Up-to-the-minute theater headlines courtesy of The Playwrights Center and NYT > Theater Tue, 13 May 2008 06:31:22 GMT

A Season With an Unpredictable Plot Broadway is bracing for the Tony Awards in a year that flouted the rule book. Theater Review | 'Curse of the Starving Class': Shepard’s Debtors of 1978, Sounding Like Today’s Poor The 30th-anniversary revival of Sam Shepard’s “Curse of the Starving Class,” at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, is respectable but timid. Theater Review | 'Marathon 2008, Series A': A Tennis Tantrum, No Math Required David Auburn’s play “An Upset” is a highlight of the five short works in the first installment of Marathon 2008 at the Ensemble Studio Theater. How to Deal With Midlife: Keep Dancing It’s been four years since Bill Irwin last presented a full evening in clown mode. He’s ready for more. Arts, Briefly: ‘Little Mermaid’ Actor Has Surgery on Wrists The actor who plummeted through a trapdoor before a matinee of “The Little Mermaid” remained hospitalized. Arts, Briefly: Encores! For Bernstein Leonard Bernstein is coming back to New York City Center as part of a celebration of what would have been his 90th birthday. Arts, Briefly: Footnotes Alan Alda writes a play for the World Science Festival, “The Sound and the Fury” extends and more theater news. The Play Is Over, but the Party Lingers On Some of Off Broadway’s most prominent houses are moving beyond the usual slate of plays, musicals and talkbacks. Theater Review | 'Moby Dick Rehearsed': Close Your Eyes and Smell the Brine In the Acting Company production of Orson Welles’s “Moby Dick Rehearsed,” gung-ho actors bring everything to life with no more than some crates and ladders for scenery. Theater Review | 'The Unconquered': Questions of Freedom, Set in Black and White In his furious satire “The Unconquered,” part of the Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59 Theaters, the British playwright Torben Betts shakes the daylights out of the smarmy idea of freedom. Theater Review | 'No, No Nanette': Roaring Twenties Speakeasies With Tubs Full of Ginger Ale Fizz The Encores! presentation of “No, No, Nanette” is secondhand nostalgia, a reworking of a 1970s take on the 1920s. Vows: Jill Furman and Richard Willis Jill Furman, a producer of the Broadway musical “In the Heights,” believes in big dreams and bright lights. So when it came to love she refused to settle for less. Theater Review | 'The Fever Chart': Enemies Face to Face, Exchanging Tales of Loss “The Fever Chart,” a well-made trilogy by Naomi Wallace, explores that cauldron that is the Middle East. Comings and Goings: Shakespeare in England, in Luxury Watch the English countryside roll by while having brunch on the Orient Express. Arts and Entertainment: Musical Goes Silent, Its Star Felled by Illness The world premiere run of “Pure Heaven” was postponed after the lead lost her voice. Theater Review: Doubling Up for Shakespeare’s Twin-Laden ‘Comedy of Errors’ If one set of identical twins doesn’t generate enough mayhem for a comedy to take flight, the presence of two doppelgänger duos should ensure total bedlam. Theater Review: Back From the ’80s, Eyeing Other People’s Money In “Other People’s Money,” at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport, one wonders if Larry the Liquidator have been able to take over Yahoo. Theater Review: In a Fantasy Realm With Joys and Disappointments In José Rivera’s new play, “Boleros for the Disenchanted,” the dreams of lovers and emigrants commingle. ‘Mermaid’ Actor Breaks Wrists in Fall From High Over Stage An actor in the Broadway show “The Little Mermaid” fell through a trap door on the deck of a suspended boat and onto the stage just before the start of the Saturday matinee performance. Theater Review | 'Rafta, Rafta . . .': No Sex, Please, We’re British Indians This tale of a beleaguered honeymoon exposes its characters’ foibles with gentleness and compassion. Music: Verdi Versus Shakespeare: With ‘Macbeth’ It’s a Draw With two gripping productions of “Macbeth” in New York right now, the good news is, there’s no need to choose. Music Review | 'Camelot': That Congenial Spot Revisited, With a World-Class Orchestra Playing Along A major selling point of this “Camelot” is the chance to hear this winning 1960 score sumptuously performed by the New York Philharmonic under the musical theater maestro Paul Gemignani. A Story Shared by Father and Son, and Now by Audiences The actor John Lithgow brings his family’s tradition of storytelling to the stage in a one-man show called “John Lithgow: Stories by Heart.” Theater Review | 'Stretch (a Fantasia)': Nixon’s Secretary on Her Days of Glory and After Kristin Griffith gives a commanding performance in this inventive play about President Richard M. Nixon’s loyal-to-the-end secretary. Theater Review | 'Eccentricities of a Nightingale': A Heroine’s Inner Flame, Fueled by an Excess of Feeling One of the pleasures of this excellent production is how clearly and sympathetically it renders the character of Alma. Hanon Reznikov, a Force Behind the Living Theater, Dies at 57 An actor, director and writer, Mr. Reznikov helped run the avant-garde Living Theater for 23 years. Theater Listings Selective listings from theater critics of The New York Times. Theater Review | 'Top Girls': Ladies Who Lunch? No, Here’s to the Power Players Caryl Churchill’s “Top Girls” opened in a well-acted revival directed with intelligence and sensitivity by James Macdonald. Theater Review | 'The Importance of Being Earnest': A Thoroughly Modern Oscar and Algernon Deep in the third act of the Pearl Theater Company’s entertaining production of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” I realized how much the sitcom “Frasier” owes to Oscar Wilde. Theater Review | 'Steve & Idi': A Lesson Before Writing, Courtesy of Idi Amin’s Ghost David Grimm’s annoying new play is a self-indulgent work about how hard it is to be a writer. Disney’s Newly Crowned Prince, Plucked From a London Stage A movie franchise returns with a newly crowned hero: Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian. Alvin Colt, Broadway Costume Designer, Dies at 91 Mr. Colt was a Tony Award-winning costume designer who created both serious and amusing costumes for more than 50 Broadway productions.