Since his youthful career heyday of the 1980’s with major roles on Broadway in Neil Simon plays and starring in the enduring cultural touchstone film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," Mr. Broderick has since continued on in such films as "Election" and the Broadway smash hit, "The Producers." Now 54, he is stockier, his hair is gray and his features are fuller but his charisma and commanding talent remains as does his inimitable grin and twinkling eyes. Considering his indelible past successes, this role is quite challenging and he is winningly up to it. Much of the part consists of relatively uninterrupted monologues that Broderick terrifically delivers that range from harrowing recollections to a visit to a brothel that is hilarious. His characterization of this drab, depressed and tormented man is very moving and is a joyous case of riveting star/character acting. [more]
There’s a cascade of military interrogations, implied torture, romantic interludes, sex talk, political sloganeering, vague reminiscences, and other semi-comprehensible digressions that fill the time and that by its conclusion don’t add up to much. Initially there is a modest sense of interest in attempting to discern the events and characters depicted, but that soon evaporates and is replaced by numbness. [more]
A chatty, openly gay bon vivant over the years, Andrew Martin had his feet in many waters; all of them related to show business. He was proud of his long-winded stories and exceptional knowledge of trivia about the famous and infamous. He had many followers on Facebook where he shared sometimes painful stories of his family and personal angst. He wrote openly about being troubled by strained relations within a divided family at times. [more]
The primary reason I wrote this book was for people to appreciate exactly what it is to be a producer. He or she has to be the captain of the ship in every respect – they start with the idea and then get the rights to a book. Then you have to find the writers, the composers, and the lyricists, and put them together and guide them, and then you have to raise the money, figure out where the show is going to be presented, do the marketing and advertising - - you have to really do it all. You need to have a producer who has the objectivity and the passion to see the show through from beginning to end. Someone has to make sure it all comes together and that’s the role of a producer. It becomes even more essential once a show opens – you have to continue with the marketing and advertising and work hard to keep it fresh. It’s a very complicated and difficult job and you need the knowledge and experience to have a chance at success -- especially if you want to do it on Broadway. [more]
In the program notes and in informal remarks to the audience, Ochsner encouraged the audience to listen to all the works as music inspired by nature; this theme proved to be a useful organizing device for the concert. It was both literal – stars, storms, forest transformations and water events – and allusive: the vocabulary of nature works as well for human psychology as for meteorology. The size and composition of the 36-member chamber orchestra made both intimacy and grandeur possible. [more]
This production combines the simplicity of the 1967 Off Broadway original version with the additions from the 1999 Broadway revival, using two of Mr. Lippa’s songs and much of Mr. Mayer’s additions. Most notable is replacing the character of Patty with Charlie Brown’s sister Sally. For this role, Kristin Chenoweth won that year’s Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. [more]
Such feast days deserve magnificent music; Bach and Handel created it. And the Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, the first rate period-instruments Concert Royal, and five marvelous soloists gave splendid performances of two Bach cantatas and a Handel psalm-setting that did both the feast days and the music proud. The first-rate concert was a particularly fine accomplishment for St. Thomas Church: rocked by the sudden death last summer of John Scott, choral director and organist, the school and the church had to both manage a top-knotch concert season without their director and perform the “director-less” concerts as suitable memorials to Scott. [more]
That’s the familiar set up of author Dan Moyer’s engaging contemporary romantic comedy of the two-character "Half Moon Bay." As Mr. Moyer’s lost souls get to know each other, personal secrets are revealed. These revelations are sometimes dark but never seem like gratuitous theatrical gimmicks. Just the believable problems that real people could have. Moyer’s excellent dialogue contains so many sharp and wise lines that precisely delineate the characters. A great asset is that they’re spoken by two gifted actors who effortlessly make it appear as though that the play was written just for them. [more]
Part of the 2016 Brits Off Broadway lineup at 59E59 Theaters, James Fritz’s "Ross & Rachel" provides a more emotional, poignant and truthful story than what is expected when thinking of our favorite “friends” and their intense relationship. Molly Vevers takes on the role of both partners in a relationship plagued by different viewpoints and dealing with life’s hardships as a couple. This very talented actress relies on wit, candidness and sentiment to tell her story and doesn’t hold back when giving audiences the complete picture – in both the joyful and difficult times. While most people go in thinking that the show is going to be a comedic portrayal of the couple we know and love from television, Ross & Rachel flips the script and leaves you pondering the true meaning of life and one’s identity while in the confines of a relationship. [more]
The book is an in-depth exploration of the lives, mentalities, and views of notable writers about theater criticism in the present. It’s really only for those readers fascinated by an insiders take on the subject. Finding out what makes New York Times critics Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood or many of the others tick can be less then riveting. It also serves as a vivid document of the changing terrain of media coverage of the arts by preserving the thoughts of these “dinosaurs,” as several of them refer to themselves. [more]
Above the stage on a screen throughout the presentation were projected photographs illustrating Rodgers’ career and appropriate backdrops for the locales of the shows. Brief insightful video interviews with Rodgers’ daughter Linda, lyricists Sheldon Harnick and Martin Charnin, playwright Sherman Yellen, historian Ken Bloom, Rodgers grandson Peter Melnick, record producer Thomas Z. Shepard, and the actor John Cullum were shown. A 1974 Public Television interview conducted by James Day showed the aged Rodgers ravaged by strokes and throat cancer but still vital and articulate. [more]
Playwright William Francis Hoffman offers a quirky, weirdly compelling if not totally satisfying take on contemporary American life. Mr. Hoffman’s dialogue is richly expressive bordering on poetic and enhances his true to life melancholic characters. The plot is slender and problematic. It has the sense of a symbolism-laden short story adapted for the stage rather then a developed play. [more]
Price, Bottoms, Richardson and Courville are all strong, clear singers; they were well matched in this performance, alert to each other's pacing and responsive to each other's sensibilities. Although any one of the four could have grabbed a center spotlight, they were unified – probably by a combination of their own individual understandings of Beethoven's purposes and by Shapiro's direction – in graceful collaborative cohesion in their singing. [more]
Wearing a black suit, white shirt and black tie, the mature Morton with his expressive face, smooth resonant voice and fluid physicality, vividly captures the essence of “The black Lenny Bruce” at various stages of his life. He forcefully addresses and engages the audience while at a microphone during his act, backstage, sitting near the front row of the stage or walking through the theater. It is one of those memorably electrifying performances to be treasured. [more]
"Tales Of Tinseltown" is a bouncy and affectionate pastiche of 1930’s Hollywood that was inspired by Kenneth Anger notorious exposé Hollywood Babylon. The plot is a zany spoof of behind the scenes of the movie business. [more]
As the actors interact with each other and work to share this story, the spirit and tenacity in which they do so is something remarkable. Their presence and focus in bringing a significant time in history to life leaves the audience with chills. While it is so important to pay attention to the subtitles in this production, as it signifies when time and seasons pass, it is hard to tear your eyes away from the living story taking place on stage. With a set design also by K.K. Wong that uses simple props to illustrate the basic lifestyle of the residents, audience members get a feel for the day-to-day life in this community. At times, it is challenging to keep up with processing the subtitles and watching the action on stage, and intense concentration is essential in understanding the continued series of events. [more]
Ms. Errico gives a smashing musical theater performance. Her gutsy broad that’s tough on the outside and unraveling on the inside characterization is quite captivating. Her singing of several of the wan attempts at showstoppers exhibits her charismatic range. It’s definitely a case of a performer elevating weak material with their talents. Her commitment is as intense here as if she were playing either Sally or Phyllis from Follies particularly for the boozy ode to self pity, “Everyone Loves Leona.” [more]
Cabaret has always been a mixed bag. The golden age is gone. However, in today's schizo world of nightclubs, things are looking pretty good. It is a milieu unique in the entertainment industry. And, it continues to reinvent itself. The late cabaret critic Martin Schaeffer wrote in Back Stage in 1993,“There cannot be a better night of classic American music than a Bobby Short gig at The Carlyle.” He was right; especially if you're a purist of the Great American Songbook. [more]
Many members of the American public and the journalism community continue to revere Edward R. Murrow as a paragon of integrity in the field of news reporting. Due to the skillfully writing of Joseph Vitale, Joseph Menino’s tremendous performance and its strong physical production, Murrow affirms his noble legacy. [more]
Playwright Rick Pulos has crafted a well researched and emotionally involving documentary drama that goes overboard with its multimedia elements. The writing is a combination of fine simplicity and the pseudo-poetic that achieves a tender sincerity. [more]
In the hands of less virtuosic musicians, Ligeti's material can spin out of control. Kigawa, Choi and Drehmann, however, from the very opening, invited the audience into an experience of listening based on complete trust. The work's elegant, almost wistful conclusion – a distillation of harmonic lines into quiet, unresolved ambiguities – was compelling. [more]
Before the fascinating biographical exploration "Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey" begins, the audience is able to walk around the stage and see up close the totemic objects used in the show.
Gorey’s fur coat, an old record player, an artist’s table, vintage luggage and trunks, shelves of books and records are among the items on display. The back wall of the stage is adorned with reproductions of manuscript pages of his writing and drawings and during the show home movies, animations, slides of his work, and images of his residence are projected. [more]
Director and choreographer Kristin Marting masterfully coordinates everything into a spectacle with sensational movement and dance. Robert Lyons who is credited with “Text by” has done a skillful, flavorful and faithful distillation. Ms. Marting and Mr. Lyons jointly conceived and adapted this production. It’s initially stimulating but the incessant franticness of their vision becomes distracting. [more]
Inspired by the musical Olivier! was "La Révolution Française" that was Mr. Boublil Mr. Schönberg’s first collaboration. Created in 1973, this was the first French rock opera and dealt with The French Revolution. The rousing “Parisians, Awake and Rise/ Français, Français” was performed by Ms. Glover, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Scatliffe and Essential Voices USA. The original French Cossette from "Les Misérables," Marie Zamora, was a marvelous Marie Antoinette for the wistful song “Au petit matin/In the early morning.” [more]
Jessica Lange and Gabriel Byrne joyously enter through a porch door after the sounds of the ocean have been heard. Their love and attraction for each other is palpable. Mr. Byrne embraces her and with his Irish accent says, “You’re a fine armful now, Mary, with those twenty pounds you’ve gained.” It is instantly clear that this revival of "Long Day’s Journey into Night" is going to be beautiful. [more]
The cheery Mr. Bowers also explains that in the mime tradition only mimes in whiteface are silent. He simply but breathtakingly mimes a multitude of actions, objects and situations that precisely conjure up the intended imagery. Written by Bowers, the show is comprised of a series of stories of varying length that perfectly transition from one to the other. [more]
The show’s creator and director Ramesh Meyyappan also plays a character named Nabokov. The Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov was a renowned butterfly enthusiast. Naomi Livingstone plays Butterfly, a kite maker who hunts, kills and mounts butterflies. She meets Nabokov and they fall in love. Chris Alexander plays a customer who visits Butterfly’s shop and falls in love with her. Their relationships are ultimately marred by violence and tragedy. [more]
Ms. Duffin portrays the heroine as well as a multitude of characters using a strong Irish accent, expert physical transformations and her strong presence. Barefoot, wearing plaid lounge pants and a blue T-shirt Duffin holds forth on the black walled stage that has a few slits of lights and a floor strewn with earth. Though she is commanding, the nature of the material ultimately renders her performance and the overall experience of the play as wearying. [more]
Blizzard doesn’t miss a beat as she keeps the whole room in stitches during the course of this 80 minute performance. Her wit, charm, and wisdom are comedic gold and make for a flawless piece of entertainment. Hidden underneath the humor is the important theme of togetherness and female solidarity as she emphasizes needing your girls to get through life, as they understand many of the emotions/dilemmas that men aren’t able to understand. It is empowering to hear her truth about not trying to be perfect and admitting that sometimes the “crazy” is proof that you are doing this whole thing (“adulthood” and “parent thing”) correctly. [more]
Playwright Henry Naylor achieved prominence in Great Britain as a television writer most notably for the satirical program "Spitting Image." This work is not groundbreaking but it does very effectively depict the two women and their plights with shrewdly imparted historical and cultural details that conjure up exotic imagery reminiscent of David Lean’s epic films. Humor and tragedy are seamlessly combined. There are topical references to Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, drone strikes and the British tabloids as well as 19th century specifics. [more]
Dynamic performer Migguel Anggelo exhilaratingly recalls the showmanship of Desi Arnaz and the performance art of Klaus Nomi in his terrific autobiographical cabaret act, "Another Son of Venezuela," that has the razzle dazzle of a Bob Fosse production. [more]
Since the 1670’s, the Choir has consisted of voices ranging from bass to treble, all students at St. John's College or the College School. There are currently six basses, five tenors, four counter-tenors and seventeen trebles; of the trebles – two or three of whom are no bigger than buttons – there currently appear to be thirteen families represented. In some senses, the trebles are the stars of the show: that such young boys should demonstrate such consistently high levels of both innate musicianship and disciplined formal training is remarkable. The sweetness of tone inherent to boys' soprano voices is not like anything else: its combined ethereality of the moment and promise of future sturdiness make it a perfect instrument for the invocation of angels, heavenly beauty and divine wisdom. [more]
