301 stories by "Ron Fassler"
The marquee of the now demolished George Abbott Theatre proudly displaying Cassius Clay in "Buck White" (1969).December 6, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
Fifty-six …
Matt Kurzyniec outside the Palace Theatre where he recently made his Broadway debut in "Beetlejuice."December 1, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
It doesn't get much bett…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Friends who have been performing together in tandem for almost twenty-two years, Christine Ebersole, a two-time Tony Award winning actress and Billy Stritch…
Raul Esparza as J.J. Hunsecker in MasterVoices' "Sweet Smell of Success."November 25, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
Most people have never heard of the musical Sweet …
"TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)": AN UNWIELDY TITLE FOR AN UNUSUALLY WONDERFUL NEWÂ MUSICAL
Sam Tutty and Christiani Pitts in "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)" (…
Book review by Samuel L. Leiter Casual notes on show-biz books, memoirs and studies, dust gatherers, and hot off the presses. David Armstrong. Broadway Nation: How Immigrants, Jewish, Que…
Icke, Strong, and Manville update Sophocles for a modern political tragedy. In 1959, Elmer Rice wrote Cue for Passion, a Broadway play that adapted Shakespeare's Hamlet into contemp…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Sometimes a play begins and within minutes you can tell that you're in the hands of a playwright, director and cast that are not only on the same page but have do…
Laurie Metcalf as Sarah and Micah Stock as Ethan in "Little Bear Ridge Road" (photo by Julia Cervantes).November 13, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
In 1984, I attended…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Now in its 55th year, the 92NY Lyrics & Lyricists Series is as essential to New York City as such other venerable institutions as Shakespeare in the Park and …
Mike Nichols and Neil Simon in an empty theatre in the 1960s, eyes forward towards the stage.November 7, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler.
Mike Nichols, born ninety-fo…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . While sitting through Kyoto, which opened this week at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, I couldn't help being reminded of several other recent plays best described …
Review by Ron Fassler . . . When George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion first premiered in London in 1914, it boasted two of the greatest stars of the British Theatre as its leads: Herbert Be…
By Ron Fassler . . . I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Linda Purl, an actress and singer with decades in the business. Her resume includes starring in over 45 made-for-TV movie…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . "This is a play about my mother. For my mother. Who recently . . . who's not here anymore. And so, it's about her, and her friends, her beautiful friends"and a th…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Oscar Hammerstein II's words to Jerome Kern's melody "The Song is You," could have been written to perfectly describe the songstress Marilyn Maye: Beautiful rhaps…
Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . . Art of Leaving is the unpropitious title of an amateurish new domestic comedy by Anne Marilyn Lucas, whose cardboard dialogue and plywood acting had me po…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . The 34-year-old Ari'el Stachel is blessed with charm for days. Anyone who saw his Tony Award-winning performance in The Band's Visit were enchanted by his i…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . Eleven months ago, the City Center Annual Gala Presentation of Ragtime, minimally staged by director Lear DeBessonet, received excellent reviews (mine am…
By Alex Eichholz . . . ​For a show that opens with the line "Prepare to be GOOPED!", I was neither gooped nor gagged by Gwyneth Goes Skiing, which opened tonight at SoH…
Sam Robards, Victoria Clarke, Camila Canó-Flaviá, and Will Harrison in "Punch" (photo by Matthew Murphy).October 13, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler
If you've n…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . It is with only a fleeting awareness of her media persona that I attended The Least Problematic Woman in the World, Dylan Mulvaney's solo autobiographical p…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . When the lights go up on Preston Max Allen's new play Caroline, which opened tonight at off-Broadway's MCC Theater, we see a 28-year-old mother (Chloë Grace…
Review by Ron Fassler . . . The one time I attended Scotland's Edinburgh Fringe Festival was forty years ago. I saw play after play and was charmed by much of the theatre, though a bit surpr…
Review by Alex Eichholz . . . Whether you're in the front pew every Sunday or you've never set foot in a chapel, you must let the dazzling company of the new musical Saturday Church, which o…
