Monday, May 7, 2012

Sons of the Prophet, Tribes, Once Take NY Drama Critics Awards

Santino Fontana and Joanna Gleason (Photo: Joan Marcus)
Sons of the Prophet by Stephen Karam has won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2011-2012 season.  The award for Best Foreign Play went to Tribes by Nina Raine and Once received the award for Best Musical. 

The selections were made at the 77th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan. Special Citations were awarded to Mike Nichols and Signature Theatre Company. The awards will be presented at a cocktail reception to be held on Monday, May 14, at Angus McIndoe Restaurant, NYC.
 
The award for best play carries a cash prize of $2,500. Also, a cash award of $1,000 goes to the winner for best foreign play. The prizes are made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.
 
Sons of the Prophet,  directed by Peter DuBois, premiered at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre on October 20, 2011.
 
Tribes, directed by David Cromer, had its North American premiere at the Barrow Street Theatre on March 4, 2012, where it is currently running.  The play’s world premiere was at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2010.
 
Once, which features music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, book by Enda Walsh, and direction by John Tiffany, received its world premiere at New York Theatre Workshop on December 6, 2011, and opened at Broadway’s Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on March 18, 2012 where it is currently playing.
 
Mike Nichols, who is currently represented on Broadway by the revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, has been one of the leading directors of stage and screen for more than 40 years.  His Broadway directing credits also include Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Real Thing, and Spamalot, each of which has garnered him a Tony for best direction.  Film credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate (Academy Award for best direction), Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards from the Edge, Primary Colors, Closer, and Charlie Wilson’s War, and for HBO “Wit” and “Angels in America.”

Founded in 1991 by James Houghton, Signature Theatre Company makes an extended commitment to a playwright’s body of work, and during this journey, the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process.  Signature is the first theatre company to devote an entire season to the work of a single playwright, including re-examinations of past writings as well as New York and world premieres.  By championing in-depth explorations of a living playwright’s body of work, the company delivers an intimate and immersive journey into the playwright’s singular vision.  Playwrights whose work has been featured at Signature as part of residency seasons include Romulus Linney, Lee Blessing, Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard, Arthur Miller, John Guare, Maria Irene Fornes, Lanford Wilson, Bill Irwin, Paula Vogel, August Wilson, Charles Mee, and Tony Kushner.
 
For more information on the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and details of this year’s voting, visit www.dramacritics.org.  In keeping with NYDCC’s tradition of openness, a full breakdown of the vote will be posted on the website.
 
The New York Drama Critics’ Circle comprises 26 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, which has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season (with optional awards for foreign or American plays, musicals and performers), is the nation's second-oldest theatre award, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Adam Feldman, theatre critic for Time Out New York, has served as president of the NYDCC since 2005. Elisabeth Vincentelli of the New York Post serves as vice president; Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News is treasurer. Eric Grode is recording secretary.
In addition to Feldman, Vincentelli, Dziemianowicz and Grode, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are:
 
Hilton Als, The New Yorker; Melissa Rose Bernardo, Entertainment Weekly; Scott Brown, New York; David Cote, Time Out New York; Michael Feingold, Village Voice; Robert Feldberg, Bergen Record; David Finkle, TheaterMania; Elysa Gardner, USA Today; Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News; Erik Haagensen, Back Stage; Mark Kennedy, Associated Press; Jesse Oxfeld, New York Observer; David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter; Frank Scheck, New York Post; David Sheward, Back Stage; John Simon, Westchester Guardian; Alexis Soloski, Village Voice; Marilyn Stasio, Variety; Steven Suskin, Variety; Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal; Linda Winer, Newsday; and Richard Zoglin, Time.  Michael Sommers serve as an emeritus member.
 
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Gracewell Prodiuctions

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Our reviews are professional reviews written without a religious bias. At the end of them, you can find a listing of language, content or theological issues that Christians might want to know about when deciding which shows to see.

** Mature indicates that the show has posted an advisory because of content. Usually this means I would recommend no one under the age of 16 attend.

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

Theater Critic Lauren Yarger

My Bio

Lauren Yarger has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists. Her play concept, "From Reel to Real: The Jennifer O'Neill Story" was presented as part of the League of professional Theatre Women's Julia's reading Room Series in New York. Shifting from reviewing to producing, Yarger owns Gracewell Productions, which produced the Table Reading Series at the Palace Theater in Waterbury, CT. She trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Intensive and other training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run. She was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She wrote reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theater (the only ones you can find in the US with an added Christian perspective) at http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/.

She is editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection (http://ctarts.blogspot.com), an award-winning website featuring theater and arts news for the state. She was a contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com. She previously served as theater reviewer for the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp.com and as Connecticut and New York reviewer for American Theater Web.

She is a Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is a former vice president and voting member of The Drama Desk.

She is a freelance writer and playwright (member Dramatists Guild of America). She is a member if the The Outer Critics Circle (producer of the annual awards ceremony) and a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, serving as Co-Founder of the Connecticut Chapter. Yarger was a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger also worked in arts management for the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and served for nine years as the Executive Director of Masterwork Productions, Inc. She lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

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All material is copyright 2008- 2024 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.

Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.

Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.

Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.

Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.

Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.

Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.

Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.

Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.

Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.

Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.

Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Derogatory (category added Fall 2012) Language or circumstances where women or people of a certain race are referred to or treated in a negative and demeaning manner.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide, or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Reviewing Policy

I receive free seats to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle. Journalistically, I provide an unbiased review and am under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows my readers want to know about I will purchase a ticket. If a personal friend is involved in a production, I'll let you know, but it won't influence a review. If I feel there is a conflict, I won't review their portion of the production.

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