An Evening With George Wallace was a collection of poems and songs by Suffolk County poet laureate George Wallace. The performance is a blend of Mr. Wallace reciting his poetry and songs set to lyrics by him and a series of short films that played alongside these moments. Wallace’s presence from the beginning set the tone of the collection the audience was hearing that night. Wearing dark attire and with a bottle of Jack Daniels in sight, there is a rustic Americana quality t

This week I saw not one but two shows about adult men coming to terms with the reality of the fact that the men who taught them to be the men they are, the ones that inspired them and who they looked up to and model themselves after, turned out to be sexual predators with a penchant for history and abuse that is protected by the system. A bit of a peculiarity for such a particularly harsh and bitter reality of the world we live in to be presented to me with raw, chaotic pain

D.C. Anderson Wide Awoke (And Proud Of It) was a heartfelt musical performance by D.C. Anderson that sings of an angst that many of us all are too familiar with. Anderson takes the opportunity at the United Solo Theatre Festival to speak from a place deep in his core. He is an older gentleman with his professional profiles listing him as a 63–75-year-old actor. Now, I’m more courteous than to ask someone their age but none the less it speaks of the generation that Anderson’s

Writer and performer Frank Pagliaro establishes the tone of his solo- show The Priory: A One-Man Mass early on. He is a charming man. Throughout the show there is a wit to his performance in dialect that comes naturally: it doesn’t aim to impress the audience as much as it does exemplify the role academia has played in the formation of the character we see on stage. He is witty, referencing Descartes and St. Aquinas, but it isn’t meant to be a show: it’s his simple earnest li

“Who Am I?” is the sort of question that every person asks themselves at some point or another, and the process of answering that question is a torturous process in itself. Condemned to a Life is an example how solo theater can be a way of asking and answering these sorts of questions in way that can be cathartic to both the performer and the audience. The show stars Amy Kraft who regales us with the story of her life from childhood to where she is now, the relationships that

Kevin Flynn opens Fear of Heights with Tolstoy’s famous first line from Anna Karenina “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” He promptly reassures the audience “This is not going to be a divorce story.” It isn’t. In eighty entertaining minutes Flynn weaves an affectionate portrait of his multigenerational Irish American family with stories from his career as a stand-up comedian, actor and TV host. From rags to riches to… well, happiness

In Run Out of Town 84-year-old Toni Hart tells the story of her post W.W. II childhood in rural Minnesota, across the river from the prairie mythologized by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is performed as part of United Solo’s Fall 2026 season at Theatre Row, Their two childhoods share a landscape but little else. Hart’s “rotten father” was an antisemite with an explosive temper and a fixation on firearms. She survived him only because her mother somehow protected her. Hart tells he

Doing Time With Lavinia from my standard can only be described as a vivacious, vibrant vortex of theatrical verve categorized with just the right dosing of zaniness, emotionalism, and melodic brilliance. Truly, this one-woman musical is as crazy as it is endearing, and the fact that I neglected my editorial notebook because I couldn’t take my eyes off of the stage the entire length of the show says a lot about just how captivating it was! The musical follows its flamboyant

Samuel Simon’s story becomes ours after encountering the unmasked and untainted side of dementia in his performance of Dementia Man. The delivery of this piece is authentic, passionate, and forces you to smile and laugh with his witty anecdotes. As he confronts the reality of his personal suffering, there is an undeniable connection felt around the room. He describes his journey in a way that pulls your heart in without need for apology. It feels almost conversational the way

It was the greatest privilege to be surrounded by such magnificent artistry, gracious sentimentality, and show-stopping storytelling when witnessing the brilliance of Nicole Tongue’s, The Kitchen Sink at Manhattan’s historic Theatre Row. For a premiere of someone’s first-ever play, I was nimbly impressed by Tongue’s exquisite versatility. Her acting, dancing, singing, writing, and production were all accounted for and all were delightfully divine. What drew me most during the

Grand Rounds takes an unlikely subject for the stage, a doctor’s lecture at a teaching hospital and turns it into something deeply personal. The talk is meant to explain why stories matter in medicine but the doctor giving it reveals far more than she intended. It is funny and deeply moving often all at once. Adapted from Chris Adrian’s short story in Granta and directed by Polly Noonan, the play stars Caroline Luft as a pediatric fellow giving a grand rounds lecture. Luft se

Magic, martial arts and mastery– oh my! The energy was infectious and the spirits were high at Bryan Stoops’ world premiere of Bryan Stoops: Magic, Martial Arts & Standup, performed at the iconic Theatre Row on 42nd Street in Manhattan’s bustling Hell’s Kitchen. Enjoyable, humorous, and riddled with exceptional show of physical skill, Stoops’ performance was as immersive and engaging as it was educational– a combination I found particularly endearing. There is something so in

At SoHo Playhouse On the surface Shell is a free wheeling, rollicking, sex comedy, but underneath the laughter it raises serious questions about gender, sexuality, love and desire. Our guide for much of the show is hockey dude Andy, the founder of B.R.O. (Breaking Reproductive Oppression). Andy leads the audience in various quizzes and questions involving their knowledge of the reproductive system and their own acts of reproductive oppression. In addition to Andy, we meet Pea

In The Peculiar Patriot, Liza Jessie Peterson accomplishes the most difficult of feats: taking facts and statistics and giving them a human face. In this case, it is the harrowing toll that the prison industrial complex has wrought upon communities of color. Born of Peterson’s work with prison populations, The Peculiar Patriot is a story she has been telling for twenty-five years. This run at NY Theatre Workshop’s In the Bricks series will be the show’s last stop, and when it

Generational trauma and the Sexual and Women’s Liberation movements provide the canvas for Leslie Ayvazian's Mention My Beauty; playing through June 14th at New York Theatre Works In The Bricks Series. On a bare stage with only a music stand and a script, Ayvazian expertly engages her audience in a very personal story of transcending the things you were taught to believe about yourself and finding your true voice. Born into a complicated Armenian family whose elder members es

Is it possible to include a singalong in a show about the tragic deaths of loved ones? If you’re Chris Grace the answer is a resounding yes. He manages to take one of the most difficult subjects we face as humans and infuse it with humor. Standing in a stark black box of a theatre clad in white with only a white stool, Grace asks us to imagine there is a projector beaming a slide of a picture of a family. This device is one of the most clever in the show by asking us to use o

“Onward!” What started as an email sign-off became a rallying cry, and then the basis of Kathryn Grody’s magical show The Unexpected 3rd at New York Theatre Workshop’s In the Bricks series. Over the course of ninety minutes Grody manages to take stereotypes of aging and smash them under her capable heel. She is not aging gracefully; Grody is aging in full, living color with fierce determination to face her third act with generosity of spirit, curiosity and an open heart; whi

Drugs, Sex, and the Good Old Life ​Lost in Del Valle was directed by Amir Arison and written and performed by Ned Van Zandt. It offers a trip to Texas seen through the eyes of a struggling actor whose life isn't as glamorous as it might seem. The show is guaranteed to make you laugh through multiple characters who are funnier than ever. Van Zandt understands how his characters are the very people who make this story as funny as it is pure. ​Some of the most striking aspects o