6 THENEWYORKER,OCTOBER3, 2022
ILLUSTRATION BY K. L. RICKS
We just can’t quit the Youngers. Since its groundbreaking Broadway pre-
mière, in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” has returned in
starry revivals and high-school syllabi, revered and reframed (as in Bruce
Norris’s 2010 spinoff, “Clybourne Park”) and reckoned with across the
decades. But the story of the Youngers—a Black working-class family
on Chicago’s South Side wrestling with aspiration after receiving their
patriarch’s life-insurance payout—never seems to resolve. Even Hans-
berry, the first Black female playwright to be produced on Broadway,
felt that the warm response to the play’s première overlooked her radical
intentions. She might have found a kindred spirit in Robert O’Hara, the
bold writer-director who staged Jeremy O. Harris’s “Slave Play” and wrote
such boundary-pushing works as “Bootycandy” and “Barbecue.” O’Hara
directs a “Raisin” revival at the Public (beginning previews on Sept. 27),
led by Tonya Pinkins as the matriarch, Lena Younger.—Michael SchulmanOFFBROADWAY
nineteen-eighties, as do the Michael Jackson
moves of Ashley Marinelli’s choreography, the
cigarette haze of Jamie Roderick’s lighting,
and Walt Spangler’s wraparound set, which
extends into the audience with a few beanbag
seats. But, where suspense propelled the origi-
nal, here the mystery of the young Will Byers’s
disappearance, his friends’ quest to find him,
and the shadow world they discover are al-
ready familiar to anyone who’s seen the TV
show’s first season. What makes Hogue’s satire
more than a fire hose of jokes and cultural
references is its reclaiming of the “frumpy best
friend” role, hammed to perfection by SLee,
as the dutiful turned divalicious Barb.—Dan
Stahl (Playhouse 46 at St. Luke’s; through Jan. 1.)nering of fashion and ballet has produced a
steady stream of high-quality dance is per-
haps an unfair question. This year, the young
choreographer Gianna Reisen has been paired
up with the Spanish neo-Baroque designer
Alejandro Gómez Palomo. Kyle Abraham is
working again with Giles Deacon, with whom
he created his stylish and sharp-edged ballet
“The Runaway,” in 2018. Further enhancing
the company’s pop-culture credentials, Rei-
sen’s new ballet is set to a score by the singer
and multi-hyphenate artist Solange Knowles,
performed by a hybrid ensemble that includes
members of City Ballet’s orchestra and two of
Solange’s own musical collaborators.—Marina
Harss (DavidH. Koch; through Oct. 16.)Fall for Dance
The most promising program of City Center’s
bargain sampler comes second to last (Sept.
29-30). It combines the topical interest of a
visit from the displaced Kyiv City Ballet, on
its first United States tour, with the athletic
invention of an Abby Zbikowski workout,
performed by the Dayton Contemporary
Dance Company, and the reliable charm of
the ballet stars Sara Mearns and Robert Fair-
child, who channel Joni Mitchell in Chris-
topher Wheeldon’s “The Two of Us.” The
final program (Oct. 1-2) starts strong, with a
collaboration between the Chitrasena Dance
Company, from Sri Lanka, and the superla-
tive Odissi exemplars of Nrityagram Dance
Ensemble, and finishes flashily, with the
Martha Graham troupe performing Hofesh
Shechter’s idea of a rave.—Brian Seibert (New
York City Center; through Oct. 2.)Noche Flamenca
The dancer Soledad Barrio—who, with her
husband, Martín Santangelo, has directed
this flamenco ensemble for the past three
decades—is a local treasure known for her
searing solos, the highlight of every show. But,
through the years, Barrio and Santangelo have
opened up their stage to new talents and more
ensemble work. Noche Flamenca now includes
a second female dancer (Marina Elana) and
two men (Pablo Fraile and Antonio Granjero).
With “Ni Bien ni Mal, Todo lo Contrario”
(“Neither Good nor Ill, Just the Opposite”),
the company returns to live performance after
a two-year hiatus. The evening is made up of
solos, duets, and ensembles, accompanied by
palmas (handclapping), guitarists, and the
singing of three cantaores (flamenco vocal-
ists). Some material is from a work in prog-
ress inspired by the uncompromising style
of the eighteenth-century painter Francisco
Goya.—M.H. (Joyce Theatre; Sept. 27-Oct. 2.)Seán Curran Company and
Darrah Carr Dance
Like many Irish Americans, Seán Curran
and Darrah Carr entered Irish step dance
as children, connecting to tradition through
rhythm and costume. As adults, both have
explored ways of being contemporary—he
more broadly, as a standout member of the
BillT. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company
and as the wide-ranging choreographer
of his own troupe, she by creating a more
overt hybrid of traditional Irish and mod-
ern dance. They merge companies and ap-sprouting with vegetal life, sits in a chair
onstage), the real Torn and Page never stray
far from our minds. Fauna’s daughter (Laura
Butler Rivera) has inherited her mother’s
sensitivity—the show’s finest moment comes
when she recites a Rilke passage—and Fau-
na’s son (Richard Jessie Johnson) has her
intensity. Once the play begins to contem-
plate the interlopers’ own romantic tribula-
tions, though, we lose the show’s provocative
sweetness and its interest in the way that
homage dilutes the artistic impulse. April
Sweeney directs a text that she co-translated
with Brenda Werth, but her touch is defter
with language than it is in the room, where
the romantic quadrangle assumes too many
awkward shapes.—Helen Shaw (Torn Page;
through Oct. 1.)
Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical
The period detail that’s lavished on this
spoof’s source material, the Netflix sci-fi se-
ries “Stranger Things,” gets gleefully trans-
ferred to the stage under the sure-handed
supervision of the director Nick Flatto. Jon-
athan Hogue wrote the book and a synth-
and-electric-guitar-laden score that shrieks
1
DANCE
New York City Ballet
This year brings the tenth edition of N.Y.C.B.’s
Fall Fashion Gala, an idea thought up by Sarah
Jessica Parker, who sits on the company’s
board. By all reports, the yearly event has
been a financial success; whether the part-