By Elizabeth Ahlfors Outside Town Hall there was a heat wave and inside the...
Araberlin
By Elizabeth Ahlfors “Your identity has nothing to do with your passport.” An observation that proves increasingly valid today. In a U.S. premiere at the Horizon Theatre Rep, Jalila Baccar’s...
Cheyenne Jackson...
by: Elizabeth Ahlfors It was a hot sticky evening on Broadway but Cheyenne Jackson, was as cool and hip as a matinee idol in a black tie and white dinner jacket. A triple threat entertainer, he has a lot more to offer, however, than tall, dark, handsome...
The Most Dangerous...
Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors In the infamous McCarthy era of the early ’50’s, proof wasn’t necessary to create headlines and destroy lives. Accusations swept across the country, ferreting out suspects in films, theater...
A Beautiful Day in...
Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors What is more All-American than the annual family dinner, say Thanksgiving? Playwright Kate Benson decides to give this traditional domestic comedy/tragedy an imaginative bizarre twist. She keeps all the traditional elements except...
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!
From All of Us at TheaterPizzazz – – Wishing you and yours a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful 2015 May all your dreams become realities and all your efforts great achievements. Sandi Durell – JK Clarke – Brian Scott Lipton – Joel Benjamin –...
TheaterPizzazz...
The professional and discerning reviewers that make up the backbone of TheaterPizzazz have weighed in with their TOP 5 PICKS in THEATER and CABARET for 2014. THEATER PICKS: Sandi Durell Our Lady of Kibeho The...
The Invisible Hand
By Elizabeth Ahlfors While Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize winner, Disgraced, currently runs on Broadway, Akhtar’s off-Broadway suspenseful thriller, The Invisible Hand, appears blocks downtown at New York Theatre Workshop, and is perhaps even more timely. Still...
Brent Barrett...
Cabaret Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors Brent Barrett has performed the work of numerous songwriters, Alan Jay Lerner, Maury Yeston, Stephen Sondheim, the Gershwins, but he seems to have a special affinity for the...
Tony DeSare in...
NY Cabaret Review: Elizabeth Ahlfors Move over, Michael Bublé and Peter Cincotti, Tony DeSare is the man to watch. This talented singer/pianist has a new meticulously crafted show, Night Life, at 54 Below where he musically wanders through the “chill still of the...
Love Letters
NY Theater Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors “You gotta have heart,” as the song goes, and A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters has plenty of that. This is a play that could run indefinitely. Skip a few years between productions and add different actors and actresses to...
Dirt
NY Theater Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors “What is your story?” Dirt, is the story of Sad, an Iraqi-born rose peddler played with stunning immediacy by Christopher Domig. Sad is one of the illegals struggling on the fringes of society, isolated by...
Olympics Über Alles
NY Theater Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors Greeting the audience are Adolph Hitler’s words about the 1936 Olympics in Berlin projected on the St. Luke’s Theater screen. “The sportive knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn’t separate,...
Pianist of...
NY Theater Review by Elizabeth Ahlfors Accompanying herself with the theatricality of classical piano pieces, Mona Golabek’s one-woman memoir tells the arresting story of 14-year-old piano prodigy, Lisa Jura. In 1938, Lisa is forced to leave the security of her...
Pat Kirkwood is...
NY Theater Reivew By Elizabeth Ahlfors Why was Pat Kirkwood so angry? In her heyday, the golden cabaret and theater age of the British musical comedy, she was a vibrant, persuasive vocalist with a sassy wit. The Telegraph called her the “British...
The Lovesong of...
NY Theater Review By Elizabeth Ahlfors “I can’t live – I can only imagine,” said Alfred Hitchcock, creator of film masterpieces like Psycho, Foreign Correspondent and Rear Window. His films are entrées to Hitchcock’s life. In David...
Cripple of Inishmaan
By Elizabeth Ahlfors It’s dark humor over kind hearts, humorous and heartbreaking but The Cripple of Inishmaan, directed by Michael Grandage (Red) at the Cort Theater with Daniel Radcliffe, and a keen ensemble, deliver it all with bittersweet humanity. The...
Clark Warren: Lucky...
Jazz and Standards with a Twist By Elizabeth Ahlfors Clark Warren is a dapper silver-haired daddy with a hip jazz knack to his music. Early in the show, he announced he is now officially a “geezer.” If “geezer” means tangy and provocative,...
Cheyenne Jackson...
By Elizabeth Ahlfors Cheyenne Jackson — now there is eye candy and ear candy for any stage. He made a splash in 2009 on Broadway with All Shook Up, and he’s been shaking up fans from then on, appearing in concert halls, theaters,...
Tales From Red...
By Elizabeth Ahlfors Vienna in 1920. It is the post-war period, the government is Communist, society is grim and sometimes a gal’s gotta do what a gal’s gotta do. Ever since Heléna Altman’s husband was reported killed by a grenade in World War I,...
All the Way –...
By Elizabeth Ahlfors In Robert Schenkkan’s All The Way, Bryan Cranston grasps the role of President Lyndon B. Johnson and doesn’t let go for almost three hours. No easy task. LBJ, who called himself “the accidental President”,...
Steve Ross –...
By Elizabeth Ahlfors Still the “Crown Prince of Cabaret,” Steve Ross debuted on St. Patrick’s Day at Birdland, “the jazz corner of the world.” With a salute to Cole Porter, that dapper aristocrat of song, he packed the house with Ross fans,...
About Us –...
Sandi Durell is Publisher/Editor of TheaterPizzazz.com an entertainment website featuring a variety of writer voices. Sandi has been writing, reviewing, producing and having a voice in theater, cabaret and the entertainment community for over 30+ years. She is a Voting Member of the Drama...