Joshua Balan and Ruthellen Cheney (Photo: Ted Alcorn) Twelfth Night By Fern Siegel To keep Shakespeare fresh for 21st-century audiences, directors often set the plays in new locales. Whether Shakespeare’s works are grounded in a Nazi-like England (Richard Loncraine’s Richard III) or a prison (Edward Hall’s The Merchant of Venice), it clicks with…
Kyle Taylor Parker, Dwayne Cooper, John Edwards and Jelani Remy. Photo: Gary Ng Is It OK to enjoy a musical without a message? Yes!!! By Jeanne Lieberman Imagine you are home alone back in the 50’s or 60’s, your parents have gone out, you turn the radio to your favorite rock ‘n roll station…
by Julia Polinsky Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope would be a pleasure even if all you got was a terrific retro revue of marvelous songs and electrifying singing and dancing. But you get more; you get vignettes of African-American people’s lives, stories told without a word spoken. Evenly matched with their own…
Melissa Errico photos by Carol Rosegg By Eugene Paul Some years ago, a mysteriously wise lady of serious years told me that most assuredly in another life I had been a Chinese sage of equally mysterious wisdom. After she laid out her evidence I was not about to disagree. Famed lyricist, Alan Jay…
Solea Pfeiffer, Mykal Kilgore, Shoshana Bean, Colin Donnell by Julia Polinsky Jason Robert Brown made a name for himself with Songs for a New World, back in the day. It was an off-Broadway moment as they were crafted in the 90s: a collection of Rent-like music, put together by a talented, energetic…
by Deirdre Donovan Following a season with so many musicals suffering from elephantitis, the musical Lonesome Blues is refreshingly intimate. An homage to the legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson, it breezed into the York Theatre on June 12th and will sojourn there for a brief run. Co-written by Alan Govenar and Akin Babatunde and…
Christian Borle photos by Joan Marcus Me and My Girl by Julia Polinsky New York City is thick with exceptionally talented actors, the kind who can buff up a topnotch performance with only 10 days of rehearsal – the norm for Encores!. What a luxury, for director/choreographer Warren Carlyle — Encores! demands…
Zuri Washington and Company Photos by John Vecchiolla By Ed Lieberman Those in need of spiritual uplift should come to the newest church in Town: the Chapel of Soul, otherwise known as the Westchester Broadway Theatre For its 205th production, WBT is mounting a rousing and joyous production of Sister Act, based on the popular…
Photo: Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade) By Jeanne Lieberman Brace yourself Broadway! A Big Brawny Musical may be heading your way led by Harry Connick, Jr. and a tireless troupe of terpsichorean tap dancers. Papermill’s latest shiny production follows a prestigious journey starting from George Roy Hill’s award winning 1973 iconic film, which was loosely based…
Helene Yorke and Brandon Uranowitz in the Encores! staging of Grand Hotel at City Center, New York. Photo: Joan Marcus By Edward Medina With a deeply engrossing book by Luther Davis and the beautiful music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, the legend that is Grand Hotel, The Musical has reappeared once…