Category: Theater

posts about theater

Theater in NYC: Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” by Krymov Lab

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Theater in NYC: Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” In Our Own Words by Krymov Lab

Limited encore engagement on January 10 – 28, 2024 at BRIC House in Brooklyn, NY

A scene from Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" by Krymov Lab / Photo Credit: Bronwen Sharp
A scene from Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” by Krymov Lab / Photo Credit: Bronwen Sharp

Krymov Lab NYC is pleased to announce a limited encore presentation of the celebrated interpretation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, from Russian director Dmitry Krymov, “one of the world’s finest theater-makers” (The New York Times), currently residing and creating in exile in New York. Since founding his NYC-based studio in 2022, Krymov’s company has already won significant acclaim from The New York Times, The New Yorker and New York Magazine, selling out a much in-demand 2023 run of his adaptation of Eugene Onegin at La MaMa Theater. Now, Pushkin ‘EUGENE ONEGIN’ In Our Own Words returns from Wednesday, January 10 and continuing through Sunday, January 28 for a limited encore engagement presented in partnership with Under the Radar; Mark Russell, Festival Director & ArKtype, Festival Producer at BRIC (57 Rockwell Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217). Tickets start at $52 and are available at https://www.universe.com/events/under-the-radar-presents-pushkins-eugene-onegin-in-our-own-words-tickets-CB1YMZ

Pushkin "Eugene Onegin" by Krymov Lab / Photo credit: Bronwen Sharp
Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” by Krymov Lab / Photo credit: Bronwen Sharp

Pushkin ‘EUGENE ONEGIN’ In Our Own Words is a simultaneously raucous and sobering journey through the past and future of a major cultural touchstone. In Krymov Lab NYC’s production, four immigrant Russians desperately try to communicate the value of an untranslatable classic to a New York audience. Why should we be made to care about the trials of a shallow Byronic hero, a too-deep teenage girl, and a less-than-successful birthday party? In the face of wartime atrocity, is there still a place in today’s world for Dostoevsky, for Tchaikovsky, for Pushkin? Can beauty and intellect survive such horrors? And should it?

Reimagined in 2024 as a new, citywide annual festival of theater and performance emerging from New York and around the world, this iteration of Under the Radaris curated in collaboration with an array of New York arts organizations and curators, rather than being tied to a single host institution. Each harnesses the community-building, connective, celebratory nature of the festival format to introduce some of today’s most innovative voices to wider audiences. The festival sets an example of how ​​collaboration can get the American theater through this moment of existential crisis: reinvigorated and ready to create a theater that can embrace diversity, risk, and reinvention.

The production stars Natalie Battistone (ART’s world premiere of O.P.C. by V (formerly Eve Ensler)), Kwesiu Jones (MTA Radio Plays (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater)), Jeremy Radin (TV: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, CSI, Criminal Minds), Jackson Scott (Spanish punk band Mano de Dios), Elizabeth Stahlmann (Tectonic Theater Project’s world premiere of Here There Are Blueberries at La Jolla Playhouse, directed by Moisés Kaufman), and Anya Zicer(Bad Roads by Natalka Vorozhbyt at LaMaMa Experimental Theatre).

Pushkin ‘EUGENE ONEGIN’ In Our Own Words plays on the follow days from January 10 through Sunday, January 28:
​ ​ ​ Tuesdays @ 7:30 pm
​ ​ ​ Wednesdays @ 7:30 pm
​ ​ ​ Thursdays @ 7:30 pm
​ ​ ​ Fridays @ 7:30 pm
​ ​ ​ Saturdays @ 2 pm and 7:30 pm
​ ​ ​ Sundays @ 3 pm and an additional performance on 1/21 at 7:30 pm

Running Time: 90 minutes

Dates: January 10 – 28, 2024

Venue: BRIC, 57 Rockwell Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11217

Tickets: https://www.universe.com/events/under-the-radar-presents-pushkins-eugene-onegin-in-our-own-words-tickets-CB1YMZ

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Theater in NYC: Diary of a Madman by Gogol

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Theater in NYC: Diary of a Madman by Gogol

Russian Arts & Theater Studio presents new play Diary of a Madman from June 2 – August 5, 2023 at Pushkin Hall in New York City

Tom Schubert as Poprischin in Diary of a Madman by Gogol at the Russian Arts Theater and Studio / Photo credit: Julie Skarratt
Tom Schubert as Poprischin in Diary of a Madman by Gogol at the Russian Arts Theater and Studio / Photo credit: Julie Skarratt

This season the Russian Arts Theater and Studio adds another robust production to its repertoire. This time it’s a play based on a short story by Nikolai Gogol “Diary of a Madman.”

Masterfully adapted for the stage by Di Zhu, the Managing Director, and directed by Aleksey Burago, the Artistic Director, the grey life of a resentful clerk swirls into madness in front of your eyes. Talented Tom Schubert in the title role keeps everyone at the tips of his nervous fingers. His pulsing energy and impeccable acting are the engine of the production. The rest of the cast, which includes Albert Baker, Luisa Menzen, and Sarah O’Donnell, skillfully recreates the fantastical and ordinary scenes with tasteful naughtiness and imperviousness to the absurdity around them. As the world spins out of control and the bleak routine turns from peculiar to surreal to outright mad, so is the storyline.

“Diary of a Madman” fits right in to the list of past theatrical productions staged by the Russian Arts Theater and Studio, including a dynamic interpretation of Marquez’s The Rise and Fall of Macondo (One Hundred Years of Solitude), warn and funny “Lambs for Slaughter” from the short stories by Roald Dahl, stunning Bunin/Berberova play among others.

Theater lovers will undoubtedly appreciate this high-powered staging and the remarkable acting.

Diary of a Madman

Based on the short story by Nikolai Gogol

Directed by Aleksey Burago

Adapted for the stage by Di Zhu

Cast:

Tom Schubert (Poprischin),

Albert Baker (Director),

Luisa Menzen (Sophie),

Sarah O’Donnell (Mavra/Madge)

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/diary-of-a-madman-tickets-631006697017

Dates: June 2 – August 5 , 2023

Venue: Pushkin Hall, 165 W 86th St, New York, NY 10024

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Theater in NYC: Lambs for Slaughter by Russian Arts & Theater Studio

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Theater in NYC: Lambs for Slaughter by Russian Arts & Theater Studio

Russian Arts & Theater Studio has suspended the performances from March 10, 2020

Russian Arts & Theater Studio presents new play Lambs for Slaughter on March 1 – March 21, 2020 at Pushkin Hall in New York City

Russian Arts & Theater Studio cast in a scene from Lambs for Slaughter
Russian Arts & Theater Studio cast in a scene from Lambs for Slaughter / Photo credit Tom Schubert

Aleksey Burago is never tired of expending the repertoire of Russian Arts and Theater Studio. After mounting a dynamic interpretation of Marquez’s The Rise and Fall of Macondo (One Hundred Years of Solitude), he turns to the short stories by Roald Dahl. Dahl, universally known as the author of the beloved children’s books “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda,” and “James and the Giant Peach,” also wrote grotesque stories for adults. Four of his stories, The Man From The South, The Landlady, Mrs. Bixby And The Colonel’s Coat and The Great Switcheroo are adapted for the stage by the playwright Fred Pezzulli. Commonplace character shortcomings from deception to greed make for an eccentric and captivating theatrical spectacle.

Barring the stubborn desire to outsmart others, there are no lambs and no one gets slaughtered on stage. The vignettes, widely diverse in time and place, are connected mainly by satirizing crass arrogance.

The show starts with the high suspense of “The Man From The South”. A banal encounter leads to a ridiculous bet which ends up in a bizarre finale. The segment owes to the great stage presence by Christofer Zach (Carlos) who sets the bar for the artistic aptitude. Di Zhu, well-known to the audience for her successful prior roles with the theater most notably in Bunin/Berberova play, shines as Mrs. Bixby in “Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat”. Two powerful actors, Paulo Quiros and Riccardo Ripani play one against the other with gusto and dynamism in “The Great Switcheroo”.

Burago’s creative addition of the sound-making crew to the stage, inventive use of props, and the soundtrack full of familiar melodies from the past fit organically into the storylines. Instructive and funny, each situation progresses from innocuous to risky to rout. With a little more zest and at least one more story in the sequence, the play could reach enough potency and rigor.

Lambs for Slaughter

Russian Arts & Theater Studio cast in a scene from Lambs for Slaughter
Russian Arts & Theater Studio cast in a scene from Lambs for Slaughter / Photo credit Tom Schubert

Based on the short stories by Roald Dahl

Directed by Aleksey Burago

Adapted for the stage by Fred Pezzulli

Featuring: Luisa Menzen, Paulo Quiros, Riccardo Ripani, Christopher Zach, and Di Zhu

 

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Dates: February 29 – March 21, 2020

Venue: Pushkin Hall, 165 W 86th St, New York, NY 10024

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Theater in NYC: Bunin / Berberova – In Paris / The Waiter and the Slut

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Theater in NYC: Bunin / Berberova – In Paris / The Waiter and the Slut

RETURNING for an ENCORE RUN in DECEMBER, 2019

The Russian Arts Theater & Studio presents an elegant and subtle parable of the life in exile based on Ivan Bunin’s and Nina Berbersova’s stories; at Pushkin Hall from December 18 – 28, 2019

Theater poster for Bunin/Berberova: In Paris / The Waiter and the Slut
Theater poster for Bunin/Berberova: In Paris / The Waiter and the Slut / Image courtesy of The Russian Arts Theater & Studio

This summer, The Russian Arts Theater and Studio presents two gripping love stories by Russian émigré writers: Nobel Prize winner Ivan Bunin and the provocative Nina Berberova.

Driven to exile following the revolution, former Russian aristocrats now find themselves isolated as new immigrants in Paris. Their new lives are spent battling sickness, searching for affordable apartments and waiting in pawn shops. Ivan Bunin’s In Paris tells the brief and bittersweet story about the encounter of an ex-general of the old imperial army and Olga Alexandrovna, a young woman now working as a waitress in a Russian restaurant. Upon a chance meeting, they momentarily find a sense of home in each other’s arms. In Nina Berberova’s raw and searing The Waiter And The Slut, Tania, the daughter of a St. Petersburg big-shot, now finds herself in Paris, where her husband dies in a mental hospital and she is reduced to surviving on meals paid for by male admirers. As she ages, her admirers grow more grotesque, and she soon finds herself trapped in a devastating affair with a waiter—a man she soon grows to hate.

Directed by Aleksey Burago, the company’s artistic director, with the set design by Natalia Danilova, the production skillfully incorporates Edith Piaf’s songs and vintage film rolls and photographs of Paris in the 1930s to set the mood for a seemingly simple yet deeply disturbing tales. The choice of contrasting colors for the stage decor, airy and light for In Paris and gloomy and dark for The Waiter and the Slut, accentuates the pain and desperation. The nuanced read of Berberova’s prose by the director leaves aside the extreme misery of the characters’ situation which could make an opening for another play. Genuine acting by the cast of Roman Freud, Luisa Menzen, Tom Schubert, and Di Zhu keeps the spectators on edge and delivers a terrific theater night for every theater and literature lover!

Directed by Aleksey Burago

Based on the short stories of Ivan Bunin and Nina Berberova; performed in English

Adapted by Fred Pezzulli

Set Design by Natalia Danilova

Featuring: Roman Freud, Luisa Menzen, Tom Schubert & Di Zhu

 

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Dates: December 18 – 28, 2019

Venue: Pushkin Hall, 165 W 86th St, New York, NY 10024

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Theater in NYC: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish at Stage 42

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Theater in NYC: Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish at Stage 42

The best musical revival in every aspect, this dynamic production is a must see in New York City this year; playing until January 2020

The company of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish
The company of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (c); photo Matthew Murphy

The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene’s production of Fiddler on the Roof performed in Yiddish reconnects the spectators with the past and reminds them about eternal tensions between new ideas and the traditional ways of life.  Joel Grey’s production was initially-planned for a 6 week run at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown Manhattan in the summer of 2018. This production experienced the sort of miracle akin to the Hanukkah oil lasting much longer than intended. After the original run was extended three times till the end of 2018, the musical was brought to commercial production at the Stage 42 Off-Broadway theater on February 2019. It is now scheduled to run until January 2020.

Jerry Bock’s familiar music combined with the genuine acting by the cast led by affable Steven Skybell as Tevye, Jennifer Babiak as Tevye’s unswerving wife Golde, Jackie Hoffman as a meddlesome matchmaker Yente, and a superb orchestral accompaniment recreate the life in Anatevke in the early 20th century Russian Empire.

Perhaps, because of the universally well-known songs and the engaging acting, one only realizes that the play is performed in Yiddish, the language spoken in poor shtetls of nowadays Ukraine, when the story is already in full swing. With the helpful subtitles in both English and Russian, everything quickly falls into place. The actors’ energy immediately takes the audience in, so that they become one close community sharing its collective heritage. Without trying to keep the emotions hidden, the audience celebrates, questions, and fights with Tevye, his family, and his neighbors. It is a rare gift of unity worth taking part in. Come see the company of The National Yiddish Theater Folsbiene recreating the timeless story of love, traditions, and change. Click below for tickets at 62% off starting from $45. 

 

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