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New York
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Music Review: JOHN PIZZARELLI & SWING 7 (Birdland)
JOHN + SWING 7 = JAZZ HEAVEN Attend a set by John Pizzarelli and you’re set for a satisfying songfest, whether it’s a solo affair with just the mega-musical Mr. P. playing guitar and singing or sharing the stage with any number of other instrumentalists or singers. His latest of many nestings at Birdland was…
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Cabaret Review: 54 SINGS “WILDCAT” (54 Below)
A LOOK BACK AT AN OLD MUSICAL ABOUT STRIKING OIL STRIKES IT RICH AS IT STRIKES ALL THE RIGHT NOTES “Kid, when you need the crowd the tickets are hard to sell.” That’s a line from “Hey, Look Me Over,” the best-known (and arguably the best) number from the old musical Wildcat. Because of the…
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Cabaret Review: CAROLE DEMAS: “FIREFLY” (54 Below)
FLYING HIGH, CAROLE DEMAS’S FIREFLY LIGHTS UP THE ROOM “I could say life is just a bowl of Jello / And appear more intelligent and smart / But I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope / And I can’t get it out of my heart” That habit of favoring hoping over moping…
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Cabaret Review: BROADWAY BOUND: A CELEBRATION OF CHARLES STROUSE (54 Below)
SONGS OF MR. STROUSE IN THE HOUSE One of the greats of The Great White Way’s great golden age, Charles Strouse was the honoree in absentia in an especially splendid presentation on July 20, a look at the lesser-known works of the man who passed away this May, just a few weeks shy of turning 98….
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Off-Broadway Review: WELL, I’LL LET YOU GO (The Space at Irondale in Fort Greene, Brooklyn)
THE WEIGHT OF WHAT REMAINS In Brooklyn’s charming Fort Greene, Bubba Weiler makes his playwriting debut with Well, I’ll Let You Go, a lightly funny meditation on grief and healing, brought to the stage at The Space at Irondale under the direction of Jack Serio (Grangeville). It’s a nonlinear domestic drama that recounts the unraveling…
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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-Off-Broadway Review: LILI / DARWIN (The Tank)
DARWIN DEL FABRO STUNS IN A PERFORMANCE OF BECOMING One reason the queer community has found broader acceptance in America — generally speaking — is that most people today know someone who identifies as lesbian, gay, or bisexual: a family member, friend, or colleague. They’ve heard stories and recognize the humanity of the community. Sadly,…
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Off-Broadway Review: CAN I BE FRANK? (Soho Playhouse)
FRANK MORGAN Not too long ago in Sag Harbor, Morgan Bassichis spent time at an artist residency. For those unfamiliar with such places, Morgan wryly explained that “an art residency is when you go somewhere else to have sex with people.” During open visiting hours, a man stopped by the studio and asked about Morgan’s…
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Cabaret Review: BACKSTAGE BABBLE LIVE! (July 7 at 54 Below)
THE HISTORY, HYSTERICAL HAPPENINGS & HAPPINESS THAT SPELL “BROADWAY” Broadway musicals feature a parade of talent which, like time, marches on. Sometimes it seems that parade of pizzazz passes by pretty quickly, but the talented stage veterans who were guests at Backstage Babble on July 7 at 54 Below didn’t seem to have lost their…
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Off-Broadway Review: LORD NIL: 7 DEADLY SINS (Stage 42)
SINSATIONAL SENSATIONALISM OR, WHAT HAPPENS IN TIMES SQUARE, STAYS IN TIMES SQUARE Escape artistry emerged as a formal performance art in the 1860s, when the Davenport Brothers popularized their rope-escape act—paving the way for Harry Houdini, whose name became nearly synonymous with the craft by the 1890s. Carrying on this proud, magic-adjacent tradition is Lord…
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ALL IN: HOW CASINO CULTURE IS INFLUENCING SET DESIGN, SOUNDTRACKS, AND STAGECRAFT
When audiences settle into their seats and the curtain rises, they’re transported into worlds built not just with story and performance, but with texture, music, color, and symbolism. One unexpected aesthetic influence that’s been making its mark on stage and screen design in recent years? Casino culture. From glittering Vegas showgirl-inspired productions to psychological thrillers…
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Off-Broadway Review: ROLLING THUNDER (New World Stages)
PATCHWORK PATRIOTISM, POWERED BY A KILLER SETLIST With a book credited to Bryce Hallett, one may expect Rolling Thunder to be a new Off-Broadway musical. Despite the presence of a librettist, however, the show—now playing at New World Stages—functions far more as a rock concert than a traditional book musical. Of its 2-hour runtime, only…
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Off-Broadway Review: GENE & GILDA (Penguin Rep at 59E59)
Hollywood is full of iconic love stories but none is quite as brilliantly weird and tragically sweet as the romance between Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, two comedy legends who fell madly in love somewhere between a silly goof and a punch line. And it is hard to think of somebody wanting to put their…
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Cabaret Review: FROM BROADWAY, WITH LOVE (Melba Moore at 54 Below)
THE SHOW MUST GO ON, MOORE OR LESS She’s a singer, certainly a star, and a survivor. Melba Moore has had a decades-long career that includes musical theatre, film, TV, and recordings covering such genres as R&B, dance music, and pop, and disco. Her stage work began with a role in the legendary rock musical…
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Cabaret Review: TESSA SOUTER (“Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project” Album Release at Joe’s Pub)
SOUTER SATISFIES WITH SATIE & SINCERITY In a presentation that featured many self-penned, self-revealing lyrics – an album release show by singer Tessa Souter and her band made for an evening that was intimate, intense, intriguing, and involved to the Nth degree. The concert at Joe’s Pub on the first night of July was, first…
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Dance Review: LADY WHITE SNAKE (Lincoln Center)
A Woman’s Journey of Self-Discovery Presented in the Year of the Snake, Lady White Snake offers a contemporary interpretation of one of China’s great folktales—long retold in theatre, film, and television, and now reimagined as a two-act dance drama. The story follows a wife’s awakening consciousness and her struggle for freedom against the forces that…
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Off-Broadway Review: GINGER TWINSIES (Orpheum Theatre)
TWO GINGER SNAPS UP FOR THIS PARENT TRAP PARODY The subtitle for Ginger Twinsies, the new Off-Broadway comedy which opened last night at the Orpheum Theatre, reads: “The Parent Trap parody (legally speaking).” Having never seen Nancy Myer’s 1998 Disney film starring Lindsay Lohan, it gave me pause; I wondered if I’d spend the evening…
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Dance Review: MARK MORRIS DANCE GROUP (45th Anniversary Season Kick-Off at The Joyce; Program “B”)
THE MORRIS, THE MERRIER The Mark Morris Dance Group celebrates its 45th anniversary with a dynamic return to The Joyce Theater. Program B showcases a wide-ranging display of the company’s hallmarks: musicality, wit, and structural clarity. Each act features two contrasting works, performed by a company of seasoned dancers and accompanied—often live—by musicians of equal…
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Off-Broadway Review: JOY: A NEW TRUE MUSICAL (Laura Pels Theatre
JOY TO THE WHIRL For every inventive soul who’s ever heard “no,” “pass,” or “next,” Joy is for you. Based on the life of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, this briskly staged musical delivers an energetic blend of domestic chaos, entrepreneurial grit, and interior musical theater gold to keep it well fueled for its two-hour…
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Cabaret Review: THE ANDERSON BROTHERS PLAY ARTIE SHAW (Peter & Will Anderson at Birdland)
REED ALL ABOUT IT! SHAW BIZ WITH THE ANDERSON TWINS When jazz musicians of the current generation explore and embrace the repertoire of stars of the past, it can be an enjoyably educational experience. Such was the case when, along with four fine colleagues, Peter and Will Anderson turned their attention to bandleader Artie Shaw…
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