By Ron Fassler   The wonderful Broadway actor and singer Jason Danieley, who opened his solo show “A Heart to Heart” at Feinstein’s/54 Below Wednesday evening for a four-night engagement (through Saturday), admits right off the bat that it’s really not just him on stage. As...

    Theater Pizzazz’ Melissa Griegel met with the cast and creatives at a sneak peek to find out more about Mike Squillante (music and lyrics) and Jess Carson‘ (book) new musical Only Human. The event took place at The Yard at Herald Square on Sept. 17. The pop-rock...

  By Sandi Durell   He’s cool, easy and, boy, does Tony Danza have stories! He gets easily sidetracked with life stories about his Mom, his kids, grandkids and, you know what? He’s a terrific (good and bad) joke teller. And what about his singing and tap-dancing? The man is a bundle...

    Brenda Braxton, Javier Colon, Adam Kantor, Cassandra Kubinski, Beth Leavel, Bonnie Milligan, Christine Pedi and Paige Price will join Andy Karl and Orfeh in Best in Shows, a star- studded cabaret evening benefiting the Humane Society of New York, on Monday, October 14 , 2019 at...

by Magda Katz On Sept 17, 2019 Judi Mark brought her one woman show “Laughing Through Life” to  Don’t Tell Mama in New York City with Jeffrey Klitz on piano. Born in Chicago to a musical family and encouraged to express herself creatively, Ms. Mark would make her family proud as she has years...

  The American Theatre Wing ‘Say YES to Artists Gala’ celebrated the legacy of Jonathan Larson and the Larson Family     The annual Gala celebrated the legacy of Jonathan Larson and the Larson family, dubbed “Say YES to Artists Gala.” Theater Pizzazz’ Melissa Griegel was on the...

  by Matt Smith   There ain’t no party like a Drew Gasparini party, and no one knows that more than his raucous audience at Feinstein’s/54 Below, who gathered at the intimate hotspot last Monday night to ring in the re-release of the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s I Could Use a...

    by Sandi Durell   On September 16 at St. Malachy’s Church – The Actor’s Chapel, the new theater season was celebrated by many  Broadway and off-Broadway performers and the The Broadway Blessing Choir and Instrumentalists.  The event was produced by Kathryn...

    by Carol Rocamora   Who says lightning can’t strike twice in the same place? Or, rather, in the same theatre season? While we eagerly await the rock musical megahit Six to come in from London, a playwright on our own shores has already scooped the same hot idea for her own...

    By Ron Fassler   Martin Moran is a master storyteller. That really should be all I have to write for a review to make anyone go see All the Rage, a new production of his one-person show, which won him the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. His prior...

  By Sandi Durell   Women of today find themselves fighting the feminist battle of equality on so many levels that it was probably time for playwright Jaclyn Backhaus (Men on Boats) to have a go at creating a more absurdist, unique path to victory. With playful, zany, amusing fun,...

  Clearview Energy, the leader in the green energy industry, is proud to announce its partnership with the New York Yankees. As part of the partnership, Clearview Energywill be giving away thousands of tickets to foster children in the New York tri-state area to attend Yankees games...

  Derren Brown’s Secret returns to the Cort Theatre on Broadway, opening on September 15 for a limited run thru January 4.  Produced by J.J. Abrams, Thomas Kail and Jeffrey Seller, opening night red carpet featured some of theater’s best including Jon Hamm, Neve Campbell,...

  An Amusement Column     by Harry Haun   A PRINCELY POSTSCRIPT: The last we will see of Harold Prince is a talking-head moment in Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, the Fiddler on the Roof documentary, but it sums up the man perfectly: He exits with a classy quote that shows...

      The Cast and Creatives of Chasing Rainbows: The Road to Oz met with the press for a sneak peek, performing some musical numbers, do interviews and photos for its upcoming Paper Mill Playhouse production. Paper Mill Playhouse was the recipient of the 2016 Regional Theatre...

        By Steve Nardoni   In researching Marianne Faithfull for this piece, I was gob-smacked by my stunning ignorance of her extensive, music, acting and writing careers, coupled with the log-rolling ups and downs of her life. She has recorded 23 albums, acted in...

  By Alix Cohen   “ The very first time I listened to a Joni Mitchell album, I was convinced she had written the soundtrack to my life. Her songs resonate within me on such a cellular level that it feels as if they existed inside me from the time I was born. That’s how it feels, for me,...

    In efforts to stem domestic violence and promote safe havens and education to so many in need, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) and a coterie of talent will Rise to the Occasion in a really BIG show to energize support for this most needed and important...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   Even today, nearly 50 years after they broke up, the Beatles (a heated debate rages over whether it should be The or the Beatles) keep inspiring others to capitalize on their magic. This summer we had the movie Yesterday, a fantasy about what would happen if...

    The Players traditional Pipe Night (the first one in 1905), honoring significant cultural figures, brought Tony Nominee composer and writer Joe Iconis into its realm for Broadway’s recent Be More Chill. Performers included: Liz Lark Brown, Nate Buccieri, Seth Eliser,...

  The press met with four time Tony Award winner writer-performer Harvey Fierstein and his director Kimberly Senior at Manhattan Theatre Club’s rehearsal space today (interviews by Sandi Durell) to talk about Bella Bella. Based on long time friendship with Bella Abzug (and since...

  Interview By Brian Scott Lipton   Is there anything Norbert Leo Butz can’t do? Or won’t do? In the past year, the two-time Tony Award winner has finished up his Broadway run as Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, starred opposite Sherie Rene Scott in the deeply autobiographical...

    The cast and creatives of Broadway’s Tony Award Winning Tootsie were on hand to celebrate the release of their CD at Barnes and Noble with live performance and signings of their CD. Present were David Yazbek, Santino Fontana, Sarah Stiles, Andy Groteluschen, Lilli Cooper,...

        by Alana Silber   In today’s political climate, it’s nearly impossible to open a news article, switch on a television, or read a headline without witnessing something that could fill any stomach with dread. From bombings in Syria to incessant mass shootings...

  by Carole Di Tosti     The power of life and death ultimately resides in our own minds. For some the problem is not in dying, but as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet suggested in his query, “What dreams may come…must give us pause.” What happens after life ceases? Thoughts of the...

  by Cathy Hammer   Just opened at Theater for the New City, Dining With Ploetz is composed of three one act plays loosely held together by the theme of food. Presented in a black box space with modest set pieces provided by Mark Marcante and essential lighting by Alex Bartenieff,...

  An Amusement Column           by Harry Haun   MY LORD OF THE FLIES: Two of the more arresting plays around these days involve small-fry, both visible (Make Believe through Sept. 22 at Second Stage) and invisible (Eureka Day through Sept. 21 at...

          By JK Clarke   Some experiences in life are only fully realized in hindsight. We don’t recognize a story is taking place until it is all over. Consequently, it often makes sense to start a story at the end, where it is finally understood in its...

      By Samuel L. Leiter   It’s hard to write critically about a play that affects people so deeply that you feel like embracing those applying hankies and Kleenex to their tearstained faces. Such is the dilemma with D.C. Fidler’s Boogieban, an award-winning, deeply...

    By Ron Fassler   How do you review a night of five comics doing their usual standup material when you’re mostly used to covering live theatre? Such is this reviewer’s dilemma, but I’ll give it my best shot. Playing cities around the country, Laughing Liberally has landed in...

    Jason Danieley will return to Feinstein’s/54 Below in a musical evening of loving remembrance of Marin Mazzie in “A Heart to Heart” September 18 thru 21 at 7 pm. with musical director Joseph Thalken.     Jason starred on Broadway in The Visit,...

  Nicole Henry (Soul Train and Bistro Award Winning Vocalist) returns to Feinstein’s/54 Below September 18 and October 16 at 9:30 pm with I Wanna Dance With Somebody: The Music of Whitney Houston. You’ll be reminded of the Greatest Love of All when Nicole is on stage and...

   An Amusement Column     By Harry Haun   THE JOYS OF JERRY: Working with director-choreographer Jerome Robbins wasn’t the easiest job in the world. It may, in fact, have been the worst. Every one of the creatives connected with Fiddler on the Roof attest to that difficulty in Max...

      Forget about Woodstock . . . it’s WILLSTOCK!  Celebrate with the illustrious jazz expert Will Friedwald at The Triad Theater on Monday, September 16 starting at 9 pm.   It’s only a $10 cover (2 drink min) to hear on-going entertainment on screen and live with...

    By Samuel L. Leiter   The riveting East Coast premiere of Eureka Day, Jonathan Spector’s bitingly topical dramedy, at Walkerspace, Soho Rep’s usual haunt, reminds me of the immortal words of Sean O’Casey’s bibulous “paycock,” Captain Jack Boyle: “The world’s in a terrible...

  The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation announced the recipients of their 2019 Idea Awards for Theatre; three grants awarded to adventurous new voices in playwriting and musical theatre, as well as the the visionary playwrights who have inspired and blazed trails before them. The two...

                    Starring Three-time Olivier Award Winner Eileen Atkins and Olivier and Tony Award Winner Jonathan Pryce       The cast and director met the press at Manhattan Theatre Club’s rehearsal studios on September 4 to give some insight into Tony Award Nominee...

  by Sandi Durell     Cat lover and owner of Minna – ‘The Miracle Cat’ – I was delighted to come upon a Private Sanctuary for cats in Falls Village, Ct. while on a recent mini-vacation. It truly is one of the most remarkable and impressive places I’ve visited! Winding our...

  NYU Skirball will present Elements of Oz, a live performance/augmented reality mash-up of theater, technology and pop culture that celebrates and deconstructs The Wizard of Oz, from the New York-based performance company, The Builders Association, on Saturday, December 7 and Sunday,...

  by Linda Amiel Burns   NYC impresario Scott Siegel decided to revive his legendary Broadway Ballyhoo, and on September 1, the first of the series was performed at Feinstein’s 54 Below. Scott says that he is happy to bring it back to its rightful home as the show was...

  Ricky Ritzel’s August Surpasses Dorian’s 195 mph. winds with Category 5 Gales of Entertainment     By Myra Chanin   Ricky Ritzel’s Broadway, like Brigadoon, pops up on the fourth Friday night of every month at Don’t Tell Mama where the antics of Ritzel and Company unfurl...

  by Susan Hasho   If you are a fly on the wall for a family dilemma – be prepared! Batten down the hatches. The Exes is full of family of several different stripes and dilemmas galore. In fact, there’s even a butler. It opens with a man Richard (Tim Hayes) talking on a cell phone,...

  An Amusement Column         by Harry Haun   THE SHORT-CUT LANE: Apparently, Nathan Lane is shopping around for shorter shows. His most recent Broadway opus—Taylor Mac’s Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus—was a start, tipping the scales (sans intermission) at a...

  by Carole Di Tosti     To what extent does the mind govern the body’s ability to heal? If faith healers encourage the mind’s power over the body to eliminate pain, how can this be exploitive, fraudulent? To what extent is belief “mind over matter?” The riveting musical Felix...

    Jane H. Goldman has had a myriad of exciting careers, the first being a corporate litigator at Time Warner. However, through the years, she has kept a diary, written musings and thoughts, all on separate pieces of paper that have now turned into her first book  “With No...

  By Ron Fassler   Alice Ripley, the 2009 Tony Award winner for her fiery performance in the Pulitzer Prize winning Next to Normal, is an actress and singer of vast range and power. At Feinstein’s 54 Below, she showcased her vocal prowess as well as her songwriting abilities, backed...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   As host/producer Scott Coulter informed the rapt audience at 54 Below before “Music of the Knights” on August 28, the evening’s three titular subjects – Andrew Lloyd Webber, Paul McCartney and Elton John – have more in common than the word “Sir” before...

    Krysta Rodriguez makes her long-awaited Feinstein’s/54 Below solo debut!  Krysta presents a brand new concert exploring career highlights from her time in Broadway shows including Spring Awakening, First Date, The Addams Family, In the Heights, A Chorus Line and Good Vibrations....

    Shoshana Bean (star of Wicked, City Center’s Songs for a New World and as Jenna in Broadway’s Waitress), has made her Feinstein’s/54 Below debut beginning on August 24. She now has two additional shows added September 4 & 5. This show is all about Broadway and Shoshana...

                                                                                                                      An Amusement Column   By Harry Haun     ROUGE AWAKENING: Right from the starting gun of the first preview, it was clear Moulin Rouge! The Musical would be a...

  It is with deep regret that I write that beloved musical director, pianist, friend, arranger and icon of the cabaret community died on August 22 at 3:37 pm in a hospital in Atlantic City. He had a massive stroke Sunday evening in Cape May, NJ and was found Monday morning in a deep...

    By Samuel L. Leiter   A word of advice for anyone writing a new musical: don’t play a medley of pop hits before the show starts and during its intermission. As demonstrated by the generic pop rock score in Contact High, the latest addition to the plethora of high school...

  By Sandi Durell   –Theater Pizzazz mantra: “If music was everywhere and in everyone’s life, the world would surely be a better place” (more than ever!) —   Falling into cabaret as the weather begins its yearly migration from summer, the trees shedding their...

  Photos: Maryann Lopinto       Tony Award Winning Revival, OKLAHOMA, released their original cast CD with a musical presentation by the cast and the signing of the CD on August 22. The release took place at Barnes and Noble at 150 East 86th Street where the entire cast...

  by Alana Silber     Basic Glitch, the first full-length play written by New York based playwright Stephanie Salazar-Amaro, takes place in a world similar to our own, but with one slight difference: customer service is actually helpful instead of disappointing. Cassi Torres...

  by Edward Medina   While watching the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival production of Heloise one could imagine what it was like watching a first draft workshop rehearsal of The Lion in Winter. You could tell there was a great deal of possibility and promise to be explored and...

    By Ron Fassler   The annual Rave Theater Festival is underway on the Lower East Side of Manhattan this August with theatre, dance and music to entertain (as the circus once said) “children of all ages!” Last evening, I was treated to ten tapping feet courtesy of the...

        An Amusement Column   By Harry Haun       BOYS TO MEN: It took half a century, but an unbroken gay line of The Boys in the Band finally formed last April for its first Broadway revival—to name Names: Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, Matt...

    by Alix Cohen   Steeplechase begins with the sound man on a bare stage regulating techno-pop by laptop, the first of many why moments in a self-indulgent chronicle of, is it, redemption? Next we see the cast moving to his music, each in his/her own axis. Uh huh. Then, two rows...

  by Adam Cohen   Surrounded by cast members from his most recent Broadway production, The Prom multi-hyphenate (actor, singer, writer, composer, dancer, conductor), Josh Franklin and friends, held court on August 18 at The Green Room 42.  The evening was an opportunity for Josh and...

  The Off Broadway Alliance has announced that its hugely popular semi-annual ticket promotion, 20at20, will return from September 3 to September 22, 2019.  20at20 makes $20 tickets available to dozens of Off Broadway shows 20 minutes prior to curtain for 20 days. Now in its 13th...

          By Myra Chanin   One of the greatest things about New York City is that it gives artists the opportunity to change, alter and modify. And that is exactly what happened to Dan Manjovi, a talented composer (with songs in Woody Allen films), musician and...

                                           An Amusement Column   By Harry Haun     SNOW WHITE AT 100:  “Life Upon the Wicked Stage” has worked out pretty damn well for Marge Champion, who hits her 100th birthday on Sept. 2. She and her then-husband Gower Champion, you’ll...

    by Cathy Hammer   Now in its third year, the boutique Broadway Bound Theatre Festival shines the spotlight on emerging playwrights. This year’s lineup of 18 carefully selected productions and three staged readings has been moved uptown to Theatre Row, within blocks of famed...

  By Marilyn Lester   Country came to Feinstein’s/54 Below, and it was a clear case of “Come on in and sit right down and make yourself at home.” The Mandy Barnett Nashville-in-New York experience was a refreshing evening of tunes both familiar and those seldom heard in...

  The keeper of the flame of the Great American Songbook, its Ambassador Michael Feinstein, has had some of the music world’s prominent artists join him during his run at Feinstein’s/54 Below. From August 6 – 13, it was the one and only Marvelous Marilyn Maye. From...

  An interview with Saturday Night Live Director, Don Roy King     By Tania Fisher   So how does the son of a mailman from a small town near Pittsburgh end up directing more live network television than anyone else in the history of the medium and being one of the most...

      By Samuel L. Leiter   Ah, the variety of New York theatergoing! One night it’s the raucous, decadently spectacular, nearly three-hours-long, jukebox musical Moulin Rouge in Broadway’s grand, lushly appointed, Al Hirschfeld Theatre. The next it’s the quietly...

      By Marilyn Lester   That familiar opener, Billy Strayhorn’s “Take the A-Train” (the Duke Ellington Orchestra’s theme song from 1940 on) was a sure bet to herald a delightful 90 minutes of the Maestro’s music in this year’s edition of the...

    by Magda Katz   On the first day of rehearsals, the cast and creatives of Fern Hill held a meet and greet with the press at Theatre Row Studios. The play, written by Michael Tucker (who is also one of the actors), features his wife Jill Eikenberry, along with cast members...

  EXTENDED THRU SEPTEMBER 22 | Theater Review by Brian Scott Lipton     The power (and limits) of imagination. The ways we repeat (and defy) our own family history. The ways we lived then (and now). These are heady subjects to throw together in one play – especially one that’s...

                                                                                             An Amusement Column         By Harry Haun     FIDDLE & HARNICK: It’s not generally known, but Sheldon Harnick snuck into show business as a professional violinist, fiddling...

  Theater Review by Edward Medina   Let’s play a ghoulish little game. Let’s create a fast paced comedy thriller that puts four characters in a spooky setting. Let’s play up who’s dead versus not dead, who’s a ghost versus a corporeal being. Perhaps someone is a special evil spirit...

  by Dr. Bernie Furshpan   What is now termed, “No-mo-phobia,” (no mobile phone phobia), or fear of being without your smartphone, is affecting 40% of the population, according to the psychology community. At this point in our social evolution, smartphone technology provides the...

    Cabaret Review By Myra Chanin   I recently watched a PBS show called Broadway Musicals, A Jewish Legacy, which featured a seemingly endless list of topnotch famous Jewish composers – Arlen, Berlin, Bernstein, Bock, Brooks, Gershwin, Herman, Kander, Kern, Lerner, Loesser,...

  It’s time to bless the new theater season and producer Pat Addiss and Kathryn Fisher have scheduled what promises to be a rousing Broadway Blessing to kick off the 2019/2020 season at St. Malachy’s on Monday September 16 at 7 pm. The Actor’s Chapel located at 239 W. 49th Street will...

  An Amusement Column   Posted August 10   By Harry Haun   JUDY! JUDY! JUDY!: Fifty years and six weeks have passed since Judy Garland passed—and still she’s with us. In fact, on Sept. 27, Judy will actually be in movie houses in the physical form of Renee Zellweger, who’s...

    Review by Brian Scott Lipton   In a culture where we too often talk about having our pizza delivered in under 30 minutes as “a matter of life and death,” we sometimes need to be reminded of the true meaning of these words. This exactly is what happens during “Sea Wall/A...

    Theater Review By Sandi Durell   Having not been weaned on Jim Steinman nor Meatloaf, the experience of seeing the West End jukebox production of Bat Out of Hell, jamming in as many larger than life rock tunes as humanly possible in two hours and 40 minutes (with...

  by Matt Smith   All was buzzy and bright inside Midtown hotspot Feinstein’s/54 Below last week, when the second installment of Tuesdays at 54… with Robbie Rozelle!, the brassy, sassy talk show/game show/open mic hybrid, kicked off at the intimate venue. And the evening was...

  by Alana Silber   When asking the question, “What’s your favorite genre of music?,” I would assume it is quite atypical to hear “Leftist Political Folk” as the response. Coming into the Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan Concert, I did not know what to expect. I knew I liked many of Dylan’s...

  by Alix Cohen   Our audience takes its seats confident that if Steve Ross likes tonight’s especially chosen material, so will we. Taste is one of the artist’s signature attributes. There will be well known songs, those for which we have particular affection, and unfamiliar ones...

  Featuring Marilyn Maye in “I Happen to Like New York”     by Sandi Durell   The ever stylish, forever boyish Michael Feinstein (twinkle in his eye) is back at his namesake Feinstein’s/54 Below raising the roof celebrating the town that never sleeps. With so many New York...

              By JK Clarke   Coriolanus is one of many Shakespeare plays that can be played for its uncanny prescience in modern times, though it doesn’t always have to be. Like Julius Caesar, it’s an especially apt play today when our domestic...

    The Lambs, America’s first professional theater club and the oldest professional theatrical organization in the US, marks the 100th Anniversary of the Actors’ Strike of 1919. A century ago this month the biggest story in show business was unfolding, an event with repercussions...

    by Magda Katz   Friday, August 2, 2019, Grammy Award winning Canadian-born singer-songwriter,  pop star Sarah McLachlan took the stage of the Forest Hills Stadium backed by the lush sound of the The New York Pops conducted by Steven Reineke. The New York Pops were augmented...

  An Amusement Column                                                             by Harry Haun       THE LONG-DISTANCE RUNNERS: The Main Stem’s main man, Harold Prince, was as far from his Broadway home base as he could get when he died last week—in Reykjavik,...

            By JK Clarke   Fish-out-of-water incarceration stories are nothing new. From the wrongfully imprisoned (Hugo’s Les Misérables) to the belatedly, unexpectedly indicted (Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black”), stories of imprisoned individuals who...

  by Michael Bracken   Rachel (playwright Domenica Feraud) is home for the weekend, and everyone is walking on eggshells. Well, not quite everyone. Her brother, Brody (a fearlessly direct Jake Ryan Lozano), is indifferent bordering on resentful. But Mom, Joan (Florencia Lozano), and...

    By Myra Chanin   OK, OK, I know that declaring anything a work of art may be tantamount to dooming it to perdition, but I believe that a market for artistic quality exists and that one of that market’s masters is Zalmen Mlotek, the Artistic Director of the National Yiddish...

    By Marilyn Lester   Continuing a very long, unbroken streak of excellence at the Irish Rep, Elaine Murphy’s gem of a play, Little Gem, is another solid production home run. It’s a deceptively simple piece, but one that packs a very major punch, aided by the powerhouse...

  The Off Broadway Alliance has announced that its hugely popular semi-annual ticket promotion 20at20 will return from September 3 to September 22, 2019.  20at20 makes $20 tickets available to dozens of  Off Broadway shows 20 minutes prior to curtain for 20 days. This year’s participated...

    On July 31, TheaterPizzazz.com’s Marcina Zaccaria met with the Artistic Team of Heloise, slated to be performed at The Broadway Bound Theatre Festival. Playwright Michael Shenefelt described this 12th century story, focused on the relationship between a teacher and a student in...