Mark Dundas Wood

Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing for BistroAwards.com in 2011. Currently, he writes the "Bistro Bits" column for the site. Other reviews and articles have appeared at theaterscene.net and talkinbroadway.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.

Bill Dyszel

Mark Dundas Wood
For his new Don't Tell Mama show, "The Internet Ate My Brain," Bill Dyszel seems to have taken to heart the familiar creative-writing-course aphorism "Write what you know." According to bio notes, communications technology has been a big part of Dyszel's career. He is the author of 21 books, including many editions of Microsoft Outlook...

Lennie Watts

Mark Dundas Wood
It's been suggested that one of the more important things an actor can do to maintain a professional career is to have a sense of his or her "type." If that sounds limiting and horribly commercial-minded, so it may be. But if you're serious about actually working as an actor, then accepting with grace the...

Carol Lipnik

Mark Dundas Wood
When I was describing singer Carol Lipnik to a friend, he asked me whether she sang any "standards." It took me a moment, but I recalled one number from her current show at Pangea that sort of qualified: her rendition of Hank Ballard's "The Twist." Lipnik describes the song as a "mad-opera alien-clown invasion." Her cover...

Heather Villaescusa

Mark Dundas Wood
After a decade's absence, Heather Villaescusa returns to the New York cabaret scene with "What I Did for Love" at Don't Tell Mama. The show—no big surprise—focuses on matters of the heart. (Isn't a cabaret performance that doesn't deal with love-related themes something of a rare bird—perhaps even a dodo or passenger pigeon?) Villaescusa wisely...

Eddie Sarfaty

Mark Dundas Wood
Eddie Sarfaty is an emphatically Jewish, comic, one whose cultural identity stays front and center throughout his set. His show "Playing in Traffic" (at the Metropolitan Room) features jokes about having been a depressed kid, about harboring envy of Gentiles (whose holidays were so much more festive and fun than the ones he celebrated), and,...

Rita Rudner

Mark Dundas Wood
A very persistent shoosh-ing could be heard throughout an extended portion of Rita Rudner's final performance at her recent 54 Below engagement. It was unclear who, exactly, this self-appointed guardian of silence was trying to police—but the shoosh-er was certainly far more audible than the shoosh-ee. For a while, Rudner ignored the strange commotion. But finally,...

Karen Oberlin

Mark Dundas Wood
Karen Oberlin comes on stage for "His Aim Is True: The Singular Songs of Elvis Costello" at Stage 72 wearing what looks to be an elaborate choir robe, fit for an early-20th-Century celebrity evangelist. But there's one difference: her outfit is not a creamy, calla-lily white but a flat black. She's Aimee Semple McPherson taking on...

Marlene VerPlanck

Mark Dundas Wood
In a one-nighter at Jazz at Kitano recently, Marlene VerPlanck reminded audiences of why she's so greatly respected as a musician. Her singing has a kind of matter-of-factness, and yet it seems to befit a special occasion. There's an effervescent quality in her timbre that evokes the feeling one may get upon hearing sleigh bells...

Charles Busch

Mark Dundas Wood
Charles Busch's current show at 54 Below is called "That Girl/That Boy"—a title that points to something essential about his longtime approach to drag performance. Unlike some drag guys, Busch has retained his male identity when it comes to billing. Had he chosen, he could easily have come up with some outrageous, giggle-inspiring female nom de...

Lauren Fox

Mark Dundas Wood
With her recent Metropolitan Room show, "Groupies—The Muses Behind the Legends of Rock & Roll," Lauren Fox brought her considerable theatrical mystique and dramaturgical smarts to a show about the sometimes indomitable and sometimes pitiable young consorts of 1960s and 1970s rock musicians. Two of the muses whom Fox showcased—Marianne Faithfull and Stevie Nicks—became household names...