Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was a fascinating individual. Too bad Colin Greer’s play, “Imagining Heschel,” is such a yawn. Heschel was born in Poland, and got out before the Holocaust; he was a poet, teacher and author of influential works including the 1955 classic, “God in Search of Man.” He believed that Jews should fight…
Is there room for a klezmer musical on Broadway? I think so. The band for “Shlemiel the First,” led by the Folksbiene National Yiddish Theatre’s Zalmen Mlotek, is so good that during the exit music a sizeable portion of the audience drifted down toward the pit instead of up to the exits. Costumed as an…
In the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre’s production of “Golem,” the people are puppets (except for a ghost), and the man of clay is danced by a human being (Steven Ryan). And that’s how it should be, for although he doesn’t speak, Golem is a stand-in for man. He’s a creature who didn’t ask to be born,…
The story of the Golem has been told in literature, film and theater, including a puppet production created in 1997 by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre. Now that show is back as part of La Mama Experimental Theatre Club’s 50th anniversary season, featuring music by The Klezmatics trumpeter Frank London. Unusually for the company, the show…
Photo by Joan Marcus There’s a moment late in Itamar Moses’ new play “Completeness,” running until September 25 at Playwrights Horizons, when the shifting scenery stops shifting. Lights blink. Eventually two of the actors appear, talking about how since their characters don’t reappear they have come out to keep the audience engaged. Now, you don’t…
Nicole Rivelli/The Weinstein Company I don’t know when I’ve seen a mean hippie on screen before. But that’s just one reason to see “Our Idiot Brother.” Another is Paul Rudd’s adorable, innocent character, Ned. He’s a latter day hippie we first meet selling vegetables at a farmer’s market. A cop flatters his zucchini, then coaxes…
“Our Idiot Brother,” out in theaters August 26, stars Paul Rudd as Ned, a lovable convict who is sent to jail for selling marijuana to a uniformed cop. Following his release he is booted off the farm by his hostile hippie girlfriend, and so he goes from sister to sister, innocently wreaking havoc. Rudd has…
The cliché is that every actor wants to direct. Sometimes they try their hand at writing too, and turn out predictable stories about a character played by the author. Zach Braff, star of the TV show “Scrubs,” seemed to do that with his 2004 film “Garden State” — except that the movie was actually rich,…
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