A couple that has been together for 14 years has decided to tie the knot. On their way from Philadelphia to the Poconos where their marriage will take place in the company of a dozen friends, a snowstorm intrudes, and Michael (Scott Greer) crashes into a tree demolishing their car and only finds refuge after climbing the snow-covered road with his bride-to-be in his arms. He finds, what is clearly someone’s vacation home but there is no one there. Fortunately, they manage to break in. That is the start of Bruce Graham’s newest comedy, “The Flatlanders” staged by 1812 Productions at Plays and Players Theatre. Yes, this is a comedy, and it is funny, poignant, smart, and honest, and superbly directed by Matt Pfeiffer.

            Michael and Ronnie (Jennifer Childs) know each other well, after having been together for so many years. But they are stranded in a house with no power, no internet, and no Alexa. They can’t reach anyone outside. They have only each other and in the 75 minute play, they learn more about the other than they had known in years.

            We see that he is a hypochondriac. He always thinks the worst of any physical condition. He is also tight with money and complains that she wastes it by failing to turn off the lights at home.

            She is a fanatic with pillows. She has tons of them at home and when she first arrives at this house, she needs to rearrange them. She is also constantly on various forms of electronic media. She rarely remembers what he tells her unless it is in the form of a text or e-mail- even when they are in the same room- now, they must communicate directly.

            Each in turn questions whether or not they should marry. Her parents had a bad relationship long before they divorced, and she fears marriage might not work- she’s already had one failed marriage.  His parents had a good marriage, and he wonders if he can establish the same with her.

            This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as Michael and Ronnie air out all their issues with each other. But this is not “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” This is a comedy. But it is not a silly, over-the-top comedy. Graham’s dialogue is real. We can all identify with his characters’ stories while we are laughing about them. Can they weather the storm?

There is an extra level of humor when Michael emerges from the basement with a box sex toys that the homeowners kept in some sort of “dungeon” down there. It brings out still another element in the pair’s personalities.  

            Bruce Graham has written so many extraordinary plays since I first discovered his work three decades ago. And this one, in the hands of two of Philadelphia’s greatest actors (Greer and Childs), is another must see!

Play is a co-production with Delaware Theatre Company, so if you miss it at 1812 in Philly, you can see it from April 17 to May 5 in Wilmington.

“The Flatlanders” by Bruce Graham by 1812 Productions, at Players and Players Theater, 1714 Delancey, Philadelphia, PA 19103, 215-592-9560, info@1812 productions.org   Thru February 18, 2024

Sasha Denisova’s 82-year-old mother is living in Kyiv, Ukraine, when the Russians invade in 2022. She has lived her whole life there, and when her daughter, a successful playwright living in Russia flees that country and tries to get her mother out of the vulnerable Ukraine, her mother refuses to leave her home, even to go to a shelter.  Born in an underground shelter when the Nazis were bombing the country, she tells Sasha, “I’m not going there. I was born there.”

            In fact, the entire real conversations between mother and daughter take place via texts as Sasha has fled to Poland. And from these snippets of talk, Denisova has created a play about the invasion as told through what she imagines her mother is going through in Ukraine. It is accompanied by visual projections throughout the play giving us the people, the places, and the events which support her story.

 We join Mama in her home and learn of the life she led up to and during the invasion, and they are fascinating stories. Narrated by Sasha, she is part of many of the stories and is even told that Mama thinks that at birth, babies were exchanged, and she is not Mama’s daughter. She does have trouble living up to her engineer mother’s expectations as she is more an artist.

            But Mama is the eternal optimist. That optimism is turned into stories of shooting down Russian drones with pickle jars. Sasha envisions her mother having talks with the President of France, Macron and with U.S. President, Joe Biden. And Holly Twyford does an outstanding job in giving us the full range of the situation. There is lots of comedy injected into very serious situations. But therein also lies the problem for me.

            There is a third character in the play. Lindsay Smiling portrays the Man, who takes on several roles, from Mama’s husband to Biden himself. And he plays them in an over-the-top fashion which is unnecessary in this finely tuned script. Director Yury Urnov has Suli Holum, who plays the daughter, also overacting, when the words are powerful enough without so much embellishment. Though not quite the Theater of the Absurd style of the 1950’s, there is an absurdity that often feels forced and diminishes the tragedy of the play for me.

            The friend I saw the play with loved it. So did other members of the audience who I overheard as I left. At home, after I wrote my review, I checked on the reviews of the play, from when it appeared on the Woolly Mammoth stage in Washington, D.C., with the same cast and director (it was a co-production with Woolly Mammoth). The critics loved it. It is important to remember that a review reflects the opinion of the writer. This is mine.

“My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion at Wilma Theater, 265 S. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19107, 215-546-7824  wilmatheater.org    Thru February 18, 2024

            Ladysitting is the term used to define the caring for Lorene Cary’s Nana (grandmother) near the end of her life so as not to use the more embarrassing, word babysitting, for the elderly. The premier of the show “Ladysitting” at the Arden Theatre is a dramatic representation of the memoir by Cary.

            Nana is 99-years old and can’t look after herself in a home that is desperately in need of repairs. She is placed in a room of the church rectory of her granddaughter’s husband. There, bedridden, she is cared for by Cary and Cary’s teenage daughter.

            She has outlived her daughter who died young, and her son. She waits to join them in the afterlife and even says that she wants to die during her two years in bed. She has only her memories and her visions of being visited by the Angel of Death, often in the form of the men who died before her. It is a challenge for caretakers as Nana changes her life’s history when she thinks back of her past.

            When talking about growing up Black in the South, she is reminded that she came north at seven. But Nana was active in the civil rights movements of the day. Still, she denies having voted for 50 years. Now, Lorene come to her with an absentee ballot to vote for  Barack Obama.

            My own father lived to almost 102. He too reinterpreted his history. He outlived all his family of his own generation as well as his son, my brother. As his life deteriorated, we wished he could be relieved of his pain, his grief.

            Nana’s family is at a loss as to what to do after she turns 101. Dare they wish that their matriarch die? We know these people. It is a problem that every generation faces as parents age. There are no easy answers, and we feel for them all.

            We want to laugh at the humorous situations of the play, but we are also pained by them. Trezna Beverley and Melanye Finister are superb in portraying Nana and her granddaughter, Lorene. Cary has done a wonderful job in transferring her memoir to the stage in a 90-minute show for us all to experience.

“Ladysitting” by Lorene Cary at Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. 2^nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. 215-922-11222   ardentheatre.org   extended thru March 3, 2024.  

From 1964 to 1976, there were three married U.S. Presidents in the White House. Their wives, referred to as First Ladies, were Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, and Betty Ford. All three lived into their 80’s and 90’s and outlived their husbands by many years. As First Ladies, they were known to the public as little more than appendages of their president husbands. This finely crafted play by Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka, takes us deeper inside the minds and souls of these remarkable women. In just 90 minutes, each of them reveals what their lives were like.

            Ironically, these are not three women who I had much interest in. But the stories of their paths to marriages to men who became president, is fascinating. I learned so much while being totally entertained in the three, 30 minutes segments as Sabrina Profitt portrays each woman with passion and humor along with information about their lives.

            I learned that Lady Bird and Pat lost their mothers when they were 5 and 13 respectively while Betty’s father died when she was 16. I learned about the various pressures these women faced by pushy and controlling husbands. I learned that each wanted a different life than the one they had to adapt to in order to be a politico’s, then a president’s wife. I felt the moods of each woman, as presented to us at the very end of the administrations of their husbands. But most of all, I felt and understood their own desires and goals and how they managed them.

            Profitt doesn’t look like the women she portrays, though the wigs remind us of each. She doesn’t try to overdo their speech patterns or accents. But she not only captures the essence of each, she IS each of those women. As she talks to the audience, we feel we are listening to Lady Bird, Pat, and Betty at the White House as they are about to depart from their “jobs” as First Ladies. She is outstanding!

            To be so successful, a one-person show also needs a good director. I’ve known Mary Martello as one of Philadelphia’s greatest actors over the past few decades. She’s a great director also!

            While I learned so much, this show is thoroughly entertaining and is a must-see for those who remember those women and for those who want to know more about those times.

“Tea for 3” by Eric H. Weinberger & Elaine Bromka at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue., Ambler, PA 19002, 215-654-0200,   act2.org    Thru February 18, 2024

Bobby is a small 12-year-old kid from Long Island who has been constantly picked on in school. His hero is Bernardo, the tall, good-looking Puerto Rican in West Side Story, but though he studies dance, he can never hope to emulate his hero. But his life does take a major change when his mother takes him to Belmont Racetrack, hoping to win money to take care of expenses at home. It is there that Bobby discovers that very small men could make a living riding horses as jockeys. It becomes his obsession.

            The play “Small,” a one-man show, written and starring Robert Montano, is a 90-minute memoir about his attempt as a teenager to become a jockey. Why would anyone be interested in such a story? It is because Montano is a seasoned dancer and actor and knows how to enact a story with many characters with both passion and humor. It is a joy just to watch him move about the stage, a paddock inside a stable.

            He portrays his religious mother, his mentor, Robert Pineda, (a major rider of the day), and others so effectively that it is as if they are on the stage with him. But mostly, he portrays his younger self. He hangs around the stables. He gets a few rides. He sticks to his goal until the inevitable happens- he grows and gains weight.

            Montano struggles at first with his passion for ice cream, but all food is his nemesis. Jockeys are not supposed to weigh over 105 lbs. He is constantly working out to lose weight. He doesn’t eat properly and takes the drug Lasix to rid himself of the weight of his body water before they weigh him.

            The story is that of a struggle to realize a dream. He rides despite three broken ribs in one race. He prays for God’s help. There is so much that is packed into Montano’s story. But in the end, he comes to grips with his changing body and returns to his other passion, dance. He goes to college and continues to dance until he gets a small role in the Broadway show, “Cats.”

            Montano is so talented and versatile, I was shocked to learn that he is 63 years old. I would never have guessed he was over 40. He’s no small man! It’s a wonderful, powerful, one-of-a kind show that shouldn’t be missed.

“Small” by Robert Montano at People’s Light, 39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern, PA 19355, 610-644-3500, peopleslight.org   Thru February 4, 2024

`           In the 1950’s and ‘60’s, entertainment in the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York, was dominated by many extraordinary entertainers. Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, and Sammy Davis, Jr. were among the scores of famous performers. Even more than the singers, the Catskills (also known as the Borscht Belt for decades) were the great comedians of the day- Jackie Mason, Buddy Hackett, George Burns, Henny Youngman, Joan Rivers, and Billy Crystal, to name a few. These are among the many portrayed by Tony Braithwaite in a 70-minute performance on the Act II Playhouse stage in Ambler. In the show, “Christmas in the Catskills.”  He is truly amazing!

            The Borscht Belt arose when Jews weren’t permitted entry into many of the hotels around the country. Places like Kutcshers, Grossingers, The Nevele, and Browns soon developed a reputation for having the finest food and the finest comedians. Tony Braithwaite, with the assistance of Assistant Director Nick Cordillo and pianist Dan Matarazzo, have collected routines and monologues and created a show for the ages. And only Braithwaite, amongst all the Philadelphia comedians, could portray these iconic comedians with both subtlety and panache. And while it is most appealing to an older crowd, I do think that younger folks who enjoy comedy will get a kick out of the wide assortment of jokes.

            I find lots of today’s comedy a bit over-the-top, but what I loved about this show is that Braithwaite lets the lines speak for themselves with just little nuances. As he imitates the styles of Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl and others, he doesn’t try to overdo it- still, he nails each one.

            Early on, Braithwaite informs us that he grew up a practicing Catholic. What’s he doing, then, performing the likes of these great Jewish comedians? He’s doing what he does best- portraying them and portraying them probably better than anyone else. He had me, usually smiling at good comedy, laughing out loud.

            One sad note. At the end of the show, Braithwaite comes on to tell us that if we liked the show, not to tell our friends about it. It is sold out for the run. I am glad for them, and hope they bring it back next December. to make it available for the tons of others who would love this show as I did.

“Christmas in the Catskills” created by Tony Braithwaite, Nick Cardillo, and Dan Matarazzo at Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue., Ambler, PA 19002, 215-654-0200,  act2.org   Thru December 30, 2023

            In 1962, as a young teenager, I visited my brother at Wilmington College in Ohio. While there, I learned that they needed a young guy in the next play and wound up staying the summer. While building the sets with the group, everyone was singing songs from a show that they all knew- “The Fantasticks.”

It was a great experience for me and when I returned home to New York that autumn, I knew I had to see the show and went into the City to see it- then in its second year. I came out singing the songs myself and even bought the LP record. Some sixty years later, I got the opportunity to see it again, not in New York, but at Quintessence Theatre in Mt. Airy.  It was an outstanding production and I urge everyone to see it.

            The story is a simple one. Two neighbors build a wall in their backyards to keep their curious children apart. They feel like the kids would say no to any and everything so they hope that by keeping the kids apart, the two would fall in love and eventually marry. To say that everything backfires would be a gross understatement. But by the end of the first act, the parents have enlisted the aid of El Gallo and some players to enact an fake abduction of the girl which will cause the boy to rally, defeat the abductors and rescue the girl. What makes this story so fascinating is all the substories and the extraordinary songs that express so many of the feelings.

            The second act is even more powerful as the characters have trouble adjusting to the reality of life. Simple questions take on more profound meanings.

            The songs alone are reason to go. “Try to Remember, Soon it’s Gonna Rain,” and “Plant a Radish” are some of my favorites and these performers have superb voices.

            Director Meghan Belwoar has assembled an outstanding cast of eight. They can sing. They can act. But most of all, they just FIT. They define the term, “ensemble.” When singing together or revealing the developing plot, they ARE those characters. Even the presence of the mesmerizing mute played by Karen Getz, on stage for the entire play, was most engaging.

 I rarely feel this strongly about a production, so fine in every aspect, that I can’t imagine that what I saw a half century ago in Greenwich Village was half as good as this.

            I’m not going to reveal any more about the play. See it! It’s a winner.

“The Fantasticks” by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt at Quintessence Theatre, 7137 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119, 215-987-4450, quintessencetheatre.org   Thru December 31, 2023

Lynn Nottage is an American playwright who during her prolific career has won two Pulitzer Prizes, the only woman to have done so. She received them for “Ruined” and “Sweat,” in 2009 and 2017. Her subjects are the Black working class. “Crumbs From the Table of Joy,” one of her first plays, was written in 1995 and takes place in Brooklyn, where Nottage grew up.

            It is 1950. Godfrey Crump  is grieving after the death of his wife and decides to move with his two teenage daughters from Florida to Brooklyn, where he hopes to be closer to radio evangelist Father Divine and his mission. One cannot but notice the large portrait of the preacher on the wall- he is like the fourth character in the room. Godfrey tries to teach his daughters the value of prayer and he discourages any independence. But soon after they settle, Lily, the dead wife’s sister shows up, coming from Harlem, baggage in hand.

            Lily represents another way out of the difficult life of the Black person of the day- she embraces Communism which promises equality for all in a new Negro revolution. She flaunts her wild social life and ridicules Godfrey’s devotion to what she sees as a phony bill of goods.

            All this is revealed from the perspective of the older sister, Ernestine as she tries to be respectful of her father but also to find a way to a better future for herself through education. It gets more complex in the second act when Godfrey shows up one day, married to a White woman he met on the subway.

            One of the things I love about Nottage’s writing is the complex relationships she develops. The conflicts that evolve are so real. Watching Ernestine come to grips with her life and the life a a Black woman was subtle but powerful.

            Overall, the acting was first rate, but I did have some issues with Brett Ashley Robinson’s portrayal of Lily. She played it over-the-top in a rather one-dimensional style and less believable than the others. Also, the second act was stronger as it dealt with the themes of the day rather than lots of exposition. The lengthy opening monologue by Ernestine was a bit too long. But what I loved most about seeing this play was recognizing the development of one of America’s great playwrights in an early work. It was a treat.

“Crumbs From the Table of Joy” at Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephen’s Theater, 923 Ludlow St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. 215-829-0395   lanterntheater.org   extended thru Dec.  17, 2023.  

 “The Elephant in the Room” is the name of the one-woman show at Azuka Theatre, written and performed by Priyanka Shetty. She is a young Indian woman who decides to leave the restrictions surrounding her life in India and come to the United States to pursue a dream. Trained as an engineer, she wants to be an actor. She also wants to escape from a closed society and shine in America, the land of opportunity. This is the story of her journey.

            In India, she tells us how she was called an elephant and a fool. She was criticized for her weight. She is a second-class citizen because she is not a man. In America, things will be different, she believes. And when she gets a scholarship to attend the MFA program in acting at the University of Virginia, she is overjoyed.

            In the 80-minute play, there are many different stories of how she tries to assimilate. But she soon finds that life is no easier than it was in India. Though she successfully loses her accent, she is still a woman of color. Is she just a token at Virginia? Will she ever be taken seriously?

            It is most engaging to follow her story, from her boyfriend at home who encouraged her to follow her dream, to the auditions she endured, to the panic she feels when dealing with her family. In actual time, she is backstage, trying to convince herself to perform the play that we learn she has written. Her parents, who constantly told her not to pursue acting, have come from India, to be in the audience. She is full of anxiety- ready to quit.

            This is Priyanka Shetty’s play, and she is portraying herself. While she is a dynamic performer with lots of energy and I found her stories most interesting, they didn’t grab me on an emotional level. The substance was there but I felt that Shetty needed to slow down and let the moments sink in. It seemed more like an essay about her life rather than a memoir. “The Elephant in the Room” has been performed extensively in recent years around the country. I couldn’t help but ask myself if Suli Holum’s direction was significantly different from other productions of the play as it was the recipient of many awards.

            Still, I appreciated the important personal and universal issues that she presented and was glad to have seen it. It is Shetty’s debut as a playwright, and I look forward to more by this talented artist.

“The Elephant in the Room” by Priyanka Shetty at Azuka Theatre, at the Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake, 302 S. Hicks St. Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-563-1100, AzukaTheatre.org    Extended thru November 19, 2023

What is the point of life? What is in our power? Do we control our own fates? These are the questions asked by the existentialist thinkers of the late 19^th and the 20^th century. And one of its greatest proponents was philosopher Jean Paul-Sartre, who expressed those ideas in film, in books, and in plays. He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1964- he declined it. One of his most significant plays, “No Exit,” is now on the stage at Quintessence Theatre.

            The play begins in a locked room with no windows. We soon learn that the three people (two women and a man) in the room have recently died. They think they are going to Hell. Ironically, this room does not feel like a hell or even a prison cell. It is a comfortably furnished room, but there is no exit. Where are they? At first, it seems heavenly… until we learn of what brought each to the room.

            In fact, they are all guilty of a wrongdoing involving a sexual dalliance. One cheated on his wife. Another cheated on her husband. And the third person seduced her cousin’s wife. They made others miserable, driving some to suicide. But that is just the background for these people who have been thrown together. Each entered the room, expecting to be tortured, They soon discovered that just being there with others for what might be an eternity, was a kind of torture.

            Inez is an openly gay woman who simply doesn’t like men. Estelle has lived a life based on her beauty but seems to avoid any permanent relationship. Garcin was a pacifist writer who is trying hide from the label of coward because he tried to flee to Mexico to avoid fighting in a war.

            That is the backgrounds of the three. But what goes on in the room is another story- seduction.  Estelle tries to seduce Garcin. Inez tries to seduce Estelle. Garcin seeks approval from Inez for his desertion while he also comes on to Estelle. In this “hell,” will anyone get what they want? And can they ever get out of there?

            The play is full of questions. Unfortunately, I did not find it engaging. Though Alex Burns did a fine job with his new translation of the Sartre play, he did not succeed as well with his direction. Instead of bringing out the subtleties, the nuances of the situation, he has created characters that are over-the-top stereotypes. I got tired listening to Inez constantly shout her needs and demands. I was quickly bored with the cutesy girlishness of Estelle. Even Garcin, who did have a few moments of reflection, was like the others in their tv-like interpretation of the characters. As a result, the 90-minute play felt much longer. In a way, I was trapped in a theater with no exit.

“No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre at Quintessence Theatre, 7137 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119, 215-987-4450, quintessencetheatre.org   Thru October 28, 2023