Play by Play

This collection begins with a brave and piercing appraisal of the state of current theater criticism in a section Kalb characteristically calls Critical Mess. He goes on to revisit the work of Samuel Beckett as performed in well-meaning efforts to bring it to a new wider (TV) audience; to consider today's political theater particularly in the flourishing form of one-person shows; to explore the theatrical landscape of a reunited Germany where the Berliner Ensemble is no longer a showcase for the East and finally to cover what's going on back home in New York ä everything from ÊThe Lion KingÊ and ÊDame EdnaÊ to plays of David Mamet and Arthur Miller (new and old) and to the latest trends in the Broadway musical.