Off-Broadway Musicals Archives

  • Sweet Charity

    Emily Padgett, Sutton Foster, Asmeret Ghebremichael                                     PHOTO CREDIT: Monique Carboni                                                 by Marc Miller One can revel in the sturdy construction of this fine example of late-golden-era musical making, which continued Gwen Verdon’s unbroken string of hits. Masterminded by her then-husband, Bob Fosse, it adapted—and, many argued at the time, took some of the…

  • Finian’s Rainbow

    Ken Jennings and Melissa Errico             photos by Carol Rosegg                                                                by Eugene Paul Just say Finian’s Rainbow and a glow begins to emit, surely a built in protection concocted by leprechauns, what with the biggest and best leprechaun ever to appear in any of the many reappearances of  Finian’s Rainbow making his appearance in…

  • Christmas Inn

    Kilty Reidy (as Bill Brewer) and Jayson Elliott (as Buddy Baker).                                          Photos by John Vecchiolla                                              By Ed Lieberman What do you get when you cross Holiday Inn and White Christmas? You get Christmas Inn, this year’s holiday offering at the Westchester Broadway Theatre.  The show, based upon a Richard Stafford revision of the…

  • Funny Face at The Lion Theatre

    Patrick Graver and Jessica Ernest;  photos by Michael Portantiere.                                    By Marc Miller If you know “Funny Face” at all, it’s probably from the classic 1957 film version, which shares with its 1927 stage counterpart 1) Fred Astaire, 2) a handful of George and Ira Gershwin standards, and 3) little else. For a look at…

  • The Folk Singer

    Andy Striph and Mary Adams                                                 Photos by Michael Blase                                     By Marc Miller  Folk music is not at the forefront of American popular culture these days. There was the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis a couple of years back, and Christopher Guest and the Second City bunch’s hilarious A Mighty Wind some years before…

  • Occupation Dragonslayer

    L to R: Theodore Errig, Ruby Spryte Balsamo, and Benjamin Errig                              by Nicholas Linnehan   Hope is a miracle. That line, uttered so sincerely, strikes us to the core. Isle of Shoals production of Occupation Dragonslayer  is a little confusing, but hits a chord when it needs too. Billed as a contemporary musical…

  • The Golden Bride

      by Eugene Paul One upon a time a long time ago in 1923 there were fourteen Yiddish musicals on Second Avenue all playing simultaneously to packed houses.  And among them, in the 2000 seat Second Avenue Theater was Di Goldene Kaleh which many of you would recognize as The Golden Bride because you can…

  • Million Dollar Quartet

    Dominique Scott as Jerry Lee Lewis, John Michael Presney as Carl Perkins, Ari Mckay Wilford as Elvis Presley, and Sky Seals as Johnny Cash                                                                        Photos by John Vecchiolla                            By Ed Lieberman Long before the dream team known as the Traveling Wilburys (George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynn), there…

  • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

    Santino Fontana and cast                                         by Deirdre Donovan If you are a chronic rooter for the underdog, then God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater will be right up your alley.  Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s 1979 musical version of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel resurfaces at New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center series–and it couldn’t be fresher. …