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David Cote

David Cote

Observer

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Review: Kenneth Branagh’s ‘King Lear’ Howls Into A Stormy, Rushed Muddle

The great Kenneth Branagh leads and co-directs a decidedly not-great production of the Shakespeare tragedy.

previous day 4

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘Give Me Carmelita Tropicana!’ Is A Crazy Avant-Garde Flashback

I have little appetite to spend the next four years gloomily referencing current events in my reviews, so let’s get this out of the way. It was a...

11.11.2024 4

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘In The Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot’ Tries to Think Outside the Box

How sadly apt, to attend In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot the day after Jeff Bezos ordered The Washington Post to refrain from endorsing...

30.10.2024 5

Observer

David Cote

Review: Juliet Is Fire, Romeo Got Mad Rizz In This Shakespeare Glowup

Last time I reviewed a Shakespeare play staged by the daring and gifted Sam Gold, I led with a cheeky question about bowls of soup slurped by the...

25.10.2024 5

Observer

David Cote

Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Ready For Its UHD 4K Close-Up

The latest revival of Sunset Boulevard —glossily stark and aggressively meta—puts several shades of lipstick on a pig. “Shades” being...

21.10.2024 20

Observer

David Cote

Review: Long, Bumpy Ride to Sisterly Reconciliation Over ‘The Hills of California’

Shameful confession: It took Laura Donnelly’s coolly stunning entrance in The Hills of California to finally acquaint me with the lyrics to...

30.09.2024 40

Observer

David Cote

Review: Forbidden Broadway Mercilessly Mauls the Hits

Now 42 years old, the Forbidden Broadway franchise remains Mad Magazine with jazz hands, and the latest edition, 'Merrily We Stole a Song,' features a...

20.09.2024 6

Observer

David Cote

Review: Ex-Lovers Eat Their Hearts Out in Savory Romantic Comedy ‘Table 17’ 

Over the years audiences have seen many sides of magnetic powerhouse Kara Young. There was Troubled Teen Kara in Halfway Bitches Go Straight to...

10.09.2024 8

Observer

David Cote

Opera and Dance Fall Preview: A Rich Tapestry of Politics, Myth and Mortality

A thought experiment: From these cherry-picked events by the city’s best opera and dance companies, choose two—one from each category—for a...

30.08.2024 6

Observer

David Cote

Theater Fall Preview: Women Are Taking Charge, On Broadway And Off

Seasons don’t have themes. Scores of shows will open this fall from Broadway to Off-Off, but no shadowy organization meets to decree a season...

28.08.2024 4

Observer

David Cote

Review: The Gaudy, Immersive ‘Life and Trust’ Is Part Theater, Part Stunt

You may not believe it, but theater critics actually work . It’s not all plopping into an aisle seat, yawning, and scribbling in the dark....

02.08.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: That Internet Can Drive a Person Crazy in the Gimmicky ‘Job’

Received wisdom says a play on Broadway will only turn a profit with a star (or two). Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in Othello ? Get you...

31.07.2024 9

Observer

David Cote

‘Oh, Mary!’ Is a Splendidly Nasty Farce You Will Not Want to Miss

There’s a sicko living in the White House, a toxic narcissist with no boundaries and addiction issues, a sadist constantly lashing out while begging...

12.07.2024 30

Observer

David Cote

Review: Women’s Work Is A Bloody Business In ‘The Welkin’

It’s unscientific and unverifiable, but I have a theory that a lot of shabby British playwriting is smoothed over by dazzling British acting. No,...

13.06.2024 4

Observer

David Cote

Review: At the Roundabout, A Luminous Revival of Samm-Art Williams’ ‘Home’

Samm-Art Williams, who died on May 13 as Home began previews at the Roundabout Theatre Company, lived many lives. He was a playwright, an actor...

06.06.2024 7

Observer

David Cote

Review: In ‘Breaking the Story,’ Maggie Siff’s TV War Reporter Lives With Scars

Despite the fact they read from a script and dress the part, most TV reporters would deny an equivalence with actors. Some gig across the non/fiction...

05.06.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘The Lonely Few’ Mixes Bona Fide Rock Concert With Angsty Love Story

Who isn’t playing a rock star on stage? You got Stereophonic hipsters cutting an epic LP circa 1976 while Maleah Joi Moon tickles the...

23.05.2024 30

Observer

David Cote

Review: Pandemic Meltdown Musical ‘Three Houses’ Finds Song in Solitude

Hey, what’d you do for the pandemic? Sorry to be so 2022, but the topic’s hard to avoid regarding Dave Malloy’s Three Houses , currently...

21.05.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘Here There Are Blueberries’ Studies Holiday Photos from Hell

This interview-based docu-play revolves around a mysterious photo album donated to the Holocaust Museum that showed the lives of those running...

14.05.2024 40

Observer

David Cote

Review: Flashy and Fake ‘Great Gatsby’ Caps a Weak Season

There’s something almost quaint about The Great Gatsby ’s arrival at the end of a crowded Broadway season (11 new musicals and revivals bowed...

01.05.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘Staff Meal’ Offers Seven Courses of Tasty Disorientation 

Over the years, I’ve consumed heaps of neat, “naturalistic” dramas with messages served on a platter. I’ve also sampled countless experimental...

29.04.2024 30

Observer

David Cote

Review: Steve Carell Is a Lovable Loser in a Fragmentary ‘Uncle Vanya ‘

It’s Chekhov 101 to say his characters inhabit separate worlds that rarely converge. All those rueful doctors, vain landowners, stoic laborers, and...

26.04.2024 30

Observer

David Cote

Review: Volunteers In A Drug Trial Just Say Yes In ‘The Effect’

The Effect | 1hr 40mins. No intermission. | The Shed | 545 West 30th Street | 646-455-3494 Thank you for signing up! By clicking...

14.03.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: New Drama About the Murdoch Phone Hacking Scandal

Corruption | 2hrs 40mins. One intermission. | Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater | 150 West 65th Street | 212-239-6200 Thank you for signing up! ...

12.03.2024 6

Observer

David Cote

Review: A Priest and a Nun Walk into a War in Contemporary Classic ‘Doubt’

Doubt | 1hr 30mins. No intermission. | Todd Haimes Theatre | 227 West 42nd Street | 212-719-1300 Thank you for signing up! By...

08.03.2024 6

Observer

David Cote

Review: It All Comes Out in the Wash at John Patrick Shanley’s ‘Brooklyn Laundry ‘

Brooklyn Laundry | 1hr 20mins. No intermission. | Manhattan Theatre Club | 131 West 55 th St | 212-581-1212 Would it surprise you to learn that...

05.03.2024 30

Observer

David Cote

Spring Preview: Myth, Ancient History, And Burt Bacharach Inspire Dance and Opera

If there’s a common thread running through these picks, it’s archeology. Digging into the past to see how it illuminates our present. Whether...

01.03.2024 8

Observer

David Cote

Spring Theater Preview: Navigating a Flood of Shows on Broadway and Off

Broadway’s spring forecast: Traffic Delays Ahead. Between now and end of April (cutoff time for Tony Award eligibility) a whopping 18 shows will...

28.02.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: Unwinnable Wars Lead to Impossible Debates in ‘The Ally’

The Ally | 2hrs 40mins. One intermission. | Public Theater | 440 Lafayette Street | 212-967-7555 Asaf Sternheim (Josh Radnor) may be a teacher at...

28.02.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

Review: Second Stage Theatre’s ‘The Apiary’: Stinging or Sweet As Honey?

The Apiary | 1hr 15mins. No intermission. | Second Stage Theatre’s Tony Kiser Theater | 305 West 43rd Street | 212-392-1818 Science fiction may...

14.02.2024 20

Observer

David Cote

Review: Fake News Makes Musical Headlines in ‘The Connector’

The Connector | 1 hr 45 mins. No intermission. | MCC Theater | 511 W 52nd Street | 646 – 506-9393 M usicals love a con artist. Harold...

07.02.2024 10

Observer

David Cote

‘The Animal Kingdom’ Review: This Family Therapy Weepie Is a Flat Zoo Story

The Animal Kingdom | 1hr 20mins. No intermission. | Connelly Theater Upstairs | 220 East 4th Street  Theater critics and therapists have things...

31.01.2024 5

Observer

David Cote

Review: Don’t Sleep on Splendiferous Sutton Foster in ‘Once Upon a Mattress’

Once Upon a Mattress | 2hrs 15mins. One intermission. | New York City Center | 131 West 55th Street | 212-581-1212 After suffering through Once...

28.01.2024 20

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘Prayer for the French Republic’ Is One of Broadway’s Best New Plays

Prayer for the French Republic | 3hrs 10mins. Two intermissions. | Samuel L. Friedman Theatre | 261 W. 47th Street | 212-239-6200 We want...

10.01.2024 20

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘Appropriate’ Is a Family Album of White Supremacy 

Appropriate | 2hrs 40mins. One intermission. | Hayes Theater, 240 West 44th Street | 212-239-6200 “Someone has to defend the dead,” declares...

19.12.2023 4

Observer

David Cote

Review: Cuba’s Past Sings Out in ‘Buena Vista Social Club’

Buena Vista Social Club | 2hrs. One intermission. | Atlantic Theater Company | 336 West 20th Street | 646-452-2220 Thirty-odd years ago you’d...

19.12.2023 9

Observer

David Cote

Review: ‘How to Dance in Ohio’ Welcomes Autistic Youth Under the Disco Ball

How to Dance in Ohio | 2hrs 25mins. One intermission. | Belasco Theatre | 111 W 44th St | 212-239-6200 Want to see an excellent Broadway musical...

11.12.2023 20

Observer

David Cote

Review: An Earnest Yet Awkward Land Acknowledgement for ‘Manahatta’

Manahatta | 1hr 45mins. No intermission. | Public Theater | 425 Lafayette Street | 212-967-7555 Every history play has its moral. The Trojan...

06.12.2023 3

Observer

David Cote

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