 Your fiends and neighbors: God of Carnage @ Le Petit Theatre Review by Paul Oswell Rhetoric, accusations, and various liquids are all airborne in Yasmina Reza's lauded God of Carnage (playing at Le Petit Theatre through May 17th). A Broadway sensation and Tony Award winner following its 2009 debut, it’s a single-act powder keg. Two couples engage in an escalating war of ethics that lays bare the self-interest lurking beneath bourgeois parenthood, and exposes the brittleness of human empathy. Alan (Conrad Ricamora) and Annette (Julie Lake) are guests in the Brooklyn home of Veronica (Marie Lovejoy) and Michael (Joshua Mark Sienkiewicz), there to discuss an incident between their 11-year-old children. Alan and Annette's boy has attacked Veronica and Michael's son with a stick, dislodging two teeth in the process. We begin with polite, if emotionally wary, cooperation. Alan and Annette emanate a cynically corporate, materialistic ethos as they navigate Veronica and Michael's more bohemian, everyman sensibilities. Michael, a purveyor of kitchen and bathroom fittings, appears to be an almost cartoonishly easy-going husband, while Alan repeatedly abandons the discussion, loudly addressing an escalating company matter on his cell phone. Minor quibbles about the precise wording of a legal statement soon metastasize, and masks slip as social cohesion strains against the pressures of self-interest, lubricated by an open bottle of rum. The cast deftly navigates the emotional whiplash as hostility mounts. Ricamora juggles manipulation and fraying control, while Sienkiewicz remains charismatic even as his bonhomie is tested to its breaking point. Marie Lovejoy's Veronica appears superficially the most vulnerable, yet excavates reserves of strength to weather a tornado of aggression. Julie Lake pivots brilliantly between being hilariously indignant and inappropriately amorous before delivering a viscerally emphatic bout of nausea. A.J. Allegra's direction maintains momentum from the opening moments, and the staging - a sunken lounge overlooked by an imposing work of art - proves striking without overwhelming the action. I won't spoil the pointed visual commentary embedded within the set design, but there's a wickedly effective Easter egg for the observant. The careening drama may prove uncomfortable viewing for the conflict-averse, and while the themes don't descend to the abyssal depths of, say, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, there are moments of genuine intensity. Marital fissures test both couples, who become privileged adults wielding playground insults with guileless brutality. That’s possibly the extent of the subtext in God of Carnage. I wondered about, say, a geopolitical metaphor, but Reza says in interviews that it is a straight dramatization of a real-life incident related to her by a friend. You may cringe imagining which awful details are possibly real, but the reassurance of at least some of it being fictional is a positive relief when the confrontation on stage is at its most lurid. God of Carnage is playing at Le Petit Theatre through May 17th. Click here for show information and ticketing  Michaela Cole and Ian McKellen in Steven Soderbergh's 'The Christophers' Movie Review: The Christophers (Steven Soderbergh, 2025) Steven Soderbergh returns to London after his recent spy caper Black Bag, although here the city recedes into the background, the scope being much more personal. Whereas Black Bag reveled in its Guy Ritchie-adjacent high jinx, The Christophers is a more delicate, intimate proposition. The film is held together by two very different, complementary performances. Ian McKellen is Julian Sklar, an aging artist who was lauded in his heyday, but who has darkened his name with misanthropic behaviour that became his trademark. Lori (Michaela Coel) is a younger art restorer currently employed at a food truck. Sklar is entering his final years, beset by ill health and bouncing around his crumbing townhouse. His two children (so one-dimensional that they could have been played by anyone, but are Baby Reindeer’s Jessica Gunning and, I’m so sorry to report, James Corden) have an eye on their inheritance, including some potentially valuable unfinished works from a series dedicated to Sklar senior’s old love: works collectively called The Christophers. The works have gained a near-mythical reputation in the art world. Sklar’s daughter - who formerly went to art school with Lori - concocts a scheme for Lori to become Julian’s new assistant. She would then have access to the unfinished paintings and could finish them herself for a cut of the inheritance. Lori tentatively agrees and is installed in the chaotic Sklar household. What follows is a touching two-hander; a talkative, play-like film that examines artistic life, what ownership of artworks or what ownership of ideas looks like, and the nature of family and the art world in general. McKellen is in his element, turning up the bitchiness and camp but with a script that is intelligent enough to dodge tackiness. Cole - who I have not seen since her incredible TV show I May Destroy You - is more nuanced and reserved. She moves with canny instincts through a moral quagmire, and the multiple twists in their relationship keep you engaged in the story. The Christophers shows us that Soderbergh, even at this stage of his career, isn’t out of tricks or new directions. If he can still pull off pseudo-camp spy thrillers as well as deft character studies like this, then we can hopefully look forward to a solid couple of decades of unpredictable but loveable work. (PO) The Christophers is showing at Prytania Theatres at Canal Place  First Night: Six @ The Saenger Theatre Review by Dorian Hatchett Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. A glittering pop musical for the modern era, about some very historic drama, Six introduces the ex-wives of Henry VIII in a concert for the ages. An all-female cast (Including the band, the “Ladies in Waiting”) brings down the house with humor and humanity, as the audience is led to confront some complicated truths about the way we contextualize the infamous characters throughout our history (ahem: herstory, per Catherine Parr). Each of the wives is styled after a modern musical inspiration. Our own idols are written in an oh-so-clever trick to make anyone without a heart of stone feel instant camaraderie with the celebrities of yesteryear. There’s enough factual history here to warrant serious attention, and enough fun to make you catch yourself singing along, long after the curtain closes. Don’t lose your head, though, because the cast encourages all the singing and clapping you wanna do, while the seamless choreography proves that you don’t have to be raised from the dead to get down, but it might help. A royal feast for the eyes, the costumes are a techno fantasy through a tudor lens. Puffed sleeves and peplums strike a tone, metallic vinyl and sequins pull the shapes through 500 years into the future. The set is a concert stage, simple bones with dynamic lighting and a beautiful changing backdrop of Tudor arches that offer a sophisticated, almost tactile shift in emotional atmosphere along with the music. Each queen has her own story, and you can watch it change the visual flavor of the stage every time the focus shifts. Without words, the set and lighting designers of this show tell the story as effectively as a Greek chorus, building suspense and mirth with equal effectiveness. You may not need our love, but you certainly have it ! Six: The Musical is playing at The Saenger Theatre through April 19th. Click here for show information and ticketing  Movie review: The Drama (Kristoffer Borgli, 2026) Just to be clear, right off the bat: I really liked Kristoffer Borgli’s previous English-language movie (Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage), and I’ve enjoyed performances by Zendaya (Challengers, Dune) and Robert Pattinson (Good Time, The Lighthouse). I’ve also loved and rewatched various recent films in the ‘high-stress caper’ genre, such as Uncut Gems, and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (plus the aforementioned Good Time). I was, therefore, algorithmically inclined to like The Drama, with director, cast and genre all right up my alley. Perhaps this was the problem. The movie I watched right before The Drama was Die My Love (2025, Lynne Ramsay), yet another tense ride, as R-Patt and Jennifer Lawrence navigate rural isolation and marital discord to sometimes violent ends. It’s raw and visceral, and it stayed with me. I hate to say it, but personally, The Drama felt tame in comparison. It has some engaging framing devices: the meet-cute, with Zendaya’s Emma having deafness in one ear, and Charlie (Pattinson) being a bumbling academic, all good fun stuff. The inciting incident - a game of confession gone awry, alienating their best friends when a shocking revelation about Emma’s past is uncovered - makes for an interesting set-up, on a par with everyone dreaming about Nick Cage’s character in Dream Scenario. The pieces are all there. The ticking time bomb of the wedding, the fresh doubts that sow unease in the relationship, the increasingly desperate measures that our protagonists take to iron things out before the big day…it should have been a dramatic home run for me. But I just didn’t click with this film. I think part of it is that the lead characters - to me, at least - get less likeable as the plot progresses. They manipulate their best man and maid of honor (Mamoudou Athie and Alana Haim respectively, both doing solid jobs as support), lie to each other, and are generally unsympathetic. I tried to relate, to the circumstances of Emma’s former life, to the betrayal that Charlie must have been feeling, but I just couldn’t muster anything. I don’t feel like Borgli delved deep enough into what should be the abyssal ethical mire of Emma’s past. We kind of skip along the surface of it, with comedic (sometimes slapstick) reactions, from its introduction, to how it affects Charlie’s feelings (shown by his constant rewriting of his wedding speech). But it all felt a bit lighthearted, in the vain of Bridget Jones’ Diary or similar romcom fare. Our increasingly-unhinged couple don’t reveal any hidden depths as chaos ensues, and the characters felt one dimensional to me. There’s some rich, dark comedy in the positions that they put their friends in, and I loved Haim’s snark and Athie’s exasperation. I wish they’d both been on screen more, as Charlie and Emma continue apace with their self-absorbed wedding prep, becoming more judgmental and unforgiving as they careen towards the big day. To me, this felt like a Safdie Brothers-style romp, but designed by committee. The script hits a fair amount of the right notes, but it feels like it’s done so too knowingly. I felt this from the purposely-disorienting editing, to the now-well-used trope of a single-note score that is used like an aural second hand to create suspense. Maybe a rewatch that’s NOT after a more extreme version of the same general premise would mean I could enjoy it more, but for me - and again, I love the idea of this movie on paper - I would have been happy to see these two just walk away from each other long before the nuptials. (PO) The Drama is playing in movie theaters across the city Chef Andrew Fowles will join Chef Nina Compton to present a specially curated four-course menu at Compère Lapin, inspired by the culinary traditions of Jamaica. Guests are encouraged to come dressed in festive attire and enjoy an evening of Caribbean celebration featuring island flavors and ingredients. The evening celebrates the release of Fowles’ new book, My Jamaican Table, with a festive, Caribbean-inspired culinary experience. Tickets are $125 per person and include the four-course dinner, a welcome cocktail, and a signed copy of My Jamaican Table. An optional beverage pairing is available for $35 per person. The menu is as follows:
For the table: House Baked Coco Bread, Jerk-honey butter 1st Course: Curried Goat Patties, Pineapple hot peppa sauce, cilantro crema 2nd Course: Snapper & Tuna Crudo, Passionfruit, coconut, scotch bonnet, plantain chips Main: Oxtail & Dumplings, Oxtail Ragu | Ricotta gnocchi | butter beans Dessert Course: Sweet Potato Sticky Toffee Pudding, Toasted coconut ice cream, salted-rum caramel The dinner takes place on Wednesday, April 1st, at 7PM. Compère Lapin is located at The Old No. 77 Hotel, 535 Tchoupitoulas Street, in New Orleans. Seating is limited and requires advance reservations. For more information, please visit www.comperelapin.com and to make a reservation, visit OpenTable.  The cast of The Great Gatsby @ The Saenger Theatre (Photo: TEG FOLKS) First Night Review: The Great Gatsby @ The Saenger Theatre Review by Dorian Hatchett “I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy." - Jordan Baker The Great Gatsby invites the audience to partake of this jazz age spectacle, where New York’s rich and nouveau-riche have entered a competition with deadly stakes. The only winner in this game is truth, which succeeds heartily in shining a bright green light on the hollow reality of wealth and societal convention. Based on the classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and featuring quotes directly from the book, this musical adaptation captures the wonder and debauchery of the post-World War 1 era in glittering lights and flawless scenery. Joshua Grosso as Nick Carraway is our guide, fumbling through a complex social hierarchy with as much grace as his midwestern roots can muster. His return to society after the great war is fraught; his shock at the decadence of Long Island isn’t naivety, but the realization that there are people living in an entirely different world than the war-torn one he has experienced. Grosso’s Nick is earnest and disappointed, but not totally surprised at the lengths to which his associates will go to maintain their place in the world. Fans of the novel will be blown away by the scenery. Framing the whirlwind rekindled love affair of Jay Gatsby (Jake David Smith) and Daisy Buchanan (Senzel Ahmady) is an exquisite, technically marvelous set. Moving, shifting backdrops provide a seamless sense of time and place, with constant respectful callbacks to the source material. There is perfect choreography: the ensemble cast are skilled dancers and narcissistic booze hounds. Part comic relief and part somber gut-check at the ephemeral nature of the joys of excess, they are a Greek chorus of honesty and naked ambition. Likewise, the costumes (which won a Tony Award in 2024 for costume design) are a storytelling arc all their own. There is a sense of the infinite in the reflection of stage lights on pave rhinestones. Daisy and Jordan (Leanne Robinson) are two sides of the same coin; women trapped in a patriarchal mire where every choice comes with consequences. Their costume changes set a tone for each scene, adding in a layer of visual symbolism that Fitzgerald himself would have been proud of. See a world where everything is beautiful, and where, “Anything can happen, now that we’ve slid over this bridge.” - The Great Gatsby: A New Musical plays at the Saenger Theatre March 24-29. Click here for more information and ticketing - More New Orleans theater reviews  The cast of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' at Big Couch, New Orleans. (Photo courtesy of The Irene Collective) First Night Review: A Streetcar Named Desire @ Big Couch Review by Todd Perley Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece is certainly a product of its post-war time, but it remains a relatable marvel. I just cannot get enough of this play, and as such was beyond excited when the Irene Collective announced its performance of this keystone of American theater at Big Couch. Although Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden may have immortalized the roles in the 1950 film adaptation, our four leads wisely avoid attempts at gimmicky impersonations. Justin Davis’s 'Mitch' is entirely his own, more boyishly playful than Malden. Lauren Guglielmello’s 'Stella' seems to have more agency in her life than Hunter’s film version. She comes across as wiser and more assertive than any Stella I’ve seen before. Patrick Nicks’ 'Stanley' is both charismatic and frightening. His unpredictable behavior makes him feral, charming, and dangerous; a wildcat that you’ve gotta keep your eye on to survive an imminent attack. His animal cries for “STELLA!!!!” can likely be heard from the street, alerting all passersby as to what play is being performed inside. And then there’s Blanche, played by co-director Jaclyn Bethany. Ohhhh, poor, tragic Blanche. Bethany’s entrance immediately puts us on edge. She’s overwrought and desperate from the top, ready to crack at any moment. Based loosely on Williams’ own well-loved but troubled sister, the role of Blanche is one of the most layered and complex of any female lead from the 20th century. Her fragility is offset by her many strengths, and it is through knowing her strengths that her ultimate destruction brings such a tidal wave of pathos to the text. Bethany seamlessly brings these opposing sides to life, often simultaneously in a single scene. As things start to heat up and fall apart in Act II, we’re right there with her on this doomed roller coaster ride. Let’s talk about the venue. Big Couch (conveniently located on Desire - is that meta?) is one of my favorite places to see a play because of its intimate size. When the seats are limited to around 40, we are in that run-down French Quarter apartment with these people. I was seated about five feet from the kitchen table. Stanley’s menacing moments are more terrifying, because we might get swatted too. The closeness of the action allows the actors quiet moments of near-whispering, a mode of delivery not possible in larger arenas. When Blanche confesses, “I’ve had many intimacies with strangers,” she might be talking about the audience seated intimately around the players. It is this immersive proximity that makes seeing a play at Big Couch a unique experience. (Last year I saw Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in this venue, and I’d never been more frightened of Martha than in that performance, since she could have slapped me at any moment...and I wouldn’t put it past her!) It’s a rare treat to see a beloved play in such a setting, and it changes the effect of the performance. I’ve known Blanche well for decades, this being one of my favorite plays, but this is the first time seeing her that brought tears to my eyes throughout the dénouement. I was just as crushed and destroyed as she was, a mere arm’s length away. I left the theater shaken and speechless. I recommend you grab tickets ASAP, due to the limited seating. The whole cast, and the unique setting, may redefine your understanding of the material, so jump on that rattletrap streetcar through the Quarter and into the Bywater now. You can rely on the kindness of these strangers. - A Streetcar Named Desire runs at Big Couch through April 3rd. Click here for more information and ticketing. - More New Orleans theatre news and reviews  After a two-year relocation due to storm damage and renovations, the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM) has returned to its home at 406 Charles Street in downtown Donaldsonville, in time for its 32nd anniversary celebration. The museum hosted a rededication ceremony on March 13th, 2026.
The RRAAM is dedicated to preserving and sharing the history, culture, and contributions of African Americans in rural South Louisiana, and is around an hour's drive from downtown New Orleans. Click here for more information about the museum's history and mission. Safta's Table, the newest restaurant from Emily and Alon Shaya's Pomegranate Hospitality, is officially open in Lakeshore. The neighborhood Mediterranean all-day café replaicates the hummus, wood-fired sourdough pita, and salatim from Saba on a daily basis. Counter service, a casual and family-friendly atmosphere, grab-and-go offerings, and designer-curated interiors await guests, and the cafe is open for breakfast, lunch, brunch, and dinner. Full review to follow soon. For more information and menus, click here
Join Crescent City Stage on Thursday, April 2 for Bard at the Batture: Spring Awakening — our reimagined take on Shakespeare in the Park, set along the Mississippi River. As the sun sets, enjoy a curated evening of Shakespeare's most beloved monologues and scenes celebrating love, wit, and renewal. You might hear a sonnet, a bit of Romeo & Juliet, or other familiar favorites — all performed in a family-friendly outdoor setting. Seating options include communal picnic tables and individual Adirondack chairs, with open seating and a guaranteed spot based on your ticket selection.
• Children under 4: Free (lap seating only) • Youth ages 4–16: $20/$25 • Ages 16 and up: $35/$40 For more information and ticketing, click here |
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