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...

  by Matt Smith   The New York Pops were alive and kickin’ on March 15 when the feted and fabulous orchestra closed out their landmark 36th season with a wide-ranging salute to cinema’s best and brightest at the famed Carnegie Hall. Blending old-timey Oscar winners with modern movie...

  By Brian Scott Lipton   Will you feel taken for a ride if you head to Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater to take in John Guare’s “Nantucket Sleigh Ride”? Without question, this shaggy dog tale is a far cry from Guare’s best works, such as the socially incisive “Six Degrees of...

  By Sandi Durell   When you solo at the age of 5 as a performer, live in a household where Mom is a professional pianist (young Mark spending a fair amount of time in an orchestra pit), and fall in love with musical theater in high school after seeing Beauty and the Beast . . ....

  By Sandi Durell   The topic of bullying and violence is on our minds and in our daily lives. Open a television, newspaper, internet or online publication and there it is, growling in its ugliness. However, in the artful hands of playwright Michael McKeever (Daniel’s Husband), it...

  Riveting Theater (with Puppets) – Allow me to share an experience     By Alix Cohen   Ashes Dag (about 16” tall) is walking through a haze. He looks-haunted. Kinetic, animal-like head turns snap in all directions. He mutters to himself, laughs, flicks a lighter...

  By Alix Cohen   Zero Mostel put an indelible stamp on Tevye (Fiddler on The Roof), Yul Brynner on the King of Siam (The King and I); Jason Robards was perhaps our best interpreter of Eugene O’Neill. Two of these characters are fictional, one fictionalized. None of the performers...

    By Ron Fassler   There is a program note in Chisa Hutchinson’s new play from the author herself that says: “This play is my answer to the White Savior Narrative, a simple assertion that you don’t have to be a particular race or age or class, for that matter—to be a blessing...

      by Cathy Hammer   Despite there now being three Muslims serving in the US Congress, sadly still we see very few represented in our local artistic culture. Though no one Muslim character can mirror all of what one of the world’s great religions stands for, the arrival...

          by Samuel L. Leiter   There are a lot of Jewish jokes in A Jewish Joke, Marni Freedman and Phil Johnson’s not-up-to-expectations solo play, in which Johnson portrays a comedy screenwriter suspected by the FBI in 1950 of subversive associations. Now at...

  The new play Smart Blonde starring Andrea Burns held a press meet and greet and Theater Pizzazz was on the scene with Maryann Lopinto on camera. 59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is presenting the New York premiere of Smart Blonde written by...

  By Ron Fassler   For one-night only, it was actor and singer Jeremy Jordan’s turn to sit in a well-upholstered chair (as if in a living room) beside the masterful host and musical accompanist, Seth Rudetsky, for an evening of songs and stories at Town Hall. Jordan, a veteran of...

  It was, undoubtedly, one of the most exciting opening nights when Be More Chill hit the Great White Way on March 10, 2019 – –  screaming fans at a hi-octane level inside and outside the theater and Gotham Hall for the after party.  And the beat goes on! Theater...

  By Brian Scott Lipton     Isabelle Huppert sits silently on the world’s longest white leather couch for seemingly countless minutes on the stage of the Atlantic Theater before Florian Zeller’s drama, “The Mother,” actually begins, leading audience members to wonder if this...

  by Michael Bracken   All too often, a musical starts with a rousing opening number, only to deflate by the second act or even the second song. Superhero, presented by 2ndStage at the Tony Kiser Theater, delivers a welcome, if imperfect, change of pace by traveling in the opposite...

      Sunday, March 10 saw the Opening Night of the Broadway Musical Be More Chill at The Lyceum Theatre, followed by a grand after party at Gotham Hall. The story of teens coping with popularity, or lack thereof. When Jeremy is introduced to a computer chip called a...

  By Sandi Durell   By now I think most theatergoers know about the history of BMC that opened last night on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre. It has an interesting cult history when a novel written by late Ned Vizzini, was lovingly taken under the wing at Two River Theater in NJ and...

  by Michael Bracken   Tori Sampson, whose If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka just opened at Playwrights Horizons, knew as a black child that “very rarely” was her complexion considered beautiful.  She says she wanted to use a folktale in a contemporary way to examine “why the...

        by Carol Rocamora   It’s a wild ride, so fasten your seat belts. Marys Seacole, now playing at Lincoln Center’s tiny Claire Tow Theater, will alternately shock you, bewilder you, infuriate you, amaze you . . . and leave you with a huge helping of food for...

        In Space, everyone can hear Molly scream.     by JK Clarke   Society’s fascination with outer space is well documented, and has been since long before the first rocket ship exited the atmosphere. The exploration of deep space is a frequent subject of...

  by Carol Rocamora   “I’d rather make $800 playing a maid than $8 a week being one.”  Those were the fighting words of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American ever to win an Academy Award (for the role of “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind, 1939). And now, years later, playwright...

  The Cast and Creatives of INK met with the press on March 5. Theater Pizzazz’ Shoshana Medney was on the scene to capture it all, including interviews. Written by Olivier Award winning playwright James Graham and directed by two-time Olivier Award winning direct Rupert Goold, the...

  by Cathy Hammer   Anyone who has been in a long term relationship has likely experienced a “song and dance” argument. One person says that thing, the other responds with that other thing, and they’re off, running the same unproductive angry routine. Certainly that is what Julie...

  By Ron Fassler   Although Betsy Wolfe has titled her first-time solo cabaret show at Feinstein’s/54 Below “All Bets Are Off,” she could easily have called it “Here’s the Deal,” one of the go-to phrases she used throughout her fabulous 70-minute set last night. It made me think...

          by JK Clarke   Since its Broadway debut in 1964, Fiddler on the Roof has remained largely unchanged, and maintained its status as an emotive and poignant musical that touches the hearts of all, with both a powerful story arc and classic, catchy songs....

        By Samuel L. Leiter   Audiences investing time and money in seeing New Light Theater Project’s production of Imagining Madoff, Obie-winning Deb Margolin’s (Turquoise) brainy take on the greatest financial swindler of our times, probably know of Bernard...

  By Steve Nardoni   So what if one could be in an audience and get to hear songs by Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others, all with a saloon singer, a comedienne, a sultry vamp, an accomplished actress, a political commentator, a cabaret star, a Parisian chanteuse,...

    By Tania Fisher   The stylish Café Carlyle fills quickly with happy patrons whose eager anticipation only becomes heightened as they wait patiently for the arrival of their beloved elfish and youthful-voiced 80s pop-folk star, Suzanne Vega. She was the serene, clean, and...

  by Sandi Durell   The co-production of Vineyard Theatre and The New Group’s ‘Daddy’ at The Pershing Square Signature Center (The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre) is a searing revelatory peek into the world of dominance, control, human behavior, emotional fragility, religion and...

        by Brian Scott Lipton   “Follow the directions,” North Carolina bakeshop owner Della (the marvelous Debra Jo Rupp) implores us at the start of The Cake, now receiving its New York debut at Manhattan Theatre Club, Stage I. And while I have no idea what...

“We’re all of humanity, whether we like it or not.”     by Carol Rocamora   That may be a line from Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, but it also belongs in the stunning revival of Boesman and Lena, Athol Fugard’s tragedy of race and poverty, now playing at the Signature Theatre....

      By Tania Fisher   Urban Stages once again brings top quality theater and well-deserved exposure to new writers, with Death of a Driver written by the talented recipient of the “Emerging Playwright Award,” Will Snider. Snider provides an intriguing and entertaining...

  by Carol Rocamora   It’s a challenge to write an apocalyptic comedy about the end of the world, isn’t it? That makes Madeleine George’s new play all the more impressive an achievement. A lively screwball comedy with a dead-serious theme, Hurricane Diane is loosely based on The...

      Deborah Grace Winer presents The Classic American Songbook Series on March 24 at 7 and 9:30 pm featuring George and Ira Gershwin’s inimitable songwriting style and classic songs. The brothers wrote into the wee hours as the glitterati of Broadway came and went; and Ethel...

    By Martha Wade Steketee   Deep moody melodies, a dark Yiddish lullaby, a few standards, and a smattering of singer-songwriter staples inform the splendid cabaret offering by veteran performer Joanna Gleason at 54 Below. This Broadway baby and artful songstress has crafted a...

Award winning playwright (Emmy Award and 7-times Writers Guild award-winner) Anna Theresa Cascio’s new play St. Peter’s Foot touches on abortion and right of choice, as well as lifestyle decisions that many couples make: to live a child-free life. The storyline, says Anna,  grew out of a...

          by Sheila Watko   What happens when you cross Bring It On with Scream, add an incredible girl power cast and throw in some Broadway-pop music for good measure? You get We Are The Tigers, the new musical from Preston Max Allen (directed by Michael Bello)...

  by Alix Cohen   In the 1950s, lyric soprano Barbara Cook made a splash with ingénue roles in successive musicals. Work became less frequent in the 60s, and by the 70s the artist was struggling with obesity and alcoholism. Composer/arranger Wally Harper became her collaborator in...

The Price of Thomas Scott Offers Social Themes, a Dutiful Daughter and Dance Breaks     by Martha Wade Steketee (review as originally published in Urban Excavations, Feb. 20, 2019)   The Mint Theater will unfurl a trio of plays this season by Elizabeth Baker (1876-1962), a...

  By Ron Fassler   If I were granted a wish to travel back in time and see any one entertainer of the 20th century strut their stuff on a nightclub stage, it would be Sammy Davis, Jr. As my spot of choice, I would choose Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, in the hopes I would...

*See All Your Favorite Performers Right Here on Video! Photos/Video by Shoshana Medney   Patti Murin, Jenny Laroche and Julie Gold  joined New York Yankees legend and Latin Grammy-nominee, Bernie Williamsand his brother, Hiram Williams, appearing together for the first time at the event....

  Fresh on the heels of starring in Spamilton and Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Nicole Vanessa Ortiz will make her debut at Feinstein’s/54 Below on March 7, 2019 at 9:30 pm in Becoming Her: A Diva’s Tribute . As a child, Nicole was inspired by female vocalists and used her gifts,...

  2019 MAC AWARD NOMINEES REVEALED! The Manhattan Association of Cabarets (MAC) is pleased to announce the 2019 MAC Award nominees. The nominees, in a majority of the categories, were determined by votes cast by the active MAC membership. Special committees selected the nominees in the...

  By Myra Chanin   Once upon a time there lived senior-ita, known for her veneration of mid-to-high culture, who acquired an Art Deco-ish abode with a view of a pond populated by perpetually quacking ducks in the land where boredoms – note the plural – reign supreme. The tale has a...

Broadway By The Year celebrates 19th Season with a concert of musicals born in the years 1928 and 1935 at The Town Hall on Monday, February 25, 2019   by Linda Amiel Burns   After nearly 20 years celebrating the songs, anecdotes, and behind the scenes stories of the great American musicals of...

          by Brian Scott Lipton   Lewis Carroll’s Victorian-era masterpiece Alice in Wonderland has sparked the theatrical imagination of such diverse talents as Eva Le Gallienne, Elizabeth Swados and Frank Wildhorn. Now, in Alice By Heart, at the Robert W....

  Critically acclaimed for her roles on Broadway in The Last Five Years, Falsettos and now off her shift at Waitress, Betsy Wolfe is one of musical theater’s keenly intelligent performers. She makes her Feinstein’s/54 Below debut March 6 thru 9 at 7 pm about the magical,...

  by Adam Cohen Turning Vladimir Nabokov’s classic novel Lolita into a musical took incredible chutzpah.  The show hadn’t made it to New York until the York Theater Company’s Musicals in Mufti series took it on.  Despite a score by John Barry and book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, the...

  by Adam Cohen   Jack Viertel and Deborah Grace Winer remind me of my high school Social Studies teacher – knowledgeable and dogged.  The classes were not lectures but impassioned conversations filled with possibilities for further exploration. Viertel has a passion for Broadway...

  by Matt Smith   “You better call the cops and give ‘em warning / Sound the siren, bang the bell / A main marine rolls in this morning / On his way to raise some hell….” Though they may not have adhered to the lyrics as exactly as they are written, there’s no question the party was...

  By Marilyn Lester   What other way to introduce an evening of Johnny Mercer tunes than with the title song, a prime Mercer classic (music by Hoagy Carmichael), followed closely by “Come Rain Or Come Shine,” co-written with the equally gifted composer Harold Arlen. Therein began an...

  Opening Night of Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (directed by Joel Grey) at Stage 42 (422 West 42 Street) on February 21 brought out a bevy of celebs such as:   Blair Brown, Ariana DeBose, Harvey Fierstein, Sutton Foster, Jennifer Grey, Clark Gregg, Agnes Gund, Rebecca Naomi Jones,...

  Tony Award winner Joanna Gleason returns to Feinstein’s/54 Below with her new show, Out Of The Eclipse on March 1 and 2 at 7 pm. With songs by Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim, Brian Wilson, Sam Phillips, Rodgers and Hart, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Van Morrison, Nanci Griffith, Paul...

  by Carol Rocamora   In its tumultuous 38-year-history, Merrily We Roll Along has had more drafts, cuts, revisions and rewrites than almost any of Stephen Sondheim’s great works.  It’s criss-crossed “the pond” several times, morphed through numerous productions, and changed many...

by Shoshana Medney Freestyle Love Supreme is an experience singular to this creative cast. FLS has a core team with Anthony Veneziale (Two Touch), Chris Sullivan (Shockwave), Utkarsh Ambudkar (UTK the INC), Bill Sherman (King Sherman), Arthur Lewis (Arthur the Genius) and Andrew Bancroft...