New York

FUNNY, HOW IT KINDA WORKS On the Internet exists a theater-centered, YouTube channel called “Staged Right”. And there’s an episode on Staged Right called Fanny & Barbra and the Legacy of Funny Girl. This thirty-minute documentary explores the real Fanny Brice, how the original stage production of Funny Girl came to be and how the…

SINS I FELL FOR YOU Mae West, the sage and sybarite from Brooklyn, used to say, “Let joy be unrefined,” a point of view that also suits Austin McCormick, artistic director and choreographer of Company XIV. His latest extravaganza, the delightfully ribald Seven Sins, slathers us in the boisterous risk-taking revelry he’s known for: bare…

DON’T DOUBT IT; THIS SHOW’S ON FIRE Third time’s a charm. After a few preview performances, this $17 million musical, adapted from the hit film of the same name, shut down with all of Broadway due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Nineteen months later, as theater slowly began to reopen, Mrs. Doubtfire resumed previews in late…

TASTY BIRTHDAY CAKE NEEDS MORE LAYERS In playwright Noah Haidle’s new play Birthday Candles, currently running at the American Airlines Theatre, television star Debra Messing ages before our very eyes. When she first enters the stage, Ms. Messing is 17. Then she’s 18. Then she’s 38. We know that because it is in the dialogue….

THE MINUTES WILL LEAVE YOU SLACK-JAWED AND SPEECHLESS Superbly civic, the vast council chamber created by set designer David Zinn reeks of rectitude. Filling the stage at Studio 54 is a coffered arched ceiling with hanging strips of fluorescent lights. In the hallway outside this imposing space is a bulletin board with children’s art, while…

NOT SO LITTLE ANYMORE Once upon a time there was an aviator. One day, the aviator’s plane crash landed in the Sahara Desert. The aviator survived but his plane was damaged. After landing, the aviator soon met a little prince from another planet — a planet so small it only held a rose, some shrubs,…

GLORIOUS LANGUAGE AND A KISS TO REMEMBER Cyrano de Bergerac may be the most romantic, tragic love story to withstand the test of time. (Romeo & Juliet drops in comparison.) Written in 1897, Edmond Rostand’s classic play follows the unrequited love of Cyrano (James McAvoy) for his childhood friend, Roxane (Evelyn Miller). At the end…

PUT YOURSELF IN HARMONY‘S WAY I can’t remember the last time I have been so entranced with a new musical. And while Harmony may be having its New York premiere in the Off-Broadway house that brought us the Yiddish version of Fiddler on the Roof, I’ll eat my kishkes if this winner doesn’t go to…

PLAY BALL! Get your popcorn and peanuts and Cracker Jack. Grab your Empires pennant and Empires cap and maybe your Empires team jacket. Then head on down to the ballpark or, in this case, the Helen Hayes Theater on Broadway. For inside is now housed a locker room, a dugout, a field of dreams and…

TINA IS A HEAD-TURNER Two elements are vital to creating a hit bio-musical: great songs and a powerful life story. Tina, The Tina Turner Musical delivers both. Whereas some biographies required that book writers “punch-up” the drama, the true life story of the woman born Anna-Mae Bullock needs no exaggeration as it recounts how a…

IT’S SUITE TO BE BACK AT THE PLAZA A night at the Plaza? With Hollywood royalty? I’m in, how about you? Thus we find three serio-comic tales of love, loss and betrayal all taking place in Suite 719 of New York City’s famed Plaza Hotel. Set in Manhattan of 1968/1969, Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite is…

THE KING OF POP IS NOW THE KING OF BROADWAY MJ (The Michael Jackson Musical) raises the bar for the bio-musical. Set in the rehearsal hall for Jackson’s 1992 Dangerous World Tour, the story follows two documentarians, one is “Alejandro” played exactingly by GABRIEL RUIZ, who are allowed entre into press-weary Michael’s inner sanctum to…

EVERYBODY RISE! Since its multi Tony Award-winning 1970 debut, COMPANY, the musical comedy exploring contemporary dating, marriage and divorce has been a favorite of singer-actors who relished performing George Furth’s witty cutting vignettes accompanied by Stephen Sondheim’s sophisticated and emotionally complex songs. However, it is directors who really relish delving into COMPANY’s non-linear structure because…

CAN YOU BE A CONFEDERATE TO CONFEDERATES? Elijah Jones and Kristolyn Lloyd I’ve noticed “Permission for Engagement” becoming a recent trend in new productions by Black female playwrights. There is a notice in the Playbill inviting the audience to let go and respond when inspired, as “theatre can be church for some of us” (“Us”…

After the acclaimed, record-setting run at Arizona’s Phoenix Theater Company,  ¡Americano!, a new American musical, is now playing a 12-week limited engagement through June 19, 2022 at New World Stages. Official opening night is April 21 at 7PM. The original score is by acclaimed singer-songwriter Carrie Rodriguez, the book by Jonathan Rosenberg, Fernanda Santos, and…

SUITE IS SWEET AND SOUR Upon entering the Hudson Theater, glance to your left to see a notable collection of theater posters — not former productions at this lovely, classy venue, but rather the extensive, impressive contributions of master playwright Neil Simon. Has any single American playwright penned so many successful plays and musicals? With…

THE MINUTES FINALLY GETS ITS TIME Steppenwolf’s production of The Minutes  by  Tracy Letts, directed by  Anna D. Shapiro, will resume performances at Studio 54 on Broadway two years after its originally scheduled opening, previewing tomorrow April 2, 2022, and officially opening on Sunday, April 27, 2022. Check The Minutes on Broadway. This record-breaking hit production from Steppenwolf…