Newsday Spotlights 5 New Playwrights, Including Erika Sheffer

Off-Broadway Spotlights 5 New Playwrights



 "Works by new or little-known playwrights are attracting most of the right attention in Off-Broadway theaters around town. Here are five I recently got to know.

RX by Kate Fodor
Primary Stages, 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St.; 212-279-4200; primarystages.org

CQ/CX by Gabe McKinley
Atlantic Theater, Norton Space, 555 W. 42nd St.; 212-279-4200; atlantictheater.org

RUSSIAN TRANSPORT by Erika Sheffer
New Group, 410 W. 42nd St.; 212-239-6200; thenewgroup.org

Erika Sheffer tackles both a family tragicomedy and a big-picture global crime in her off-center, highly original and impressive playwriting debut. We are in the Sheepshead Bay bungalow of a struggling but loving family of Russian-Jewish immigrants. In moves the mother's handsome, increasingly menacing brother (played with imposing, silky duplicity by Morgan Spector). His arrival from Russia is first folded into the everyday family banter, before he ensnares the teenage children (beautifully played by Sarah Steele and Raviv Ullman) and, ultimately, reveals secrets that are genuinely surprising.

Despite some weirdness in her Russian accent, Janeane Garofalo is a sturdy, funny-serious and welcome presence as the nobody's-fool mother. Scott Elliott, head of The New Group, directs his new find with the tenderness and brutality it deserves. How he got the cast (including Daniel Oreskes as the hardworking father) to speak Russian -- or at least to sound as if he were speaking Russian -- is a very good mystery.

YOSEMITE by Daniel Talbott
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, 212-279-4200; ticketcentral.com, closing Feb. 26

PSYCHO THERAPY by Frank Strausser
Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce St., 212-352-3101; psychotherapytheplay.com, closing Feb. 25"

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RUSSIAN TRANSPORT is a
Time Out NY 'Critics Pick'

"Erika Sheffer’s engrossing moral thriller starts in familiar domestic comedy, with a Russian-immigrant twist, then veers into ugly new territory with the arrival of a sexually charged sociopath (an impressive Morgan Spector). The mostly excellent ensemble cast, directed smartly by Scott Elliott, drives the play ahead forcefully on ever-twisting roads."

 

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Janeane Garofalo: On Making Her Stage Debut

The Truth About Janeane Garofalo: She's Making Her Stage Debut, At Last

"Janeane Garofalo takes a tart, tangy sip of her Red Bull — the Large Economy Size, it looks like, but she says no: 'There is a 20-ouncer. I've already had one today. This is my second one so that's why I'm down to 16 ounces.' Now, if only she can wrap up this pre-show interview in time for a fast smoke, it’ll be Showtime!

The show in question is not the liberal-slanted standup she's been slinging around comedy clubs since 1985 but rather a fascinating first-play by Erika Sheffer called Russian Transport, which has just been extended till March 24 at the Acorn on Theatre Row. It has transported her to a place she has never been before — onto a stage in a play — not a second too soon, it being her 20th year as a practicing actress."

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