After two sold out runs downtown, this probing drama has moved to Broadway. Director Michael Herwitz marshals this two-hander with an undercurrent of suspense that quickly intensifies as the evening progresses. Written by 26-year-old playwright Max Wolf Friedlich, this 80-minute roller coaster ride jolts audiences from the first scene, as Jane (Sydney Lemmon), shakily aims…
The competition of all competitions is underway at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC) this summer. Under the arrangement of the Really Useful Group, and the inspired direction of Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, a talented 23-member cast are strutting their stuff in Cats: The Jellicle Ball. This is a radical revisiting of the musical…
Chesney Mitchell and John Collins (Photo: Russ Rowland) It’s Not What It Looks Like By Deirdre Donovan With the dog days of summer settling in, it’s refreshing to visit John Collins’ thoughtful two-hander, It’s Not What It Looks Like at the SoHo Playhouse, the winner of its 2023 Lighthouse Series. Directed by Vincent DeGeorge,…
The cast of Empire, with Kaitlyn Davidson center in red (Photo: Matthew Murphy) Empire By Fern Siegel The Empire State Building, completed in 1931, is 102 stories high – and a stunning example of Art Deco architecture. The sheer majesty of the structure has awed generations. Lewis Hines famously shot photos of its construction…
Ana Villafañe, Holland Taylor (Photo: Daniel Rader) N/A By Deirdre Donovan Who’s afraid of the political machine? Not Mario Correa. In his new play, N/A, directed by Diane Paulus and inspired by real people and events, he crafts two tough-as-nails congresswomen: N, the first woman Speaker of the House, and A, the youngest woman ever…
Dan Luria, Patty McCormack (Photo by Russ Rowland) Just Another Day By Julia Polinsky A gentle, sadly sweet cross between Waiting for Godot and many another older-person-family-drama, Dan Lauria‘s Just Another Day presents two characters, Man (Luria) and Woman (Patty McCormack), on a perfectly lovely park bench with a nicely pretty streetlamp and a gently…
The company of Encores! Titanic (Photo: Joan Marcus) Titanic By Deirdre Donovan The Tony award-winning musical Titanic closed out the Encores! 30th anniversary season at New York City Center on a high note. Under the direction of Anne Kauffman, and with Maury Yeston’s brilliant music and lyrics intact, this sung-through concert staging of the original…
The company of The Comedy of Errors (Photo: Peter Cooper) The Comedy of Errors By Deirdre Donovan The Mobile Unit’s bilingual musical adaptation of The Comedy of Errors has been taken out of mothballs from last summer’s staging and is traveling to the city’s parks throughout the five boroughs. Directed and choreographed by Rebecca Martínez,…
Wonder of Wonders: Celebrating Sheldon Harnick closed out the 2023-2024 Lyrics & Lyricists series on a glorious note. Written, directed, and genially hosted by Ted Sperling, it originally was planned to be a 100th birthday celebration for Harnick. But when the lyricist died on June 23, 2023, Sperling was determined to move forward with the…
Directed by Marc Bruni, a musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s landmark novel The Great Gatsby comes to Broadway this season with all the glitz and glamor of the Roaring Twenties. Following its sold-out world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N.J. last fall, this musical extravaganza winged into the Big Apple in…