(Photo credit: Niko Stycos)
By: Darryl Reilly
73-year-old Queens-native playwright Richard Vetere offered two outstanding works for the New York stage this year. If the arbiters of the contemporary American theater were just he would be showered with acclaim and accolades. Alas, the arbiters of the contemporary American theater are not just, but TheaterScene.org is.
The best show of the year was Mr. Vetere’s Black & White City Blues. Heroin addicts, sex workers, and a jaded cop, peopled this scorching and vividly presented underclass drama set in the seedy Brooklyn of 1971. It was in the grand theatrical tradition of Sidney Kingsley’s 1949 masterwork Detective Story, with shades of the gritty New York City-centric stylings of Sidney Lumet’s movies Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Prince of the City.
86-year-old Tony-winning theater legend Len Cariou toweringly starred as a detained Polish immigrant in his 90’s and who is a long-time Queens resident. He may or not be a Holocaust war criminal in Vetere’s spellbinding and twisty interrogation drama Zaglada. It and Black & White City Blues were both performed at Off-Broadway’s American Theatre of Actors.
Clifford Odets’ searing poetic dialogue spoken by his downtrodden characters was welcomely heard again in an enthralling revival of his magnum opus Awake and Sing! presented by the Sea Dog Theater. The cast was multi-racial and the presentation was minimalist, yet the production was simultaneously faithful and universal.
F. Murray Abraham dazzled in Krapp’s Last Tape; a trio of magnetic actors also performed Not I and Play in this entrancing triple bill by the Nobel laureate called Beckett Briefs at the Irish Repertory Theatre.
In playwright Tim Mulligan’s uproarious and scary Point Loma a podcast team investigated the haunted house of a dying San Diego man. This exuberantly performed and energetically presented paranormal mystery comedy was produced by the Manhattan Repertory Theatre.
39 Years Between Kisses was performer Steve Epstein’s heartbreaking and humorous solo show chronicling his life after the death of his wife, the actress Naimah Hassan; they were a notable comedy team à la Stiller and Meara.
(Photo credit: Laura Yost)
Martin McDonagh’s unsettling black comedy masterpiece of governmental oppression of a writer The Pillowman was given a powerful revival by the Queens-based Headwall Theatre Company.
Michael Urie was dynamic as William Shakespeare’s tragic monarch in this exhilarating production of Richard II; the costumes were modern, the set was abstract, and the cast was snappy.
Broadway had two London imports which were theatrical highlights of the year. Virtuoso Sarah Snook deservedly won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for this epic, high tech, and solo version of Oscar Wilde’s decadent novel The Picture of Dorian Gray where she portrayed a gallerey of Victorian characters. Mark Strong and Laurence Olivier-winner Lesley Manville were galvanizing in the cleverly contemporized Oedipus directed and adapted by British theater artiste Robert Icke.
Also of note, was an event held at an East Village café this past spring. The venerable Downtown acting couple Bina Sharif and Kevin Mitchell Martin performed a spirited reading of her latest dreamy one-act play. It was a biting metaphorical take on idealistic artists verses contemporary craven society titled Stream of Consciousness of Singing Birds. It is scheduled to be staged at the Theater For the New City in late January 2026. However, Ms. Sharif recently endured a major car accident.
As always, my criteria for inclusion on this annual roster were shows that initially impressed me and stayed on my mind.
Links to reviews: