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Paulanne Simmons
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Off-Broadway Review: CIRQUE LE SWING (Immersive Supper Club Experience at Swing 46)
SWING ON IN! If you want to have the time of your life, you can’t do better than get a ticket for Cirque Le Swing, an immersive supper-club experience that combines a three-course dinner, jazz standards and acrobatics for an evening of sizzling entertainment. The audience arrives early for a Happy Hour at the bar….
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Concert Review: FROM STAGE TO SCREEN (The New York Pops at Carnegie Hall)
THE BRIDGE FROM THE GREAT WHITE WAY TO TINSELTOWN AND BACK AGAIN The New York Pops’ concert From Stage to Screen at Carnegie Hall promised a night of crossover magic last Friday—songs that leapt from Broadway to Hollywood and back again—and, under Steven Reineke’s spirited baton, it delivered in Technicolor. The evening’s guest artists, Hugh…
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Off-Broadway Review: HANNAH SENESH (National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at Theater Row)
People, especially oppressed people, need martyrs. And Jews, although now considered part of the white establishment by some, have been oppressed for centuries. They have found their martyr in Hannah Senesh. She was a Hungarian poet and playwright, one of 37 Jewish volunteers from the Palestine Mandate who were trained by the British during World…
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Theater Review: CROOKED CROSS (Mint Theatre)
THIS GRIPPING PRODUCTION IS A GEM — AND A WARNING Sally Carson began writing Crooked Cross while on vacation in Bavaria. This was in the early 1930s when Hitler was just rising to power. It’s a pity more people didn’t read her book. The novel, and later the play which she adapted from it, are…
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Cabaret Review: WASTED GIRL (Artemisia LeFay at 54 Below)
You might have thought it was the 1920s, and you were in a cabaret in Berlin. But it was really 2025 and you were in 54 Below watching Artemisia LeFay perform her new show, Wasted Girl. A rising star in the cabaret world, thanks to her two past shows, Ghosts of Weimar Past and Phantoms of the…
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Concert Review: FLAMING SEPTEMBER (Justin Vivian Bond at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church)
MORE FAITHFULL THAN EVER According to Justin Vivian Bond, thirty-five years ago, upon hearing Marianne Faithfull’s album Blazing Away recorded at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn, Viv said, “Someday I’m going to play her.” Then Arts at St. Ann’s moved to DUMBO in 2001 and became St. Ann’s Warehouse. But now, at last, as St….
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Off-Broadway Review: AMAZE (Jamie Allan at New World Stages)
Years ago, all a magician needed was a top hat and a live rabbit. Magic has come a long way. Jamie Allan’s Amaze uses props, videos, projections and cell phones to do exactly what the title of his show predicts. But Allan does much more than simply overwhelm the audience with slights of hand and…
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Cabaret Review: HOT COMBINATION: THE CLIFF EDWARDS / RED NICHOLS PROJECT (Mike Davis, Bryce Edwards@Birdland)
The names Red Nichols and Cliff Edwards may not be recognized by any but a few aficionados of 1920s jazz these days, but after seeing Mike Davis and Bryce Edwards‘ Hot Combination at Birdland, most people will certainly remember their music. Ukulele-toting, mouth-trumpeting Cliff Edwards was one of the era’s most innovative pop vocalists and an early…
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Concert Review: ORRIN EVANS & THE CAPTAIN BLACK BIG BAND (Bryant Park Picnic Performances)
Big band music met experimental jazz when the Grammy Award-nominated Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band took the stage at Bryant Park on Aug. 1. The event was part of Bryant Park Picnic Performances, which brings free music to New York City every summer. The band, which composer, pianist Evans named after his…
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Off-Broadway Review: THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS (Little Island)
BIG GOSPEL ON LITTLE ISLAND Greek religion and Christianity had very different views on the nature of God and salvation, but the current revival of The Gospel at Colonus still manages to turn Little Island into a Pentecostal revival meeting. The show is based on an adaptation of Robert Fitgerald’s version of Sophocles’ Oedipus at…
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Cabaret Review: GEORGE YOUNG: SINGIN’ AND SWINGIN’ (NYC’s 54 Below)
VELVET NOTES AND VINTAGE VIBES Remember when singers had velvety voices and a smooth style? Even those who don’t certainly enjoyed George Young: Singin’ and Swingin’ at 54 Below on June 19. Young has a deep, rich voice well suited to his repertoire, and an easy style that quickly draws you in. Falling on Juneteenth, much…
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Highly Recommended Concerts: PICNIC PERFORMANCES (Bryant Park)
Bryant Park: A Perfect Picnic Performance Playground Whether you live in New York City or you’re visiting, one of the best places to be this summer is Bryant Park. Among the park’s many activities, one of the most outstanding is Bryant Park Picnic Performances, a series of 25 free concerts featuring live music, theater and…
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Concert Review: NEW YORK POPS’ 42ND BIRTHDAY GALA: WORDS AND MUSIC — DIANE WARREN (New York Pops’ 42nd Birthday Gala at Carnegie Hall)
Songwriter Diane Warren has won an Honorary Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Her songs have been recorded by the likes of Cher, Celine Dion and Aerosmith. It’s easy to see why she was a fitting honoree for New York Pops’ 42nd Birthday Gala, Words and Music at…
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Broadway Review: STRANGER THINGS: THE FIRST SHADOW (Marquis Theatre)
SPECTACULAR. COMPLICATED. FUN. OVERLONG. DESTINIED TO BE A CULT CLASSIC. STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED. Having never seen the enormously popular Netflix series Stranger Things, I no doubt missed many references to the source material in the new Broadway prequel, Stranger Things: The First Shadow. But even if I had been a Stranger Things aficionado, the…
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Broadway Review: SMASH (Imperial Theatre)
A PLATE OF MASHED SMASH Let me be clear. I never saw the television series Smash. I know nothing about the series other than that it focused on a community theater working on a show about the life of Marilyn Monroe. So I had no expectations when I arrived at the Imperial Theatre to see…
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Concert Review: JUDY COLLINS & FRIENDS: 85 YEARS OF MUSIC & PROTEST (New York City’s Town Hall)
SWEET JUDY BLUE EYES STILL EMBODIES HOPE AND RESISTANCE In these tumultuous times when many people believe the constitution is being shredded and the world order overturned, town halls have become the centers of discourse and defiance. So it is entirely fitting that Judy Collins, a messenger of hope and resistance, would celebrate her 85th…
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Dance Review: TANGO AFTER DARK (Germán Cornejo at the Joyce Theater)
NOT YOUR AVERAGE TANGO Tango: a dance with European, Argentinian and Cuban influences, born in the impoverished backstreets of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, raised in smoky bars and brothels, and now, in all its seductive, high-voltage glory, has come a long way from these humble beginnings, and is now burning up the stage…
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Concert Review: LET’S MISBEHAVE: THE SONGS OF COLE PORTER (New York Pops)
MY HEART BELONGS TO THE NY POPS The New York Pops’ Let’s Misbehave: The Songs of Cole Porter was filled with many of Porter’s best-known songs: “Night and Day,” “I Love Paris,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” But the evening at Carnegie Hall was also filled with many surprises, thanks to the multi-talented cast. Music …
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Dance Review: THE HARD NUT (Mark Morris Dance at BAM)
Mark Morris Dance Group‘s The Hard Nut made its U.S. debut at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1991. Thirty-three years later, Mark Morris’s reinterpretation of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker is back at BAM, featuring live music by the MMDG Music Ensemble directed by Colin Fowler, and Brooklyn Music School and Brooklyn Technical High School’s The…
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Concert Review: MERRY & BRIGHT WITH JESSICA VOSK (New York Pops at Carnegie Hall)
WHO COULD VOSK FOR ANYTHING MORE? I can think of no better way to celebrate the holidays than at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops’ Merry and Bright, featuring Jessica Vosk (Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof, Finding Neverland and soon to join Broadway’s Hell’s Kitchen) and the chorus of Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA. Steven…
Theater Review: THE PILON (Red Theater in Chicago)
by Mitchell Oldham | November 6, 2025
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: PAPER WALLS (Broadwater Mainstage)
by Shari Barrett | November 6, 2025
in Los Angeles, TheaterDance Review: PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY (2025 Lincoln Center Residency Opening Night)
by Gregory Fletcher | November 5, 2025
in Dance, New YorkTheater Review: TICK, TICK … BOOM! (Umbrella Stage Company in Concord, MA)
by Lynne Weiss | November 4, 2025
in Boston, TheaterOff-Broadway Review: CIRQUE LE SWING (Immersive Supper Club Experience at Swing 46)
by Paulanne Simmons | November 3, 2025
in Cabaret, New York, TheaterTHE ART OF PLAY: FROM STAGECRAFT TO DIGITAL PERFORMANCE
by Brandon Metcalfe | November 3, 2025
in ExtrasOff-Broadway Review: BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL (Encores! at New York City Center)
by Kevin Vavasseur | November 2, 2025
in New York, TheaterConcert Review: CÉCILE McLORIN SALVANT (Berklee Performance Center, Boston MA)
by Lynne Weiss | November 2, 2025
in Boston, Concerts / Events
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