Every beat of Lost on the Natchez Trace is dutifully hit, the performances a lively mix of horror, teasing rage and terror. There is not, however, a moment that feels fresh or surprising in Jan Buttram’s anti-slavery play, which finds injured slave auctioneer Malcolm at the mercy of runaway slave Tom 
The 54th Grammy’s are coming up, and while we’re excited that the awards are starting to recognize more alternative acts like Bon Iver, Skrillex and The Decemerbists, there’s really only one nom we’re interested in and that’s… Best Musical Theater Album? OH YEAH! Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez, the men behind The Book 
“People shouldn’t be going to plays,” says Ranevskaya somewhat ominously in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard—or that may just be Dianne Wiest’s performance. Should you have ever tossed and turned in grief at Marilyn Monroe never having the opportunity to play Chekhov, Wiest’s simpering performance is dedicated to you. There are, of course, more problems in this 
The insistent irony of the title Happy Hourshould be enough to tip audiences off to what to expect from the trio of Ethan Coen-penned one acts, staged at a glacial pace by Neil Pepe. Surprise! None of these characters are happy! And this collection is definitely not an hour. Things start off excruciatingly immediately, with the 
The original book to the 1965 On a Clear Day You Can See Forever is widely acknowledged as abysmal—but it is solely on the basis of that show and The Apple Tree that Barbara Harris’ towering status as an icon of musical theater rests. Not bad for a show that is frequently dismissed, despite its gorgeous score by Alan 
What people seem to ignore—or shrug off—in our mad for Mad Men times is that the past was not necessarily simpler. Under the lacquer of nostalgia lies a time of community, when grocery store clerks who sold you goods on credit existed in place of self-check-out aisles and neighbors greeted new arrivals with casseroles. But that same 
Manhattan Theatre Club has given theatergoers a lump of coal this holiday season with Close Up Space,a tedious new comedy-drama about editing, the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, feminist literature and family failures. That the cast includes pros like David Hyde Pierce and Rosie Perez makes the whole 80 minutes just that much sadder.Book editor Paul Barrow, 
Anyone with a tight budget and a hankering to see Chinglish, David Henry Hwang’s Broadway comedy about how radically—and hilariously—different American and Chinese cultures are, should head to the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre, where a scaled-down version of Chinglish called Outside People is being performed. Of course, it’s not playwright Zayd Dohrn’s fault that his 90-minute play was produced the same 
The charming if slight Leo grows gradually less charming as its slightness grows more pronounced over the course of its 60-minute running time. A stylish and snappy silent one-man show conceived by and starring Tobias Wegner, Leo boasts a one-joke premise that finds Wegner sliding around on the stage in various postures that translate into gravity-defying feats of acrobatics 
