Last night I caught up with
"The Downtown Plays", a production of
Drama Dept. and Pace University as part of the Tribeca Theater Festival.
Featuring a terrific ensemble cast of 10 actors in nine short plays directed by John Rando ("Urinetown"), "Downtown Plays" is an exhilarating two hours of theater that runs the gamut from poignant drama (Frank Pugliese's "Late Night, Early Morning" and Jon Robin Baitz's "My Beautiful Goddamn City") to dark comedy (Kenneth Lonergan's True to You" and Neil LaButes's "Union Square") to social satire (Douglas Carter Beane's "He Meaning Him" and David Henry Hwang's "Trying to Find Union Square") to outright hysteria (Paul Rudnick's "Pride and Joy," featuring Jackie Hoffman, pictured above). Even the clunkers in the program (Warren Leight's relatively dull "Happy for You" and Wendy Wassertein's madcap "Psyche in Love") were still well worth the price of admission.
Each evening "The Downtown Plays," which runs through October 31, is introduced by a different celebrity. (I'm tempted to return Tuesday night when Christopher Walken handles the intro and Molly Shannon joins the cast for the remainder of the engagement!)
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 10/25/2004 04:21:00 PM
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