Mary Wisniewski

2 weeks ago | newcitystage.com | Mary Wisniewski

Berlin during the Weimar Republic is a great setting for drama—there was jazz, decadence, political turmoil and a rising sense of disaster. It has inspired a great play—the musical “Cabaret.”Any play that takes on the same era must operate in “Cabaret’”s long shadow. “Berlin,” now in its world premiere at the Court Theatre, tells stories from the same period, with wild nightlife and Nazis on the rise.

2 weeks ago | lit.newcity.com | Mary Wisniewski

I love a good time-travel story. But the choices for when and where to set the “wayback machine” can be so predictable. There are many stories about hunting dinosaurs, killing Hitler and trying to save the Titanic. The focus is almost always on the big events along the traditional Western civilization timeline—here’s Shakespeare writing a new play, here’s Napoleon meeting his Waterloo. It’s rare to see something dealing with urban and non-white history.

3 weeks ago | lit.newcity.com | Mary Wisniewski

Flo is an eccentric, living somewhere in the suburban Southwest with four cats and a dog called “Dog.” There is something temporary about Flo—the heroine of Janice Deal’s new novel, “The Blue Door”—something not settled. Despite her desert surroundings, Flo is at sea. Flo has had a tragic past—her beloved only daughter, Teddy, was a killer. At the age of fourteen, Teddy bashed her teacher in the head with a piece of concrete and was sent to a juvenile prison until she was twenty-one.

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Mary Wisniewski

RECOMMENDED“Grace says I’m a work in progress,” a man says about his wife. “And I say you’re a piece of work,” his son responds. The son is Buddy, an ex-soldier looking for a job. He’s come home to ask for help from his father, Vet, though he knows Vet is an abusive bully. Vet is a Homeland Security officer patrolling the Texas/Mexican border with excessive rigor—he gives Buddy a cold welcome and dangles promises he may not keep.

1 month ago | newcitystage.com | Mary Wisniewski

The first five notes of the Kinks’ 1964 hit “You Really Got Me” are like a punch. An explosion. An electric jolt to the heart. With a guitar sound distorted by Dave Davies taking a razor blade to his little green amp, the song was a revolution in rock, influencing both punk and heavy metal.