Meryl Cates

The Kid with a Bike: Gabriel Ebert

April 4, 2012

As Leo in the play 4000 Miles, Gabriel Ebert shows up at his grandmother’s apartment at three in the morning, dirty and defensive, an emotional pit—and grips his audience completely. Crashing with his 91-year-old grandmother (played by the exceptional Mary Louise Wilson) at her West Village home, Leo attempts to work through the loss of his best friend in a cross-country biking accident.

Alexis Bledel, Set for the Stage

March 22, 2012

It’s the year 1954 in the new play Regrets, and a group of men escape to a Nevada retreat where they can wallow in their marital misfortunes in peace and secure a quick divorce. In a place where “no girls allowed” is a dictum, not a mantra, Alexis Bledel’s character, Chrissie Meyers, is vivacious and sexy.

Elizabeth Reaser is Still Learning

February 7, 2012

Sharp and perfectly developed, Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive sets driving lessons between a young woman named Li’l Bit (Elizabeth Reaser) and her Uncle Peck (Norbert Leo Butz) as the foundation for an inappropriate affair.

Discovery: Molly Ranson

December 27, 2011

As of the premiere of the new production of Carrie, Molly Ranson, the young actress in the title role, is about to become a huge force on stage.

Ashley Bouder’s First Nutcrackerâ??and Her Next

December 12, 2011

Tomorrow, for the first time, New York City Ballet’s yearly classic will be shown to a much wider audience in movie theaters nationwide.

Ann Beattie Gets it Down Pat

November 22, 2011

Ann Beattie’s Mrs. Nixon: A Novelist Imagines A Life knits together fiction and non-fiction, with Mrs. Nixon at the forefront.

Jake O’Connor’s Notes from Underground

November 1, 2011

In “Suicide, Incorporated,” playwright Andrew Hinderaker sculpts a story that lures viewers into a morbid world—but with a laugh. At the crux of the narrative is Jake O’Connor’s character, Tommy.

The Exploding Girl Blows Up

September 20, 2011

There’s a different Zoe Kazan for everyone. Kazan’s new play We Live Here, which tackles one family’s turbulent dynamic, just brings us deeper into her creativity.