A new theatrical adaption of Sarah Gruen’s popular 2006 novel, Water for Elephants, has set up its Big Top smack in Times Square. Wonder of wonders, it culls much from the novel and trims the excess to streamline the drama to its fullest extent. As in most adaptations, there inevitably are dry patches with the…
Jenna Rose Husli, Wren Rivera, Alyse Alan Louis, Phoenix Best, and Helen J Shen (Photo: Chelcie Parry) Teeth By David Schultz Who could have guessed that a grade B horror flick could be transmogrified into a musical? With Teeth, Anna K. Jacobs (Book & Music) and Michael R. Jackson (Book & Lyrics) have done just…
Ali Louis Bourzgui (Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman) The Who’s Tommy By Julia Polinsky Hold on to your hats. It’s going to be a loud, stunning, bumpy ride. Worshipped by many, the revered subject of Boomer nostalgia and rocker adoration, The Who’s Tommy has held a unique place in the pop music world since…
Bring your tissues! The Notebook, Nicolas Sparks’ breakout romantic novel, which later became a blockbuster film, is now retold as a Broadway musical. This optimistic tearjerker is true to the book except it uses three pairs of actors portraying the same couple at different stages of their lives. It’s told from the point of view…
Jeremy Strong (Photo: Emilio Madrid) An Enemy of the People By Deirdre Donovan Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People comes to raw and explosive life at Circle in the Square. Directed by Sam Gold, and in a smart new translation by Amy Herzog (Gold’s real-life wife), this 1882 drama about small town corporate corruption…
Liev Schreiber, Amy Ryan (Photo: Joan Marcus) Doubt: A Parable By Julia Polinsky John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable has received a handsome new mounting at the Roundabout’s newly re-named Todd Haimes theater. Directed for maximum impact by Scott Ellis, this first Broadway revival of arguably Shanley’s most famous play doesn’t flinch from tough issues:…
Illinoise By Deirdre Donovan 0 The Cast of Illinoise. (Photo: Stephanie Berger) What better time to reimagine the American musical than now? On March 2, Illinoise, the theatrical adaptation of Grammy- and Oscar-nominated Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 concept album Illinois, arrived at the Park Avenue Armory’s capacious Wade Thompson Drill Hall as a new kind…
The Cast (Photo: Jeremy Daniel) A Sign of the Times By Julia Polinsky A show focusing on a sweet young woman from the boonies who comes to New York to find herself and make a difference: groundbreaking? Nope. But the way it’s done is so engaging, A Sign of the Times at New World…
If you were in high school in the late ’60s or early ’70s and had a streak of rebellious youth in you, chances are you got around to The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton’s 1967 novel. Hinton, who was Susan Eloise Hinton but felt it better to use her initials because who wants to read a gang-warfare…
Cole Thompson, Paolo Montalban, Jo Ellen Pellman, Kennedy Kanagawa and Mike Cefalo. (Photo:Russ Rowland) White Rose By Fern Siegel It s easy to protest if your life isn t in danger. When it is, standing up to tyranny takes a special brand of courage. Such courage defined a group of real-life university students, led…