Subject: Off-Broadway Offerings 
Date: Published: 3/13/92 (36 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    LEISURE & ARTS:
    Off-Broadway Offerings
    ----
    By Melanie Kirkpatrick

    New York -- Hal Prince, that prince of Broadway directors,
 is currently represented by two musicals in Manhattan:  One is
 "The Phantom of the Opera," an entertaining bit of falderal
 that reminds audiences that the Broadway musical is a phantom
 of its former self.  The other, newly opened, is "Grandchild
 of Kings," which indicates, alas, that Mr. Prince's
 considerable powers are a phantom of their former self.
    ---

[60 lines irrelevant to AIDS removed.  -- sysop]

    The same cannot be said of another family drama, "Before
 It Hits Home," Cheryl West's story of a middle-class black
 family coming to terms with AIDS.  Subtlety is not her strong
 suit, and the play is heavily overwritten, especially the
 fiery scenes after the bisexual son tells his family he has
 AIDS.  Given the inherent power of the material, this is a
 pity.  It is a further pity since these scenes, which fall in
 Act II, follow a more interesting first act, which traces the
 decision of the son, a gadabout saxophonist, to go home to
 die.  James McDaniel plays the son with a poignant mixture of
 bravado and despair.  "Before It Hits Home" is a production of
 the Second Stage Theatre at the Public Theatre.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the
 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
 from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]