A gay Brooklyn teenager (The Inheritance’s Samuel H. Levine) charts his own sexual awakening and the complexities of his Russian Jewish family in documentarian Eric Steel’s narrative debut Minyan. The work of James Baldwin is certainly in the zeitgeist again as, much like Tomasz Jedrowski's brilliant debut novel Swimming in the Dark, Giovanni’s Room provides... Continue Reading →
Let’s go online with show! Patti LuPone & John Malkovich star in David’s Mamet’s November to support the Actors Fund
Tonight on Broadway the doors may still be shuttered and the lights dimmed, but Broadway’s Best Shows is going on(line) with show. Launching today at 8pm EST/5pm PST, the weekly one-night-only “Spotlight On Plays” series will benefit The Actors Fund. The first play is David Mamet’s November starring John Malkovich, Patti LuPone, Dylan Baker, Ethan Phillips and Michael... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: V&V (Vault Festival, London) ★★★1/2
Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? When you go to see a play about the famed writer you really don't expect to be laughing at bad sexting and awkward nudes! V&V, an entertaining new two-hander currently playing at The Vaults in London, juxtaposes the literary love affair of Woolf and socialite Vita Sackville-West with the modern... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Coop (Paradise Factory, New York) ★★★★
Developed as a part of Pipeline Theatre Company’s PlayLab, non-binary writer and director Sam Max's darkly comic Coop opens Off-Off-Broadway tonight at Paradise Factory in the East Village. Produced by a queer and femme led creative team, the play stars Latinx, transmasculine actor Lio Mehiel as Avery, a girl who has been isolated from the... Continue Reading →
Exclusive Interview: Composer Paul Englishby on his music for The Inheritance “my feeling was that the music should gently put it’s arm around the audience”
With Matthew Lopez's multi-Olivier winning The Inheritance now in its final weeks on Broadway The Queer Review's editor James Kleinmann spoke exclusively with composer Paul Englishby about creating the play's achingly beautiful music. Scoring for theatre, film, television, dance and opera, Englishby is perhaps best known for his BAFTA-nominated work on BBC's Luther starring Idris Elba. His jazz inflected... Continue Reading →
Teenage Dick (Donmar Warehouse, London) ★★★★
Reworking Shakespeare’s Richard III into American High School territory, Teenage Dick feels like a mash-up - take Netflix’s The Politician, mix in the social media of Dear Evan Hansen, a dash of Six’s feminine re-framing and serve nice and hot. Of course, most of these shows debuted after Teenage Dick first took to the stage... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: The Inheritance (Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York) ★★★★★
Matthew Lopez’s Best Play Olivier award-winning The Inheritance, directed by Stephen Daldry, has arrived on Broadway following last year’s highly acclaimed production at London’s Young Vic and its West End transfer, with many of the original cast. Inspired by E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End, the epic two-part play examines multigenerational gay life in New... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: & Juliet (Shaftsbury Theatre, London) ★★★★
British theatre is loving a bit of historical revision these days and & Juliet gives us re-written Shakespeare with liberal lashings of scandi-pop brilliance. I loathe jukebox musicals but & Juliet is just fantastic! What if star-crossed Juliet didn’t take her own life after Romeo died? What if instead, she woke up and got on... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: My Brilliant Friend Parts 1 & 2 (National Theatre, London) ★★★1/2
April De Angelis’ two-part adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s beloved Neapolitan Novels has a lot of stories to tell you and this production ricochets from magical realism to mobster-camp with frequent stops at political-feminism-polemic to bring them to you. It’s a bit exhausting. How do you translate an epic, adored literary series to the stage without... Continue Reading →
Theatre Review: Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward Theatre, London) ★★★★ 1/2
Dear Evan Hansen is probably the most anticipated Broadway-to-London transfer since Hamilton, and it’s finally here with a fresh-faced lead actor who bowled over critics and fans alike. For this show, today is definitely going to be a good day! Teenager Evan Hansen suffers from severe social anxiety and writes encouraging letters to himself on... Continue Reading →
