Columnists: Frank Scheck

Latest Columns

• Carving up ‘Mommie’ again

  Now that she’s 73, Christina Crawford might want to resolve her mommy issues. That’s the main feeling evoked by “Surviving Mommie Dearest,” a bizarre show in which Crawford rehashes the abuse she suffered at the hands...   May 09, 2013

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• Mark Nadler evokes a world between wars in ‘I’m a Stranger Here Myself’

  A few minutes into his new show, Mark Nadler orders the theater doors to be locked. “You will stay for ze entire show und you vill like it!” he announces in a comical German accent he drops soon after. But he needn’t...   May 06, 2013

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• There’s magic in ‘This Side of Neverland’

  For “This Side of Neverland” — two one-act plays by “Peter Pan” author J.M. Barrie — the Pearl Theatre leaves this side of the Atlantic for the starchy shores of Edwardian England. The atmosphere is set right away, with...   May 06, 2013

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• Muddled ‘Love Therapy’ needs its head examined

  Manhattan therapist Colleen Fitzgerald has an unorthodox twist on treatment: She sees only the patients she likes. Good luck with that in this town. And good luck to audiences at “Love Therapy,” Wendy Beckett’s muddled...   May 02, 2013

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• Purim tale told under the big top in Folksbiene’s ‘The Megile of Itzik Manger’

  Purim came and went, but the National Yiddish Theater-Folksbiene is celebrating it now with “The Megile of Itzik Manger,” a freewheeling musical adaptation of the Book of Esther that’s as tasty as those little Purim...   April 30, 2013

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• In ‘Mayday Mayday,’ Tristan Sturrock recalls how he broke his neck

  Leaping about the stage three years ago in Broadway’s “Brief Encounter,” Tristan Sturrock seemed to defy gravity. So it’s shocking to learn that he came very close to not being able to do that show, or much of anything...   April 23, 2013

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• Hellish marriage makes devilishly funny play, 'The Dance of Death'

  Who would have thought a play titled “The Dance of Death” would be one of the funniest shows in town? August Strindberg hardly has a reputation as a cutup. But the Red Bull Theater’s revival of his 1900 classic plays up...   April 22, 2013

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• 'The Rascals' groove on Broadway

  Right now on Broadway, you can see a fake Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons or ersatz versions of Motown’s Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. Or, you can see the former Young Rascals — the real ones. They’re not kids anymore...   April 17, 2013

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• RSC’s ‘Julius Caesar’ roars to life

  Ancient Rome doesn’t seem quite the same in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new “Julius Caesar”: Reset in modern-day Africa, with an all-black cast, it opens with much of the ensemble milling around onstage, to the...   April 16, 2013

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• Sci-fi comic zapped to life

  It’s hard to figure out exactly where to look while watching “The Intergalactic Nemesis Book One: Target Earth.” Geared for kids ages 7 and older, this new “live-action graphic novel” is literally all over the place....   April 09, 2013

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• Joe Gilford’s ‘Finks,’ about the dark days of Hollywood blacklisting, is personal

  ‘Finks” feels personal. And with good reason: This drama about Jack and Madeline Lee Gilford’s struggles during the show-business blacklist of the ’50s was written by their son Joe Gilford. His historical drama is rife...   April 08, 2013

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• Hipster rock musical ‘F#%king Up Everything’ is profanely divine

  Despite its title song dropping more F-bombs than you’d think possible in a single number, “F#%king Up Everything” is actually a sweetly old-fashioned boy-meets-girl musical. Set in hipster-populated Williamsburg —...   April 01, 2013

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• Get ‘Piggy’ with it at this heartwarming musical for kids

  Not aimed at the typical-aged theater audience, “Piggy Nation: The Musical!” has a bouncy score and just enough bodily function jokes to keep the kid-crowd for which it’s intended. As an added bonus for parents, this...   March 27, 2013

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• 'The Drowning Girls' brings long-dead British brides to life

  The ominous feeling begins upon walking into the darkened theater, where three rusty claw-foot bathtubs are sitting on the stage. And it only gets spookier at the beginning of “The Drowning Girls,” when three women clad...   March 25, 2013

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• Send in the clown — Bello Nock has his own show

  ‘we’re gonna have some fun, don’t worry,” Bello Nock assured a young boy’s nervous parents as he gently escorted their son to the stage.  They had reason to worry: After all, they’d just seen the renowned clown’s 16...   March 21, 2013

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• Sex and the single Irish girl

  You might say “For Love,” about the tortured romantic lives of three 30-something women, is like “Sex and the City” — only the city is economically depressed Dublin, and the sex is more often unsatisfying than not. This...   March 20, 2013

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• Bebe Neuwirth’s worthy new show at 54 Below

  You could be deaf and still be moved by Bebe Neuwirth’s new show, “Stories With Piano #4.” So powerful is her physical expressiveness that her less-than-stellar voice — husky and full of vibrato — is almost beside the...   March 20, 2013

  From Music

• Don’t Russian to this drama

  You’ll definitely want to review those program notes before watching “Neva,” the ponderous play by Chile’s Guillermo Calderón that just opened at the Public. It’s set in a St. Petersburg theater in 1905 Russia, where...   March 12, 2013

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• ‘Old Boy’ needs to grow up

  A.R. Gurney has written so many political plays lately (“O Jerusalem,” “Mrs. Farnsworth”) that it’s easy to forget that he once dealt almost exclusively with WASPs and their foibles. The Keen Company’s revival of his...   March 07, 2013

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• A Grimm tale, delectably told

  ‘The Wild Bride” is based on an ancient story later turned into a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, and it’s grim indeed. Here we have the spectacle of a father cutting off his daughter’s hands, a deer getting its eyes...   February 28, 2013

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• Book a ticket to ‘Railroad’

  When the curtain opens, we see a solitary figure striking some acrobatic dance moves, twirling gracefully on a mountaintop. He’s the aptly named Lone, a laborer working on the transcontinental railroad in 1867 — the...   February 26, 2013

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• Stark production no fine ‘Summer’ day

  The luridly poetic language is there, and so are some fine performances. But there’s not much more to Mississippi Mud Productions’ bare-bones revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly Last Summer,” about the gruesome...   February 19, 2013

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• If you could, you should

  Attention, casting directors: Judging by Patti LuPone’s show “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda . . . (Played That Part),” you’ve been seriously falling down on the job. Sure, the two-time Tony winner has triumphed in such roles...   February 14, 2013

  From Entertainment

• Skits ring a bell, still a sure thing

  Three monkeys pounding on typewriters, in the hope they’ll eventually produce “Hamlet.” Leon Trotsky going about his day with an assassin’s ax in his head. A universal, nonsensical but familiar language — “Velcro!...   February 13, 2013

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• Fighting ‘Irish’ score in race-relations drama

  It’s the 1950s, and a black family hopes to buy into an all-white neighborhood. No, the play this time isn’t “A Raisin in the Sun” or its modern-day theatrical riff, “Clybourne Park.” Rather, it’s “Luck of the Irish,”...   February 13, 2013

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• Vampire bunny a real juicer

  Be careful next time you bring home a stray bunny rabbit, no matter how cute and fluffy he is. For if the new children’s show “Bunnicula” is to be believed, he may be a . . . vampire bunny.  Based on the children’s book...   February 11, 2013

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• Hot club fun time machine

  ‘She’s a real drama queen, that one,” whispered a shady-looking guy. And I, sipping from the coffee cup a winking bartender had just poured some liquor into, had to agree. Even as immersive theater goes, Cynthia von...   February 05, 2013

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• Beating a dead ‘Moose’

  It took nearly three decades and countless therapy sessions, but I finally thought I was over the post-traumatic stress of having suffered through the original 1983 Broadway production of “Moose Murders.” This notorious...   February 01, 2013

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• Under-par ‘Man’ on wrong track

  You’ll think twice about taking advantage of the Missed Connections section on Craigslist after seeing “The Man Under.” Paul Bomba’s strained drama about a man who falls in love with a woman he meets in the bowels of...   January 31, 2013

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• Sat. night fever set in MTV heyday culture

  ‘Totally Tubular Time Machine” bills itself as “NYC’s only interactive, intergalactic, pop music experience.” That’s true enough, but whether you’ll want to go back in time to attend this “1989 MTV Video Music Awards...   January 29, 2013

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