Bøger udgivet af BROADWAY PLAY PUB INC (NY)

In an attempt to account for the family inheritance, the scion of a wealthy Buffalo, New York clan and her willful, college-aged son visit their long-lost cousin Mary. The catch: Mary is living in an asylum for the wealthy insane and has barely spoken in years, forcing mother and son to employ radical ends to get through. "Comparisons between playwrights and novelists are almost always misleading, but I'd say it's more or less accurate to think of A R Gurney as the John P Marquand of American drama. Like Marquand, Mr Gurney writes about WASPs and their discontents, and his ruefully funny studies of a ruling class in decline are too often dismissed as trivial by critics who take no interest in the inner lives of the insufficiently underprivileged. Also, like Marquand, he is prolific to a fault, and his work is as unevenly inspired as it is unfailingly professional. I've reviewed several of his plays in this space, always with pleasure - I like his best work very much - but rarely with outright enthusiasm. Thus, I'm glad to report that CRAZY MARY, Mr Gurney's new portrait of life among the white-bread set, is a highly impressive piece of work, a serious comedy that succeeds in wringing honest laughs out of an awkward subject. The Mary in question is a middle-aged manic depressive who has spent the past three decades stashed away in a high-priced sanitarium to which her late father consigned her after she made the fatal mistake of sleeping with the gardener. in addition to being crazy, Mary is loaded - she inherited all her father's money - and when Lydia, Mary's second cousin once removed, becomes her legal guardian after a death in the family ... well, you figure it out, if you can. Every twist in the plot of CRAZY MARY took me by surprise, and none of them disappointed me in the slightest. What impressed me the most about CRAZY MARY is that Mr Gurney walks with unerring skill along the knife edge that separates comedy from pathos. In truth, there is nothing remotely funny about Mary's situation, much less her condition, and we laugh at her plight precisely because it is so pitiful. Nor does Mr Gurney let any of his characters off the hook, least of all Lydia, who has spent her own life walking on tiptoe through a world of tight-lipped propriety in which the most important things are left unsaid ..." Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal "... Aside from the tireless (and seemingly immortal) Horton Foote, no eminent American playwright of the last few decades rivals the staying power and productivity of Mr Gurney. Though he would seem to be limited by sticking to one area of expertise - the malaise and mores of the endangered East Coast WASP - Mr Gurney's theatrical output is surprisingly varied. If his essential subject has largely remained the same, he keeps shifting his focus and perspective in admirably venturesome ways, most recently with his fiercely partisan, Bush-baiting political comedies ... As a story of ethnic dinosaurs stranded by history, CRAZY MARY brings to mind vintage Gurney works like THE COCKTAIL HOUR and THE MIDDLE AGES ... His earlier plays had the passive wistfulness of Henry James portraits of unlived lives; CRAZY MARY has the active morality of E M Forster novels, demanding that its characters get off their isolated duffs and connect with the world beyond. The spirit in CRAZY MARY is honorably willing ..." -Ben Brantley, The New York Times

A satirical piece which turns its sharp eye on political correctness, office politics, sexual harassment, religious persuasions, and societal and cultural norms. The actors don't know which role they'll play until the audience decides for them at each performance. The actors forge their own unique interpretations in any one of the 40,320 possible casting combinations that could confront them, creating a unique and hilarious interpretation of the show every night. "I saw EAT THE RUNT ... I loved it ... [a] remarkable, original comedy ... scenes that are brilliant set pieces of - alternately - satire and comic flights of fancy ... It's surreal, it's treacherous, and it's sweet ... Avery Crozier, the astonishing young playwright who created EAT THE RUNT, is toying with ideas of perception, political correctness, and societal and cultural norms throughout this play, and always on multiple levels ... it's smart, sassy, funny, and devastatingly original." -Martin Denton, nytheatre.com "... clever comedy centered on a job applicant's bizarre series of interviews at an art museum ... the script contains ... wit, intelligence, and twists ..." -Robert Dominguez, Daily News "... a clever and inventive script ... a dazzling new work that captures the very essence of theater." -Barbara & Scott Siegel, theatremania.com

A religious Southern clan cite God's will as justification for torturing each other. "... There is a certain excitement that one experiences quite quickly when exposed to his plays - it doesn't take long to recognize a truly gifted writer who has an emotionally (and otherwise) quite powerful story to tell ... TRUEBLINKA's title, the kiln and the Teutonic family name are not the only markers of this holocaust drama, writ small. But they are enough to set the dark, creepy, metaphor-heavy story in motion ... This is theater worth staying up for." -Les Gutman, CurtainUp "Though the title suggests a meditation on history's worst atrocities, Adam Rapp's TRUEBLINKA is essentially a dysfunctional-American-family play, inflated to apocalyptic proportions. In a dimly lit house somewhere in creepiest flyover country ... It's laudable that Rapp doesn't shy away from difficult subject matter at a time when most new plays risk so little ..." -Village Voice

In the Bolivian jungle, Che Guevara is captured and held in a one-room schoolhouse. For two days neither the Bolivian President nor the U.S. State Department is able to decide Che's fate. The young schoolteacher of the village insists that she be given permission to speak to the famous revolutionary. Her conversations with Che - based on historical fact - are the heart of the play. "José Rivera's SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS traces the last two days of the Argentine revolutionary's life. The story comes from historical fact: When a feckless attempt to start an insurrection in Bolivia led to his capture, Che really was held for two days in tiny La Higuera while authorities decided his fate and really did talk to a young villager named Julia Cortes. As imagined by Rivera, their conversations are sometimes predictable - America is 'the greatest enemy of mankind' - but also contain surprising introspection. Che calls himself 'a goddamn joke' and 'a small, failed, stupid man.' No doubt addressing the audience, he declares, 'Worship the struggle ... don't worship me.'" -Jeremy Carter, New York "... Mr Rivera's intimate play is something of a bookend to his screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries, a coming-of-age movie about a young pre-political Che. In SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS politics serve only as a backdrop to a story about Che's encounter with a young teacher named Julia Cortes. Julia teaches at the schoolhouse where Che is being held, and after pleading with the Lieutenant to be let inside, she has a final conversation with the prisoner. Like COPENHAGEN and STUFF HAPPENS, this drama uses historical fact as a frame to pose intriguing questions about what might have happened ..." -Jason Zinoman, The New York Times

Sam's fiancée, Katie, has been raped by a former lover. Or has she? With a wedding date looming, Sam fights to save their now fragile relationship, even while undertaking a desperate search to uncover Katie's secret past. Whispers become certainty, certainty becomes obsession, and Sam must decide: How far is too far for love? "CAGELOVE is a compulsively watchable mix of melodrama and horror." -New York Times "An accomplished work by a distinctive new voice ... Christopher Denham's gripping new drama does what few new plays do: it tells the truth about a great many things ... those who seek it out will have a powerful and gratifying experience." -nytheatre.com

In this unabashedly sentimental comedy, a cat named Samantha has just started living with a guy named Shuman who she believes is her true love. At first everything seems to be going great. Samantha can't get enough of Shuman, and she can't get enough of him. But soon Samantha realizes that Shuman doesn't always seem to understand her. Worse yet, Shuman doesn't always seem all that interested in trying to understand her. Things become truly problematic when one night Oscar, a sexy alley cat, shows up at the door. Suddenly Samantha begins to wonder whether she's an indoor or an outdoor cat. To make matters more complicated, a quirky aspiring cat therapist named Matilda inserts herself into the mix, thinking she can solve everyone's problems but only seems to make things worse. Eventually Samantha finds herself on a journey, both physical and emotional, that leads her to discover what having a home and being loved really mean to her. INDOOR/OUTDOOR is an allegory about the difficulties and joys of all manner of relationships. "Genuine kindness - the type that isn't coated in mawkishness or undercut with irony - is about as rare in the theater as a talking cat. Kenny Finkle's INDOOR/OUTDOOR has both ... it's the improbably story of a kitten who follows the path of so many heroes by leaving home to find herself. It is also a clever, big-hearted comedy that makes it easy to feel good. Finkle gives his central characters rich detail, letting comedy arise naturally from their interactions. More than making jokes, he's crafting a story. INDOOR/OUTDOOR is less about cats than about glorious, permanent love." -Mark Blankenship, Variety "... What a wonderful treat ... to discover ... a refreshing and clever play made more, well, 'purrrrfect' ... Finkle's story offers a crafty humor and a few lessons in life to be gleaned from it, proving it ultimately touched by a poet ..." -Travis Michael Holder, Backstage "Samantha is a cat with a story to tell. It's a good story - poignant, witty and even a little wacky at times. And though it's a cat's story, it's human at its core, which makes Kenny Finkle's new play INDOOR/OUTDOOR so enjoyable ..." -David Cameron, The Ithaca Journal

Most of this play takes place in a nursing home where a disgruntled, flamboyant, elderly mother is recovering from a bad fall. With her middle-aged, recently divorced daughter by her side, she awaits the arrival of her long-estranged gay son who is bringing his lover for a brief tour of his hometown and his damaging past. "Joel Drake Johnson's new play is a sensitively written ... portrait of a fragmented family ... Johnson balances gallows humor with acute insight and compassion. He creates characters so real you wonder what will happen to them after the final blackout - and hope that the healing effects of time will allow parent and children to reconcile and thus reclaim life's most fundamental and precious relationship." -Albert Williams, The Reader "The title of Joel Drake Johnson's new play, THE END OF THE TOUR, may suggest the final leg in the career of a middle-aged rock band. That is not at all what it's about, yet the sense of having outlived one's usefulness is at the heart of this tragicomedy ... And even more than that, there is the feeling of being completely unmoored in the midst of one's life - while at the same time remaining hopelessly roped in by one's family ..." -Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times "... THE END OF THE TOUR, an engaging new work ... The dark comedy homes in on the interconnected lives of six characters who have reached a crossroads where they each must reevaluate their commitment to each other and decide what direction their own lives will take ... Johnson's dialogue - sharp and witty - has more than a little ring of truth in it that may have audience members identifying with the real-life idiosyncrasies of his characters." -Tom Witom, Lakeland Newspapers

"...Just as the company's members good-naturedly bash the Bard in THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED), so do they cheerfully run riot over five-hundred years of our country's history. During the manic, ninety-minute program...[they] mine dozens of landmark events and trends for comic gold... Not only do they know how to give American history an irreverent boost, they actually turn it into something accessible and alive." Pamela Sommers, The Washington Post "...THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA interprets the past as a breathlessly paced sequence of silly vaudeville sketches, word-association games, puns and crude parodies of movie and television genres. Nothing is sacred, and many of the facts have been skewed to suggest the paranoid ravings of a particularly loony tabloid..." Stephen Holden, The New York Times "...In a series of sketches that move at breakneck speed, the Reduced Shakespeare Company scampers through American history... This HISTORY OF AMERICA should be a required course." Terry Byrne, The Boston Herald "History has never been this much fun. Or as delightfully mutilated... Doubtless, reputable historians like Will and Ariel Durant would cringe at this slapstick telling of the American saga. But the rest of us can just giggle uncontrollably..." Bill Brownstein, The Gazette (Montreal)

Harpagon thinks that his children are costing him too much money and must be married off. He has found an old man who won't demand a dowry for his daughter, Elise, and a rich widow for his son, Cleante. Unfortunately Elise is already in love with Harpagon's servant, and his son is in love with the penniless Mariane, whom Harpagon has already decided to take as his own wife. While seeking rest from daily care, I learned that Monsieur Molière, The darling of the muses nine, Whose blessings flow on him like wine, Is now presenting on the stage yes, he's the idol of the age A Miser who diverts us all; And not a little bit. His thrall Encompasses; his scope is vast; He makes us laugh from first to last. He speaks in prose and not in verse; But the effect is none the worse. His prose is so theatrical; Its essence is dramatical. This Miser, then, whose praise one sings, Is prodigal in comic things. What's more, the acting's excellent. Your time could not be better spent. -Charles Robinet, Letters in Verse, Paris, 15 September 1668

Goldoni's eighteenth-century masterpiece is an enduring story of love, passion, and mistaken identity. Young Venetian Clarice can't marry her lover, Silvio. She had been betrothed to Rasponi, who appears to have returned from the dead to claim her. But the Rasponi who appears is actually Beatrice, Rasponi's sister who is in disguise as her brother and has come to Venice to find her suitor, Florinda. Complications arise when a servant greedily seeks employment with both the disguised Beatrice and Florinda and spends the rest of the play trying to serve two masters while keeping the two unaware of the other's presence. The play is based on the Italian Renaissance theater style, Commedia dell arte, and reinvigorated the genre, which is so heavily based on carnival, while bringing to it an element of realism, mishaps, mix-ups, confusions, disguises and mistaken identity that come with the style. "... madcap farce, heroic romance, operetta and dramatic dueling with a feminist slash. Goldoni's simple but convoluted story turns on two sets of lovers, two impossible fathers and manipulative servants ... As adapted by Constance Congdon, this SERVANT jumps from formal language and fractured Latin gags to familiar phrases ('sweet bird of youth' and 'a palpable hit') to American slang ... a silly, stylish tour of comedy's infinite variety." -Malcolm Johnson, The Hartford Courant "... freshly funny ... wickedly goofy, sometimes bawdy delight." -Hartford Advocate

An unexpected death throws Fay and her daughter, Rachel, together for the first time in years. When a friendly police officer attempts to ease their suffering, their funny, frustrating relationship takes on a new life. Joel Drake Johnson's hilarious and harrowing play examines how the relationship between parent and child constantly changes, yet remains the same. "... This is a richly written play, with its complexities and deceptive depths cleverly hidden by anecdotal small talk. Many authors use this approach and get lost in it. Their plays become stop-and-go affairs, but not Johnson's. No matter how small the chat, he constantly sustains the arcs of his characters and the lines of their actions. This play is only three characters and three scenes in ninety-five minutes, but there is nothing small or safe about it. Indeed, THE FALL TO EARTH is a dangerous play with terrible things to say about family fabric and the ego of parenting. It asks its three performers to take huge risks and get naked emotionally ..." -Jonathan Abarbanel, W T T W Public Radio & Windy City Times "Some people need years of therapy to get an inkling of who they are. Chicago playwright Joel Drake Johnson takes only ninety-five minutes to reveal the wounds, quirks and flaws of the three women in his fascinating new play, THE FALL TO EARTH. A compact drama with dark comedic overtones, THE FALL TO EARTH is a revelatory slice of a mother's life as she travels to her son's town after he dies ... In THE FALL TO EARTH, the mother, stays in a hotel with her estranged adult daughter. A local cop helps them through the process ... It's hard to watch two family members suffer so deeply and harm each other so consistently, without feeling sympathy and possibly a disturbing sense of familiarity ... Johnson holds up a mirror for us to feel our own aches and also to laugh at our flawed ways of coping. Dark tales such as this are a hard sell to people who prefer Happy Meal theater. But for those who like drama that drags them down dark, unfamiliar paths and into the rocky terrain of their own hearts, THE FALL TO EARTH is a rewarding trek." -Orla Swift, The News Observer (Durham)

Kafka for kids? Is that a good idea? Fortunately, with a slight change in tone, it is. The fantastical elements of The Metamorphosis strike a chord with adolescents who are often experiencing their own struggles with changing bodies. DANCING ON THE CEILING is an expressionistic fairy-tale about identity and role expectations. It's scary, funny, and moving. "Austin Tichenor recognizes that children are intelligent discriminating patrons of the arts ... giving them last summer's daring and innovative DANCING ON THE CEILING ..." -Milford Cabinet, Milford, NH "Tichenor's belief in serious play has brought him full circle. Like his plays for tots at American Stage Festival, his work for the Reduced Shakespeare Company is smart, fun, children's theater for grownups." -Bostonia Magazine