All stories by Charles Isherwood on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Review: ‘The Children’ is an exquisite look at human life by Charles Isherwood

The room is a very modestly furnished kitchen: mismatched chairs around a table, a miniature refrigerator, a scruffy but cozy-looking armchair, slightly out of place. But this mundane settin…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:00PM
Sunday, December 3, 2017

Review: A heartwarming breeze from ‘Once on This Island’ by Charles Isherwood

Continual waves of radiance, warming the blood and stirring the heart, flow forth from the sand-covered stage of the Circle in the Square Theatre, where an absolutely incandescent revival of…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:00PM
Thursday, November 30, 2017

Review: ‘The Parisian Woman’ delves into current politics, but with little effect by Charles Isherwood

Sleepy times, right? No drama emanating from our nation’s capital. Barely enough sensation to fill a single page of a broadsheet. Nary a shocking revelation to warm the cockles of a cynic�…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 10:00PM
Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Review: ‘Meteor Shower’ misses the mark with its scattered plot by Charles Isherwood

The stars supply most of the fireworks in “Meteor Shower,” a scattershot – and even scatterbrained – comedy of bad manners by Steve Martin at the Booth Theatre. The cast member whose…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 06:45PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Review: A Most Opinionated Wedding Guest Returns in ‘Bright Colors’ by Charles Isherwood

Overwhelming? Yes. Self-involved? Absolutely. But Drew Droege still makes for hilarious company in this one-person show.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 12:33PM
Thursday, November 2, 2017

Review: ‘Junk’ teaches a lesson in high finance by Charles Isherwood

A business degree is not a prerequisite for an appreciation of “Junk,” a new play by Ayad Akhtar about the heady heights and ethical lows of American finance in the 1980s. But it certain…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 10:00PM
Thursday, October 26, 2017

Review: ‘M. Butterfly’ never takes flight by Charles Isherwood

That silk kimono hides a scandalous secret in “M. Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang’s 1988 Tony Award-winning drama about the romance between a French diplomat and the Chinese opera singer…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 10:00PM
Thursday, October 12, 2017

Review: Springsteen connects with his sensitive side in Broadway debut by Charles Isherwood

“I’ll handle this myself,” said Bruce Springsteen with a wry smile on Wednesday night at the Walter Kerr Theatre, as his enraptured audience began to clap along in rhythm t…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 08:00PM
Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Review: ‘Time and the Conways’ offers a graceful masterclass in time and failed dreams by Charles Isherwood

The ineluctable force that touches all our lives – the day-to-day, year-to-year process by which the present becomes the past, and the future bears down upon us – is the melancholy subje…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 08:00PM
Thursday, August 24, 2017

‘Prince of Broadway’ review by Charles Isherwood

What’s the last word I thought I’d ever use to describe a show directed by Harold Prince? Bland. And yet, sadly, that’s the overall effect of “Prince of Broadway,” a polished but d…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 11:36PM
Thursday, August 10, 2017

‘The Terms of My Surrender’ review by Charles Isherwood

Michael Moore’s solo show, “The Terms of My Surrender,” comes as close to being a campaign rally as anything you are likely to see on Broadway – or anywhere else, for that matter, sa…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:09PM
Thursday, June 29, 2017

‘Marvin’s Room’ review by Charles Isherwood

Calamity comes in Costco-style jumbo packages for the fractured family in “Marvin’s Room,” Scott McPherson’s play about the beleaguering trials and little triumphs collectively known…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:43PM
Thursday, June 22, 2017

‘1984’ review by Charles Isherwood

Summer entertainment options do not get more counterintuitive than the Broadway adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984” that opened at the Hudson Theatre on Thursday, just as beach season…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 08:39PM
Thursday, April 27, 2017

‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’ review by Charles Isherwood

The frenetic Broadway spring comes to a thrilling conclusion with the lightning-bolt opening of Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” a new play so endlessly stimulating that it co…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:18PM
Wednesday, April 26, 2017

‘Bandstand’ review by Charles Isherwood

The boys singing and swinging their hearts out in “Bandstand,” an exuberant new musical set in the days just after World War II, are chasing an uncertain future and running from their tr…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:30PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2017

‘Six Degrees of Separation’ review by Charles Isherwood

Is it me, or have the follies of rich New Yorkers become less delightfully entertaining than they once were? To wit: Some of the savor has left the champagne in the Broadway revival of “Si…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 11:03PM
Thursday, April 20, 2017

‘Hello, Dolly!’ review by Charles Isherwood

A lot of merchandise is for sale in the lobby of the Shubert Theatre, where Bette Midler stars in the highly anticipated, or, really, let’s make that breathlessly awaited revival of “Hel…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 10:38PM
Wednesday, April 19, 2017

“The Little Foxes” review by Charles Isherwood

It doesn’t take a refined intellect to separate the bad characters from the good in Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes.” The bad tend to be scheming, grasping and spiteful, and mayb…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 10:49PM
Monday, April 17, 2017

‘Groundhog Day’ review by Charles Isherwood

The producers and creators of “Groundhog Day” must be uncomfortably aware by now that, despite the fantasy at the center of their show, every day really is a new day — and not necessar…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 09:39PM
Thursday, April 6, 2017

‘War Paint’ review by Charles Isherwood

You don’t have to go in search of a magnifying glass to discern the active ingredients in the new musical “War Paint,” at the Nederlander Theatre, a dual biography of the dueling cosme…

SOURCE: Broadway.News Subscription at 10:20PM
Monday, January 30, 2017

Critic's Notebook: Suspending Disbelief in a Savage ‘Endgame’ by Charles Isherwood

Sizing up the Long Wharf Theater’s sharp and unsettling production, starring Brian Dennehy, and the meandering “Imogen Says Nothing,” at Yale Repertory Theater.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:18PM
Sunday, January 29, 2017

Review: ‘David’s Friend’ Dances Through New York’s Disco Nights by Charles Isherwood

Nora Burns’s feisty and funny one-woman show recalls those sex-and-drug-filled days of gleefully reckless abandon.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:36PM
Thursday, January 26, 2017

Review: A Revival of ‘The Liar’ Plays Alternative Facts for Laughs by Charles Isherwood

Pierre Corneille’s 1644 comedy follows the misadventures of a pathological teller of falsehoods, and his compulsively honest servant.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 11:04PM
Monday, January 23, 2017

Review: ‘Tell Hector I Miss Him’ Sketches Love and Addiction in Puerto Rico by Charles Isherwood

Paola Lázaro’s play, at the Atlantic Theater Company, assembles a crew of vivid characters on a San Juan street corner.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 10:18PM
Wednesday, January 18, 2017

‘The Liar’ at Classic Stage: Old French Humor in New York Now by Charles Isherwood

The playwright David Ives delivers an adaptation of the Pierre Corneille comedy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:04PM
Monday, January 16, 2017

Review: ‘Made in China,’ With Romance, Polemics and Puppets by Charles Isherwood

This enchanting, unclassifiable show swings freely between political commentary and surrealistic comedy.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:04PM
Thursday, January 12, 2017

Review: ‘Latin Standards,’ When Dad Was Larger Than Life by Charles Isherwood

In her latest one-woman show, Marga Gomez pays tribute to her father, a popular entertainer in the Latino vaudeville circuit.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:48PM
Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Review: A ‘Lucky Penny’ for the Thoughts of a Son and His Father by Charles Isherwood

In this autobiographical show, written by and starring David Deblinger, the actor explores his filial relationship and plays a cast of characters.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 07:24PM
Monday, January 9, 2017

Review: ‘Blueprint Specials’: What the Soldiers and Sailors May Have Seen in World War II Shows by Charles Isherwood

This show is a jaunty foray into a little-known footnote in American military history.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:33PM
Sunday, January 8, 2017

Review: ‘Gardens Speak,’ a Graveside Encounter With Lives Lost in Syria by Charles Isherwood

This work by Tania El Khoury enlists audience members who visit the simulacrum of a cemetery to memorialize opponents of the Assad government.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 06:18PM
Thursday, January 5, 2017

Review: ‘The Fever’ Finds That Friendliness Can Be Contagious by Charles Isherwood

The play, by the company 600 Highwaymen, incorporates audience members to deliver a meditation on human connection.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:36PM

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