Thursday, June 15, 2017

A.R. Gurney dead; 'Dining Room,' 'Cocktail Hour' playwright was 86

Gurney, who chronicled the vanishing New England WASP establishment in more than 40 plays, including "The Dining Room" and "The Cocktail Hour," died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan.

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Friday, June 2, 2017

Tony Awards 2017: Nominees, predictions

Last year around this time, I asked director George C. Wolfe to comment on the remarkable racial and ethnic diversity of the past season. His answer -- "Each season has its own magical arbit…

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Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Summer arts preview 2017: Broadway theater

THE END OF LONGING (in previews, opens June 5) Who knew? Matthew Perry -- that's right, friend, Chandler -- writes plays. He also co-stars in the New York premiere of his bittersweet comedy …

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Thursday, May 11, 2017

'The Golden Apple' review: Encores! revives a rarity

'The Golden Apple," a critical hit and commercial flop in 1954, is ending the New York City Center Encores! season with strenuous ambition and serious talent in a cornball musical-comedy hod…

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Monday, May 8, 2017

'Oslo' wins New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play

J.T. Rogers' drama about the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, has won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best play of the 2016-17 season.

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Thursday, May 4, 2017

'Pacific Overtures' review: Sondheim revival soars in intimate setting

A fundraising pitch in the program for Classic Stage Company describes its mission as "epic stories, intimately staged." Anyone tempted to dismiss that as hype needs to nab a scarce ticket f…

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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Tony Award nominations: Will 'Dear Evan Hansen,' 'Groundhog Day,' 'Come From Away' win big?

Tony Award nominations will be announced Tuesday morning for what has been one of the busiest, best and most competitive seasons in recent memory. After 13 new musicals, five musical revival…

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Thursday, April 27, 2017

'A Doll's House, Part 2' review: Worthy Broadway sequel to Ibsen's shocker

The whereabouts of Nora Helmer have been imagined, debated and even dramatized since 1879, when she shocked the Victorian world by slamming the door on her ostensibly happy marriage in Henri…

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Wednesday, April 26, 2017

'Bandstand' review: Band of war vets serves up music and emotion

The title "Bandstand" is a curveball. So is the subtitle, "The New American Musical." For audiences of a certain age, the name of the season's final musical suggests those dopey and adored t…

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Tuesday, April 25, 2017

'Six Degrees of Separation' review: Cons and connections still timely in revival

When John Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation" opened in 1990, the scintillating tragic-comedy was scathing and wildly enjoyable, even though one of the targets -- New York's radical chic -- …

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Monday, April 24, 2017

'Anastasia' review: A vapid journey to the past on Broadway

Every couple of years -- OK, two years ago and now -- Broadway producers have felt compelled to stage a big, bombastic, romantic musical about recent Russian history, preferably based on at …

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Sunday, April 23, 2017

'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' review: Saccharine overload

For a musical about the wonder of pure imagination, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is bizarrely lacking in it.

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Thursday, April 20, 2017

'Hello Dolly!' review: Singing Bette Midler's praises in a happy show

If there were such a thing as a happiness meter at the Shubert Theatre these days, where, oh, where would that be placed? The obvious position is in the audience, where fans of "Hello, Dolly…

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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

'The Little Foxes' review: Good reason to see it twice

The next time anyone challenges the need to have nonprofit Broadway houses alongside the commercial theaters, I'm going to shout out, "The Little Foxes."

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Andy Karl cuts back on 'Groundhog Day' appearances

Andy Karl, who performed at the opening of "Groundhog Day" Monday and the following day despite a serious knee injury, has cut back his appearances this week to just Friday and Saturday even…

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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

'Indecent' review: Gripping, extraordinary play about a play

Has there ever been anything quite like "Indecent," a play that touches -- I mean deeply touches -- so much rich emotion about history and the theater, anti-Semitism, homophobia, censorship,…

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Monday, April 17, 2017

'Groundhog Day' review: Andy Karl's injury shadows terrific musical

I saw Andy Karl in "Groundhog Day" on Thursday, and he was terrific. So, in fact, was the show, an ingenious, witty, dark yet joyously offbeat musical about Phil Connors, a snotty big-city T…

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Where star vehicles took Carol Channing, James O'Neill and other actors

We don't often get the chance to think about Carol Channing and Eugene O'Neill's father in the same space. But here we are, pondering actors who famously made their careers with massively po…

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Saturday, April 15, 2017

'Groundhog Day' star Andy Karl injured during preview

Andy Karl, the star of the new musical, "Groundhog Day," injured his knee toward the end of Friday's performance, which may have jeopardized Monday's opening of the much-anticipated show.

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Thursday, April 6, 2017

'War Paint' review: Patti LuPone, Christine Ebersole as cosmetics queens Rubinstein, Arden

Patti LuPone's voice glistens in many dark shades of steel -- shards with sharp points and astonishing smooth edges. Christine Ebersole sounds classy and creamy, but cream that bites and sti…

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Wednesday, April 5, 2017

'Present Laughter' review: Kevin Kline back on Broadway

Kevin Kline has always struck me as a character actor trapped in a leading man's body -- too quirky and complicated to be satisfied as a romantic hero, but too great looking to simply play t…

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Tuesday, April 4, 2017

'Gently Down the Stream' review: Harvey Fierstein returns to drama

We have learned many things about Harvey Fierstein since his breakout 1983 Tony-winning "Torch Song Trilogy" inspired him to declare himself the first "real-life, out-of-the-closet queer on …

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Monday, April 3, 2017

'Amelie' review: Phillipa Soo shines in weirdly original show

The Broadway season has many openings left before the late-April cutoff, but it seems safe to say that none is likely to be weirder than "Amelie." Given the bushels of imagination in directo…

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Sunday, April 2, 2017

'The Play That Goes Wrong' review: The comedy goes right

How many times must characters get smashed in the head with doors and other wooden planks before, I admit it, even the most farce-averse among us gets worn down enough to love it? Is there a…

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Friday, March 31, 2017

Laura Linney, Cynthia Nixon alternate roles in 'Little Foxes'

When Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes" opens on Broadway later this month, Laura Linney will crawl under the thick skin of Regina, the furious Southern wife cut out from her family inheri…

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Monday, March 27, 2017

'Latin History for Morons' review: Leguizamo as eager teacher

John Leguizamo is out to teach us something in "Latin History for Morons," but don't run for the door. He's wearing a professorial tweedy sport jacket and a tie, and is surrounded by books, …

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Sunday, March 26, 2017

'Sweat' review: Lynn Nottage gives intimate glimpse of lost factory life

For a brief moment before the November election, the news was filled with stories about disenfranchised blue-collar voters in the Rust Belt. At the same time, smack in the eye of the news cy…

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Friday, March 24, 2017

'The New Yorkers' review: Spirited revival of racy Cole Porter musical

Cole Porter wrote a lark of a racy musical called "The New Yorkers" to cheer people up during the financial panic of 1930. Three days later, the Bank of the United States failed. Twenty week…

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Thursday, March 23, 2017

'Miss Saigon' review: Helicopter lands, passion soars

Well, the helicopter has landed again and it's still very big. The mercenary Eurasian pimp known as The Engineer is bumping and grinding again on the hood of another Cadillac while singing a…

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

'The Fantasticks,' off-Broadway's longest-running show, set to close

Off-Broadway's longest-running show closes at the Jerry Orbach Theater in Times Square.

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Monday, March 20, 2017

'How to Transcend a Happy Marriage' review: Play questions monogamy

What looks alarmingly like a dead, skinned goat hangs upside down from a hook at the start of Sarah Ruhl's "How to Transcend a Happy Marriage." A willowy woman enters, seems to whisper somet…

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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