Article by Matt Smith   Broadway impresario Jamie deRoy once again assembled another razzle-dazzle troupe of titular friends for yearly Birdland Jazz celebration of Broadway and beyond – all to benefit our beloved Actor’s Fund. Blending jazz standards with musical theatre...

            By Samuel L. Leiter   The Playbill calls this hoary classic William Shakespeare’s King Lear, as if we needed to be reminded who wrote it. And, perhaps we do, since this latest entry in the modern dress-revival sweepstakes could just as well be...

  Review by Steve Nardoni     Sandwiched between the iconic World War II song “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” which opens and closes this show, is a baloney-filled, rollicking comedy that has all the inherent hilarity of poking fun at cultural differences.  Before the show we got a...

  By: Shoshana Medney The 92nd Street Y hosted a one-night-only Fosse/Verdon screening and conversation at the Kaufmann Concert Hall. The evening was headlined by Sam Rockwell, Michelle Williams, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Nicole Fosse, Steven Levenson and Joel Fields. It was...

    Review by Sandi Durell     It is time for a revival of Lanford Wilson’s Burn This.  It originally opened in 1987 with John Malkovich and Joan Allen in the leads now played by the lithe and well-toned Keri Russell (TV’s ‘The Americans’) as Anna, and Adam Driver...

          By Samuel L. Leiter   The official diplomatic phrase for the events behind this play are the “1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.”  One of modern history’s bloodiest, most ferocious outbreaks of man’s cruelty toward his fellow man, it forms the...

  Photo by Maryann Lopinto The Drama League (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Executive Artistic Director) today announced the 2019 Drama League Awards Nominees for Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a...

  Review By Ron Fassler   Steve Tyrell, that laid back and amiable Texan, returned last night to the Café Carlyle for an eleven-day engagement, performing his favorites from the Great American Songbook. And all is right with the world. And even if he doesn’t possess a voice with the...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   Stephen Sondheim isn’t always right: You don’t always need a gimmick to prove you’re more than just a mimic. At least not if you’re Jarrod Spector. While this talented performer has spent most of the past 13 years on Broadway brilliantly portraying...

  By Marcina Zaccaria   Finding the right tone for the hectic, puzzling, madcap world of New York City would be the challenge. The City inspires. It triumphs. It demands. Yet, in the end, the dynamic metropolis that is New York sounded so right at Birdland Theater, as interpreted in...

    NEWLY ADDED CURTAIN CALL VIDEO!   by Adam Cohen Based on the 1993 movie, Paper Mill Playhouse presents the east coast premiere of a sparkling new musical “Benny & Joon.”  This is a lovable, witty, spry musical with an incredible cast of eight. The story follows brother...

  By Ron Fassler   The musical Foxy opened on Broadway fifty-five years ago at the now demolished Ziegfeld Theatre. It was based on Ben Johnson’s Volpone, first performed in 1606, and adapted many times over the years by everyone from the novelist and playwright Stefan Zweig, to...

    By Tania Fisher   Although this play is set against the backdrop of one of the most horrific periods of our history, as well as the heavy subject matter that the play specifically focuses on, All Our Children, now playing at The Sheen Center, manages to both impress,...

    By Sandi Durell   Although Theater Pizzazz has a review posted written by JK Clarke on the initial run at Brooklyn’s St. Ann’s Warehouse (which I did not see) prior to this Broadway run, what with all the buzzing around town about the newly reimagined Rodgers &...

  by Linda Amiel Burns   The Broadway Beacon Awards are presented yearly to individuals in the theater community who have been advocates for increasing audiences for live theatre and understand the importance of the arts in the lives of NYC students. The first Broadway Beacon Award...

By Sandi Durell   The lady was on fire kickin’ it up once again. That should sum it up for April 10, Ms. Maye’s real birthday and everyone was there a second, third time because they couldn’t get enough of the powerful, emotionally driven lady of jazz who makes her audiences laugh...

          by Samuel L. Leiter   This week, I watched the great Broadway librettist and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II get hammered twice. The first was Daniel Fish’s radical redo of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, for which I filed a negative minority report;...

          By Matt Smith   “I’ve been so many places in my life and time / I’ve sung a lot of songs and I’ve made some bad rhymes / I’ve acted out my life on stages / With ten thousand people watching / But we’re alone now and I’m singing this song for you.”...

          By Ron Fassler   According to the program notes, The Mad Ones are “a New York City-based company that creates ensemble-driven work through the ongoing collaboration of co-Artistic Directors Mark Bovino (writer/performer), Joe Canutte (writer/performer),...

          By Brian Scott Lipton   If you’re a theatergoer who truly subscribes to the philosophy of “if it’s not on the page, it’s not on the stage” or “the play’s the thing,” you’re probably better off avoiding Norma Jeane Baker of Troy, the initial offering at...

          by Carol Rocamora   It’s a play with an outrageous premise—and Suzan-Lori Parks wants it that way. As a playwright who has been writing about race and American history for decades, her agenda grows more urgent with every innovative new play she writes....

          By Tania Fisher   Now playing at The Theater for the New City, Shareholder Value is set against the backdrop of the fiscal crisis of 2008, and is loosely based on the debacle at General Electric. The fictional company, Total Electric, was, like GE,...

          by Carol Di Tosti   Happiness is a sleight of mind. When it is founded on lies, duplicities and secrets, it will never last, even though one may desperately cling to its illusion. In Charlie’s Waiting, finely directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser, two...

                    The Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers covering New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway, is proud to announce Broadway’s “Tootsie” star Julie...

            by Samuel L. Leiter   A few months ago, I asked my friend Richard, house manager of Second Stage’s Helen Hayes Theater, what was next on the venue’s agenda. When he answered What the Constitution Means to Me, I said I’d liked it very much at...

    PhotosVideo by: Shoshana Medney   With Shoshana Bean currently starring in Waitress as Jenna, she was all smiles welcoming her new co-star Jeremy Jordan as Dr. Pomatter.  The media event was held at Sardi’s. Both Shoshana and Jeremy will play limited engagements thru...

  by Sandi Durell   From a brilliantly devised title – “I Wish I Were 90 Again!” – to a well-constructed show, this remarkable chanteuse never ceases to amaze, thrill and bring her heart and soul to her loving audiences.  Marilyn Maye could never be younger in spirit,...

        by Carol Rocamora   Everything about Peaches is shocking—from the pink color of her big hair to her shiny pink alligator suit to the stream of profanities that spew from her mouth. But nothing shocks more than her offer: a seat on the last flight back to...

          By Joseph Pisano   Despite an initial Broadway run that was, to say the least, severely abridged, few theatrical works have as culturally schismatic a performance history as composer, lyricist, and librettist Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 play in music...

  by Alix Cohen   Buster Poindexter and his band are FUN! A vocalist/songwriter (later, actor) who burst on the East Village scene in the early 1970s (with birth name David Johansen) as lead of the punk rock New York Dolls, the musician retains every bit of the intrinsic cool with...

  By Myra Chanin    Well, whaddaya know? The becoming-more-illustrious-with-every-passing-year, larger-than-life Ricky Ritzel, who produces, creates, performs and music directs a different “Ricky Ritzel’s Broadway” on the last Friday of every month in Don’t Tell Mama’s big showroom,...

  by Adam Cohen   Someone keeps mugging Eva (Megan Hill) in the kitchen at her debt collection agency office. Co-workers Howie (Justin Long) and Jordan (Ugo Chukwu) fuel the clueless sexual and abhorrent behavior in the workplace. They are practically championed by boss Jon (Greg...

  Encompass New Opera honors theater luminaries Laura Benanti and Bartlett Sher with “A Musicial Salute!” at the National Arts Club on March 31, 2019 featuring stars of Broadway, opera, television and film   by Linda Amiel Burns   The gala evening got off to a good start...

        By Samuel L. Leiter   Off-Broadway’s Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, artistic director) loves to take risks by staging infrequently seen, even obscure classics (okay, their upcoming Macbeth doesn’t fit that description). Their unconventional productions,...

          By Ron Fassler   Sondheim: Wordplay at the Kaufmann Concert Hall on Saturday night was genuine truth in advertising. For surely there has been no Broadway lyricist who has played with words more skillfully and with more insight and wit than Stephen...

        by JK Clarke   It can be argued that William Shakespeare’s much loved Roman Republic play Julius Caesar is actually two plays in one: the first half being a tragedy very much in the spirit of Macbeth or Hamlet; the second being more similar to the History...

  by Sandi Durell   This smart, snazzy, stylish and savvy crooner, once again, regaled a full house of fans at The Green Room 42 reprising ‘Come Croon With Me’ on March 29. Dressed in a silver skin jacket and sequin bowtie, he’s reminiscent of the great days of Hollywood, a time...

  By Tania Fisher   We love Lainie.  We just do.  Can anyone define exactly why? I don’t think so; it’s like putting a label on a piece of artwork, and Lainie Kazan, is a true, living piece of artwork.  She is still beautiful, still magnetic, and still the queen of all of them. ...

    By Sandi Durell   Back to Detroit where R & B and Motown all began . . . it’s, as they say, the soundtrack of many lives, surely mine. Yes, I was among the thousands who moved and grooved to the beat of the guy and gal groups who made music and harmonies on the street...

    By Shoshana Medney   St. Peter’s Foot will make you laugh, question some of your life choices and make you grateful for the people in your life: Written by Anna Theresa Cascio and directed by Molly Fowler, there is cohesive nature to the play. It touches on real...

        By Myra Chanin   The abundant twists and turns in most narrative arcs ultimately boil down to a series of themes. For example, there’s “boy meets girl,” as in Cinderella; “three men in search of gold” as in Treasure of Sierra Madre; “the craving for power,” as...

        It’s a massive epic, and what masterful stagecraft is marshaled to tell it!     by Carol Rocamora   The Lehman Trilogy, the astonishing new play at the Park Avenue Armory, charts the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers, the investment banking firm. It’s...

  By Brian Scott Lipton     Forty years ago, Tony Danza worked his way into America’s hearts as hunk with surprisingly strong comic chops on the hit sitcom “Taxi.” Well, four decades later, Danza can still melt hearts, make us laugh (no matter how hoary the joke), and do so...

      by Linda Amiel Burns   The New York Cabaret community filled their new glitzy venue Sony Hall for a festive evening on March 26, celebrating the best of cabaret and song in over 26 categories from vocalists to impersonations to piano bar entertainers to songs. ...

  By Shoshana Medney   I went in-depth with three of the stars from The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical. You’ll find unique stories from my 10 minute conversations with Chris McCarrell (Percy Jackson), Kristin Stokes (Annabeth Chase) and Jorrel Javier (Grover...

          By Myra Chanin   I am enraged, infuriated, maddened by the use of phrases like “The Holocaust” or “The Shoah”—politically correct, less disturbing words which attempt to normalize one of the mankind’s most horrendous, barbaric aberrations: the brutal,...

      By Ron Fassler   Those swinging, singing sisters, Liz and Ann, in their new concert show, Broadway with the Callaways (at the Sony Concert Hall), brought screams of cheers to the theater district last night (March 25), the kind that usually emanate from across the...

  By Sandi Durell   When you think of the iconic Judy Holliday, the immediate visual is of that dumb blonde Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday for which she received both an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress and on Broadway in Bells Are Ringing (Tony Award). That...

        by Samuel L. Leiter   I’ve been to the Soho Playhouse many times but never have I seen such a crowd of well-dressed, excitedly buzzing theatergoers standing outside on Vandam Street waiting for a show there to begin. Inside, they squeezed into the cramped...

            by JK Clarke   The 1620 voyage by members of the Separatists (a Puritan sect) on the Mayflower to what is now New England was one of the most daring ventures ever. The travelers—who numbered approximately 105 (plus an estimated 30 crew members),...

        By Ron Fassler   It was with some trepidation that I took my seat at actress Maddie Corman’s one-person play Accidentally Brave, which she wrote and appears in. I knew going in what the subject matter was, since I followed the story of what happened to her and...

  By Ron Fassler   Lyle Kessler has been writing plays for more than fifty years now. When his first Broadway show, The Watering Place, premiered in March of 1969, it had the misfortune of closing in one night. That sort of personal trauma might have been enough to deter other young...

  By Marilyn Lester   In the second of Sean O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy, Juno and the Paycock, the Irish Repertory Theatre has tackled the playwright’s fierce realism head on and come up with a resounding winner. The ensemble cast turned in performances of award-winning caliber,...

    by Sandi Durell   Without a doubt, in my book, Kiss Me, Kate is genius Cole Porter’s best of the best – you know, love and can sing just about every song in this gorgeously staged production now at Roundabout’s Studio 54. So when pre production chatter about...

  By Marcina Zaccaria   Stepping into St. John the Divine is nothing short of magical. The Episcopal Cathedral, located on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan, is known for its uncommon Rose Window, outstanding flying buttresses, and breathtaking stained glass. Being in an awe-inspiring...

By Brian Scott Lipton   The lone feather temporarily left on the stage of New York City Center feels like the perfect metaphor for the Encores! production of “I Married an Angel,” the 1938 confection from Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart that is so light it practically blows away while...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   Birds of Paradise is a gem of a musical with Book by Winnie Holzman and David Evans and Lyrics by Wicked’s Librettist Winnie Holzman. A Chekhov aficionado with an interest in clever lyrics, I confess that 1987’s Birds of Paradise has, for a long time, been...

          by Sheila Watko   With the talent of a seasoned Broadway composer and the optimistic charm of an artist making it in New York City, Toronto-based composer and lyricist Daniel Abrahamson welcomed a full house to his delightful New York debut, First Date:...

  THE CAST OF BE MORE CHILL had the time of their lives recording the original cast album on Ghostlight Records at Reservoir Studios on March 19 and Theater Pizzazz’ Shoshana Medney was on the scene. With music and lyrics by Joe Iconis and book by Joe Tracz, the hot ticket show...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   In some cases, familiarity breeds contempt, but for eight-time Grammy Award nominee Tierney Sutton, her familiarity with award-winning lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman has led to a decidedly unusual and satisfying show now at the Café Carlyle. Mind...