Reviews Archives

  • The Lucky One Review

      Ari Brand and Robert David Grant                                                                           Photos by Richard Termin   The Lucky One                                              By Ron Cohen Can a person be too charming? That’s the dilemma facing Gerald Farringdon, the central character in A. A. Milne’s comedy drama The Lucky One, first produced in 1922 and now getting a sturdy revival…

  • Miss Saigon

      Alistair Brammer as Chris and Eva Noblezada as Kim in Miss Saigon.   Miss Saigon                       by Deirdre Donovan The chopper is back on Broadway!  Cameron Mackintosh’s anticipated new production of Boublil and Schönberg’s legendary musical Miss Saigon opened on Broadway at The Broadway Theatre on March 23rd as fresh as an orange blossom. …

  • Mamma Mia

    Jennifer Swiderski, (as Rosie) Michelle Dawson  as Donna Sheridan) and Elise Kinnon (as Tanya)                                          By Ed Lieberman After a string of smaller productions (The Bikinis; Christmas Inn;  Million Dollar Quartet; Always, Patsy Cline), WBT restarts its 2017 season with its 200th production: Mamma Mia!, a musical based on the songs of ABBA, who have…

  • A Doll’s House, Part 2

                                                             By Ron Cohen Since 1879, Nora Helmer, the heroine of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, has been repeatedly slamming the door on her stultifying marriage, leaving behind household, husband and children. Now, in a sequel boldly written by Lucas Hnath and forthrightly entitled A Doll’s House, Part 2, it’s 15 years later, and…

  • Hello, Dolly

    Bette Midler                                                            Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes                                    By Eugene Paul Well, she’s back where she belongs, that sassy, brassy, inimitable force of good natured Dolly Levi and I hope she never goes away again, only this time she’s Bette Midler who used to be known as the Divine Miss M but now bids fair…

  • Indecent

                                                              By Eugene Paul In 1910, when Sholem Asch was 50 years old, he scandalized the world of the Jewish Theatre with God of Vengeance, his play about the Jewish owner of a brothel, his wife, an ex-prostitute, seeking to gain respectability through the marriage of their carefully sheltered, innocent daughter to a rabbi’s…

  • Bandstand

                                       Photos by Jeremy Daniel                                                   By Eugene Paul   Broadway professionals are incredibly good, better than they’ve ever been before.  We’ve grown to expect this absolute best and the wonderful people who create the performances delighting, astounding, moving us dig deeper every time to please, not just us, but themselves, every bit…

  • NY Pops – Something Wonderful

                                                                                                       Photo by Richard Termine                                                            By  Stewart Schulman “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” would have been an apt titling for the NY Pops 34th anniversary Gala at Carnegie Hall on May 1st—an event honoring the long-time working relationship between two titans of the Broadway theater, actress Kelli O’hara and director Bartlett Sher. …

  • Anastasia

     Christy Altomare and Derek Klena                    photos by Matthew Murphy                                                              by Marc Miller What Anastasia has, and it’s welcome because it’s lacking to some degree in virtually every other new musical of the past several seasons, is craft. Scan the credits: book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens—the trio…

  • Six Degrees of Separation

                                                                                   Photos by Joan Marcus                                                                     By Marc Miller How au courant, how up-to-the-minute Six Degrees of Separation seemed in 1990. John Guare’s serious comedy, based on a then-recent true incident that happened to two of his friends, served up a tumult of contemporary issues in its 90 tightly packed minutes: race; sex; rich vs….