WHO SAYS I DON’T LIKE FLUFF? Some readers have taken umbrage with me when I criticize shows that are meant to be nothing more than entertaining light comedies, such as Rock Of Ages and The Catholic Girl’s Guide To Losing Your Virginity, insinuating that only intellectual stimulation will suffice for a satisfying theatrical experience. Well,…

WELL, NOT EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSES Prior to the opening of Ethel Merman’s Broadway at the El Portal, Mitzi Gaynor, close friend to Merman, comes walking out to introduce the show (don’t expect Mitzi at subsequent performances). As Mitzi recalls what a larger-than-life character Ethel could be, an audience member said, “We can’t hear you. 

MASTERPIECE IN THE MAKING When an art curator X-rays a famous painting, they occasionally unmask the artist’s original painting underneath the masterpiece; often, it proves to be no less striking, but it illuminates why the artist altered hues, shifted brush strokes, or placed the arm of a sitter in a different position. Nick Salamone’s new…

PROMISING BOOMERS YIELD TOO MANY BUMMERS Six highly energetic triple-threat performers hit the ground running at the El Portal Theatre during the opening number of Boomermania. With a lacquered glee that one can only find in a cruise ship showroom (containing all the subtlety of a tidal wave), it serves as a warning of the…

BRUSH UP YOUR LOPE DE VEGA How easy life would be for reviewers if every time they went to the theater, they could see something as absolutely delightful and as thoroughly skillful as The Capulets And The Montagues happens to be. The coup here is the discovery that Lope de Vega, a Spanish contemporary of…

MAKE NOISE: ARTISTS AT WORK There is nothing more liberating than going to the theater in complete ignorance of what one is going to see. If context is everything, then it is no accident that this is exactly what this reviewer experienced just last weekend on two consecutive nights. The results couldn’t be more joyous….

VARIATION ON 33 VARIATIONS Since I feel pretty much the same as I did when I first saw 33 Variations, and since it is virtually the same production with virtually the same cast, I have decided to reprint my original review, along with an addendum that follows afterward. — THE CURIOUS CASE OF LUDWIG VAN…

MATH PROBLEM Consummate actress Annie Potts has an auspicious moment at the start of AfterMath: she plays Julie, whose husband has jumped into the Hudson River, leaving behind two grown children and a confoundingly simplistic suicide note. She relates to us, in a monologue that is funny, melancholic and touching, that her math-teaching spouse of…

HAVING YOUR CAKE AND CHOKING ON IT There is, at the heart of Neil LaBute’s The Break of Noon, an implicit cry to build slowly in a rising arc and, hopefully, toward a rousing crescendo. But, while his director, Jo Bonney, has found a way to jolt us from scene to scene, she has not…

THIS SONG IS WRONG, LONG, AND GETS THE GONG Prior to curtain up at Emily’s Song, Chet Holmes’ stultifying new musical at the Hudson Theatre, his daughter, co-composer and associate producer, Amanda, entertained us with original songs that brought to mind Norah Jones. When gorgeous, sweet-voiced Amanda finished her acoustic set and introduced the show…

YOU’LL WANT TO TIP THIS ROOM SERVICE Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Depression-era Broadway producer Gordon Miller (Derek Manson) discovers swell script by greenhorn scribe from Oswego (Dustin Eastman). Miller runs up huge hotel bill while rehearsing show on 19th floor. Hotel proprietor and brother-in-law (Phillip William Brock) in a panic – boss and…