Jordan Young

A thoroughly entertaining evening, delightfully different from everything else out there.... full review

An engaging evening of musical theater.... full review

A delightful homage to one of the all-time greats.... full review

Great fun, could hardly have been more entertaining.... full review

A guy walks into a bar…but it’s not what you think. There’s a humor aplenty though in this offbeat seriocomic drama of love, lust and murderous jealousy. It takes Ché Walker about a minute to grab your attention; once he does he never lets go, and Austin Iredale’s attentive direction makes the seemingly impossible work on stage. The five-actor ensemble is first rate, with Maia Nikiphoroff’s wonderful rubber face and Carlo Figlio’s stoic countenance of special note. This US premiere is not to be m... full review

The title of Peter Foldy’s “Penetration” is somewhat misleading; it’s more about sexual fantasy vs. reality. And Foldy’s direction seems almost non-existent at times. To his credit there’s some good comic repartee and the play goes to some unexpected places, though not all of it works. That much of it works so well is thanks to Julia Henning, who’s got not only the requisite anatomy to play the fantasy girl from the online chat room but the acting chops to engage the audience.... full review

HELLO AGAIN! is solid entertainment because Linden Waddell clearly has great reverence for Allan Sherman’s material and genuine stage presence. Many of the song parodies she performs, like the forgotten “Chopped Liver” (a dead-on spoof of “Moon River”), weren’t among Sherman’s most successful but they work wonderfully with a live audience. Never heard of Allan Sherman? No matter; nor had many of the young people in the audience (apart from maybe “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”) but they clearly had ... full review

It takes brass to write, produce and act in a one-woman show about a famous entertainer. Unfortunately, Gaby Rey hasn’t quite got the brass or the sass to pull off this impersonation of musical comedy legend Ethel Merman. She has a pleasant singing voice which she wisely amplifies with a face mic, and she can certainly hold a note, but she lacks the lung power and the pizzazz of La Merman. Worse, the script is monotonous and heavily expository; Ethel’s outrage over Rosalind Russell being cast as... full review

Want to see a terrific show about a woman way ahead of her time, performed by an actress whose skills are as stellar as her energy level is high? Catch Melissa Ritz’s one-woman show about undeservedly obscure big band era luminary and TV pioneer Ina Ray Hutton. The exposition is kept to a minimum in the well-honed script; Ritz’s acting chops are equally sharp, crisply characterizing a variety of supporting characters, notably Ina’s mother and music publisher Irving Mills, whose genius idea it was... full review

Heard of Ira Aldridge? It matters not. This show exhumes the 19th century black actor and brings him vividly back to life, telling the story of how he took a fellow thespian's advice when he was 17 and went to England, where he would not face racial prejudice. It's well-acted by Ryan Vincent Anderson, who shifts credibly between Aldridge and a variety of supporting characters, making each unique; Jeffrey Wienckowski's direction is first-rate, highly attentive and never arbitrary. If there's a fla... full review