You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
THE STORY: Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering addicts keep each other alive, hour by hour, day by day. The boundaries of family and communi
In a tucked away corner of North Philly, six regulars gather at a neighborhood watering hole. Over twenty years, they turn their collective memories into a vivacious mythology. The tales they’d rather forget, however, keep sneaking up and tapping them on the shoulder. At Daphne’s Dive, an aloe plant, a girl’s sneaker, a stiff drink, and mounds of trash become talismanic treasures to a group of outsiders trying to be “in” together.
“This is a fresh take on the American road story, filled with people and ideas we rarely get to see onstage…It offers two seriously rich roles for women, each with important things worth singing about…Miss You Like Hell is a powerful example of what musicals do best: explore the unprotected border where individual needs and social issues intermix.” —Jesse Green, New York Times A troubled teenager and her estranged mother—an undocumented Mexican immigrant on the verge of deportation—embark on a road trip and strive to mend their frayed relationship along the way. Combined with the musical talent of Erin McKeown, Hudes artfully crafts a story of the barriers and the bonds of family, while also addressing the complexities of immigration in today’s America.
"Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue is that rare and rewarding thing: a theatre work that succeeds on every level while creating something new. The playwright combines a lyrical ear with a sophisticated sense of structure to trace the legacy of war through three generations of a Puerto Rican family. Without ever invoking politics, Elliot, a Soldier's Fugue manages to be a deeply poetic, touching and often funny indictment of the war in Iraq."—The New York Times From Quiara Alegría Hudes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Water by the Spoonful, comes this companion play, itself a Pulitzer finalist. In a crumbling urban lot that has been converted into a verdant sanctuary, a young Marine comes to...
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse. “Quiara Alegría Hudes is in her own league. Her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories.”—Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton and In the Heights ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, New York Public Library, BookPage, BookRiot Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. Sh...
"As ever, Hudes’s writing is poetic but wry, full of swagger and poetry. There’s live music, but oh, how the lines sing too." — David Cote, Time Out New York "Ms. Hudes draws all her characters with precision and understanding... this warm-blooded play underscores how the disorienting flux of life can be navigated with the help of carefully tended family ties." — Charles Isherwood, New York Times "Delightful... Hudes is a very accomplished storyteller, a playwright with an emergent, fulsome American narrative." — Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune At the dawn of the Arab Spring in an ancient Jordinian town, an Iraq War veteran struggles to overcome the traumas of combat by taking on an e...
THE STORY: A Cuban boy is born into a humble farming family, but after his first taste of cold Coca-Cola, he dreams of a world beyond his family's meager acre. Naively yearning to meet the President of America, the play follows his epic journey i
The story of the fascinating, fraught alliance among Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Maria Weston Chapman--and how its breakup led to the success of America's most important social movement. "Fresh, provocative and engrossing." --New York Times In the crucial early years of the Abolition movement, the Boston branch of the cause seized upon the star power of the eloquent ex-slave Frederick Douglass to make its case for slaves' freedom. Journalist William Lloyd Garrison promoted emancipation while Garrison loyalist Maria Weston Chapman, known as "the Contessa," raised money and managed Douglass's speaking tour from her Boston townhouse. Conventional histories have seen Douglass...
Brown constellates the subjects that define her inside and out: a disabled and conspicuous body, a religious conversion, a missing twin, a life in poetry. As she does, she depicts vividly for us not only her own life but a striking array of sites and topics, among them Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the world's oldest anatomical theater, Eugenics, and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. Throughout, Brown offers us the gift of her exquisite sentences, woven together in consideration, always, of what it means to be human: flawed, potent, feeling.
THE STORY: An African-American couple vacationing in Africa takes a turn off the main highway and find themselves stranded during rainy season in the remnants of a grand hotel. The rundown colonial hotel's only inhabitants are a reticent bellhop an