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.
Zoë Roberts, Jak Malone, Natasha Hodgson, David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall (Photo: Julieta Cervantes) Operation Mincemeat By Fern Siegel The Greeks used a Trojan Horse to deceive their enemies. The British used a Trojan Corpse to fool the Nazis in WWII. The plot, dubbed “Operation Mincemeat,” was so successful, it played a key role in the…
Cult of Love ensemble (Photo: Joan Marcus) Cult of Love By Fern Siegel Cult of Love is appropriately named. The cult is religion — and “love” translates as control. The searing holiday family dramedy, now on Broadway at the Hayes Theater, begins with a loud, overly long Christmas carol. But the gaiety feels forced; the…
Katie Brayben, Christian Borle (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Tammy Faye By Fern Siegel For anyone familiar with the evangelical scandals of the 1980s, Tammy and Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart are familiar names. The latter two preached fire and brimstone — and their demonizing of liberals and feminists was their calling card. Hell hath…
Peter Gallagher, Julianna Margulies. (Photo: Joan Marcus) Left on Tenth By Fern Siegel Memoirs can be self-serving or enlightening. If the author is funny, rueful and aware of personal ironies, they can be both. That’s the case with Delia Ephron (“You’ve Got Mail”), the Hollywood screenwriter/novelist who penned a best-selling 2022 memoir. She addressed her…
(Photo: Marc Brenner) Sunset Blvd. By Fern Siegel For fans of Billy Wilder’s masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, the Broadway incarnation may be jolting. It’s not Wilder’s vision, but director Jamie Lloyd’s Sunset Blvd., reimagined for the stage. While the piece is based on the 1950 movie — and retains some of its powerful lines — this…
Eddie Redmayne and the Ensemble. (Photo: Marc Brenner) Cabaret By Fern Siegel Cabaret has seen several revivals since its Broadway debut in 1966. The Kander-Ebb musical, set in early 1930s Weimar Berlin, was based on “I Am A Camera,” the 1951 play by John Van Druten, which in turn, was based on Christopher Isherwood’s 1939…