Monday, January 23, 2012

Getting Their Irish On

Anthony Rapp, James Kautz and Dee Roscioli in Dedalus Lounge.

It's becoming a tale as old as time: Friends entering their 30s get trapped between youth and maturity and don't know which way to turn. But even though some dance and song (a few numbers cowritten by Anthony Rapp) have been added to the batter, Gary Duggan's Dedalus Lounge never congeals.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Miss Julie

D.J. Mendel and Jillian Lauren in Cattywampus.

Writer-director (and Pittsburgh native) Robert Cucuzza plucks August Strindberg's Miss Julie from the "classic" stage and drops it back into the experimental-theater arena, where it began, with Cattywampus, a rambunctious contemporary-Pittsburgh-set adaptation starring Jillian Lauren and the the always engaging D.J. Mendel.

I'm always impressed at how multitalented and generous so many New York stage actors are. Cattywampus has live underscoring by two musicians, one of whom (at the piano, if I recall correctly) was Elevator Repair Service's Mike Iveson, recently seen in the entrancing The Select (The Sun Also Rises).