In the beginning, there was the novel by Nicholas Sparks. Same title as the musical which is based on the book"a runaway best seller. A consortium of over twenty producers (investors) joined…
The New Group is offering us a play called The Seven Year Disappear by Jordan Seaver. Directed by Scott Elliott, it is now running at The Signature Pershing Square Theatre on West 42nd Stree…
In the glorious days, a star like Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon, Alfred Drake, or a favorite of mine, Chita Rivera (whom we just lost), could lift mediocre material to the level of entertainment…
I spent some time in Sarasota in January as the Asolo Repertory Theatre is celebrating its 65th season. The Producing Artistic Director Peter Rothstein has announced an ambitious collection …
What we have here on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a consortium of over FIFTY "producers" who gathered together to sponsor a musical comedy"something to which they could take th…
The dazzling company of 24 gifted singers, dancers, and actors under the remarkably inventive direction and choreography of Josh Rhodes have brought to the St.James Theatre on 44th Street a …
A series of conflicting dates meant I had to wait until December 17 to see this musical at the Classic Stage Company where it opened in October and was extended to run through December 17th.…
This musical tribute to director/choreographer Graciela Daniele is beautiful to look at and mostly delightful to know. It was created musically by Michael John LaChiusa for Daniele"his good …
This s a tough review to write because this new musical at the Public Theatre is a prime example of what has happened to Broadway as we approach the middle of the 21s…
A visit to the Abingdon Theatre, a compact Off-Broadway Theatre on 42nd Street, felt to me like a visit to help an acquaintance through the very difficult final days of the life of the famil…
Ossie Davis is an actor and playwright"born in 1917"whose long career in theatre began in 1939 after his graduation from Howard University. He eventually made his Broadway debut in Jeb in 19…
Theresa Rebeck is a prolific, award winning playwright whose new play deals with an eccentric elderly gent who is an obsessive hoarder.We meet him as the curtain rises on his apartment where…
I had worked with Director Peter Flynn a number of times, both as an actor and as author when he staged two workshop productions in New York of a musical to which I'd written the book. I'…
In 1940 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart took hold of John O'Hara's original book, borrowed its title character, and brought to Broadway a somewhat cynical musical named for its central c…
This comedy by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon is currently running at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. It serves as a good example of the current trend of new work being presented by a consor…
The cover of the playbill for The Cottage, now playing at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway, is most promising. It is a painting of an English country cottage burgeoning with a group of wa…
There was once a play called The Days of Wine and Roses by J.P. Miller, and in 1962 it was filmed starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. Now, sixty years later, Adam Guettel has written …
I watched Oscar Levant on tv"primarily on the Jack Paar Show where he was an almost permanent guest, so popular were his many visits. Paar himself loved to chat with him about t…
The original production of this British musical is one I thoroughly enjoyed when i saw it in 1960. The New York City Center has now offered it to us again in its "Encores! series for a b…
Just as I was about to write off this season on Broadway's Musical Theatre Scene after many months of second rate offering in that category"shows that are so busy catering to rock and oth…
David Auburn's play breaks new ground opening with two women seated at the ends of a large table but facing us, the audience. Each individually recalls how their very dear friendship bega…
This musical tribute to "the city that never sleeps" is a love letter now running at the St. James Theatre on West 44th Street. It has some imperfections as does the city it celebrates; but …
Chita Rivera with Patrick Pacheco When I was a "baby agent" back in 1954, my job as a new recruit was to discover young performers, composers, writers. directors, and any others with talent …
There is an article in the Playbill for Fat Ham on Broadway that quotes the play's author James Ijames. In adapting Shakespeare's Hamlet, he tells us he only "intended to disrupt the source,…
I don't have the vocabulary to properly describe the miraculous work being done 8 times a week at the Music Box, where Bob Fosse's Dancin' is currently in residence. A company of 22 yo…