If you see enough theater on a regular basis, you eventually develop an intuitive sense which tells you, usually within the first first couple of seconds, whether you're going to be grabbed by the lapels or hogtied for a long, hard slog. Sadly, the latter is much more common than the former, which is why I understand most people's reluctance to take a chance on theater. But a ticket to Clybourne Park, the acerbic new comedy by Bruce Norris, is an eminently shrewd investment, like buying a brownstone in prime Park Slope in 1959, when the play's first act takes place. more ›

MUSIC: It's been a while since we've heard from Laura Veirs (pictured). Tonight she's back with her backing band, The Saltbreakers. Opening up the show are the always enjoyable Charles Bissell (of The Wrens) and Lake. Related: Want to be a temporary 5th Wren? more ›

Playwright Adam Rapp etches elegantly bleak portraits of America’s young lost souls; his Red Light Winter was an Obie-winner and Pulitzer-prize finalist, Blackbird was recently adapted into a film which Rapp also directed. (He wrote and directed his first feature, Winter Passing, which starred Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell.) Rapp’s published seven novels, plays in a band, and is not someone you’d want to play one-on-one basketball with to settle a bet. more ›

Adam Rapp’s play Essential Self-Defense takes place in a Midwestern anytown where children have been steadily disappearing. In this self-described “grim fairy tale”, there are no clues to indicate the culprit; the townspeople (Klieg the butcher, Chuck the barber, Isaak the Russian custodian, Sorrell the punk librarian) are all eccentric but not particularly sinister. Rapp, to his credit, isn’t interested in whodunits; his focus here is the awkward courtship between the diminutive Sadie (brought to life with charming nuance by Heather Goldenhersh), a needy children’s books editor, and Yul (Paul Sparks), a Caulfieldian loner who works as an attack dummy in Sadie’s self-defense class. When Sadie knocks out Yul’s tooth during class, she leaps on her chance to launch a mack attack. more ›

THEATER: Obie Award winner Adam Rapp has just unwrapped (sorry) his new play Essential Self-Defense at Playwrights Horizons. Set in a mean Midwestern town called Bloggs, the play has, fittingly, been generating big blog buzz. The “grim fairy tale” revolves around a disgruntled misfit “who takes a job as an attack dummy in a women’s self-defense class and finds himself mysteriously drawn to the repressed bookworm who’s beating on him. But all’s not well in Bloggs: with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend, and a motley assortment of poets, butchers, and punk librarians prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town.” With rock n’ roll karaoke! - John Del Signore more ›

As we try to get over the possible snub of NYC by Matthew Bourne’s adaptation of Edward Scissorhands, at least we can console ourselves with the usual mind-bending assortment of theater that’s definitely here now. more ›

Oh, MUG, you remind us of a good point. We're smack in the middle of the holiday season. A time for diners and delis to play constant Christmas jingles (if we never hear about a reindeer again it will be too soon), a time to feel guilty about not being able to get friends/family the Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice gift you know they would want (or worse, not having the slightest idea what they'd want). But that's just the tip of the iceberg. It is also as good a time as any to do some good for your community. more ›

Since Gothamist usually tries to write about shows that are coming up or playing for extended periods so that you have chance to get tickets (if you make plans further in advance than we do, of course) but this week we’re making an exception in order to mention a few theatre events that are either one-night-only or closing soon, but worth trying to get to if you can. more ›

What if Seattle rock legend Kurt Cobain had married a local Pacific Northwestern Phil Collins-loving waitress instead of Courtney Love? And what if the Cobain-esque rock star had left behind one special song when he died, so special that his widow clings to it, not sharing it with the world, and prompting freak groupie types to try to do anything to get their hands on it? Playwright Christopher Shinn (Four, Where Do We Live) runs with this idea in his new work On The Mountain, with its New York premiere currently being presented at Playwrights Horizons, one of Gothamist's favorite not-for-profit theater companies. more ›

Most theatres are busy prepping their new season�s premieres, and smart and cost conscious theatre fans are already booking shows they want to see for nothing � by ushering. more ›

As we enjoy these last dog days of summer, savvy New Yorkers know that it's not too early to think about ordering tickets for some of the cool shows arriving on the fall theater scene, just around the corner. more ›

Whitney Pastorek, Writer/Etc. more ›