All stories by Michael Dale on BroadwayStars

Friday, May 31, 2019

BWW Review: PURE YANNI Takes Up Residence at The Lunt-Fontanne by Michael Dale

'This is an unscripted show. I have no idea what I'm going to do,' the internationally acclaimed composer and pianist Yanni tells his audience at the outset of his debut Broadway performance.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:54AM
Thursday, May 30, 2019

BWW Review: Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon Make Rapturous Music in Terrence McNally's FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE by Michael Dale

'I guess I want you to play the most beautiful music ever written and dedicate it to us,' a hopeful romantic requests of the radio station he's phoned from his date's apartment.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:48PM
Friday, May 24, 2019

BWW Review: Based on Carl Reiner's Classic, Hilarious ENTER LAUGHING, THE MUSICAL Returns To The York by Michael Dale

Though the 1976 musical SO LONG, 174th STREET didn't even last a fortnight on Broadway, it wouldn't be surprising to see the York Theater Company's completely delightful revised version, ENT…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:42AM
Tuesday, May 21, 2019

BWW Review: Aziza Barnes' Fast and Furiously Funny BLKS Follows Three Friends on a Crazy Night by Michael Dale

There's a scene in poet-turned-playwright Aziza Barnes' fast and furiously funny debut stage piece, BLKS, where the main characters, a trio of black Brooklyn women in their 20s 'out on a mis…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:12AM
Saturday, May 18, 2019

BWW Review: Brenda Pressley Ponders Infidelity and Classism in Chisa Hutchinson's PROOF OF LOVE by Michael Dale

Playwright Chisa Hutchinson, describes Constance Daley, the character who voices her solo play, Proof of Love, as 'close as you can get to a WASP while being black.'

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:42PM
Wednesday, May 15, 2019

BWW Review: Well-Off Predators Feast On The Poor in Sam Shepard's CURSE OF THE STARVING CLASS by Michael Dale

Latecomers to director Terry Kinney's finely-acted Signature Theatre revival of Sam Shepard's 1977 dysfunctional family drama, Curse of the Starving Class, will miss the showstopping bit of …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:33AM
Monday, May 13, 2019

BWW Review: Cirque du Soleil's Glorious New Showpiece LUZIA: A WAKING DREAM OF MEXICO by Michael Dale

Though the world-famous 35-year-old Montreal-based entertainment troupe Cirque du Soleil has never been known for making political statements with their extravaganzas of culture and athletic…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:18AM
Friday, May 10, 2019

BWW Review: Encores! Has Michael Urie and Kevin Chamberlin As A Pair of Clowning Con Men in HIGH BUTTON SHOES by Michael Dale

That crazy cacophony of choreographic chaos that careens across the City Center stage shortly after the commencement of Act II is the main reason for Encores to bring back the smash hit 1947…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:33AM
Tuesday, May 7, 2019

BWW Review: Isabella Rossellini's LINK LINK CIRCUS Delves Into The Minds of Animals by Michael Dale

Don't let the abundance of cuteness fool you. Isabella Rossellini's LINK LINK CIRCUS is one of the brainiest shows in town.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:18AM

BWW Review: Director Laurie Woolery Casts Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST With An Eye Toward Establishing a Non-Patriarchal Paradise by Michael Dale

Though Shakespeare's The Tempest commences with a spectacular act of revenge, director Laurie Woolery stresses in her program notes for Mobile Unit's thoroughly enrapturing new production he…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:42AM
Sunday, May 5, 2019

BWW Review: Halley Feiffer Finds Symbolism In Her Real-Life Ailment With THE PAIN OF MY BELLIGERENCE by Michael Dale

If you're like this male theatre critic, you'll spend the first twenty minutes or so of Halley Feiffer's The Pain of My Belligerence wondering why the woman at the center of the story is put…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:12PM
Friday, April 26, 2019

BWW Review: Alex Brightman Is Uproariously Subversive in Gothic Musical Comedy Gem BEETLEJUICE by Michael Dale

'Holy crap A ballad already', sneers the leading man as he interrupts the opening song of his starring vehicle a funeral dirge sung by his co-star, backed by a chorus of mourners.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:21AM
Thursday, April 25, 2019

BWW Review: James Graham's Wildly Raucous INK Chronicles Rupert Murdoch's Rise To Tabloid Journalism Infamy by Michael Dale

Long before the term clickbait entered into pop culture infamy, Chief Editor Larry Lamb of the Fleet Street tabloid The Sun was offering his staff a bonus every time the eye-catching words '…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:49AM
Wednesday, April 24, 2019

BWW Review: Robert Horn, David Yazbek's Hilarious Take On TOOTSIE Addresses Contemporary Gender Issues by Michael Dale

Following in the footsteps of NETWORK and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Robert Horn book and David Yazbek's score musical comedy Tootsie continues this Broadway season's welcome trend of adapting c…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:52AM
Tuesday, April 23, 2019

BWW Review: Tracy Letts and Annette Bening in Arthur Miller's Drama of Evolving American Dreams, ALL MY SONS by Michael Dale

While many scoff at Broadway's habit of bringing back so many American classics from decades ago, a well-timed revival of an early work by one of our great masters might reveal a bit about h…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:32AM
Monday, April 22, 2019

BWW Review: Tim Blake Nelson's SOCRATES Honors The Philosopher Condemned For Encouraging Free Thought by Michael Dale

'Would you rule justly' the ancient Greek philosopher who serves as title character of Tim Blake Nelson's drama Socrates asks a fellow citizen who claims he would do a better job than the cu…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:13AM
Sunday, April 21, 2019

BWW Review: Nathan Lane, Kristine Nielson and Julie White are Bloody Brilliant in Taylor Mac's Absurdist GARY: A SEQUEL TO TITUS ANDRONICUS by Michael Dale

Don't let the title scare you. All you need to know about Shakespeare's infamously bloody revenge tragedy before laughing yourself silly at Taylor Mac's Gary A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, is…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:01PM
Friday, April 19, 2019

BWW Review: Laurie Metcalf, John Lithgow Debate The Art of Getting Elected in Lucas Hnath's Political Fan Fiction HILLARY AND CLINTON by Michael Dale

'If the universe is infinite,' Laurie Metcalf, playing Laurie Metcalf, explains to the audience at the outset of Lucas Hnath's sharp and funny bit of political fan fiction, Hillary and Clint…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:12AM
Thursday, April 18, 2019

BWW Review: New Orleans Gets Mythological in Anaïs Mitchell's Exhilarating Bluesy Folk Opera HADESTOWN by Michael Dale

With a stage career spanning half a century that includes dozens of notable performances in New York alone, Andre De Shields knows a thing or two about seducing an audience. And that's exact…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:19AM
Wednesday, April 17, 2019

BWW Review: Company XIV's Sumptuous New Cavalcade, QUEEN OF HEARTS by Michael Dale

For over a dozen years, the brilliant directorchoreographer Austin McCormick and the intriguing troupe of artists he's gathered to create and expand Company XIV have been luring audiences to…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:48AM

BWW Review: Adam Driver and Keri Russell Star in Lanford Wilson's Drama of Sex and Grieving, BURN THIS by Michael Dale

The phrase 'toxic masculinity' wasn't exactly in the vernacular in 1987, when Circle Rep's buzz-producing run of Lanford Wilson's Burn This moved uptown to Broadway. So perhaps coked-up, hom…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:42AM
Tuesday, April 16, 2019

BWW Review: Brian d'Arcy James, Shuler Hensley Lead New Arrivals To Jez Butterworth's THE FERRYMAN by Michael Dale

When director Sam Mendes' beautifully realized production of Jez Butterworth's Olivier-winning drama The Ferryman opened on Broadway last October, leading man Paddy Considine and several oth…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:32AM
Thursday, April 11, 2019

BWW Review: Mara Nelson-Greenberg's DO YOU FEEL ANGER? Takes An Absurdist Look at Toxic Masculinity by Michael Dale

An empathy coach is hired to hold workshops at a debt collection agency. Sounds like comedy gold to this reviewer, who has been on the receiving end of phone calls from high-pressure, goal-o…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:36AM
Sunday, April 7, 2019

BWW Review: Director Daniel Fish Makes Sensational Broadway Debut Illuminating Contemporary Issues in Rodgers and Hammerstein's OKLAHOMA! by Michael Dale

As with setting a Shakespeare comedy in outer space or a Wagner opera in a subway station, director Daniel Fish's jaunty riff on Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1943 classic Oklah…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:00PM
Friday, April 5, 2019

BWW Review: Glenda Jackson is Wickedly Fun in Sam Gold's Surprisingly Comic Take on Shakespeare's KING LEAR by Michael Dale

In recalling the great comedies penned by William Shakespeare, classics like TWELFTH NIGHT, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and the one about all the errors have been making audiences bust out in …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:15AM
Thursday, April 4, 2019

BWW Review: Dynamic Tony Yazbeck, Steely David Garrison Lead CSC's Revival of Marc Blitzstein's THE CRADLE WILL ROCK by Michael Dale

In June of 1937, the United States government padlocked New York's Maxine Elliot Theatre and sent security guards to prevent the performance of a new musical, but the unknown leading lady Ol…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:25AM
Monday, April 1, 2019

BWW Review: American Dreams Twist Into Capitalist Nightmares in Stefano Massini's Captivating THE LEHMAN TRILOGY by Michael Dale

Like a sad, lonely island, depleted of its bounty, a single floor of the offices of Lehman Brothers is revealed, isolated, lofted above the endless business of a bustling Manhattan. It is em…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:17AM

President Trump Signs Executive Order To Combat Importation of Squips by Michael Dale

This morning President Donald Trump signed an executive order spelling out steps to combat the importation of Squips into the United States.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:01AM
Sunday, March 31, 2019

BWW Review: Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer-Worthy WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME Moves To Broadway by Michael Dale

'Would you please raise your hand if you are a white man who also owns property', playwrightperformer Heidi Schreck asks her audience. The number of respondents is typically a very low perce…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:01PM
Thursday, March 28, 2019

BWW Review: Jordan E. Cooper's Surrealist Vaudeville AIN'T NO MO' Envisions An African-American Exodus by Michael Dale

'Today, we give to the dirt of the earth, our beloved brother and friend, Brother Righttocomplain,' Father Freeman announces to the audience at commencement of Jordan E. Cooper's aggressivel…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 07:56PM
Wednesday, March 27, 2019

BWW Review: Ronnie Marmo's I'M NOT A COMEDIAN... I'M LENNY BRUCE Honors The Trailblazing First Amendment Activist by Michael Dale

'These words might be more offensive now than they were back then,' ponders playwrightactor Ronnie Marmo in the guise of one of 20th Century America's most controversial artists in his mostl…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:59AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards