adjust to the unadventurous life and to each other in this ordinary context. Most of the questions that Margulies poses - In a world full of pain, is it okay for us to find happiness for ourselves? Is it morally acceptable for a photojournalist to only document tragedy and not intervene to help the injured? - have been asked in similar dramas, so the subject doesn't exactly feel novel, but Time Stands Still does provide a very engaging and emotional evening in the theater.

Present Laughter Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
In this classic Noel Coward comedy, Victor Garber stars as a self-absorbed actor whose life is turned chaotic by the arrival of a number of troublesome characters (including a crazy playwright, a cheating producer, and his own ex-wife) to his London apartment.

Broadway Review
This Roundabout Theatre Company production is a solidly enjoyable revival of Noel Coward's witty 1939 send-up of showbiz folks. Garber is good (if not quite perfect) in the lead role originally played by Coward himself, and Brooks Ashmanskas is the audience favorite, playing a mincing playwright who is as mad as a hatter.

God of Carnage Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
This new dark comedy by the French playwright Yasmina Reza (author of Tony Award-winning play Art) is about the contentious aftermath of a playground fight between two boys and what happens when their parents meet to talk about it.

Broadway Review
Reza's latest Broadway show is a very funny but very dark look at marriage and manners. Though the ultimate point of the Tony-winning God of Carnage - other than to illustrate that seemingly well-behaved grown-ups can act with as much unthinking cruelty as children - is unclear, it is still a delight to watch four talented actors throw themselves into verbal and physical combat with such relish.

The Norman Conquests Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
A trio of interlocking comedies about three couples spending a crazy weekend at an English country home, each hilarious play in The Norman Conquests trilogy is set in a different location: the dining room in Table Manners, the living room in Living Together, and outside in the garden in Round and Round the Garden.

Broadway Review
Alan Ayckbourn, the prolific British playwright who specializes in wacky comedic plays with serious undertones, has crafted an intricate comic puzzle with The Norman Conquests, writing each play so that it essentially takes place at the same time as the others. If you see all three (and you can watch them in any order), the puzzle will be complete. However, each play is also a satisfying theatrical experience on its own, so you don't have to see the entire trilogy. Either way, you're in for at least one great evening of hysterical farce as you watch shaggy playboy Norman trying to seduce the various women at the house.

Irena's Vow Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Based on a true story, Irena's Vow is about a young Polish woman (played by Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh) who bravely hid a dozen Jewish people in a German officer's home while she served as his housekeeper during World War II.

Broadway Review
Although playwright Dan Gordon occasionally resorts to cliches in re-telling this true tale, the little-known story of an unsung woman's sacrifice during the Holocaust is still very inspiring and goes to show what feats of strength people are capable of in seemingly impossible circumstances.

Blithe Spirit Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
Noel Coward's 1941 play Blithe Spirit is a witty comedy about a novelist who, after participating in a seance, finds that he is being haunted by his his dead first wife (much to the chagrin of his current, living wife!).

Broadway Review
This is a wonderful opportunity to see the marvelous Angela Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote, Gaslight) play a very wacky medium and to catch actor Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding) being droll as ever live onstage. The production starts off a little slow, but once the ghostly shenanigans begin, it becomes increasingly hectic and hilarious.

August: Osage County - Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
When the family patriarch, a retired college professor and poet, goes missing, the highly troubled members of the Weston clan must reunite at his Oklahoma home.

Broadway Review
Full of every imaginable issue from drug abuse to incest, this three-hour Tony Award-winning Broadway play is almost like a grand soap opera, but playwright Tracy Letts' superb writing makes it rise above a dysfunctional family drama to become a great play that is terribly funny and terribly tragic. No wonder he won a Pulitzer Prize for his efforts!

Accent on Youth Broadway Show Review

Show Summary
A successful writer is about to give up on his most recent script, but then his secretary offers him renewed inspiration. With the young secretary acting as his muse, the playwright puts his show on Broadway - only to discover that the play’s handsome leading man is being inspired by her as well.

Broadway Review
Samson Raphaelson's 1934 play stars David Hyde Pierce (Frasier, Spamalot, Curtains) in a performance which demonstrates that he is successfully making the transition from comic sidekick to unassuming leading man. Though the comedy is certainly a bit dated, it still plays as quite charming and funny, and it also offers some thoughtful meditations on love and youth.