Writer
Fern Siegel is a journalist who has written for MediaPost, Huffington Post, The New York Times and BBC Radio. She believes Sondheim and Gershwin make America great.
Aisha Jackson, Morgan Whitley, Briga Heelan, Ashley Chiu, Gabrielle Beckford and Lauren Zakrin (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Once Upon A One More Time By Fern Siegel Betty Friedan is having a moment. And it’s on Broadway. Her book The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, bravely challenged patriarchal orthodoxies about women, which deemed marriage, children…
(L-R) Laura Linney, Jessica Hecht (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) Summer, 1976 By Fern Siegel Even short-lived friendships can stay with us for a lifetime. That’s the premise behind Summer, 1976, now at the Samuel Friedman Theater. It stars two veteran stage actors — Tony-nominated Jessica Hecht and Laura Linney — at the top of…
Ben Rappaport, Sean Hayes (Photo: Joan Marcus) Goodnight, Oscar By Fern Siegel Oscar Levant is not a name well known today — but from the 1930s to the 1960s, his caustic wit and piano virtuosity were legendary. “There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased that line,” he quipped….
Ellie Morris, Jonathan Sayer, Charlie Russell,Henry Shields, Henry Lewis and Matthew Cavendish (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) Peter Pan Goes Wrong By Fern Siegel “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” The quote is courtesy of character actor Edmund Gwenn on his deathbed. But Peter Pan Goes Wrong, now on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, makes comedy…
Andrianna Hicks, (center, l) J. Harrison Ghee (center, right) (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Some Like It Hot By Fern Siegel The Billy Wilder’s 1959 movie classic “Some Like It Hot” remains the top comedy on the American Film Institute’s list. And for some cinema purists, turning it into a musical comedy on Broadway…
Eric Yang and Amy Kim Waschke. (Photo: Ahron R. Foster) The Far Country By Fern Siegel Immigration is a hot topic of debate. But the searing human cost is often lost in weaponizing it. Lloyd Suh’s The Far Country, now at the Atlantic Theater Company, reveals a tragic period in American history, the…
Victoria Clark plays the lead in the off-beat musical. (Joan Marcus) Kimberly Akimbo By Fern Siegel Sometimes the youngest person in the room is the wisest even if she is 16 and looks like a 72-year-old. That s the premise behind the Broadway musical Kimberly Akimbo, starring Victoria Clark as the smart, dry-humored New…
(l-r) A.J. Shively and Jim Parsons (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) A Man of No Importance By Fern Siegel “You love who you love,” Alfie Byrne, a middle-aged bus conductor in 1963 Dublin explains to a friend. Alfie is making a philosophical statement, but quietly underscores the “love that dare not speak its name.” Yet in his…
The Roundabout Theatre Company’s 1776 cast. (Photo: Joan Marcus) 1776 By Fern Siegel The Broadway musical 1776, which chronicles the founding of the United States, opens with 10 pairs of shoes on an empty stage. And as the cast enters – female, nonbinary and trans – they step into history. When it first debuted in…
Nicholas Barasch (center). (Carol Rosegg) Francie Brady is an energetic, but ballistic teenager with a seemingly cheeky disposition. But behind the red hair and sparkling eyes lurks a troubled boy who claims: “They were all after me on account of what I done on Mrs. Nugent.” The Butcher Boy, a musical now at the Irish…