‘English’ Off Broadway Review: Sanaz Toossi’s Play Gets Lost in Translation
The idea is to put us in the uncomfortable position of the character(s). But we’re not in Italy, we’re not in Iran. We’re in a theater, and the feeling communicated is “I could be home watching ‘Jame Jam’ instead.”
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Unraveling the Secrets of the Self Through ‘English’
I feel different when I speak English. In middle school, we had a “wai jiao”, a foreign guest teacher who’d come hang out with us a few times a year: Canadian Stephen (he pronounced it steh-fun) had dirty blond hair and frequent stomach problems. Stephen described English as “simple, and elegant.” For me, it was […]
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We Don’t Want What ‘The Music Man’ is Selling
If there’s one thing this revival of The Music Man has it’s fanfare. Both literal (a marching band played outside the theater on opening night) and figurative: since this production was announced it has been loudly heralded as a major moment for Broadway, best signaled by the comically large marquee that adorns the roof of […]
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