If you like this person's taste, follow him or her!
See it if The actors were game and not bad for what they were asked to do, although the "mothers" (played by men) came off often as silly stereotypes.
Don't see it if you're tired of the current trend toward gimmicks and other overly clever add-ons to plays that would probably be better told straight.
Also Despite the playwright’s explanation in the program for why she had he... Read more Read less
See it if you're up for seeing a timely albeit uncomfortable and mostly ignored subject (i.e., the fate of child abusers in a halfway house).
Don't see it if child abuse, with a somewhat sympathetic look at the perpetrators, would be unacceptable to you or put you off.
Also At the start the adult who was abused as a child seems to be the centr... Read more Read less
See it if you're interested in Walt Disney a short while after he started and long before the company became the behemoth it is today.
Don't see it if if you find labor and management conflicts too predictable and your sympathies are immutably on one side or the other.
Also It's interesting to see the early version of the Disney Corporation in... Read more Read less
See it if you have an interest in Korean history mainly of the 20th Century. (It doesn't pretend to be a historical play.)
Don't see it if you prefer a play with clearly identified characters whose conflict(s) build to a climax and dramatic payoff.
Also This play comprises several chronological set pieces of Korean and lat... Read more Read less
See it if You want to see how a 25-year-old play handles an issue that occupies an even greater part of our social consciousness today.
Don't see it if The abundance of news & TV shows about sexual abuse deter you from seeing a memory (or from today's POV recovered-memory) play about it.
Also A woman who as a girl was the victim of sexual abuse by her uncle reca... Read more Read less
See it if you want a glimpse into what it's like to have the FBI show up at your door esp. if you're guilty of what they've come after you for.
Don't see it if you want a play rather than a clever realization of a real FBI transcript. Not that there's no drama, but it's not the same as a play.
Also By my watch this theater piece lasted 60 minutes, not the 75-80 minute... Read more Read less
See it if you want to take advantage of seeing small theaters and unknown actors doing a creditable job of putting on a timely play by Shakespeare.
Don't see it if you're disinclined to see unknown actors performing in small venues.
Also Imaginative staging with limited resources. Two quibbles: (1) the cost... Read more Read less
See it if a play that wants to be the avatar of the anti-retroviral era as Angels was of the AIDS-Reagan era & BITB of the closeted era interests you.
Don't see it if A 2-ticket, 7+ hour play that covers a lot, perhaps too much, territory is not how you want to spend your time.
Also In a writing class Adam invokes EM Forster to help him start writing, ... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a clever, often funny, more often raunchy presentation of bi-racial couples where the black partner is sexually frustrated.
Don't see it if you know over-hype when you read or hear it. The play’s worthwhile but not nearly as provocative as the hype would have you believe.
Also The play wants to be both a satire on role-play therapy (& maybe actin... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a slice of life of a part of America you won't often see.
Don't see it if almost three hours of a dour play which should be more dramatic would put you off.
Also I sense the author aspires to emulate Chekhov & Miller in illuminating... Read more Read less
See it if you enjoy what might be called "observational" theater pieces that gussy up the mundane to pass if off as profundity.
Don't see it if you're ready to throw your hands up at yet another play filled with labored quirkiness.
Also Here's what this piece means, as far as I can tell: When the curtain f... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a (mostly) naturalistic play about family dysfunction.
Don't see it if you'd find a play that has cancer, child abuse, sexism, and misogyny overwhelming or overwrought.
Also The family's problems are exposed early on, so this isn't a play that ... Read more Read less
See it if you'd like an ensemble (as opposed to character-driven) play that presents its subject from an off-the-beaten-path angle.
Don't see it if you might be frustrated watching kids (whose speeches aren't always easy to hear) or are tired of plays about dysfunctional families.
Also Like so many ensemble plays this one has little in the way of plot & l... Read more Read less
See it if you enjoy the Temptations' (and other Motown singers') songs and somewhat hyped-up versions of their dance routines.
Don't see it if you need more than the predictable dramatic developments that musical "biographies" offer.
Also Talented young man adrift finds his calling in music, forms group, gro... Read more Read less
See it if a worthwhile opportunity to see 3 short but related plays written in a repressive regime.
Don't see it if you don't like or have had enough of political plays, or would find a mix of absurdity and realism incompatible.
Also The Pinter sets the tone; the Beckett seems anti-climatic, although ap... Read more Read less
See it if you enjoy plays about language used for subverting political repression.
Don't see it if the combo of absurdity (DH) & mostly realistic action (CM) might seem labored & tenuous (I believe an argument can be made.)
Also The connection between the two plays, other than Shakespeare (and Beck... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see an enactment of Molly's monologue from Ulysses; you are interested in or curious about Ulysses; you like excellent acting
Don't see it if Ulysses or a one-person show or an adaptation from the chapter of a novel doesn't interest you
Also My interest in this show was more for its literary connection than its... Read more Read less
See it if a play popular from several years ago, overpraised and overrated but amusing, witty, occasionally touching, and never boring nonetheless.
Don't see it if you want to support a new (three-years-old or so) worthy theater company and pass two hours pleasantly ..
Also The play left me wondering if the point of all its busy-ness is that e... Read more Read less
See it if you want a chance to see a famous play in the early style of French theater of the absurd.
Don't see it if you don't have patience for a sometimes slow play that veers between absurdity and melodrama.
Also The actress playing Madame is young--perhaps too young. Madame hardly ... Read more Read less
See it if you want to experience a great score from the golden age of musical comedy.
Don't see it if you won't abide even the somewhat updated-for-the-pc-era book about "taming" a woman who doesn't really need taming.to begin with.
Also A few points off for pc revisions to the book. O'Hara terrific singer ... Read more Read less
See it if you'd appreciate a modern version of an old-fashioned type of play w/a large cast (no doubling of parts), a lot of text, & 3-hr running time
Don't see it if another play about "The Troubles," the IRA, and the attendant violence doesn't appeal to you.
Also It's impressive to see a play with so many characters distinctly indiv... Read more Read less
See it if you would be moved by a story of racial injustice in South Africa that has metamorphosed over 50 years into one of existential survival.
Don't see it if you demand action and have no patience for untranslated lines spoken in Afrikaans as well as sometimes hard-to-understand English accents.
Also The acting is intense and a lie revealed late puts paid to any real re... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a play, more symbolic than dramatic, about empowering women, especially women of color.
Don't see it if you prefer a more traditionally designed drama rather than a more metaphorical one.
Also The intent is implicit in the title-Marys (plural) Seacole-explicit in... Read more Read less
See it if you’d root for (mostly) sympathetic women to achieve fulfillment at a convent, an ironic setting for this spiritual/quasi-religious retreat.
Don't see it if Don’t see it if you’re skeptical of EST and all the other spiritual/quasi-religious retreats that people pay a lot of money to go to.
Also The play’s thesis is presented, apparently without irony, as an axiom:... Read more Read less
See it if See it for the moving depiction of a woman in treatment (hopelessly) for cancer.
Don't see it if you’re averse to seeing (yet another) play that brings together quirky family members to air out their mutual complaints and resentments.
Also I found the scenes about the effects of cancer, treatment, & hospital ... Read more Read less
See it if you don't want to miss the chance to see two intriguing plays.
Don't see it if Churchill's sometime-mannered writing or Norman's cool and almost clinical writing about so stark a subject will turn you off.
Also A Number may be more admired than enjoyed (by me), but in fairness to ... Read more Read less
See it if you would enjoy a play where the history of medicine and the history of slavery intersect in America c. 1850.
Don't see it if you object to history plays that take significant liberties with the history they’re presenting.
Also The play has some fine acting, characterizations, and ensemble writing... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see great musical theater performed at a level commensurate with its music, lyrics, and book.
Don't see it if you (mistakenly) think this warhorse has is outdated and has nothing to say to contemporary audiences.
Also I've seen this before, and I've heard the music on recordings many tim... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see relatively brisk production of a Chekhov play.
Don't see it if you are not enamored of the type of play (Chekhovian) that unfolds like a slow-burn of several interior dramas.
Also This production is based on a new translation. I don't know whether or... Read more Read less
See it if you want to take a chance on a small theater & a very interesting early play by Camus, with eerie parallels to today’s political climate.
Don't see it if you insist on seeing only highly polished productions.
Also I admire Medicine Show Theater for several reasons. They have put on a... Read more Read less
See it if you enjoy fictional constructions of events that didn’t happen but conceivably could have .
Don't see it if you demand more historical accuracy and a plot with strong internal logic.
Also The dialogue is often bright & witty, though some of it & its delivery... Read more Read less
See it if a timely story about African-Americans-some who are honest & caring, some who are not-trapped in a ghetto-like neighborhood appeals to you.
Don't see it if you blame a play for its lack of coherence & cumulative effect on the playwright rather than on yourself for not getting or buying it.
Also I couldn't help but think of how often the play development process ki... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see or support an admirable troupe that often converts prose into plays and/or are interested in Chekhov's sensibility.
Don't see it if seeing a not entirely coherent and well-integrated presentation of several stories will leave you disappointed or frustrated.
Also I like this little company and have seen several of their productions.... Read more Read less
See it if a melodrama concerning shades of blackness, black slave ownership, & voodoo in 1813 New Orleans at time of LA Purchase interests you.
Don't see it if you're not prepared for some lines garbled by accents or unarticulated pronunciations & for loud hip-hop before Act 1 & at intermission.
Also After Act 1 I got earphones to see if they would help me make out the ... Read more Read less
See it if you have wondered how a meeting between the family of a heart donor and the recipient might go.
Don't see it if you don't speak Spanish and are not prepared to read the translated lines on the screen on the back of the seat you are facing.
Also It was frustrating at times to follow the dialogue; the translation fr... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a presentation of the hopeless, trapped, violent, cop-controlled, expendable lives of young African-American men.
Don't see it if you’re looking for a drama (as opposed to a presentation) about those young African-American men.
Also That sensible people agree with a play’s point of view doesn’t make th... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a great and moving play. I like it more than Long Day's Journey Into Night.
Don't see it if the usual characteristics of O'Neill's play-length (4 hours), repetitiveness, windiness, speeches in dialect-you deem to be insurmountable.
Also I think this play is a remarkable playwriting achievement.... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see the first, and still pretty good, play about the gay subculture of pre-Stonewall NY (and urban America).
Don't see it if you find self-hating gays too retro or simply too depressing.
Also Kudos to the author for writing an ensemble piece where several, inste... Read more Read less
See it if you want to see a play epic in its scope and its examination and critique of America and its politics past and present.
Don't see it if you are a Republican or a Morman, and certainly not if you are both.
Also The decibel level was sky high. The music between scenes was rock-conc... Read more Read less