Monday, November 5, 2012
Please note: This is not a traditional review. I saw Annie this past weekend, but shortly enough after the hurricane that I don't feel I can discuss it without my downbeat mood, compiled wit…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:13PMFriday, October 19, 2012
Full disclosure: Shawn Davis, who plays the titular--if very briefly seen--character, is a good friend of mine. Ostensibly, however, Spaceman (playing through Sunday, October 21 at St.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:31PMThursday, October 11, 2012
Hi, all. Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but the book I wrote, which is pictured above and which I blogged about in much more detail a few weeks back, is now available for purchase on …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:55PMTuesday, September 25, 2012
See the picture above, of the happy, naked people embracing one another as they stand in a line? It was taken by Ormond Gigli in 1969, at the final--um--dress rehearsal of Oh! Calcutta! It's…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:35PMThursday, September 6, 2012
Colony Records, that old sheet music and sound recording mecca that has resided on the corner of 49th and Broadway in Times Square since 1970 (and, before that, on 52nd Street, where it firs…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:00AMThursday, August 2, 2012
If you're interested in watching a middle-aged woman bring the house down merely by glancing up at a chandelier, then Nice Work If You Can Get It is the show for you. The production received…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:29AMThursday, July 26, 2012
Bruce Norris's Pulitzer-, Tony-, Olivier- and Evening Standard- award winning play Clybourne Park, which has been running since late March at the Walter Kerr Theater, is not perfect for all …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:32PMThursday, July 19, 2012
There's something comforting about being reminded, every so often, of that old saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Gore Vidal's 1960 chestnut The Best Man, current…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:12PMThursday, June 21, 2012
Photo: Erin BaianoAmy Herzog's 4000 Miles is a quiet, warm, delicate little play, inhabited by very real characters. It is also seamless, in the way that not very many plays are: there is no…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:35PMWednesday, June 13, 2012
Hey, kids, remember the '80s? Hair metal ruled MTV! The Sunset Strip was one big wild party! Banging your head was cool, and so were long, teased, wild hair and blue eyeshadow and thigh-high…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:59PMMonday, June 11, 2012
As awards shows go, the Tonys have always been especially dear to me, not only because I am an avid theatergoer who researches and writes about the stage musical, but because the members o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:33PMMonday, June 4, 2012
Sometimes, when partisan politics piss me off, I try--with increasing difficulty as I age--to see the issue from the other side. "They infuriate us as much as we infuriate them," I reason, "…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:10PMThursday, May 31, 2012
Photo: Joan MarcusMost of Venus in Furs' critical reception has centered around the force of nature that is Nina Arianda, and on this front I have nothing but more praise to add. She is, qui…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:38PMMonday, May 14, 2012
Jason Kempin/Getty Images North AmericaLike Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita was one of those shows I grew up with, but never actually saw staged. And perhaps not coincidentally, these two are …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:44PMSaturday, February 25, 2012
Photograph: Joan MarcusLi'l Bit--one of the two central characters in How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel's funny, smart, deeply disturbing memory play currently in revival at Second Stage--…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:34PMMonday, February 13, 2012
Since it premiered in New York in 1935, Porgy and Bess has been dogged by nagging questions: Is this an opera, or a musical? Is this show respectful, or racist? More recently, there have bee…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:28AMMonday, February 6, 2012
When I was in grade-school--I don't remember which grade, specifically--my classmates and I were taken by yellow bus on a field-trip to see the matinee performance of a local college product…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:51PMSaturday, January 21, 2012
Katori Hall's The Mountaintop, which was a surprise hit in London and which has been running on Broadway since the autumn, hasn't really fallen off my radar since it began previews. The subj…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:55AMThursday, December 22, 2011
Photo: Richard TermineStick Fly, which is currently running at the Cort Theater on Broadway after bouncing around the country, has been described as an old-fashioned, domestic melodrama, and…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:28AMMonday, December 5, 2011
The first word that came to my mind after seeing David Henry Hwang's Ch'inglish, currently running at the Longacre, was "solid." I meant it, I thought to myself, in only the most satisfying,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:02PMTuesday, November 1, 2011
Jim Bauer and Ruth Bauer's musical The Blue Flower, currently in previews at Second Stage, has an awful lot going for it. Its sweeping, romantic plot covers both world wars, and its complex…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:49AMSunday, October 30, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Is it the fall season, or is it just me? Truly--and I don't mean to be overly dramatic about this, even though arguably this is exactly the place for it--I can't figure out why this season f…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:09AMFriday, September 23, 2011
Add Follies to my list of shows that I wish I'd seen in their original productions.Mind you, I very much enjoyed the revival, which is currently running at the enormous Marquis theater. It m…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:47AMThursday, September 22, 2011
There are so many shows I wish I'd seen, either because I missed brilliant performances by actors I admire (thus, just last season, The Merchant of Venice) or shows I've been told I would ha…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:18PMThursday, September 15, 2011
While I am always happy to see original, innovative musicals succeed Off Broadway, I’ve been a lot less happy in the past few seasons to see how such shows fare once they’ve been moved t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:48AMWednesday, July 27, 2011
Image: Robert Day
Seán O’Casey once described his play The Silver Tassie (1927-28) as “a generous handful of stones, aimed indiscriminately, with the aim of breaking a few windows.�…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:37AMWednesday, June 22, 2011
The last time I weighed in on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, it was being griped about in the press daily, and actors were being gravely injured on a regular basis. Glitches in the flying se…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:00PMMonday, June 6, 2011
Okay the critics were right, The Addams Family is a total mess. Its creators were clearly so caught up in devising their own unique blend of extra-schticky vaudeville, self-referential pomo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:25PMThursday, May 26, 2011
Photo: Carol RoseggNo one is happy in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, regardless of whether they are Iraqi or American, soldier or civilian, human or animal, alive or dead. The living are t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:59PMFriday, May 13, 2011
Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, currently playing at the Music Box Theater, takes its name from a hymn that, according to director Ian Rickson, is held dear by the English people. “Its word…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:38PM 
