La MaMa plans fundraiser for theater journalist Randy Gener

Randy Gener

La MaMa's February 12 presentation of Lloyd Suh's The Wong Kids, performed by Ma-Yi Theater Company, will be a special fundraiser to help cover medical expenses for Randy Gener. The theater critic suffered severe head trauma in an attack in midtown Manhattan on January 18 and has been recovering in the Neuro ICU. All net box office proceeds will go to The Randy Gener Fund.

Read more about The Wong Kids (full title: The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!) here.

Activate your own superpowers by getting tickets for the February 12 (7pm) performance! Click here.

La MaMa (Ellen Stewart Theater)
66 East 4th Street (between Second Avenue and Bowery), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Ancient days and modern snack food

A quick note of recommendation for Michi Barall's colorful, amusing romp, Rescue Me (a postmodern classic with snacks), directed by Loy Arcenas and presented by Ma-Yi Theater Company at SoHo's Ohio Theater. There's much fun in this nutty, century-crossing, meta-adaptation of Euripedes's Iphigenia in Tauris--and I'm not just talking about the pop music and half-time snack food. (But thanks for the goldfish crackers!) Eighty minutes fly by in a haze of fun.

Among Barall's fine, eight-member cast, David Greenspan (a droll/imperious Artemis/Athena) and Leon Ingulsrud (as an Elvis-like King Thoas) give outstanding interpretations as playwright and company blur the line between then (ancient Greece) and now. Our Iphigenia, Jennifer Ikeda--who is 34, single and hates her job--works too many distracting Meryl Streep mannerisms, perhaps. But her open, childlike chemistry with her courageous brother Orestes (played by dancer-actor Julian Barnett, the production's choreographer) is convincing and heart-melting. Barnett's choreography, by the way, and his own whirlwind dancing in this show are among his best career achievements. Both are aptly versatile and expressive.

Rescue Me through April 18 at Ohio Theater

66 Wooster Street (between Prince and Broome Streets), Manhattan

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