The AndyGram

Twas the 26^th of November when I ventured out, 
to a new comedy play I had heard all about.
Who’s Holiday! is running through only December, 
and then poof it’s gone, I insist you remember.

This script is full of philosophical treatises about “time” and “being.” Trying to tie this to the narrative has rendered it overwrought.

Cirque Du Soleil, the Québec-based masters of the circus arts, has brought their 35th production to Randall’s Island. Kurios – Cabinet of Curiosities brings an oversize curio cabinet and its contents to life. In it, Cirque does what it does best, it creates a magical time and place.

Dear friends: The Roundabout Theatre Company revival of She Loves Me is a sheer delight that must be seen.

Hughie is a mere wisp of a play by Eugene O’Neill, clocking in just under 65 minutes. The action takes place in 1928 in a run-down, formerly glorious hotel near Manhattan’s theatre district.  As the audience enters, the stage is dimly bathed in Neil Austin’s moody lighting design.  A desk clerk sits behind the desk, his hand resting gently on it, unmoving.  You could be forgiven for thinking he was a wax figure.

The Humans by Stephen Karam is a dark and moving familial comedy.  Set in Manhattan’s Chinatown in a newly rented duplex, the tenants are a young couple starting out in the world.  Brigid (Sarah Steele) is an undiscovered composer with mountains of student debt.  Her boyfriend, Richard (Arian Moayed) is working on completing his masters in social work.

It’s hard to imagine that when Harold Prince first presented backers auditions for the original Broadway production of Bock, Harnick, Stein and Robbin’s Fiddler on the Roof, it came with a warning.  Despite the first act ending with a pogrom and the second act ending with the exile of the Jewish community from Anetevka, he told them “there’s gonna be a lotta humor in this show, too, and we’re gonna have Zero Mostel.”  He still had to convince them that it held appeal beyond just the Jewish community.

Director John Doyle’s revival of the musical The Color Purple is beyond moving and uplifting. It has been streamlined into a svelte and simple production that allows the actors to focus on character without having the audience’s attention pulled away by extraneous props and intricate scenery. The theme of hope and endurance overcoming loss and despair drives the musical forward.

The affecting new Broadway production from Deaf West Theatre of Spring Awakening comes just six-and-a-half years after the closing of the original Broadway production. This time it is performed by Deaf West Theatre. Wherein, deaf actors are paired with hearing actors who sing their role and read their dialogue while the deaf actor signs and both actors act the role.

In Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda has crafted a musical history lesson using the medium of hip-hop and musical theatre. In it, he brings to life one of America's most oft-overlooked founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton.