Off-Off-Broadway Review

Candide Americana

Stanton Wood's updating of Voltaire's novella is trenchant, canny, a series of lacerations directed toward the American right wing.

Looming the Memory

Late in "Looming the Memory," Thomas Papathanassiou's beloved grandfather, or "papu," tells him: "It is a difficult thing to have your heart in two places." For Papathanassiou, whose immigrant Greek parents raised him in Australia, that is clearly a struggle.

Race Music

Playwright Warren Bodow's "comes to playwriting as a second career." On the evidence of "Race Music," giving up his day job may not have been the most advisable decision.

NY Review: 'The Stranger to Kindness'

David Stallings' "The Stranger to Kindess," part of Frigid New York, employs too many clichés in its depiction of the loneliness of the urban jungle.

Order

Christopher Stetson Boal's new play wins points for originality, audacious theatricality, and brave and talented playwriting, even as it also frustrates us.

Sounding

Jennifer Gibbs' new play seeks the mystery of existence only to drown in weak storytelling and empty dialogue.

The Wonder

The now-forgotten Restoration playwright Susanna Centlivre is revived by a capable all-female cast in an entertaining and spirited production that falters only when it attempts to force itself into the 21st century.

Living in a Musical

This benighted production proves to be a work of gob-smacking incompetence.

The Realm

In the subterranean world of "The Realm," playwright Sarah Myers attempts to engage the lives and deaths of words and hearts both figuratively and literally.

Children at Play

This play delivers too much too fast in its creepy and campy portrayal of adolescence.