Recommended by Scott Sickles

There’s no satisfying some people.
The hurricane didn’t flood, the tornado missed, the blizzard didn’t close roads...
MEET RANDY!
He’s upset about the insufficient attendance of fascists at a protest.

Cathro presents a sharp satire (and lovely snapshot of relationships during civil unrest) capturing the early days of 2020’s BLM/anti-fascist protesting, when good guys outnumbered bad guys, and one could feel outrage over nazis getting police escorts because they were outnumbered.

Nowadays (September) protest dynamics are closer to what Randy wanted. Or are they? I wonder what he would say. And do!

The less you try to figure out what Coran is talking about, the better. Just trust the writing and the writer and all will be revealed. That great moment where it all comes together and hits you in the gut.

I imagined the performance as described. Glitzy!
I read the speech as I thought this suddenly famous dude would. Then, I was as surprised by his reality as he was, just from the other direction.

And it totally works as a treatise on the complexities of fame. Then, damn! Context and collision. Maximum impact. Surgical cuts. Helluva ride.

Well, that was disturbing!

I read little Aiden as upbeat and very matter-of-fact about his artwork. There are probably as many ways to interpret the character as their are talented young actors!

It’s beautifully creepy story reminiscent of the best horror narrative surrounding children. Bravo!

In addition to transporting the audience back to high school theater (high school *Shakespeare* no less), Minigan captures life in the booth, the nerve center of any production. There’s a lot of heart in this nerve center, both in these kids’ love of theater and their affection, personally and professionally, for each other.

Minigan gives us kids who are not only skilled at what they do but are eager to learn more. No bumbling here, at least not with the technical aspects. The interpersonal...

You just have to see!!!

Thank you, John! And LIGHTS!

It’s the kind of play you read again because, like the characters, you’re desperate for a different outcome even though you know it’s impossible. The script doesn’t change and it’s not yours to rewrite.

Which, for us if not for the characters, is a profoundly good thing. Salant picks a crucial moment and, as with any great time travel story, pins fate on both what’s happening and when. This gives us a tiny glimpse into a relationship from which we can extrapolate everything we need to know.

Stirring, resonant, heartbreaking.
Every time.

So real it feels like it’s happening to you while you’re reading it! If you have or have ever had a cat, you know the truth Jacobs speaks! The hilarious, maddening, undeniable truth!

(And we know Kayla’s dual agony of having to work with someone who, for whatever reasons, always has bigger, more important problems that the rest of us couldn’t possibly understand!)

Great roles for a female actor with great comic timing and a male actor/dancer adept at physical comedy.

Sometimes, the clearer the allegory, the sharper the statement. Hendricks takes a conversation so many people are forced to have and gives it just the right twist to make it universal. He also shapes his characters with just enough personality and detail to make them people rather than mere sides of an issue. But it’s the content of the conversation that makes you want to shout, “Yes! This!” or eek out an “I’m sorry and I will never do that again.”

There are some lines that should never be crossed... and this play passed it about a hundred miles ago, full throttle, and there is no going back!

Hayet sneaks up on you and presents a universe or at least a subsection of society with different rules than the ones to which we've grown accustomed. While some may find this world objectionable, there is the undeniable presence of love -- be it for food, our four-legged friends, or each other.

So wrong it's right and I wouldn't have it any other way.

BEEN THERE!

Body image, body weight, body shame. They can be an endless cycle of torture.
Deray captures the triumph of succeeding in reaching one's goals and, especially, the devastation of backsliding. One doesn't have to wolf down a buffet to feel like Ethan; even a small scale relapse feels like abject failure. It's all in here.

Fortunately Deray and Ethan find strength in the ebb and flow of their extremely difficult journey. A great piece for actors of any size, especially those in need of a lesson in empathy or resilience.

My dad used to do this when I first moved to New York City. Every time he heard about a murder here, he would call. He assumed that because it was in the same city I was it had to be close by. (One time it actually kind of WAS!)

To children, especially adult children, there can be nothing quite so overbearing as parental concern. It is intrusive. It is unwelcome. But sometimes...

Well, you'll see.

A powerful piece that changes direction and sneaks up on you. Bravo!