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Off-Broadway Reviews—Two at the Public: John Leguizamo’s “The Other Americans” and Richard Nelson’s “When the Hurlyburly’s Done”
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Saturday, 01 November 2025 02:56
- Written by Kevin Filipski
The Other Americans
Written by John Leguizamo; directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Performances through November 23, 2025
Public Theater, New York, NY
publictheater.org
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| Leguizamo and Velez in The Other Americans (photo: Joan Marcus) |
Actor and writer John Leguizamo cut his teeth on solo shows that opened in small downtown venues and gradually moved uptown to Broadway after he became a known commodity. Those shows—including Sexaholix, Ghetto Klown and Latin History for Morons—feature his dead-on impressions, penetrating observations, juvenile humor and unabashed sentimentality.
For his debut play, The Other Americans, Leguizamo relies on sentimentality. He plays Nelson Castro, a Colombian-American who lives in Queens with his wife Patti and daughter Toni, while their son Nick is returning home from a hospital stay after a mental breakdown. Nelson has inherited the family business of laundromats along with his half-sister Norma, who has done a better job expanding her side of the business than he has.
Since Nelson has always wanted to be upwardly mobile, he’s sweated blood and tears trying to get ahead, at work and in life. He moved his family out of Jackson Heights and into Forest Hills, which he assumed was a “better” part of Queens for his family. But Patti hated leaving her old neighborhood and friends, and Nick’s bullying began at his new school, which led to his mental fragility. Only Toni seems levelheaded; yet, although she is engaged to Eddie, who works with her dad, she’s considering leaving New York with Eddie to follow her aunt Norma to California and work at building a business out west.
The characters’ interactions and Nelson’s inability to reconcile his personal and professional lives bring to mind Death of a Salesman. He’s no Arthur Miller, but Leguizamo does write funny, even pointed dialogue. Yet, when Nelson’s desperation comes to the surface and it dawns on Patti that he won’t be able to choose his family over his work, the play bogs down in exposition, too-familiar conflicts and a surprising shallowness, culminating in a death telegraphed nearly from the start.
As Nelson, Leguizamo is always watchable, while the many women around him are enacted persuasively by Rebecca Jimenez (Toni), Sarah Nina Hayon (Patti’s friend Veronica), Rosa Evangelina Arrendono (Norma) and, most memorable of all, Luna Lauren Velez, whose Patti is a lively, antagonistic presence.
Trey Santiago-Hudson is game but one-note as Nick, while Trey’s father, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, directs smoothly on Arnulfo Maldonado’s striking apartment set, which ends up more authentic than the characters inhabiting it.
When the Hurlyburly’s Done
Written and directed by Richard Nelson
Performances through September 21, 2025
Public Theater, New York, NY
publictheater.org
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| A scene from When the Hurlyburly’s Done |
With his cycle of plays that chronicled the Apple, Gabriel, and Michael families, Richard Nelson insightfully showed that everyday lives, relationships and conversations can be as artful and compelling as Shakespeare. Wilson’s latest, When the Hurlyburly’s Done, concerns six women who get together after a 1920 performance of Macbeth, the first production of any Shakespearean play in Ukraine. As it is now, war is in the background.
The play comprises these women talking to one another about their families and their theater work and their Macbeth director/lead actor, Les Furbas—a real theater eminence from Ukraine, and the (unseen) husband of one of the Macbeth actresses in Nelson’s play, but virtually unknown elsewhere—while they prepare and eat a meal and check on their (unseen) children. As usual for Nelson, two hours onstage equals two hours in these women’s lives, accentuating the feeling that we’re eavesdropping on an intelligent and humorous series of conversations while dinner is being prepared and eaten. The kitchen is filled with talk, laughter, tears, food, and even dance: in other words, real life.
Nelson’s writing is never didactic; his chamber dramas double as character studies, delightfully natural dialogue—a la Chekhov—demonstrating that quotidian talk provides as much character dimension as long monologues or showy confrontations. Even when the play stops, so three of the women can practice their scene as Macbeth’s Weird Sisters by performing a dance that gives a glimpse into their relationships with one another and with Shakespeare’s play, it is a wonderfully theatrical moment realized by the actresses and choreographer Charlotte Bydwell.
Too bad When the Hurlyburly’s Done ran only for a week at the Public. It must have been difficult to mount: in a post-performance talk, Nelson said he wrote the script in English and had it translated into Ukrainian, a language he does not speak. The superlative actresses—formidable individually and collectively—only arrived in New York right before the run started, so Bydwell had to plan the sisters’ choreography over Zoom calls. That we got it to see it at all, in its quietly haunting eloquence, is a tribute to the ennobling theater of Richard Nelson.
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Perform at Carnegie Hall
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 31 October 2025 14:04
- Written by Jack Angstreich
Photo by Stephanie Berger
At the wonderful Stern Auditorium, on the night of Wednesday, October 15th, I had the pleasure to attend an excellent concert—the first of three in the same week—presented by Carnegie Hall, featuring the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the impressive direction of Lahav Shani.
The event started splendidly with a superb account of Sergei Prokofiev’s marvelous, seldom played Overture on Hebrew Themes, which builds to an abrupt—but delightful—finish. (It was originally composed for sextet in 1919 and orchestrated in 1934.)The renowned soloist Pinchas Zukerman then entered the stage for an admirable performance of the unsung, even rarer Violin Concerto, Op. 58, of Paul Ben-Haim, from 1959. (It strongly recalls the work of Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók.) The initial, Allegro movement begins somewhat insistently and maintains a driving rhythm for most of its length—much of the music has an affirmative quality although there are reflective passages too—and it closes forcefully. The ensuing, brief Andante affetuoso is soulful and song-like on the whole, and the most beautiful of the three movements. The Cadenza e finale is somewhat spiky—it acquires a propulsive pace and a sprightly ethos and concludes emphatically. Enthusiastic applause elicited an exquisite encore from Zukerman and the ensemble: the same composer’s Berceuse Sfaradite.
The second half of the evening was even more memorable: a magnificent rendition of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s extraordinary Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36. The first movement’s Andante sostenuto introduction begins dramatically with majestic fanfares; the bulk of the Moderato con animamain body has an intensely passionate character but there are more subdued moments and an optimistic, recurring, secondary theme that provides a lyrical refuge from the turbulence that surrounds it—it concludes powerfully. The following movement—its tempo is Andantino in modo di canzona—opens wistfully with a solo, oboe melody that expresses, according to the composer, “that melancholy feeling which comes in the evening when one sits down alone … a host of memories appears, and one is sad because so much is passed, gone”; it too conveys Romantic longings and concludes softly. The succeeding Scherzo, marked Pizzicato ostinato, allegro, is playful, charming and lively; it becomes march-like and ends quietly, if cheerfully. Tchaikovsky said that the movement suggests
...elusive apparitions that pass through the mind when one has drunk a little wine and feels the first stages of intoxication … one remembers a portrait of drunken peasants and a street song. Then somewhere in the distance a military procession goes by.
The Finale, an Allegro con fuoco, opens exuberantly, celebratorily, and dynamically, preceding a gentler, dance-like interlude before the more exultant music returns, dominating the remainder of the movement, which closes triumphantly. A standing ovation drew forth another fabulous encore: the ‘Russian Dance’ from the same composer’s Suite from his astonishing ballet, The Nutcracker.
Broadway Play Review—James Graham's New Play, "Punch"
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- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 29 October 2025 17:37
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Punch
Written by James Graham
Directed by Adam Penford
Through November 2, 2025
Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, New York, NY
manhattantheatreclub.com/Livestream available
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| Will Harrison in James Graham’s play Punch (photo: Matthew Murphy) |
Based on the true story of Jacob Dunne—who spent 14 months in prison for manslaughter after punching a stranger in a fit of anger—James Graham’s Punch is the kind of visceral, emotionally satisfying play we need more of on Broadway.
In 2011, Jacob was a feisty 19-year-old living with his single Mum and younger brother Sam in a working-class Nottingham neighborhood. Hating school, Jacob spent time with his buddies, drinking away the afternoons. One day, after celebrating a pal’s birthday, Jacob was informed about an altercation; without thinking, he jumped into the fracas and coldcocked James, a man he didn’t know. Running away, Jacob didn’t realize that a single punch made James crumple to the ground, hit his head and never regain consciousness in the hospital, where his grieving, stunned parents, David and Joan, sadly watched him fade away.
After Jacob’s release from jail, his sympathetic probation officer Wendy is contacted by Nicola from the charity Remedi, whose goal is restorative justice, trying to give victims’ families some sense of closure. Jacob ends up corresponding and—in a tense but unforgettably realistic scene—with David and Joan, who try to understand why their beloved and only son had to die so meaninglessly.
Jacob’s story is a rich ore for any playwright, and Graham makes few missteps dramatizing this stirring story of redemption. Although the play’s arc is familiar, as Jacob narrates his long and winding journey (he becomes a new man after prison, gaining unlikely allies in James’ parents), Graham’s savvy writing and Adam Penford’s resourceful staging turn what could have been a sentimental tale into something generous and humane. The first-rate production features Robbie Butler’s illuminating lighting design, Anna Fleische’s versatile set and evocative costumes, Leanne Pinder’s precise movement and Alexandra Faye Braithwaite’s atmospheric music/sound design.
Will Harrison is a perfectly pitched Jacob, effortlessly doing the heavy lifting of making seamless transitions as the story toggles between the hotheaded teenager and the mature adult atoning for his sin. Members of the flawless supporting cast—all of whom play multiple characters marvelously—include by the redoubtable Victoria Clark, who’s heartbreaking as Joan and hilarious as Jacob’s Nan, and Sam Robards, whose conflicted David is beautifully complex. Punch is a play that pointedly provokes.
October '25 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 22 October 2025 20:43
- Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater Releases of the Week
Auction
(Menemsha Films/Film Forum)
A painting by Austrian artist Egon Schiele turns up in the house of a young man, and André, an enterprising dealer from a famed Paris auction house, discovers that it was taken from its rightful owner by the Nazis in 1939, and the owner’s heirs are making a claim to it.
Director Pascal Bonitzer’s accomplished drama unfolds like a slow-burning thriller, but it’s also a clear-eyed look at ethics and morality in a world that’s anything but black and white. Bonitzer and top actors like Alex Lutz (as André), the great Léa Drucker (as Bertina, his colleague and ex) and Louise Chevillotte (as his oddball intern) help make Auction smart and involving from the get-go.
(Neon/Film at Lincoln Center)
The latest from Iranian master Jafar Panahi—who has made ironical dramas about contemporary Iranian life for the past 30 years, since his debut, The White Balloon—is possibly his most incendiary yet, confronting defenders of the current authoritarian regime through their vicious actions against those in opposition.
Vahid, who was arrested years earlier by an unapologetic pawn of the regime who’s nicknamed Peg Leg, realizes his torturer is living an ordinary family life and decides to kidnap him—but then hesitates about what to do next. Suspenseful and tense sequences abound, including a few truly stunning one-shot moments that make the flamboyant visuals of One Battle After Another look like amateurish meandering. Panahi filmed this surreptitiously—and illegally, according to incensed government officials—but every frame is filled with unparalleled urgency and artistry.
The Mastermind
(Mubi/Film at Lincoln Center)
Kelly Reichardt’s latest stripped-down anti-comic drama is crammed with contrivances that show a filmmaker who’s run out of ideas. When James, a disaffected, unemployed father, decides to steal four Arthur Dove paintings from a Massachusetts art museum, he soon finds himself in trouble with his family, the mob and the law (duh). Although Jack O’Connor gives an appealing hangdog quality to James, a man who doesn’t quite know what his American dream but is desperate to try anything to achieve it, there’s not much else to recommend this shockingly sloppy movie. Rob Mazurek’s rhythmic score is more enervating than tense, while Alana Haim as Terri, James’ wife, is as inexpressive as she was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s worst movie, Licorice Pizza.
Though set in 1970, at the height of the Vietnam, evidence of the war is scant until there’s a climactic peace demonstration in which James gets his comeuppance; it’s one of the most leaden bits of dramatic irony I’ve seen in a long time but is the perfect ending for such a lazy film.
Deep Crimson
(Criterion)
Mexican master Arturo Ripstein’s take on The Honeymoon Killers is a fairly lurid, fairly sensational and fairly interesting crime melodrama—except that all those “fairly”s add up to a well-done missed opportunity. There are some very good, even memorable moments like each of the murder sequences, which are treated in a matter-of-fact fashion that’s all the more disturbing. And Ripstein’s vivid visual sense is made manifest by his subtly roving camera that moves among the criminals and their prey.
But a routine atmosphere soon settles in, and by the final scenes of the couple’s capture and execution, what started dynamically ends in lurching fits and starts. Even David Mansfield’s chamber score seems out of place. There’s an exceptional 4K transfer; extras are interviews with Ripstein and cowriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego along with a post-screening Q&A they gave.
Weapons
(Warner Bros)
In Zach Cregger’s convoluted thriller, new teacher Justine is the prime suspect when all of the young students in her classroom disappear one night, except for one—but there’s much more to the seemingly inscrutable happenings once she, Archer (father of one of the children) and policeman Paul (a married ex she’s still sleeping with) start snooping around.
Cregger cheats right from the start—shots of the kids running through the streets at night have an eerily similar look to the famous photo of a Vietnamese child burned by napalm, which I hope isn’t intentional—and he ends up telling a familiar tale of a witch’s spell that destroys all in its nonsensical path. The acting by Julia Garner (Julie), Josh Brolin (Archer), Alden Ehrenreich (Paul) and an unrecognizable Amy Madigan (the witchy villain) partially elevates Cregger’s derivative script and direction. The film looks impressive on UHD; extras are short on-set featurettes and interviews.
School in the Crosshairs
(Cult Epics)
Japanese auteur Nobuhiko Obayashi, whose unclassifiable but classic 1977 magnum opus House is his best-known film, made this even more surreal sci-fi parody-cum-homage in 1981. It follows the exploits of a high-school student (played by Hiroko Yakushimaru, a teen heartthrob at the time) who discovers she has telekinetic powers one day at school and soon realizes that a malevolent alien invasion is imminent.
Obayashi’s droll social commentary comes to the fore when several students’ minds begin to be controlled by extraterrestrials, stifling free speech; a welcome sense of playfulness in Obayashi’s directing and writing is on display, as it was in House. The restored film looks quite good on Blu; extras include a commentary and visual essay.
DVD Release of the Week
Niki
(Distrib Films US)
Charlotte Le Bon’s fiery performance as French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), who overcame incestuous abuse as a young girl from her father—which led to mental health issues for which things like shock therapy were deemed appropriate treatment—to find her voice in painting, sculptures and collages, centers this conventional but well-made portrait of the artist as a young woman.
Making her directorial debut, Céline Sallette imbues time-honored devices like split screens and title cards with remarkable freshness, but it’s all at the service of telling an honest account of a difficult story that ultimately shows how art can be a way to overcome trauma.
Bacewicz—String Quartet No. 4, Piano Quintet No. 1
(Evil Penguin)
It’s heartening that Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-69), the first 20th-century Polish female composer to earn deserved—if belated—recognition for her startlingly original scores, has in the past few had releases of several excellent discs of her music, even though they have primarily been recordings of her highly expressive orchestral works.
This disc features two of her most exhilarating chamber pieces, the Piano Quintet No. 1—which begins with one of the composer’s most haunting musical themes—and the String Quartet No. 4, which was composed in 1951, amazingly just a year before the quintet. The Kinski Quartet, with marvelous accompaniment from pianist Jâms Coleman in the quintet, gives these superlative pieces vigorous workouts alongside a beating heart.
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