News & Reviews
-
Playbill: Jesse Eisenberg-Helmed Sweet Tart With Ralph Macchio, Carol Kane-Led Sh*t Kickers, More Set for 2026 Chain Winter Festival
January 16, 2026
The one-act festival will feature plays with stage and screen veterans and promising newcomers.
-
Nerdist: Humpty Dumpty 5 STARS
Apr 14, 2025
Eric Bogosian’s HUMPTY DUMPTY Is a Prescient Play That Offers Catharsis to Its Audience
-
CNET: This Robot Dog is Making Its Off-Broadway Theater Debut
Apr 14, 2025
We visit the Chain Theater in New York for an exclusive look at Unitree's Go2 quadruped robot treading the boards.
-
PLAYBILL: John Patrick Shanley's Banshee to Make New York Premiere at Chain Summer Festival
Jul 19, 2024
John Patrick Shanley's Banshee to Make New York Premiere at Chain Summer Festival. The festival will feature over 50 new plays.
-
BROADWAYWORLD: Jesse Eisenberg Will Make Stage Directing Debut at Chain Winter One-Act Festival The festival will run February 8th - March 3rd, 2024
January 9, 2024
Academy Award nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) will make his stage-directorial debut with DILL, as part of the 2024 edition of the CHAIN WINTER ONE-ACT FESTIVAL.
-
Medium: Ella Jane New of Chain Theatre: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker
Apr 13, 2023
Check out this exclusive interview with Chain Theatre's Director Ella Jane New!
-
FORBES: She Brings Some Of The Mightiest Talents To This Theater Company’s Stages
Apr 12, 2023
Director of Development Christina Perry sits down with Forbes magazine.
“My dream is that when our name is said you think about the last great show you saw. And it was here.” Jeryl Brunner talks with Christina Perry about theatre, dreams, and the long game.
-
theatrely: Marie Dinolan STANDOUT STAR - Theatrely Best of 2022
December 13, 2022
Marie Dinolan’s phenomenal performance in Chain Theatre’s World Premiere macbitches was just recognized as a STANDOUT STAR of Theatrely’s BEST OF 2022. Congratulations Marie!
-
Broadwayworld: Announcing Chain Theatre Expansion
May 10, 2022
The new 99-seat theatre is ADA accessible, includes two separate dressing rooms, a private restroom backstage for talent, large playing space, and more!
-
PIX11: The 2022 Chain Winter One Act Festival
Feb 11, 2022
Throughout the month of February, more than 100 artists are participating in the Chain Theatre’s Winter One Act Festival, which features 25 different productions.
-
Broadwayworld: Chain Theatre Announces ONE ACT FESTIVAL
Sep 13, 2021
All productions are carefully curated and designed to create a 90-minute 'mix-tape' of LIVE THEATRE.
-
Broadwayworld Photo Flash: Chasing the River
Jan 10, 2020
Chain Theatre presents world premiere production of Jean Dobie Giebel's CHASING THE RIVER, directed by Ella Jane New.
-
Broadwayworld: Chasing the River
December 14, 2019
CHAIN THEATRE is pleased to announce the world premiere production of Jean Dobie Giebel's CHASING THE RIVER, directed by Ella Jane New.
-
Broadwayworld Photo Flash: David Rabe and Company in Rehearsals for IN THE BOOM BOOM ROOM Off-Broadway
April 12, 2017
Playwright David Rabe has been attending rehearsals for the first major NYC revival of his In the Boom Boom Room, beginning performances April 21st.
-
Playbill: David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room to Return with Original Actor
-
NYIT Awards: "Wait Until Dark" Nominated for 5 Awards
-
Broadwayworld: VTG Presents Wait Until Dark
September 30, 2015
Following the success of critically acclaimed productions of THE PILLOWMAN, NYIT Outstanding Revival Nominee 2015 TALK RADIO, and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST; Variations Theatre Group will present a newly adapted version of the classic thriller, WAIT UNTIL DARK, never before seen within the five boroughs of New York City, opening on October 30, 2015
-
nyitawards: "The Pillowman" Nominated for 2 Awards
-
Playbill: David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room to Return with Original Actor
March 25, 2017
David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room, which played on Broadway in 1973, will receive a rare New York revival this spring from the Chain Theatre. Pete Mattaliano, who performed in the original staging at Villanova University, is set to be part of the upcoming production.
-
qchron: A story we’ve loved since the day it was born
December 12, 2016
For Greg Cicchino, like so many others, the film version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a childhood staple, and he estimates that by now, at the age of 33, he has seen the perennial holiday fantasy favorite somewhere around 50 times.
-
NY1: Curtain Closes On A Theatre In LIC But Owners Vow An Encore
January 7, 2016
The curtain closes on a community theatre in Long Island City, but the owners are not taking their final bow just yet.
-
Timesledger: Don’t wait to see ‘Wait Until Dark’ at Chain Theatre
November 5, 2015
During the final moments of Variations Theatre Group’s production of “Wait Until Dark,” two actors perform their scene in complete blackness.
-
“Wait Until Dark” at LIC’s Chain Theatre
October 30, 2025
The chilling mystery thriller “Wait Until Dark” is successfully terrifying audiences at the Chain Theatre in Long Island City for a limited run.
-
Timesledger: Variations Theatre opts for something in black
September 13, 2015
-
Broadwayworld Reviews: ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST Soars to Complex Heights
April 17, 2015
"A mordant, wickedly subversive parable, set in a mental ward, the play chronicles the head-on collision between its hell-raising, life affirming hero R.P. McMurphy and the totalitarian rule of Nurse Ratched. But McMurphy's revolution against Nurse Ratched and everything she stands for quickly turns from sport to a fierce power struggle with shattering results."
-
Timesledger: You’re not crazy, Variations Theatre group delivers a knock-out ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’
April 16, 2015
-
qchron: To Honor Sci-Fi, Theater Takes A Unique Look Back
February 19, 2015
-
timesledger: Queens Theater Companies Come Baring Gifts This Holiday Season
December 4, 2014
-
Broadwayworld: Barbara Rosenblat to Perform THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE at Chain Theatre
December 3, 2014
The brilliant actress BARBARA ROSENBLAT (Miss Rosa in Orange Is the New Black) stars in the poignant, sharp, and laugh-out-loud funny play by Jane Wagner, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE. This one-night-only staged reading will be held on Saturday, December 13th at 8pm, to benefit the Chain Theatre.
-
Orange Is the New Black’s Barbara Rosenblat visits Talk Radio Off Broadway
September 24, 2014
"Barbara Rosenblat, who plays the cancer-stricken inmate Miss Rosa on "Orange is the New Black," recently checked out the new revival of Eric Bogosian's TALK RADIO at the Chain Theatre. Barbara appeared in the 2007 Broadway production of TALK RADIO starring Live Schreiber, and she was also in the original cast of The Secret Garden as the housekeeper Mrs. Medlock."
-
qchron: Bringing ‘Talk Radio’ to the stage once again
September 18, 2014
Eric Bogosian’s “Talk Radio,” a Pulitzer Prize finalist when it had its off-Broadway premiere in 1987, made it to Broadway some 20 years later in a well-received production that starred Liev Schreiber. It is now being given a rare local performance by the Variations Theatre Group at The Chain Theatre in Long Island City.
-
thepublicreviews: Talk Radio – The Chain Theatre, Queens – New York
September 17, 2014
-
Why Leave Astoria: Variations Theatre Group's TALK RADIO at The Chain Theatre, Long Island City
September 17, 2014
-
Broadwayworld Photoflash: Talk Radio
September 15, 2014
Variations Theatre Group is currently presenting Eric Bogosian's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play TALK RADIO. Opening Night is tomorrow, September 16th at the Chain Theatre. Inspired by the 1984 murder of controversial shock jock Alan Berg, TALK RADIO is set in a Cleveland radio station over the course of Barry Champlain's two-hour broadcast as he's being scrutinized that night by producers fixated on taking the show national, and fueled as always by coffee, cocaine and Jack Daniel's.
-
theatre scene: Boogie Stomp!
May 8, 2014
Two brilliant, devoted musicians playing the music they love—what could be better?
-
broadway.com: Hurlyburly’s Kirk Gostkowski on Sex, Drugs, and A Great American Play
February 24, 2014
Kirk Gostkowski discusses Hurlyburly’s use of drugs and '80s TV culture to tell the story of people just trying to get closer to one another.
-
Theater is Easy: Some Girl(s)
May 6, 2013
-
A Seat on the Aisle: Off Off Broadway - Some Girl(s)
May 5, 2013
Variations Theatre Group (VTG) is closing out its fourth season with a bang – a wonderful revival of Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s) at the Chain Theatre in Long Island City.
-
Works by Woman: Lauren Roth
April 9, 2013
If you were lucky enough to catch Lauren Roth‘s scene-stealing performance in Billie Carver and the Children in Mind, you know what a riot she is. Later this week, she portrays multiple characters in the latest play by award-winning playwright Timothy Nolan.
-
indietheaternow Meet the Playwright: Timothy Nolan
April 6, 2013
Timothy Nolan has been part of the NYC indie theater scene for two decades. His newest play, What's In a Name, opens at the Chain Theater in Long Island City on April 12, 2013. In this interview with ITN editor Martin Denton, Tim talks candidly about his career, the indie theater scene, and his new show.
-
nytheatre: Venus & Mona
March 13, 2013
-
Artist without Walls: “Spotlight On” Maria Deasy, Star of "What’s In A Name"
March 11, 2013
Maria is an actress, singer, sometimes a writer, and always a lady. She’s performed Off-Broadway, on TV, and in award-winning independent film shorts around the world.
-
A Seat on the Aisle: Off Off Broadway - After the Fall
January 27, 2013
And so it was with some reluctance that I determined to make the trek from my home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to the Chain Theatre in Long Island City, the new home of the Variations Theatre Group (VTG), to attend a performance of their latest production, Arthur Miller’s After the Fall.
I’m glad I did.
-
scribicide: Jedem das Seine
January 24, 2013
-
Daily Actor: ‘After the Fall’ at The Chain Theatre
January 19, 2013
-
Times Ledger: Group Raises the Curtain on LIC Musical Theatre
January 13, 2013
A lot is happening in Long Island City. Once a mostly industrial enclave in far west Queens, it’s now in the midst of gentrifying with the rise of several new residential buildings, and its main thoroughfares of Vernon Blvd., Jackson Ave. and Borden Ave. are sprucing up with amenities for the new inhabitants.
-
NYtheatre: Fool for Love
February 25, 2011
-
Theatre is Easy: "The Shape of Things"
August 2, 2010
-
sundance.tv: The Shape of Things
May 7, 2010
-
Arts International Review: "The Shape of Things"
May 5, 2010
The theater space in itself is a little Intimate gem and the production of THE SHAPE OF THINGS was wonderful. The play is very well directed by Rich Ferraioli.