Whoa! Looks like the MTA is poised to go buckwild on perpetrators of scratchiti. That's the fairly craptastic end of graffiti where people use sharp objects to scratch tags on subway windows and doors. The results look similar to etch-- that's where vandals use glass-etching fluid in shoe polish bottles to catch tags. Apparently the incidence of both kinds of graf is way up over the last year. Newsday reports: more ›

59E59 Theaters // 59 E. 59th St. // Through June 4, Tues.-Sat.8pm, Sun. 3pm // Tickets via Ticket Central more ›

THEATER: Mike Daisey, the versatile, unpredictable monologuist (and onetime Gothamist interviewee), has revealed a lot about his own past and personality over the course of his years of performing and writing. Now, in the last entry of the season at Galapagos' "Evolve" series, he's going after new material -- a select array of "Great Men of Genius" other than himself. Last week he explored the life more ›

Along with producing shows by up and coming playwrights, one of the things off-off-Broadway does best is to resurrect plays first presented ages ago that have hardly been seen or thought of since. One such is V.R. Lang’s Fire Exit: A Vaudeville For Eurydice, which is nominally a modernization of the Orpheus-Eurydice myth but in actuality, at least in this incarnation, is more an opportunity for some majorly bizarre antics by a brave, eager cast. It’s the 1950s, and Orpheus, a hotshot young composer, marries Eurydice, who comes from a family of carnival folk, only to break her heart by caring more about his career than their life together. Fortunately, Eury grew up with the good examples of some wacky “aunts” – one of them played by director Barbara Vann – and she finally learns to embrace the performer in herself and not look back. more ›

In yesterday’s theater round-up, we noted the Stadttheater festival of new German theater at HERE Arts Center, but right now you can also see a staging of one of the most cherished works in classic German literature: Goethe’s Faust. For three years, Target Margin Theater Company has been working toward a full presentation of the 18th century masterpiece, newly translated by Douglas Langworthy, and on Sunday – probably not coincidentally, Walpurgisnacht, which, as those familiar with Faust know, is quite an important day for the story – the two-part, six-hour extravaganza opened. more ›

The weather outside might be just starting to feel like spring, but in the theater world there’s already a summery vibe going on. Last night the Lortel Awards kicked off the trophy-giving season; this Friday the Drama League awards go out. Then there’s the festivals; not that there aren’t festivals at other times of the year, but as the weather heats up they start crowding in thick and fast. Currently you can get a square meal of offerings from around the world, all via some well-curated festivals. To begin with, there’s Pan Asian Repertory’s Spring Festival of New Works, which has four very different plays to choose from: Lan Tran’s Elevator Sex, Kendra Ware’s Recollections: Butoh-Inspired Movement, John Quincy Lee’s ABC (American Born Chinese), and Terry Park’s 38th Parallels. more ›

On Sundays Gothamist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in New York and reviews of recent books and performances. The judgments expressed below are entirely those of the author. more ›

April 27: Taste of the Lower East Side more ›

In a city where there’s as much theater as there is here, we’re never too surprised when shows open that have a lot in common, but it’s always fun to note and wonder what was happening in the creative Zeitgeist to generate technically unrelated but similar works. This week, for instance, Rachel Shukert’s Bloody Mary opens, bringing the life of the notoriously unbalanced daughter of Henry VIII to the stage in suitably off-the-wall fashion (Mary has a guardian who just might be Jimi Hendrix; a New York lawyer somehow gets involved in the power struggles). Meanwhile, at the Pearl you can see Schiller’s dark, brooding Mary Stuart, which looks at the events surrounding the execution of Bloody Mary’s cousin, which was ordered by Elizabeth I. The Pearl always presents loving, carefully considered revivals, so the coincident dates with Shukert’s production should provide a good opportunity for comparing and contrasting visions of ye olde England. more ›

So many long-hyped shows are in the giddy last throes of previews on Broadway, we’re a bit afraid it might just pop and cover everything in its surrounds with tiny microphones and flakes of pancake makeup. Better stay far away – philosophically if not physically. 61 Dead Men looks like a great way to do so. It’s the first show we’ve ever seen billed as an “improv tragedy,” and that alone piques our interest. Janus Surratt developed and directs the production, which has as its center an artist named Haml who decides creation is the wrong way to go about changing the world, and that destruction is the way to go. That’s the anti-Broadway spirit we like! more ›

American Theatre of Actors // 314 W. 54th St. // Through May 28, Tues.-Sat. 8pm, Sat.-Sun. 3pm, Sun. 7pm // Tickets via Theatermania 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 ›