by Hazen Cuyler   New Light Theater Project’s current production provides requisite holiday fare while exploring our alarming tendency to disappear from our loved ones lives. Charming and impactful, Everything is Super Great encourages togetherness by articulating the pain caused...

  By Myra Chanin   I arrived early at Don’t Tell Mama to watch Dean Benner and his Rockin’ Six-Piece Band’s Country Jukebox show and found myself at the end of a long line of compatriots who watched Mama’s Booking Manager Sidney Myer carrying unoccupied tables and chairs into Mama’s...

  by Adam Cohen   Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is given an animated, electric revival at Paper Mill Playhouse. The production is absolutely top notch, highly entertaining and extremely fun. Children of all ages will find themselves smiling from the opening notes. The story,...

    By Sandi Durell     There is only one, no, two possibilities when it comes to Callaway . . . Liz and Ann Hampton . . . the extraordinary sisters who don’t look alike nor sound alike but make sister music like nobody else, setting the evening’s tone from sparkling,...

By Ron Fassler   Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” is one of the most famous and expressive compositions in the classical repertoire. First written and performed around 1716-1717, great portions of it are easily recognizable by virtue of its having been co-opted over the years by...

  By Myra Chanin   Renee Katz is a buoyant, optimistic Cabaret star whose powerful, rapturous, playful soprano reminds many of her fans of Barbara Cook because, like Cook, Renee Katz sings with her whole heart in the same exquisitely intimate way Cook did. She also reminds me of...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   American playwright Matthew Lopez’s (The Legend of Georgia McBride) marathon play, The Inheritance, directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliott), comes to Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre after its multiple award-winning London run, produced by the Young Vic....

  By Argenis Ovalles     Step right up to a world of child-like wonder in Kit Goldstein Grant’s musical masterpiece, The Giant Hoax. Be ready to meet The Cardiff Giant (Daniel Moser). He doesn’t show himself for most part, but we do meet an imaginative version through Emily...

        By Sandi Durell   The cast and creative team of “Anything Can Happen in the Theater: The Musical World of Maury Yeston” met with the press at the York Theater today to present some of the musical numbers and provide interview time with Maury Yeston, Gerard...

  By Ron Fassler   Let’s start at the end, shall we? After entertaining a sold-out crowd at SubCulture in downtown Manhattan for nearly ninety minutes, Jason Robert Brown and Betty Buckley teased us with an introduction to their encore by detailing a story of how (after a...

  By Sandi Durell   The Green Room 42 was packed to the rafters with fans, friends and celebrities as the one and only host/impressario Daniel Dunlow welcomed the audience and Mark William unveiled his “grand sparklin” new show Feeling Good. William is on a track . . . the track to...

    by Edward Medina   At a time of great political uncertainty, in the shadow of an unprecedented presidential impeachment inquiry, in the wake of a two-party system wrenching the electorate this way and that with unceasingly maddening frequency, in the midst of all this...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   There can be no argument that Maury Yeston belongs in the pantheon of great musical theater composers. The 74-year-old New Jersey native has won Tony Awards for his scores of Nine and Titanic, as well as thrilled audiences with such shows as Phantom,...

  by Sandi Durell   Theater Pizzazz is always interested in getting to know about young theater companies and artistic directors on the rise not only in New York City, where so many blossom, but in the other boroughs. We seek to help get the word out and introduce them to...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   The fluidity of identity – the reality that both how we define ourselves and how others define us can change multiple times in our journey from cradle to tomb – is a subject that almost seems tailor-made for Will Eno, one of our most philosophically-minded...

    By Sandi Durell   What happens when you put two belters on a stage together . . . one a little older, the other a little younger? It’s the battle of the broads! The claws and feathers are flying! Well, not really, although the theme created was anything you can do, I can do...

  By Meredith Ganzman   Bring napkins and tissues to the new Broadway musical, A Christmas Carol. The first because the cast members, who are not playing holiday music before the show begins, are handing out and even throwing clementines and small bags of Tate’s chocolate chip...

    by Marcina Zaccaria   The debate floor is appropriately aged, with the orange curtains and the enormous IBM Selectric typewriters are set for Confidence (and The Speech), a play about the energy crisis and former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter. Confidence...

by Adam Cohen   Having a muse is a pretty handy thing, especially if you’re a genius physicist named Albert Einstein.  In the new musical “Einstein’s Dreams”, based on Alan Lightman’s novel, Einstein dallies and debates with his muse and advances his theory of relativity.  The dreams...

An Amusement Column     by Harry Haun     KENNY LEON AND ON AND ON: A young man from Atlanta if there ever was one (he still uses a 404 area-code phone), director Kenny Leon is hitting New York stages these days like a one-man ant farm, spinning theatrical plates all over...

    By Sandi Durell   Nothing like two loving legends colliding and making great music together. In this case, they are the winning duo of trumpet icon Herb Alpert and his Grammy winning wife Lani Hall (who sings in several languages). In the sumptuous environs of the Café...

By Ron Fassler If you don’t know who singer/songwriter Georgia Stitt is, you should. On Monday night at Birdland, she performed another iteration of her “& Friends” show, or as she puts it “& Best Freaking Voices in New York City.” And with such theatre professionals as Kate Baldwin,...

    By Melissa Griegel Photos by Melissa Griegel Photography http://griegelphoto.zenfolio.com    Rosie’s Theater Kids celebrated their 16th anniversary by honoring Elizabeth Matthews, CEO of ASCAP and comedian Ben Stiller at their annual gala hosted by Rosie O’Donnell on Monday,...

    by David Tane “Sing out, Louise!” commanded Mama Rose to her hesitant daughter in Ethel Merman’s tour de force, “Gypsy”.   Well, there was no hesitation tonight as Merkin Hall was filled with the glorious sound of the human voice, without the aid of microphones or other...

      By Sandi Durell   Never get in the way of two exceptional and powerful women pursuing their extraordinary careers – Marie Curie – two time Nobel Prize winner in two different scientific fields and Hertha Ayrton, British engineer, mathematician, physicist, inventor...

    CAAD Partners LLC & The Cutting Room Present “CHRISTMAS AIN’T A DRAG – A BIG BAND CABARET MUSICAL” in its NYC DEBUT on Saturday December 7th, at The Cutting Room. 44 East 32nd Street, NY, 10016. This rock’n cabaret musical was inspired by the big band era,...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   “Solea! Solea! Solea!” I would not have been surprised if those words had been shouted in unison as Solea Pfeiffer took her bows after turning in her absolutely outstanding performance in the title role of New York City Center’s often-exhilarating...

An Amusement Column         by Harry Haun   CAN’T SEE FORSTER FOR THE TREES: He arrived in movies on a horse bareback—bare everything, in fact–an object of festering obsession for Marlon Brando in John Huston’s 1967 Reflections in a Golden Eye, and he should...

    by Carol Rocamora   If you’re desperate for political theatre to illuminate our turbulent times, you never have to look further than Shakespeare. Watching the Druid Company’s mesmerizing, lacerating production of Richard III, we’re acutely reminded of tyrants on the world...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   Angela Lansbury spoke at Lincoln Center’s Library for the Performing Arts, as part of the League of Professional Theatre Women’s Oral History Project. The hour long talk began with an introduction by Ludovica Villar-Hauser. Then, Charlotte Moore,...

    by Alix Cohen   Betty Comden (1917-2006) and Adolph Green (1914-2002) collaborated for six immensely fertile decades resulting in 18 musicals, 9 screenplays and their own high spirited performing. Some of our most beloved musicals stemmed from the couple’s professional partnership....

    By Sandi Durell   When Brian Stokes Mitchell takes the stage at Feinstein’s/54 Below, the world is his oyster . . . brimming with impeccable musicianship, he is the epitome of the joyful storyteller of songs and tales. Think each song as a one-act play in his show entitled...

  Stephen Sondheim accepted the British honorary fellowship from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) at an intimate gathering of artists and special guests in New York. Mr. Sondheim said he’s been an Anglophile for a long time. . .and this is a continuing love affair. . .!...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   The title of William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst used a posthumous nickname by which poet Emily Dickinson will long be remembered. We might, however, want to remember another belle of Amherst, the fascinating Mabel Loomis Todd (1856-1932), who now, thanks to...

By Ron Fassler   Thirty years ago, Tommy Tune’s Grand Hotel: The Musical, opened on Broadway. Beautifully staged, and choreographed to the nth degree, it won five Tony Awards. But in a fight to the finish line, at the end of the evening, its chief rival (the more conventional and broader...

  by Carol Rocamora   You slide so gently and easily into this family scene. Though you may be in the audience, you feel as if you’re sitting with them around their kitchen table, a longtime friend, a welcome guest. The lights are warm, the atmosphere is cozy, the dress is casual,...

  Exciting things are happening at the Park Avenue Armory for its December production (December 5 thru January 11, 2020) of Judgment Day—the world premiere of Christopher Shinn’s new adaptation of Ödön von Horváth’s 1937 play. Chosen by acclaimed British theater director Richard Jones,...

    by Melissa Griegel Photos by Melissa Griegel Photography http://griegelphoto.zenfolio.com     The York Theatre Company’s 28th Annual Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala was a love-fest exalting the incredibly talented André de Shields (Hadestown). He was named this year’s...

  By Brian Scott Lipton     Usually, it’s not a nice thing to take audiences for a ride but Will Nunziata’s ambitious and highly entertaining concert staging of the 1974 musical Over Here, fittingly presented on Veteran’s Day (November 11) at the Triad Theater, proved to be a...

      by Michael Tingley   A tall, wooden sailboat sits on the coffee table of a meticulously well-furnished apartment in the Upper East Side. The sailboat signals to us to get ready, the calm before the storm will not last long. On some wall of this apartment, we will...

  By Sandi Durell   Nothing like those Callaways as they get ready to return to Feinstein’s/54 Below Nov. 26, 27, 29, 30 at 7 pm and Nov. 28 at 8 pm! The sisters are one-of-a-kind in harmony, humor and soaring sounds. Liz Callaway, Tony nominated star of Baby and Miss Saigon; Ann...

  By Marcina Zaccaria   There’s something exciting about what NYTW Next Door has done in presenting Fur by Migdalia Cruz, directed by Elena Araoz, produced by Boundless Theatre Company. At first, Fur is a bit harrowing to watch. Inside a cage, Citrona awaits the visitation of...

      By Samuel L. Leiter   Like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson is a fictional boy with supernatural powers who has earned widespread popularity in a series of books. Percy was created by a middle-school teacher named Rick Riordan, who entertained his son, afflicted—like...

  Bite of the Best is always busy! And that means food critic Bonnie Tandy LeBlang making her way from restaurant to restaurant to taste, savor and continue to report the yummy and not so yummy not only here in New York City, but stretching through the boroughs and around the world in...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   Fifty-one. Fun-sized. Full-voiced. Fashionable. Fearless. Flawless. Perhaps there’s a dictionary somewhere full of other “F” words to describe Kristin Chenoweth, but as anyone who sees her new Broadway concert For the Girls can attest, these adjectives will...

    By Samuel L. Leiter   Wikipedia lists 496 municipalities in Arkansas, none of them named Broadbend, the town in the title of the Transport Group’s unconventional, excellently performed, but problematic and ultimately unsatisfying new musical at The Duke on 42nd Street. The...

  An Amusement Column   by Harry Haun   MONDAY BLOODY MONDAY: With all the galas and benefits going on these days, you’d think somebody would come up with some kind of Calendar of Events so they don’t all collide on the same bloody night—but, no! Just grab your checkbooks and...

  By Tania Fisher   When one shows up to see a Lainie Kazan show, a certain amount of the unexpected is expected. A cross-generational pool of fans and devotees once again filled Feinstein’s/54 Below to bask in the presence of this entertainment industry legend. But on this...

        By JK Clarke   Edmond de Rostand’s 1897 play, Cyrano de Bergerac is a story that lends itself to reinterpretation and modernization. With a simple, straightforward theme about self-confidence (or lack thereof) and judgment based on superficial external traits,...

      By Sandi Durell   Having watched Mark William since he debuted his first show “Come Croon With Me” at The Green Room 42 last year, and subsequent revivals, there’s no doubt this young man has what I call the “it” factor. That show has now been released on his debut...

    By Sandi Durell   “I’m a Wizard everyday . . .” that about describes the incomparable Tony Winner Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate, Ragtime, Man of La Mancha) about to return to Feinstein’s/54 Below beginning November 12 -16 and November 18 – 23 at 7 pm in concert...

  by Alix Cohen   “Willkommen,” nods maestro Steve Ross from the piano, launching into Cole Porter’s lilting “Wunderbar” and Gus Kahn/Walter Jurman/Bronislau Kaper’s jaunty “San Francisco.” “What could be more oom pah pah mit schlag than “Wunderbar” and more American than “San...

    By Marilyn Lester   Some events in life seem absolutely cosmic. Imagine being a kid growing up, listening raptly to the music of Michel Legrand being played at home by a concert pianist father. Flash forward and imagine being mentored by this very composer and becoming one...

  The press met with Len Cariou, who will be playing the role of Harry (an 85 year old widower) in Harry Townsend’s Last Stand – a comedy with heart about fathers and sons – and Craig Bierko who plays Alan, his son. The play is written by George Eastman and directed by...

  by Edward Medina   The Seance Machine is a troubled production. It never seems to fully understand what it is or what it wants to be let alone what it wants to achieve. It’s billed as immersive theatre but its immersive theatre in its tritest form. Upon arriving at The Tank...

  Review by Meredith Ganzman   Wearing a skintight, red-hot leather mini dress, Tony Award-nominee, Adrienne Warren, effortlessly struts down a flight of stairs -in stilettos – to meet her roaring crowd. Playing living music legend Tina Turner, Warren’s entrance is one that...

  The Lincoln Center Fall Gala raised over $4 million in support of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and featured star-studded appearances and performances on the Adrienne Arsht Stage at Alice Tully Hall: Kelli O’Hara, Jane Lynch, Lynn Ahrens, Harolyn Blackwell, Sierra Boggess,...

By Sandi Durell     Currently starring in Scotland, Pa, Ryan McCartan will make his solo debut at Feinstein’s/54Below on Nov. 11 & Dec. 9 at 7 pm. Ryan is not only making waves at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, but will more than impress you as a music producer doing his thing...

  by Edward Medina   The true measure of an individual is the life they have lead. Not necessarily the life they have chosen for themselves, because often times fate intervenes and changes the paths we set ourselves upon, but it’s what we do with the opportunities put before us that...

  by Edward Medina   This past Halloween the trick or treating denizens of New York City, who managed to grab a hard to get ticket to the Feinstein’s 54 Below antics of Bonnie Milligan and Natalie Walker starring in their self-created production of The Graveyard Smash, were...

    By Sandi Durell   Melissa Errico’s Michel Legrand show ‘An Even Grander Affair’ extends the celebration and uniqueness of the man who made a great emotional impact not only in her life but her parents (you’ll hear some of the saucy stories that perked a young girls interest...

    by Adam Cohen George Street Playhouse kicks off their new season in a gorgeous space within the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center with the New Jersey premiere of “Last Days of Summer.”  The show is a new musical awash in sepia tones.  And largely concerns itself with a...

    by Adam Cohen   What to make of Liza Birkenmeier’s play “Dr. Ride’s American Beach House”?  Is it a rueful meditation on stumbling into adulthood and avoiding coming to terms with our life choices?  A fun house mirror cautionary tale of wallowing in life and relationship...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   With the 90th birthday of the great Stephen Sondheim set to occur on March 22, 2020, we’ll be hearing plenty of the theatrical master’s music and lyrics on Broadway, in concert halls, and in cabarets over the next several months. Fortunately, there...

  by Matt Smith   ”Come little children I’ll take thee away / into the land of enchantment / Come little children, the time’s come to play / here in my garden of magic…” That’s right… the infamous candle was once again aglow last Monday night when Dani, Max, Allison, Binx,...

  By Marilyn Lester   What fun! And for a worthy cause too— The International Rescue Committee (see more, below). Slay It With Music, book and lyrics by Michael Colby, music by Paul Katz, is a madcap musical first produced Off Broadway in 1989. This abridged version at The Green...

An Amusement Column       by Harry Haun       MUSICAL MYTHS AND MISSTEPS: Merely Marvelous: The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon, the documentary anecdote to the abrasive Fosse/Verdon miniseries, has been performing swimmingly on Amazon Prime Video for the past six...

          By Sandi Durell   The weekend conference (Nov. 1-3) is filled with seminars, meetings and events to strengthen how journalists, reviewers and critics can best write and speak about the multitude of shows they see during the course of a season from...

The Mabel Mercer Foundation’s 30th NY Cabaret Convention ended on 10/31 after four successful nights of music and song at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall.     by Linda Amiel Burns   For 30 years, the Mabel Mercer Foundation (founded by the late impresario Donald Smith) has presented...

    by Alix Cohen   This evening’s salute to Judy Garland’s extraordinary 45 year career is bookended by “That’s Judy,” a parody of Howard Dietz/Arthur Schwartz’ “That’s Entertainment.” Penned by Jerry Herman, the song is performed by amiable co-hosts Klea Blackhurst and John...

    Few artists are more in demand, or should we say “popular,” than Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth, who will be dazzling all kinds of audiences over the coming weeks. On November 8, she begins an 8-performance run of her new Broadway concert, For The Girls, at the Nederlander...

        By Steve Nardoni   In celebration of Halloween this year, Sondheim Unplugged showcased two excellent landmark musicals: the grand guignol Sweeney Todd and the fairytale cum “lessons for adults,” Into the Woods. And consistent with this series and the venue of...

  By Myra Chanin     Frank Loesser is considered one of the most versatile of all Broadway composers. He started out writing lyrics for Hollywood movies and ended up writing complete scores for Tony winning musicals. He was born in the summer of 1929 when men were lighting...

  Review by Michael Tingley   Cabarets are a type of time machine, and an evening with Jillian Laurain is a particularly lovely one as the band plays and stepping out on the cabaret stage at Don’t Tell Mama, is Jillian Laurain,a seasoned professional – renowned for her opera...

    By Sandi Durell   My most recent encounter with actress, singer-songwriter Mare Winningham was at the Public Theater in the award winning The Girl From The North Country (Conor McPherson/Bob Dylan) and her memorable performance as the mentally challenged wife Elizabeth....

Celia Keenan-Bolger, Eva Price, and Level Forward Honored at October 28th Event to Celebrate Women’s and Trans Rights   by Melissa Griegel   If Laura Benanti ever decides to leave Broadway, she can have a new career as a stand-up comedienne. The theme of the ACLU/NYCLU Broadway...

    Photos by Genevieve Rafter Keddy   The Drama League honored Sutton Foster at the organization’s 36th Annual Benefit Gala this fall. The black-tie evening honoring Foster – a two-time Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, Fred Astaire, and Gracie Award winner...

    By Myra Chanin   Ricky Ritzel’s Broadway, now in its Fourth Consecutive Award-Winning Year at Don’t Tell Mama is a totally unique, frequently poignant, relentlessly hilarious and tenaciously outrageous, once-a-month One Night Stand. Its vitality and verve grow out of the...

    By Marcina Zaccaria   Now in its ninth Year, All for One has featured some of the best solo performance in NYC. When we look at solo work, we look for the dynamic potential in the individual, the build in action, and all those fissures, the little breaks through which life...

    By Brian Scott Lipton   It was already dark outside when the 30th New York Cabaret Convention began on Monday night, but there were plenty of stars inside Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center providing a wealth of bright moments for its opening program: “The Sunny Side of...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   A remarkable development during the 1970s was the dynamic, sudden, and historically significant breakout of activity among black dramatists, mostly in nonprofit theatres. However, a then record-breaking nine works also made it to the Great White Way. Two—The...

  By Carol Rocamora   Inspiration often comes from the most unexpected sources. In the case of the American playwright David Henry Hwang, it was a stabbing on the streets of Brooklyn in 2015 that left him close to death. From that traumatic event came the idea for Soft Power, his...

  EXTENDED THRU DECEMBER 22   By Sandi Durell   Pulitzer Prize Finalist Theresa Rebeck’s (Bernhardt/Hamlet) latest comedy dish, Seared, tastes good. It even smells good in Harry’s (Four time Tony Nominee Raul Esparza) well-stocked but small kitchen in Park Slope, Brooklyn...

  By Marilyn Lester   The York Theatre Company’s Musicals in Mufti Series is a real blessing. Over its 25-year history, Mufti has presented the rare opportunity for theater works of the past to be seen and experienced again. With 1940’s Panama Hattie, what’s resulted is the mounting...

 An Amusement Column                                                              by Harry Haun   A STAR IS STILLBORN?: Paper Mill Playhouse stopped Chasing Rainbows Sunday, and nobody—least of all the producers—will say whether the show is going forward or, indeed, going at all. This...

    by Alix Cohen   Continuing successful monthly residency at the intimate Beach Café, Karen Akers gives us an evening of Cole Porter, accompanied by Alex Rybeck, epitomizing both his wry sophistication and tenderness. The show is clear effort to bring cheer to an audience...

  by Carol Rocamora   I still can’t get used to it. The Shakespearean tragedy known as “the Scottish play” – whose name we dared not utter for fear of incurring the wrath of the theatre gods – is now the one most frequently revived in New York and London. I count almost...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   Rakugo is a Japanese storytelling genre going back hundreds of years. The brief description in my Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre says: A narrative art in which a single reciter tells stories, often comic, while seated on a small...

      By Sandi Durell   An encounter with the character of Bernie Madoff immediately raises red light signals that flash scoundrel, deceitful, liar, insincere . . . you know the kind, expensively dressed, big talker, know-it-all, never admitting any wrong doing. And such...

    By Ron Fassler   If a play is presented to the theatergoing public as a thriller it has to offer a thrill or two. And as a personal fan of the genre, I live in hope of the comeback it richly deserves. Broadway hasn’t given us a successful one since Ira Levin’s Deathtrap...

    By Sandi Durell   And such is the setting for the fierce and feisty Bella Abzug, know for her numerous hats and years of activism as a leading feminist lawyer who fought the battles for women and the less fortunate – the true liberal of the day. Harvey Fierstein, a great...

  by Alix Cohen     Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family who valued culture and traveled extensively. Determined to be an artist, she studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then lived in Paris, already acquainted with the city, fluent in...

  By Samuel L. Leiter   My ho-hum response to Adam Rapp’s widely lauded The Sound Inside, starring Mary-Louise Parker, brings to mind a common critics’ problem. The job requires offering objective reasons for subjective reactions, which can raise the hackles of those with different...