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A scene from Who Murdered Love? L-R: John David West, Jef Canter, Rori Nogee, Sage Buchalter, William Vraderick, Louisa Bradshaw. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

Off Broadway

Who Murdered Love was a musical comedy extraordinaire At the Theater for the New City. The scene for fun was set as DaDa Love (Elyp Johnson), and the cast sang Mad for Love. This setting projected a mysterious pallor tempered by the comedic references to DaDaism, which had emerged in the early 20th century in reaction to the Great War. We were set to embrace chaos, satire, parody, collage, and streams of consciousness. We were not disappointed.

Edward A Kliszus February 18, 2023

A Broadway Valentine's Day at 54 Below. From 54Below.com

Cabaret

A Broadway Valentine’s Day at 54 Below

Tonight’s Broadway Valentine’s Day at 54 Below was an evening of love, song, romance, nostalgia, fine dining, unique beverages, and thematic desserts. The messages of love portrayed were universal, celebrating spiritual beings connected through energy, generosity, compassion, and harmony. As Shakespeare noted in Love’s Labour’s Lost, “When Love speaks, the voice of all the gods makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.”

Edward A Kliszus February 16, 2023

The Village! 2023. Photo by Peter Yesley

Off Broadway

The Village! A Disco Daydream at Dixon Place

Tonight’s Disco Daydream was an immersive fun-fete celebrating the universal quest for elusive love and where it might be found. The cast touched hearts and drew inspiration from an empathetic audience that sighed at hints of romance, camaraderie, and reminiscences of disco’s glory days. The music never stopped in this story of love and tragedy as it unfolded through incredible dance routines, driving music, humor, charm, and physicality.

Edward A Kliszus February 14, 2023

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Presents Between Sea and Sky: Debussy's Painters and Poets. Photo by Matt Dine

Art Criticism

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Presents Between Sea and Sky: Debussy’s Painters and Poets

Experiencing the ineffable, expressive unfolding of the music while seated among the musicians was, without exaggeration, an exalted, rapturous, and elegiac pluradimensional experience. The blinding radiance and pathos of these moments were to reoccur in the Symphony’s successive musical offerings slated for this evening.

Edward A Kliszus February 12, 2023

Off Broadway

Shedding Load at 59E59

Shedding Load represented an exciting portent of American theater. It garnered an intense attraction to those who understand and appreciate the vitality and expressive power of dramatic arts. This art form makes us empathize, hurt, care, reflect, and remember.

Edward A Kliszus February 10, 2023

Abraham Lincoln's Great Coat. Public domain from America, picturesque and descriptive (1900).

Books

Lincoln’s Greatcoat; The Unlikely Odyssey of a Presidential Relic

Arduous journeys begin with fascination. So does Reignette G. Chilton’s mysterious, sometimes scandalous, and ultimately glorious book about the splendid, custom-made greatcoat Abraham Lincoln wore on his fatal last night at Ford’s Theatre in 1865, entitled Lincoln’s Greatcoat; The Unlikely Odyssey of a Presidential Relic.

Victoria L. Dammer February 9, 2023

Music

The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony Performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 5

With this performance, the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony has fervidly conquered Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, bringing its ineffable, sumptuous beauty and afflatus to life. When listening, one is philosophically transported through time, space, and existence while envisaging the chimera of eternal questions facing humankind.

Edward A Kliszus February 8, 2023

Vit Horejs as Vanek, Theresa Linnihan as Brewmaster. Photo by Jonathan Slaff

Off Broadway

AUDIENCE by Václav Havel

Audience was presented with fine acting, powerful multi-dimensional visuals, cultural significance, context and import, rich vigilance, and irony.

Edward A Kliszus February 7, 2023

Gemma Trattoria Wood Fired Pizza Oven. Photo by Sora Vernikoff

Restaurants

Gemma Trattoria on Bowery

My meal was fabulous. The bread was deliciously, heavily crusted grain, and the avocado puree was divine. The roasted sunflower seeds and lightly shredded radishes were an unbelievably delightful combination.

Sora Vernikoff February 7, 2023

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