Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria, forefront (Tony Shalhoub) (photo credit Ahron Foster) by Deirdre Donovan Weary of the razzle-dazzle and special effects that go along with most Broadway musicals? Well, The Band’s Visit, which opened Off Broadway on December 8th at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Linda Gross Theater, might be the best antidote to that…
Simon Green and David Shrubsole on piano Photos by Heidi Bohnenkamp, 2016 by Eugene Paul With almost a Cowardian flair and an almost Cowardian performer as his star, pianist, composer, lyricist David Shrubsole has created an intimate pastiche for star Simon Green, its full title, Life is for Living: Conversations with Coward, giving…
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…
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…
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…
Autumn Hurlbert, Allison Guinn, Paige Faure, Janet Dacal by Julia Polinsky In A Taste of Things to Come, director and choreographer Lorin Latarro does a smashing job with a tight ensemble that works so well with each other, it’s easy to believe in these women and fall in love with their stories. Curtain up lands…
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…
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…
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…
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…