There is plenty of theater in New York again this season, and here is a look at someone of the more lighthearted fare.
With the holiday season upon us, theaters are open for business again, and some of the best business can be found off the beaten track. Tickets for hard-to-get shows are, well, hard to get. So if you know someone who knows someone who once knew someone, and you can get for tickets for Phantom, Lion King, Wicked or Hamilton, go for it—or put them in touch with me. But New York has plenty of other more-than-worthy shows, things that are light and fun— not that serious plays aren’t welcome. For now, however, weighty affairs will just have to wait. What follows is a personal list of some of the fun and funnier things on the New York stage this holiday season. The Streets of New York The Irish Repertory Company does many things well, but it does two things particularly well: serious dramas and older musicals. Now the company its reviving The Streets of New York, its 2002 musical adaptation of Dion Boucicault’s 1857 play. It as been adapted with songs and directed by Charlotte Moore. This is a slightly more optimistic take on Boucicault’s play, and it certainly is a more tightly plotted one. For more information and tickets go to IrishRep.org. The Alchemist Red Bull Theater, which hit pay dirt with Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector has apparently done it again with Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist. Hatcher again teams up with director Jesse Berger. If you haven’t read the original Jonson play, don’t worry, nobody else has either. As The Government Inspector proved, Red Bull has a talent for making the most difficult plays accessible and fun and this has all the makings of a special evening. For more information and tickets go to RedBullTheater.com/The-Alchemist. A Charlie Brown Christmas Live on Stage For very young people, baby boomers who saw the original and Charles Schulz completists, from December 21 to 24, A Charlie Brown Christmas Live on Stage, a TV classic, heads to the New York at the Palladium Times Square.
