Olive and the Bitter Herbs
Opening Night: August 9, 2011
Closing: September 3, 2011
Theater: 59E59 Theaters
In playwright Charles Busch’s latest comedy, actress Olive Fisher sees a ghost in her mirror, but that’s the least of her problems. Her radiator’s broken, the couple next door stinks up her apartment with exotic cheeses, and the highlight of her long career was a sausage commercial in the ’80s. While she’s not the most popular tenant, her neighbors invite themselves over and she finds herself hosting a Passover Seder. But are Olive’s guests there to see her or the mysterious man in her mirror? Olive and the Bitter Herbs is a comedy about connecting to the people in our lives – those with us and those who have passed on.
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August 16, 2011
To live is to kvetch, to kvetch to live, for the cranky title character in “Olive and the Bitter Herbs,” the acidly funny but decidedly ramshackle new play by Charles Busch that opened on Tuesday night at the 59E59 Theaters in a Primary Stages production.
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August 17, 2011
Busch clearly loves writing about difficult women, a species that covers everyone from the neurotic Manhattan matron who had a full-blown identity crisis in his hit 2000 comedy "The Allergist’s Wife" to the monstrous movie queens he plays so convincingly in drag.
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August 17, 2011
With its horseradish-harsh heroine and a goofy haunted mirror, Charles Busch’s new play, "Olive and the Bitter Herbs," had the potential to be dizzy good fun. Or provocative. Or, better yet, both.
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August 17, 2011
A group of New Yorkers seemingly brought together by chance find that their ties run deeper than they could imagine in Charles Busch’s fantastical new comedy Olive and the Bitter Herbs, now being presented by Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters. Much like its title character, the aging actress Olive (Marcia Jean Kurtz), the play can be both acerbically hilarious and just a little bit scattered. Luckily, Busch couldn’t ask for a more able cast for his contemporary comedy than the one that’s been assembled here.
READ THE REVIEWAugust 17, 2011
When Charles Busch writes, people laugh. That’s a given. And yet not all Busch comedies are alike nor are they of equal merit. His latest features the playwright’s trademark zingers delivered with gusto by a primo cast. But while he has a genuine gift for capturing urban New York humor much like he did in "Tale of the Allergist’s Wife", his biggest success, "Olive and The Bitter Herbs", dramatically speaking, is kinda hard to swallow.
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