The Tempest storms through Harlem

This summer’s uptown iteration of Shakespeare in the Park brought The Tempest to the island of Hispaniola. I have attended the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s summer Shakespeare productions for the past three years and I hope to see next summer’s production. I have absolutely loved everything I have seen with the company thus far and …

Classical Theatre of Harlem and Hip Hop Theatre Festival present SEED, a Love Letter to Harlem

If you see one show this season, go see SEED. If you are a Harlem resident, you have absolutely no excuse not to see it. The show is playing at the National Black Theatre on 126th and 5th Ave right across the street from Applebees. This new play by Radha Blank is produced by the …

National Black Theater in Harlem in danger of foreclosure

Today’s New York Times featured the troubled story about the National Black Theater and its financial woes. The building, with a fully functional theater with space to spare and retail space galore, takes up an entire block along 5th Avenue between 125th and 126th Street. As a cruel twist of irony, the area is finally …

harlem is….Theater screening at The Dwyer

Forgoing the wicked weather that has cast a wet blanket over the New York area for the past few days, Harlem’s theatre elite turned out in full force on Tuesday night to screen Jamal Joseph’s latest production. Joseph, a respected professor at Columbia and a former Black Panther, worked in concert with New Heritage Films …

FELA!

October will welcome a number of highly anticipated musical theatre transfers to Broadway.  Following an acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement at 37 Arts, Fela! arrives at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Oct. 19. The work explores the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and …

Tony Watch: WaHi not Gritty Enough?

In The Heights has been nominated for a Tony award 13 times! Benjamin Ivry of the U.K’s Guardian questions whether the sterilized version of Washington Heights presented on Broadway is a true representation of the neighborhood. Ivry writes, “I lived in Washington Heights a couple of decades ago during summer power outages, and instead of …