Musical Revivals: Purists Versus Radicals - Where to Draw the Line? By Barbara & Scott Siegel We didn’t used to have a big hubbub when a musical revival hit the boards on Broadway. Sure, a song might be added or dropped, a revision/cut...
Musical Revivals: Purists Versus Radicals - Where to Draw the Line? By Barbara & Scott Siegel We didn’t used to have a big hubbub when a musical revival hit the boards on Broadway. Sure, a song might be added or dropped, a revision/cut...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The Confession of Lily Dare - Another Charles Busch Comic Masterpiece! Charles Busch puts the amp in camp; his shows spark with comic electricity, lighting up stages with bright creative surprise. And his latest...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The Inheritance Both Broadway and Off-Broadway can boast a considerable number of truly great plays dealing with the AIDs crisis — many of them written and produced while in the midst of its worst years. The...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel We have not been writing this column for awhile, due in large part to Scott’s major Citibike accident that put him in the hospital for 19 days with a six month recovery period. That is not to say, however, that we have not...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Broadway is the destination for the vast majority of people who come to New York City for the theater. Of course, theater lovers with more time, more courage, and often with more discernment, seek out the plays and musicals...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel When we look back at theater history, we can see the ebb and flow of its many changes and pinpoint the reasons for its often seismic shifts, For instance, operettas, the rage in the 1920s, disappeared like...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Last year we wrote a column about the significant increase in the number of new shows on Broadway that featured Latin and Afro-American casts. This year, aside from Once On This Island, something different but...
by Barbara and Scott Siegel When the history of contemporary American theater is written, Nathan Lane will surely dominate in any chapters about our actors — and he’ll dominate in the chapter about musical theater actors just as much as he’ll soar above...
Sending a Message: From The Band’s Visit to Jerry Springer: The Opera By Barbara & Scott Siegel There is a famous quote, usually attributed to the famous Hollywood film director Frank Capra, who said, “If you want to send a...
The Serious Side of Gerard Alessandrini (or) Why Did Our Most Hilarious Musical Theater Parodist Conceive and Direct a Show Devoted to the Music of Maury Yeston? By Barbara & Scott Siegel When you think of Gerard Alessndrini, you think...
Songbook Summit, Charolais, Van Gogh’s Ear, and Prince of Broadway By Barbara & Scott Siegel In a new season that is, so far, more noteworthy for what is closing rather than for what is opening, we look to the mostly rare and...
Some Tony Talk Plus A Look at The Inspector General Come From Away (Jenn Colella) Photo: Matthew Murphy By Barbara & Scott Siegel The last thing you want to read is yet another column of Tony predictions by people who are no better at...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel We’re now in that time period when it seems like almost everyone is obsessed with all the new Broadway shows that opened just in time to get in under the wire for the Tony cut-off date. But in the mad...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel This Season’s Breakout Star Discovery… Not every season boasts a breakout star, but when it happens, there is never any doubt about it. Watching Christy Altomare, who plays the title character in the big budget...
A Welcome New Trend on Broadway: Homegrown Stars! By Barbara & Scott Siegel It wasn’t long ago when it was much remarked upon that the musical Memphis had become a hit Broadway show without using either TV or movie stars as its...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel At the elegantly produced Lortel Awards on Sunday night, it was noted that two of the four Broadway musicals competing for Outstanding Musical Tony Awards this season, and three of the four Broadway plays competing...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Some Things You Should Know About This Theater Award Season… The crazy theater awards game of who was snubbed and what was over-praised is now in full swing after the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Tony Awards...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel In 1964 Fiddler on the Roof opened the floodgates for Jewish related fare on Broadway. It’s not that there weren’t Jewish plays and musicals on Broadway before – consider shows as specific as Bagels & Yox (1951) and Milk...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Theatrical Elite: Patti LuPone, Christine Ebersole, John Leguizamo, Harvey Fierstein, Kevin Kline…They’re Back! As we head toward the end of the 2016-17 theater season, never quite knowing if the waterfall of...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The power of expectations: Church & State and The Glass Menagerie The way we react to a play depends a great deal upon our expectations. Lower the bar enough and a show can seem great compared to what you...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The Most Talented and Consistently Innovative, and Entertaining Director Working Off-Broadway: Jack Cummings, III Play after play, and season after season, when you step back and look at the Off Broadway shows...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Sweat Might Give The Public Theater the Tony Trifecta Back in the day, The Public Theater earned its place in the theatrical mainstream when, in 1968, Hair made its way from its downtown stage to Broadway. That...
When Truth Enhances Fiction: Theater Based on True Stories… By Barbara & Scott Siegel If the true story upon which the new Broadway musical Come From Away had been made up out of whole cloth, it would be consigned to the category of...
Death in the Theater: Everybody & Wakey, Wakey By Barbara & Scott Siegel With the recent passing of the Signature Theatre’s James Houghton, the company he founded – and some of the people he left behind – have turned...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel For all its awards, glowing reviews, and standing ovations at night, the secret truth about The Object Lesson at New York Theatre Workshop is that it is slow, tedious, and boring. At 100 minutes, it...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The British called their working class theater “Kitchen Sink Drama.” One is tempted to call the new American play created by the Neo-Futurists, “Everything Except The Kitchen Sink Drama” because in a brisk 90 minutes of playful,...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel The theatrical season is well under way, and many of our colleagues are already in a big sweat over the plethora of plays they are obligated to see. So far, however, the Summer and early Fall have not yielded a big...
The Siegel Column By Barbara & Scott Siegel Our Tony Award Predictions (plus who should win): Best Play The Humans It will win. It should win – because it’s the best play of the year, by far! That it happens to be an American play makes...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel Greatness? Two Plays: The Father & The Humans While musicals have historically accounted for approximately ninety percent of theater ticket sales during the modern Broadway era, the theatrical drama (with rare...
By Barbara & Scott Siegel It’s rather remarkable that in a season in which everyone knows that Hamilton is the odds-on favorite to sweep the Tony’s in most of the major creative categories, that there are so many other musicals choosing to...
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