Ethan Kanfer

Broadway Review: Venus In Fur - California Literary Review

Anyone who has been through the process will recognize the exasperation, drive and excitement of Dancy's eerily accurate portrayal of a playwright birthing a new piece (although few of us look as good doing it). He is an apt foil for Arianda, who navigates the hairpin turns of the story with ferocious speed and stunning comic imagination.

Broadway Review: Jesus Christ Superstar - California Literary Review

Today, with The Book of Mormon taking irreverence to new heights and shows like American Idiot cranking up the power chords, any production of Superstar will have to rely on the score's intrinsic qualities in order to compete for the attention of younger theatergoers. The good news is that the show's construction holds up well.

Notes From the Edge

On Broadway, late summer is known as the off-season. But in the downtown theater world, life begins in August. Every year at this time, the kaleidoscopic burst of creativity known as the New York International Fringe Festival lights up Lower Manhattan. Now in its 10th year, North America's largest multi-arts festival hosts hundreds of performances...

Is There Life After Fringe? Four Shows That Deserve Longer Runs. - California Literary Review

In the meantime we Fringe attendees enjoy compiling our personal wish lists. Here, in addition to the shows praised in previous columns, is a critic's lineup of productions that show promise.

THE NEW ONE

THE NEW ONE Written & performed by Mike BirbigliaDirected by Seth Barrish This won't be a long review. A plethora of words wouldn't help explain why Mike Birbiglia's new one-man effort works as well as it does. The show's strength lies in its simplicity, and its charm comes less from its rather garden-variety premise than...

Broadway Review: Chaplin - California Literary Review

All in all, the show is most remarkable for its performances, especially the lead. McClure nimbly captures both Chaplin's physicality and the contradictory aspects of his personality. He is as cantankerous as he is vulnerable, uncompromising in his pursuit of his own vision even as he aches for approval.

KING KONG: ALIVE ON BROADWAY

Book by Jack ThorneMusic and Lyrics by Eddie PerfectDirected & choreographed by Drew McOnie The temptation to reinvent the quintessential creature feature, billed in its day as "The Most Awesome Thriller of All Time" is understandable. After all, the original King Kong defined movie magic and captivated audiences with its groundbreaking special effects and a...

HYPE MAN

Written by Idris GoodwinDirected by by Kristan Seemel & Niegel Smith Whether 19th Century dramatist Christian Friedrich Hebbel would enjoy waving his arms in the air to the infectious hip-hop beats of HYPEMAN is anybody's guess. But he would certainly have to agree that his most famous maxim, "in a good play, everyone is right", is...

THE BARDY BUNCH: THE WAR OF THE FAMILIES PARTRIDGE AND BRADY

Given its premise, this ingenious mashup of vintage TV fluff and Elizabethan drama would seem more a likely candidate for sketch comedy than for a two hour musical. But playwright Stephen Garvey brings more to the party than just the laughter of recognition. The script is surprisingly well-made and the many threads of the plot...

From the Stage To the Page

Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays Edited by Ellen Schiff and Michael Posnick Foreword by Theodore Bikel University of Texas Press, 587 pages, $24.95. * * *| Published plays - especially those in anthologies - tend to be dismissed by the casual browser as specialty items, of interest only to students of theater history or to actors...

Speakeasy Jews

In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture By Ted Merwin Rutgers University Press, 240 pages, $23.95 With its irresistible blend of innocence and envelope-pushing, the Jazz Age - an era of bootleggers, flappers and silent-movie stars - still holds a mythical fascination for today's audiences.

The Man Who Brought the Melting Pot to the Stage

From the Ghetto to the Melting Pot: Israel Zangwill's Jewish Plays By Israel Zangwill Edited by Edna Nahshon Wayne State University Press 363 pages, $34.95. * * *| Long before "diversity" became a cultural buzzword, playwright and novelist Israel Zangwill coined a phrase that would become an indelible part of America's language of self-description.

I PRAY YOU, SCHOOL YOURSELF: How to get the most out of your student production

Animated Screenplay: THE FRONTMAN

A humble street singer, tempted by the lure of fame and money, embarks on a wild quest for stardom-only to find that his true destiny lies in the most unexpected of places. Using vibrant hand-drawn animation and a propulsive instrumental rock track, this dialogue-free featurette takes the audience on a kaleidoscopic journey through the dizzying highs and soul-crushing lows of the music business.

Short Screenplay: MATURITY

Short Screenplay: FALLIBLE

Taking place in the near future, this short screenplay explores the need for human connection in an increasingly automated world. While realistic, sentient robots known as “synths” begin to take over jobs like bartending and nannying, the nature of parenting, marriage, and friendship inevitably begins to change. Three characters, each desperate for true intimacy, try to navigate this new social landscape — with unexpected results.

TRACKS

A pair of paranormal investigators get more than they bargained for when the visit the legendary Witch Train of South Africa.

Graphic Novel Script: CLICK-CLACK

Based on a haunting urban legend, this eerie short film explores the lethal loneliness and isolation lurking below the idyllic surface of small-town America.

Theatrical Monologue: WHERE'S THE BLITZKRIEG?

SETTING: A midscale bar/ restaurant somewhere in America. CATERGORY: Theatrical Monologue TIME: Nighttime. CHARACTER: BERYL, female, 40's, British accent. (BERYL sits at a table talking to an unseen friend. She is drinking a MARGARITA, not her first of the evening.) BERYLNo, I don't have a thing for him.

JUST ANOTHER DAY

Finding himself alone on Christmas Eve, a drunken picaro wonders if he can rekindle the chemistry he once had with a charming but elusive woman.

Second-Hand Suit

A rockabilly song about the search for high style on a low budget.

ME & BAUDELAIRE

A young French woman, armed with a book of poetry and a pack of filter-less cigarettes, walks alone along the boulevards of Paris. She professes to remain aloof, observing the pageant of human folly but never entering the fray.

Novel Excerpt: KEEPING TIME

This story takes place in the (fictional) town of Fleuve Des Reves, in the late 18th Century. It's a small city, bustling with trade. Along the main drag, Rue Des Marveilles, there are many shops and taverns, all abuzz with talk of new trends in science, politics, and philosophy.