Performer’s form several Off-Broadway shows will be performing live in Union Square. The shows will take place Fridays at 4PM starting on November 30, and then running December 7, 14, 21. Each set will be 30 minute longs.

Cast members from Altar Boyz, The Fantasticks, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and Stomp will be performing with additional shows expected to participate.

The Off-Broadway performances will be running in conjunction with the Holiday Market which features 100 red and white booths in
Union Square and is open from November 23-December 24.

By Heather Parks 

It should be said from the outset and with no reservation that THINGS WE WANT is not one of Jonathan Marc Sherman’s best efforts. A claustrophobic piece, centered around three brothers who share a cramped New York City apartment and grapple with their parents suicides (through the living room window, years ago), the play ultimately fails to transcend the superficial.   

The three brothers, as played by Josh Hamilton, Peter Dinklage and Paul Dano, are a prickly lot.  To a man, the characters possess at their core nothing smaller than a gaping hole of want.  Each tries in vain to fill this space – through alcohol, through love, through spirituality or through some combination of the three.  These are souls bent on self-abnegation and intent of following the short path to get there.  The addition of Zoe Kazan, a lovely young actress with a powerful presence, provides little relief from the zany embrace of gloom that overwhelms the entire piece.  She is an alcoholic, herself, with her own reasons for and tendencies toward self-obliteration. 

What Sherman fails to provide us with is a means by which to connect with these slick-talking, tortured souls.  They come across as flimsy straw men, performing a Sartre-esque dance of psychological musical chairs in a cluttered space so difficult to bear that (by play’s end) the open window through which their parents jumped begins to look rather fetching. 

Of the three actors, Hamilton – a Sherman veteran who starred in the 1988 production of Women and Wallace, the playwright’s first full-length play – seems to be having the best time.  As a paying acolyte of the self-styled self-help guru Dr. Miracle, Hamilton is the most functional of the brothers at the outset; however, one pyramid-scheme-gone-wrong later, he undergoes a largely unearned (but incredibly fun to watch) shift in character.  Dinklage does the same, only in reverse (and with more clothes).  Only Dano is left to perpetuate his status quo – and what a whining, pining status quo it is.    

There is some good dialogue – the play is littered with the clever turns of phrase specific to Sherman.  And, the direction is spot on.  Ethan Hawke, who does the honors, should be commended for doing his most with the extremely limiting material provided.  He can’t help it that by the time the Joni Mitchell song plays we want to clap for the effort and race for the exit.   

On a positive note there is this: the return of Sherman to the New York stage is something to be celebrated by anyone interested in theater.  He is an undoubtedly strong playwright whose decade long absence, due to a much-publicized bout with alcoholism, left a hole in the fabric of what we expect from the best of off-Broadway.  If nothing else, THINGS WE WANT serves as a baseline for what we as an audience might expect as Sherman‘s work, in its new incarnation, matures.  The talent is there – the raw emotions rippling to the surface, the tightly controlled dialogue and the intense male characters, whose animalistic displays of repressed grief are uniquely Sherman.

THINGS WE WANT opened November 7^th at the Acorn Theater.  A production of the New Group, the play is directed by Ethan Hawke and stars Josh Hamilton, Peter Dinklage, Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan.  It continues through December 30^th. 

The Off-Broadway show Things We Want which is directed by Ethan Hawke has extended its current run through December 30. The show began previews on October 22 and had its opening night on November 7.

Things We Want is playing at Theatre Row’s Acorn Theater and added the additional shows due to popular demand. The recent stagehands strike has probably helped increase ticket sales for this show as well as other Off-Broadway productions since they are not affected by the strike.

Things We Want is a dark comedy about three brothers that live together and are trying to deal with the death of both of their parents. They face their own personal obstacles and changes come when a sexy young neighbor come into their lives.

The cast includes Paul Dano, Peter Dinklage, Zoe Kazan and Josh Hamilton.

 To see what other Off-Broadway shows are playing during the strike click here.

Our Sinatra will be returning in the Off-Broadway Songbook Theatre today November 16 for an open-ended engagement. The show is set to have an official opening night on November 20.

The cast of Our Sinatra includes Christopher Gines, Harmony Keeney and Elliot Roth. The show will be directed by Kurt Stamm, the production supervisor is Richard Malby Jr. and the lighting designer is Rich Latta.

Over 50 of Sinatra’s most famous songs are featured in the show, including “Fly Me to the Moon”, “The Lady is a Tramp”, “All or Nothing” and “Night and Day”.

Our Sinatra previously had success on 2 national tours and numerous regional productions.

Margaret Cho’s new burlesque-style variety show announced that it is extending it’s Off- Broadway run at the Zipper Theatre by 2 weeks. The Sensuous Women was originally a 4-week limited engagement. Previews started for this show on September 26 and will open on October 6^th. With the new extension the show will run until November 3^rd.

The Sensuous Women was created by comedian Margaret Cho, she also stars in the show. The show is an outrageous and funny night of comedy, music and dance numbers featuring a cast of burlesque stars as well as established and emerging comedians.