Since its founding in April 2004, offoffonline has reviewed over 2000 shows, creating one of the web’s most extensive archives of Off-Off-Broadway work. Now with a contributing staff of fifteen, offoffonline not only covers Off-Off-Broadway theater in all five boroughs of New York City, but Off-Broadway and Broadway theater as well.

Editor’s Corner


Hello there! We currently look at two wildly disparate literary adaptations with Ed Karam’s reviews of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Classic Stage Company and Cuff Me: The Fifty Shades of Grey Musical Parody at the Actors Temple Theater. Enjoy!

Sea Dogs on Shore

Posted on June 13, 2013 by
Boat Factory feature

The Boat Factory, a two-hander from Northern Ireland currently playing as part of the Brits Off-Broadway festival, has a bit of a split personality. Its first half details the early life of the main character, Davy Gordon, and the way he becomes a worker in Belfast’s boatyards, along with their rich background. The boatyards date … Read more

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No More Business as Usual

Posted on June 12, 2013 by
Cornelius Feature photo

In 1992, when Stephen Daldry revived J.B. Priestley’s warhorse An Inspector Calls, the British playwright was largely forgotten. Daldry’s inventive staging was a runaway triumph in London and New York, but only sporadically were Priestley’s other plays revived here: Dangerous Corner at the Atlantic, The Glass Cage at the Mint. However, they added to the suspicion … Read more

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Revels in a Grey Area

Posted on June 10, 2013 by
Cuff Me Feature photo

The satirical musical Cuff Me: The Fifty Shades of Grey Unauthorized Musical Parody has popped up almost as quickly as a topical bit on Saturday Night Live, and it’s best, perhaps, to think of it as a goofy SNL sketch that lasts 90 minutes. Fifty Shades of Grey, is, of course, the 2012 erotic trilogy by … Read more

Posted in Comedy, Musical | Leave a comment

A Brechtian Baby and Two Mothers

Posted on June 9, 2013 by
The Caucasian Chalk CircleClassic Stage Company

The Caucasian Chalk Circle, one of Bertolt Brecht’s most acclaimed dramas, provides an excellent example of the difference in Brecht’s theater from that of dramatists before him, or indeed, most of them since. If one expects a “big secret” to be revealed at the end of The Caucasian Chalk Circle—Mom is a morphine addict, Dad’s … Read more

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Bull

Posted on May 7, 2013 by
Bull 1 photo

Mike Bartlett’s Bull is subtitled The Bullfight Play, but the four characters in Clare Lizzimore’s production clash for 55 minutes in what appears to be a boxing ring, with a water cooler in one corner. Outside the ring, audience members stand (there are also seats around the room). As Bartlett’s characters confront each other, it … Read more

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Women of Will

Posted on April 29, 2013 by
Women of Will.Featured photo

The punning title of Women of Will might apply to a lecture on Shakespeare’s women as well as a description of strong-headed heroines, but as a rubric for Tina Packer’s two-person exploration of the female characters in Shakespeare’s plays, it gives little hint of her vast knowledge and the remarkable insights in a five-part show—six, … Read more

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