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 Allied invasion of Sicily. The 1943 espionage scheme sounds absurd: MI5 plants fake papers on a British corpse…
Two elements overpower the current production of Redwood now playing at the Nederlander Theatre on Broadway. One is the extraordinary voice of Idina Menzel, and the other is the equally extraordinary projection design by Hana S. Kim. In Tina Landau’s hyper-emotional new play, the protagonist Jesse (played by Menzel) is an art gallerist, living in New York…
Theatre lovers beat the mid-winter blues at the 10th Annual Broadway Convention (BroadwayCon) at the New York Marriott Marquis, joining the theater community in celebration of live stage performance. The three-day event was packed with performances, in-depth panel discussions, workshops, and cast reunions. Here’s a recap of just two of the many events. Lin-Manuel Miranda:…
Gypsy – that revered American musical – is back on Broadway! Led by six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald, and directed by the legendary George C. Wolfe, this much-anticipated revival features three Black women in principal roles, bringing a whole new vibe to the classic. Suggested by the memoirs of burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee,…
What and how you speak: this is who you are. That is the idea behind Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, English, now at the Roundabout. A co-production with the Atlantic Theater Company, English is set a classroom in Iran, where students are preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). English presents…
There are two kinds of people: those who are willing to be enchanted by magic shows, and those who are all about figuring it out. Whether or not enchantment works for you, spending 90 minutes with Vinny DePonto’s Mindplay will be a delight. DePonto delivers patter like a showman, introducing the illusions and weaving a…
Funny/not funny, and timely as hell, Eureka Day pokes hard at the vaccination debate. Manhattan Theatre Club, known for producing plays that deal with difficult subjects, somehow makes even the thorniest controversies deeply entertaining. They have done it again: Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day mercilessly satirizes the aggressively woke parents and board members at Eureka Day,…
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 siblings participate in a childhood ritual that will explode in a cacophony of…
Bedlam’s Music City, a country-western musical featuring the songs of million-selling songwriter JT Harding, is as warm-hearted and feel-good as a Hallmark Christmas movie. Even if you don’t particularly like country music, some kickass performances from superb performers, a tight, bright musical sound, and a gritty, welcoming, enveloping environment make this almost-jukebox musical a must—see….
Swept Away is a standout entry in the grim-but-entertaining Fall 2024 Broadway season. It’s a solid tell-don’t-show work, in which a narrator talks to the audience to tell a story, at least partly in flashback (book by John Logan). Michael Mayer’s direction makes the most of this storytelling technique, a solid cast, and some lovely…