Photos via sohothinktank.org/themutilated.htm and wnyc.org
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The Mutilated
This production of a Tennessee Williams one-act became a Downtown event due to ideal casting: Mink Stole and Penny Arcade as two outcasts who hate yet need each other. Kudos to director Cosmin Chivu for exerting just the right level of control over their very different performance styles.
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Love’s Labour’s Lost
The Shakespeare in the Park musical production, from the people who brought you Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, mixed one of Shakespeare’s best comedies with catchy new songs, creating an antically silly show-biz spectacle that ribbed higher education, pedantry, and even the Public Theater itself.
Photos via thegreatcometof1812.com and newyorkcitytheatre.com
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Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Taking a sliver of War and Peace as its template, this show for a while serves as a goofy SparkNotes before tapping into the real power of its source. It moves from bawdy humor to longing so gradually that audiences are left stunned at the end, confused by why they’re feeling so much when they were just enjoying the
irreverence of it all.
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All That Fall
More great acting from British talent: Eileen Atkins and Michael Gambon fully inhabited one of Samuel Beckett’s best and most neglected plays.