REVIEW: “The Roommate” at Albany Civic Theater

by Dan Mayer In her director’s note, Albany’s own Benita Zahn describes Jen Silverman’s The Roommate as “a play about trust, change and crafting a life we want.” It’s also a play about a modern day Odd Couple with “women of a certain age,” but Albany Civic Theater‘s production has…

REVIEW: “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” at SLOC Musical Theatre

by Sierra Pasquale There is something delightfully conspiratorial about The Mystery of Edwin Drood. A show that invites its audience not just to watch but to participate, to judge, to choose, and to revel in theatricality for its own sake. In the hands of SLOC Musical Theater, this production embraces…

REVIEW: “Fuddy Meers” at Albany Civic Theater

by Dan Mayer A play that aggravates spellcheckers and invites the question “Wait, what’s it called?”, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers is an absurd comedy with a disturbing edge. Albany Civic Theater‘s production brings the off-the-wall characters to life with a fresh cast at the top of their game. The title…

REVIEW: Harbinger Theatre’s “Between Riverside and Crazy” at the Albany Civic Theater

by Jess Hoffman Two years ago, I reviewed Harbinger Theatre’s The Motherf**ker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis and was delighted with the heartfelt dark comedy. This weekend, I saw Harbinger’s production of another Stephen Adly Guirgis play titled Between Riverside and Crazy. I can’t say I was quite…

REVIEW: “At the Wedding” Harbinger Theatre and the Sand Lake Center for the Arts

by Sierra Pasquale In At the Wedding, playwright Bryna Turner threads heartache through hilarity with surgical precision, crafting a one-act triumph that dances between raw vulnerability and razor-sharp wit. The latest staging of this bittersweet gem, coproduced by Harbinger Theatre and the Sand Lake Center for the Arts, is a…

REVIEW: “Pippin” at SLOC Musical Theatre

by Jess Hoffman Pippin is a musical theater classic, and it’s hard to explain why. Don’t get me wrong, I love it–I find the score irresistible, the main character lovable, and the entire concept quite charming–but it’s hard to say exactly why. The plot is nonsensical and the titular character…

REVIEW: “Maggie May” Presented by Harbinger Theatre at Albany Civic Theater

by Jess Hoffman Harbinger Theater has made a splash in the area by producing Capital Region premiers of fresh, new, unexplored plays. Their latest production, Maggie May (currently playing at Albany Civic Theater) is no exception; it is the United States premier of a play about aging and dementia originally…

REVIEW: Harbinger Theatre Presents “The Squirrels” at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts

by Dan Mayer After seeing The Squirrels at the Sand Lake Center for the Arts, a friend who had accompanied me asked, with visible confusion, what we had just watched. That is the sort of question invited by writer Robert Askins’ bizarre tragicomedy, and Harbinger Theatre‘s production embraces the absurdity…