Off-Broadway Review

Inventing Avi (and Other Theatrical Maneuvers)

A zany comedy about the theater that actually lands far more humorous punches than you would think.

Mengelberg and Mahler

The topic of this solo drama on a legendary conductor and composer is fascinating, but one of the players is missing.

Delusion

The always genre-defying Laurie Anderson's new music-theater piece is as full of craft as of magic, resulting in an enchanting journey to the limits of the imagination.

Mummenschanz

In a world in which Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil are staples of the mainstream, the troupe's abstract puppets seem oddly antiquated.

Mimic

This moral fable of contemporary Ireland—written, performed, and accompanied at the piano by Raymond Scannell—is a story that more often bewilders rather than informs.

Between Worlds

This dance-theater offering is an inauthentic employment of flamenco dance, set against hip-hop sensibilities, in the service of a pummeling, percussion-driven music and movement spectacle.

The Silver Tassie

Vaudeville comedy blends with epic despair in Tony-winning director Garry Hynes' chilling and funny production of Seán O'Casey's rarely seen 1928 anti-war play.

Bitter Sweet

Strong singing and acting mitigate unfortunate attempts to modernize Noël Coward's 1929 operetta. Still, this is a welcome chance to hear the lovely score sung in dramatic context.

Oliver Parker!

To label "Oliver Parker!" a black comedy about child molestation would be an unfair assessment, one that wouldn't be helped much by adding that it's also a very funny one.

Amerissiah

Derek Ahonen's play, here in its Off-Broadway premiere after debuting Off-Off-Broadway in 2008, is as ambitious and self-defeating as the culture it sets out to save.