New York Post theater critic and arts writer Frank Scheck has been covering film, theater and music for more than 25 years. Currently the New York arts correspondent for the Hollywood Reporter, he was previously the editor of STAGES Magazine and the chief theater critic for the Christian Science Monitor. His writing has appeared in such publications as the New York Daily News, In New York, Playbill, and various newspapers around the country. He has provided on-air commentary for the BBC, MSNBC and the Fox Business Channel, and has served as the Vice-President of the Drama Desk and is a longtime member of the New York Drama Critics Circle. He received a B.A. from Columbia University and a Master's Degree from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications.
An old-fashioned thriller in the Agatha Christie vein, "Tryst" is set in Edwardian times. It could just as easily have been written then as well -- and that's a compliment. Originally produced in England under the...
July 12, 2011 12:00 AM
"Ladies and gentlemen, Lenny Bruce!" The introduction alone is enough to give you goose bumps -- especially since it's being heard at what used to be the Village Gate, where the brilliant comedian actually performed....
July 12, 2011 12:00 AM
One of the most tender love songs currently heard on a New York stage is sung by a cannibalistic killer. Its title can't be repeated here, and you won't be hearing it covered by Harry Connick Jr. anytime soon. But...
July 11, 2011 12:00 AM
Greek tragedy is transposed to modern-day South Africa in "MoLoRa," Yael Farber's adaptation of the "Oresteia." This powerful drama takes the story of the murderous Klytemnestra and her vengeful children Elektra...
July 08, 2011 12:00 AM
James Baldwin's "Blues for Mister Charlie" is an inspired choice to open the New Haarlem Arts Theatre, a new professional company based at CCNY. While this play is no longer the urgent wake-up call it was when it...
July 05, 2011 12:00 AM
In case you hadn't realized the Vienna of "Measure for Measure" is a moral cesspool, David Esbjornson opens his Shakespeare in the Park production with horned creatures and menacing hooded figures: It's the Bard as...
July 01, 2011 12:00 AMWith its Latin American setting and fre quent shifts between reality and fantasy, Victoria E. Calderon's "Manipulation" recalls the works of Lorca and Marquez. But the heavy-handed stylization of this portrait of an...
June 30, 2011 12:00 AM
At this point in our relationship with Cirque du Soleil, familiarity is begin ning to breed contempt. "Zarkana," set to occupy Radio City Music Hall until the fall, is the prolific troupe's latest attempt to...
June 30, 2011 12:00 AM
Anyone who's napped through high school biology will appreciate the remedial education Baba Brinkman offers in "The Rap Guide to Evolution," an audacious one-man show on Darwin's theories. In hip-hop style, the...
June 28, 2011 12:00 AMIf there's a heaven for entertainers, the gateway must be St. Luke's Theatre. It's in this church basement that Danny Kaye and Fanny Brice -- or, at least, the people playing them -- have been holding forth. Now we...
June 28, 2011 12:00 AM
The new Shakespeare in the Park production of "All's Well That Ends Well" begins and ends with characters waltzing. The dances nicely bookend the elegance of Daniel Sullivan's staging, which removes some, but not all,...
June 27, 2011 12:00 AM
It's not unusual for actors to bump into the furniture. But the performers in "Some of Our Parts" have good reason: Some of them are blind. You won't necessarily know which ones, and that's the point. This evening...
June 27, 2011 12:00 AM
The beat of a conga drum greets you as you enter the Intar Theatre. Its hard, insistent beats underscore all of "Drawn and Quartered," Maggie Bofill's new play about an estranged couple's stormy reunion....
June 20, 2011 12:00 AMThe title of "Desperate Writers" refers to its central characters, but it might just as well describe the playwrights themselves. Joshua Grenrock and Catherine Schreiber's hopelessly unfunny comedy about a pair of...
June 09, 2011 12:00 AM
It may be titled "A Little Journey," but Rachel Crothers' 1918 play takes on big themes: feminism, religion and class. A finalist for the first Pulitzer Prize for drama, it sometimes feels blunt and dated. But it also...
June 09, 2011 12:00 AM
A wide-eyed wonder at the magic of the ater and a jaundiced view of romance form one of the intriguing contradictions at the heart of "The Illusion." Written by Tony Kushner in the late '80s -- before his magnum...
June 06, 2011 12:00 AM
The legendary gunfight at the O.K. Corral reportedly lasted 30 seconds. "I Married Wyatt Earp" goes on 2 1/2 hours longer. Thomas Edward West and Sheilah Rae's new musical has an intriguing concept: Though there...
June 01, 2011 12:00 AM
Like the naughty activity for which it's named, "Sex on the Beach" can be fun, but can also cause irritation. That's certainly true of this one-man show depicting the lives of three sex workers in the Caribbean....
May 25, 2011 12:00 AM
It's a depressing sign of the times that the only affecting work in the Ensemble Studio Theatre's "Marathon 2011: Series A" was written more than three decades ago. In a fitting tribute to the late Romulus Linney -...
May 24, 2011 12:00 AM
"Prepare yourself for a modern classic," says a soothsayer at the start of "The Sphinx Winx," before adding: "Eat your heart out, Shakespeare." The Bard has nothing to worry about. Neither does "A Funny Thing...
May 19, 2011 12:00 AM
"Tearing Down the Walls" is the latest work from Daniel Beaty, who has enjoyed considerable success with such solo plays as "Emergence-See!" and "Through the Night." But this musical about the lives of several Harlem...
May 17, 2011 12:00 AM
You feel as if you've stumbled onto a rave when you enter the theater for the Irondale Ensemble's "Murrow's Boys." The young cast members are dancing happily to techno music, and invite you to join them. That is, after...
May 14, 2011 12:00 AM
One of the most pow erful moments in all of Shakespeare's plays occurs at the conclusion of "The Tempest," when the aging magician Prospero renounces his otherworldly powers. But it only works if the evening has...
May 12, 2011 12:00 AM
We're so used to sunny versions of "Peter Pan" that the darkness of "Peter and Wendy" comes as a shock. Based on J.M. Barrie's 1911 novelization of his play, this is a richer, deeper telling of the classic tale about...
May 11, 2011 12:00 AMEver since she saw her photo on a book jacket as a teen, Suzanne Vega's been obsessed with Carson McCullers. Sadly, that passion surfaces only occasionally in "Carson McCullers Talks About Love," a sort of theatrical...
May 10, 2011 12:00 AM
You may want to think twice before tak ing your children to see "The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy": This exquisitely performed piece is so enchanting, they may never be content with your simple bedtime stories again....
May 05, 2011 12:00 AMThe stock market's crashed. The Chinese have taken over. And "the world is falling apart." No, it's not Donald Trump's latest rant -- it's "Future Anxiety," an apocalyptic satire at the Flea Theater. Set in the...
May 03, 2011 12:00 AM
Heavy drinking, vicious cat fights and some hot girl-on- girl action would seem the perfect ingredients for a reality TV show. That all that and more are perpetrated by a women's book club is the main joke of...
April 19, 2011 12:00 AMYou'll never hear "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" the same way again after seeing "Born Bad." The traditional gospel hymn takes on ominous overtones in this frustratingly abstract drama about a warring black family,...
April 11, 2011 12:00 AM
'I made her a promise, I will not speak," the central character repeatedly vows in Douglas Maxwell's play "The Promise." But speak she does -- and for 90 engrossing minutes, Joanna Tope delivers the most fiercely...
April 05, 2011 12:00 AM
NEW YORK POST is a registered trademark of NYP Holdings, Inc.
nypost.com, nypostonline.com, and newyorkpost.com are trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc.
Copyright 2011 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy | Terms of Use
