A: When she can act like Estelle Parsons. If you haven’t seen Estelle Parsons in August: Osage County, you are cheating yourself out of the opportunity to see what makes theater the best forum for actors to truly unfold the wings of their craft and fly. Parsons isn’t acting the part of Violet Weston, she is Violet Weston, and seeing her make it look so easy and effortless is to watch someone defy gravity before your very eyes.

I recently revisited August to see how it was holding up in its new venue with its new cast members, particularly Parsons, and was thrilled to see that it has retained the same fire that it had over a year ago.

The new play Prayer for My Enemy, now playing off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon, involves some distinguished theater people. It is written by Craig Lucas, author of Prelude to a Kiss, among many other plays, and also librettist for the musical The Light in the Piazza. It is directed by Bartlett Sher, who won a Tony for his exceptional work in the current revival of South Pacific and also received considerable praise for his direction of Piazza as well as the revival of Odets’s Awake and Sing. And the play stars Tony winners Victoria Clark (Piazza) and Michelle Pawk, as well as Tony nominee Jonathan Groff, who burst onto the scene with his fine performance as Melchior in the Tony-winning musical Spring Awakening. But it takes more than the pedigree of the creators to make for a totally successful and satisfying theater work, and Prayer for My Enemy doesn’t completely work.

As a fan of the directing of Ivo Van Hove, I had to go see Opening Night during its brief (and now finished) run at the BAM Next Wave Festival. Van Hove makes regular forays into the NY theater scene from his base in Europe. This time he brought a Dutch troupe, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, with him, and the piece is fascinating, based on a 1970s John Cassavetes film and created, according to Van Hove, from the film script alone; he never saw the movie. I like that. It justifies my review of his piece without having seen the movie, which, according to a discerning friend of mine, was totally without merit anyway.

Wow! That may not be the most articulate or profound thing to say about a new Broadway musical, but it is what I found myself saying and thinking after being totally blown away while watching Billy Elliot. The new musical, which is based on a movie with the same name and has already been a big hit in London, has arrived in New York. Based on the critical response and on what I saw, it should be here for quite some time. Even with these difficult economic times, Billy Elliot looks to be a tough ticket and a big hit.

There are so many things that impressed me about Billy Elliot that I’m not sure where to start. It has a wonderful mix of warmth, humor, theatricality, and razzle-dazzle showmanship.

Mining for gold is a process that can occupy years of effort only to yield very small returns. This draws an appropriate parallel to the amount of time that Stephen Sondheim has put into the many incarnations of Road Show only to end up with a mediocre musical that bears his name but none of his genius. Just as the characters in this story are trying to hustle a series of cons, these actors and director are trying hard to sell this musical that just isn’t worth buying.

As a criticism of American capitalism, the theme is ripe and brought to the stage with perfect timing; unfortunately the exploration lacks depth and scratches at clichés of the flaws in our national character rather than probing with the vigor that the topic deserves.

The Roundabout knows well how to tell a rich and colorful story with the use of one basic, functional set. Keeping the presentation simple allows the focus to rest on the performances of the actors, and with Frank Langella leading the pack, this proves successful in this current production of A Man for All Seasons by the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Langella last appeared on Broadway as Richard Nixon, so it is in a much different cloth that he comes to us as Sir Thomas More, though his command of the stage remains consistent.

There is spectacle and there is theater. Spectacle often works to dress up nothing to make it look like something, whereas theater, true theater, can take nothing and magically transform it into something. The 39 Steps is unquestionably theater as its cast of four plays fifty, changing worlds and characters with the use of hats, costumes, flashlights, shadows, and welcomed suspension of disbelief. Nearly a year after its opening, one theater later with another theater to go, this comedy defies gravity as it changes venues and continues to thrive.

I recently revisited this production, having originally seen it shortly after its opening, curious to see how it was holding up. Aside from missing Cliff Saunders, who originated the role of Man #1, this current cast is keeping the spirit alive of a very fun and entertaining piece of theater.

The extremely miscast revival of David Mamet’s American Buffalo at the Belasco Theatre is one more depressing instance of confusing the screen actor with the stage actor. They possess different skills. We don’t expect hockey stars to play NFL football, so why, again and again, do we see untrained screen or television actors taking lead roles on Broadway? Is this just one more case of the dumbing-down of America? The producers fear that audiences won’t come without big names that they recognize.

The primary and election season seemed to go on forever. But at last we have a newly chosen president, which makes me wonder just how relevant the satirical drama Farragut North will prove. Beau Willimon’s quite humorous yet dark new play opened November 12 in an Atlantic Theatre Company production, directed by Doug Hughes. It takes place during several crucial days in a presidential primary campaign, the year being 2008, as the two leading Democratic candidates at the Iowa caucuses are battling for victory. A former political operative himself, Willimon is fascinated with the behind-the-scenes battles, strategies, and betrayals of those who run the campaign: not the candidates (whom we never see on stage) but the professional spin-masters. Their commitment to the process -- the game -- is like pit bulls at a dog fight. It’s an adrenalin rush.

The critics were not kind to the new Broadway musical version of the Charles Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities. Reviews ranged from mixed (critics referring to the novel’s famous first lines in saying the musical wasn’t the best of shows, but wasn’t the worst either) to harsh. While Tale certainly recalls shows such as Les Miserables and does not break any new ground, for me, at least, it tells a great story in a compelling, atmospheric, and dramatic fashion. Some critics feel that the era of epic musicals is past. But if the audience is given a good production of a strong story, I don’t see any problem with that.

Like a deck of demented cards, Zombie Joe reveals his latest creation at The Players Theatre, masterfully tainting old MacDougal Street with all sorts of blood, guts, and gore. Whatever your secret nightmares may be, Zombie Joe’s Underground has something to unleash for your vicious fantasies.

Presented as a night of horrific scenes and personified fears, Urban Death was the perfect way to usher in the ghosts and demons of All Hallow’s Eve and remains relevant for the horror that the upcoming holiday season can bring.

It’s been said that the 20th century belonged to the West, and particularly to the United States of America, while the 21st century will belong to Asia, particularly China. If this is indeed the case - and it seems likely - then we of the falling-off empire need to know more about the Eastern world on many levels. Art is certainly one window into these Asian cultures. Right now at BAM’s 2008 Next Wave Festival one can experience a stunning theatrical work from Taiwan, Meeting with Bodhisattva.

The U Theatre, directed by Liu Ruo-Yu, presents - through movement, drumming, vocal sounds, and ritual - a compelling 80-minute performance marked by commitment, discipline, and synchronization.

Icelandic theater director Gisli Orn Gardarsson has brought a very dark, very disturbing production of Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck to BAM’s 2008 Next Wave Festival. Of course Woyzeck, written in German in 1836, assembled after the author’s death, published in 1879, and first staged in 1913, is a famously brooding work, considered by many the first truly modernist play. In 25 or so short scenes depicting a kind of everyman’s destruction, Büchner captured the abysmal state of poverty and powerlessness experienced by many in his time. But this weird, expressionistic narrative of dominance, cruelty, jealousy, and betrayal has continued to seem relevant.

It is rare for a failed musical to be given a second chance over thirty years after its unsuccessful debut and turn out, in its new production, to be a rousing success. But, that is exactly what is happening at the York Theatre, where Enter Laughing has not only been given a delectable mounting, but has also gotten great reviews and become a solid hit.

You may have heard of Enter Laughing, but probably not its musical rendition. It debuted back in 1958 as a “semi-autobiographical” novel by Carl Reiner, and was turned into a successful Broadway play, starring Alan Arkin, in 1963.

At the heart of Michael Weller’s new play Beast is a metaphor that captures the deep alienation of soldiers returning from Iraq. They exist in a kind of in-between world of the living and the dead, not truly of either, so changed, both visibly and invisibly. Directed by the talented Jo Bonney and produced at the New York Theatre Workshop, Beast is the surreal tale of two seriously wounded and disfigured veterans returning to the States from a military hospital in Germany. One of them, Jimmy Cato, has suffered facial scars and a missing arm, while his best pal and sergeant, Buddy Voychevsky, seems to have suffered the loss of an arm, massive burns, and a major head injury that has left him looking like a monster with a bowling ball for a head.

Much of the buzz surrounding the revival of Equus revolves around the Broadway debut of Daniel Radcliffe, best known for his Harry Potter role in the very successful series of movies. I’ve never seen a Harry Potter movie, but I was excited to see the play itself for a different reason. I saw the original production, which had come to Broadway after it had premiered in London back in 1973. The other lead role, that of psychiatrist Martin Dysart, was originated on Broadway by Anthony Hopkins, who gave a dynamic and memorable performance, and was later played by Richard Burton, who recreated the role for the film version.

“Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death & The Tell-Tale Heart & The Bells”

A strange wind has blown us a dark delicacy from Los Angeles in the form of Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group. Breaking more than the fourth wall, this staged adaptation of Poe, currently playing at The St. Luke’s Theatre, is a welcomed change from the norm.

If you’re looking for a night of traditional theater, this is not the show for you. However, if you’d to take a gamble on something you haven’t seen before, then look no further. The audience is attacked from all angles, including the lobby, as blood and sexuality ooze from the stage, providing a taste of the dark side for lovers of the macabre.

Normally a musical without a book would represent a work-in-progress, but this is not the case with Green Eyes. Although this new “boy meets girl” love story does not shoot for the moon, it hits what it aims dead-center.

Making its New York debut in this year’s Fringe Festival, Green Eyes tells a sweet and simple love story using only song and dance, no dialog. It is a basic story about two twenty-something lovers who meet, fall in love, have a fleeting relationship, face conflicts, and ultimately split up.

The most offensive thing about The Public’s current production of HAIR is how much we need an honest revival of this musical and how the opposite was delivered.

Fault falls first with the director, Diane Paulus. In directing a play that was intended to be for “the people,” as was announced from the stage before the show began, Paulus decided to stage the majority of the action for one third of the audience. Particularly disturbing about this move is the fact that most of the people who actually waited in a very long line all day for their tickets were sitting on the two sides of the house that were not being played to at all.

If you’re looking to spend an hour with the moderately creepy, then Zombie might be for you. This one-man play -- based on a novella by Joyce Carol Oates -- is about serial killer Quentin P_, who resembles Jeffrey Dahmer in his desire to create a zombie for his own personal uses. This production was adapted for the stage by Bill Connington, who also acts in the piece. Connington attempts to create a character of extreme emotional control, and he succeeds in doing so; the problem is, this can be very tedious to watch. In similar regards he maintains a nearly monotone, nasal voice for most of the piece, somewhat reminiscent of “Gavin,” the Bruce McCulloch character from Kids in the Hall.

It is good to see theater groups take artistic risks, and for the second summer, the Potomac Theatre Project has come to New York City for a month to show their work at the Atlantic Theatre Stage 2. Sarah Kane’s Crave and the New York premiere of Neal Bell’s Somewhere in the Pacific opened in previews on July 1. This company prides itself on presenting works that “are unapologetically political in nature.” Political, here, includes the personal since they believe “the personal is always political.”

The first new musical of the Broadway season isn’t exactly brand new. In fact, [title of show] has been on the scene in New York, off and on, over the past four years. It originated in 2004 at the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), where new musicals are presented for limited runs; as a result of achieving a good response there, [title of show] had a successful off-Broadway run in 2006 at the Vineyard Theatre. Last year, the authors, who also are the show’s stars, created a successful series of web episodes, which can be viewed on You Tube and on the musical’s own website, called “The [title of show] Show.”

George Carlin has died of heart failure. Considered one of the two or three greatest stand-up comedians ever, he started doing comedy in 1960 and recorded his first solo album in 1967. Long an astute observer of hypocrisy, language usage, and material avoided by most comics as too controversial, Carlin became notorious for his use of taboo words when that was a rarity in mainstream comedy. His routines involving the "seven words you can never say on TV" provoked an FCC lawsuit in 1973 that went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled against radio station WBAI in 1978.

Pinter’s work can be very tricky. With all the purposeful pauses and odd behaviors, there needs to be an underlying drive in the characters, pushing the tension and action forward. Something almost subterranean. And this is what is unfortunately lacking in the production of The Caretaker at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, now in its 80th season. Of the three actors on stage, only one is fully up to the demands of his part. Jonathan Epstein as the old derelict Davies, brought indoors from a café fight to the single room where all the action occurs, is excellent. He has the requisite paranoid distrust that drives Davies, the endless resentment, and at the same time the cunning self-pity and delusions.

The end of May also marks the end of another Broadway season. The awards season is upon us, with the Tony Awards upcoming (Sunday, June 15). It makes this a good time to take a look back at the Broadway musicals of 2007-2008.

It was a season marked with a fascinating contrast between the revivals and the new musicals. The four major musical revivals include three revered classics of American musical theater: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s glorious South Pacific; the brilliant Gypsy, an iconic show many fans believe is the greatest American musical ever written; and Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George.

I’m actually one of the few who never saw Mel Brooks’s movie Young Frankenstein. I also felt that his Broadway hit The Producers, while a lot of fun, didn’t quite live up to all its hype. But when some good seats opened up for Brooks’s musical version of Young Frankenstein, which opened late last year at the Hilton Theater, I went for them. I had read both the pros and cons about Young Frankenstein and went in with minimal expectations. Given that background, did it deliver? Yes and no.

Overall, I found the show to be modest fun. It’s quite a visual spectacle, with some terrific Robin Wagner sets being one of the definite highlights.

When William Faulkner put us inside the head of an idiot in section one of his 1929 novel, The Sound and the Fury, it was a radical stylistic choice. An early American practitioner of the stream-of-consciousness style, introduced by such European modernists as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, Faulkner went one step further than Joyce and Woolf by his choice of an idiot narrator, one whose brain was even more chaotic than the ordinary, disorganized mental stream of most humans. What the group Elevator Repair Service has created at New York Theatre Workshop is the stage version of such an experience.

Has the influence of pop and rock music on the Broadway musical ever been more evident than this season? The Tony nominees have been announced, and all four nominated musicals feature scores heavily influenced, in varying forms, by pop or rock. Of the newcomers, no show pushes the boundaries of how people might look at a Broadway musical more than Passing Strange, which has landed at the Belasco Theatre after having been previously produced at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, then off Broadway last spring at the Public Theater.

The show is a semi-autobiographical story of an artist’s journey and search for self-fulfillment. Its star and creator, Stew, AKA Mark Stewart, founded the critically acclaimed Los Angeles band The Negro Problem in 1995 (and also has among his credits the composition of a song for Spongebob Squarepants).

A Scots man, trying to sell a series of multicultural textbooks that teach English to foreigners, lands in contemporary Damascus, Syria. He is quite unsophisticated, sleep-deprived after the long flight there, and eager to return to his home. From this simple premise of “rube out of his depths,” David Grieg’s Damascus opens up a whole world of cultural and erotic possibilities during Paul’s three-day visit and stay at a three-star hotel, under the tutelage of its friendly young desk clerk Zakaria and the lovely school administrator Muna.