All stories by David Finkle on BroadwayStars

Thursday, May 1, 2014

First Nighter: James McManus's "Cherry Smoke," Oni Faida Lampley's "Tough Titty" by David Finkle

It's not too often that great passion doomed--make that Great Passion Doomed--hits the boards. There's Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra and Cyrano de Bergerac and West Side Story wi…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:36PM
Wednesday, April 30, 2014

First Nighter: "Red-Eye to Havre de Grace" Works and Doesn't by David Finkle

Before Red-Eye to Havre de Grace supposedly begins, a pleasant fellow in a Philadelphia Park Ranger's uniform...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:22PM
Tuesday, April 29, 2014

First Nighter: Simon Russell Beale Monarchic in HD King Lear by David Finkle

It would be folly to claim this is the greatest Lear yet seen, but it's surely no exaggeration to declare it's right up there with the best of them.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:30PM
Monday, April 28, 2014

Tony Noms This Musical Season? What About Quality? by David Finkle

Is there a worthy production in the 2013-2014 tuner carload?

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:25AM
Sunday, April 27, 2014

First Nighter: Mary Martin Let Down in Inventing Mary Martin by David Finkle

Somehow it should seem appropriate that Inventing Mary Martin is as corny as Kansas in August. But the kind of corniness prevalent in conceiver-writer Stephen Cole's revue, at the York, trib…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:35PM
Friday, April 25, 2014

First Nighter: The Civilians Confront Climate Change With "The Great Immensity" by David Finkle

It's taken for granted that any superior drama depends on its stakes being high. If that's the case, then The Great

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:09PM
Thursday, April 24, 2014

First Nighter: Sam Mendes's Revived 'Cabaret' Runs on Dimmed Lights by David Finkle

Throughout Ebb's well-wrought lyrics and Kander incessantly rousing melody, Williams presents Sally as angry, as finally and thoroughly disillusioned at her situation, as practically a ghost…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:35PM
Wednesday, April 23, 2014

First Nighter: Harvey Fierstein's Highly Accomplished "Casa Valentina" by David Finkle

When you hear that Casa Valentina, Harvey Fierstein's new play, at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman, takes...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:32PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

First Nighter: Neil Patrick Harris Ratchets Up Hedwig and the Angry Inch by David Finkle

By fadeout, the actor has given an indelible portrayal of someone mustering the courage not only to drop his gaudy garments but to drop his guard as well.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:17PM
Sunday, April 20, 2014

First Nighter: Daniel Radcliffe Shines in Martin McDonagh's Cripple of Inishmaan by David Finkle

Having seen it again, I can report that it's every bit as lively, as thoroughly hilarious and as consistently heart-tugging here as it was there, if not that much better for the cast members…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:37PM
Thursday, April 17, 2014

First Nighter: Moss Hart's "Act One" in Two Great, Big Acts by David Finkle

When theater veteran Moss Hart published his bestselling Act One in 1959, he packed a lot into it about his impoverished...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:42PM
Wednesday, April 16, 2014

First Nighter: Franco, O'Dowd, Meester Distinguish Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' by David Finkle

Plucking the dialogue pretty much verbatim from his best-selling book, Steinbeck handily transferred his tale to the stage. Again George and Lennie -- traveling together like the scores of o…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:29PM
Tuesday, April 15, 2014

First Nighter: Hollywood Expat Soderbergh Stages "The Library" by David Finkle

It's close to a year since Steven Soderbergh announced he'd be quitting movies. Now he surfaces at the Public Theater...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:21PM
Sunday, April 13, 2014

First Nighter: Audra McDonald Dazzles as Billie Holiday by David Finkle

Perhaps the most complimentary remark to be made about Audra McDonald in Lady Day at the Emerson Bar & Grill is that in 90 minutes and under Lonny Price's fully empathetic direction, she…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:33PM
Saturday, April 12, 2014

First Nighter: Athol Fugard's "Shadow...," Richard Maxwell's "Isolde" by David Finkle

Although Athol Fugard turns 82 in June and his protagonist in The Shadow of the Hummingbird--having its world premiere at...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:06PM
Monday, April 7, 2014

First Nighter: Martha Clarke's "Threepenny Opera" Short-Changes by David Finkle

Not to put too fine a point on it, director-choreographer Martha Clarke's version of the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:34PM

“Live Theater”: As Opposed to What, Dead Theater? by David Finkle

Qualifying "theater" with "live" should be redundant, but has become common.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 07:28PM
Sunday, April 6, 2014

First Nighter: Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses Can't Be Kept Up With by David Finkle

Let me tell you that if anyone wanted a spot-on one-sentence review of Eno's newest work, you couldn't do any better than what she said. But we professional assessors are expected to say mo…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:21PM
Saturday, April 5, 2014

First Nighter: Check Out 'Hellman v. McCarthy,' 'Red Velvet,' 'Heathers' by David Finkle

On January 20, 1980 Mary McCarthy, never known to mince words in print or in person, was asked on Dick Cavett's PBS talk show whom she considered overrated writers. After a moment's thought,…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:23AM
Thursday, April 3, 2014

First Nighter: Denzel Washington Good, Not So Good in "A Raisin in the Sun" by David Finkle

With Washington's return to The Great White Way in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 A Raisin in the Sun at the Barrymore, he does a tremendous favor. Once again, as he did with his …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:53PM

First Nighter: Encores! Most Happy Fella Mostly Happy by David Finkle

Frank Loesser disliked repeating himself. When he produced book, music and lyrics for The Most Happy Fella in 1956, he decided to go operatic. Not all the way, but more than he ever had be…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 05:43PM
Monday, March 31, 2014

First Nighter: Kathryn Forbes's "I Remember Mama" Well Remembered by David Finkle

I Remember Mama, John Van Druten's adaptation of Mama's Bank Account, Kathryn Forbes's memoir of her early 20th-century...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:40AM
Sunday, March 30, 2014

First Nighter: Idina Menzel's What/If Is Extremely Iffy by David Finkle

Give me a minute here while I clear my head after attending last night's performance of If/Then, the new musical starring...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:05PM
Thursday, March 27, 2014

First Nighter: Arin Arbus's "King Lear," David Herskovitz's "Uriel Acosta" by David Finkle

Plays are revelations. Good plays, that is, and the better a play, the more revelatory it can be. And let's just say King Lear--now...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:29PM
Tuesday, March 25, 2014

First Nighter: Terrence McNally's Must-See "Mothers and Sons" With Tyne Daly by David Finkle

Throughout the 1980s and starting with William M. Hoffman's As Is and Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, plays addressing the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:01AM
Monday, March 24, 2014

Are Theater Critics Becoming Extinct? by David Finkle

Newspapers drop arts criticism in a troubled culture.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 10:48AM

First Nighter: 'Les Miserables' Returns in Sizzling 21st-Century Upgrade by David Finkle

This isn't your grandfather's Les Miz. It's the new and enhanced-in-some-ways-diminished-in-others Les Miz, and it very much takes into account the movie and the possible expectations that i…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:59AM
Sunday, March 23, 2014

First Nighter: Christopher Durang's "Beyond Therapy" Back After Its Time by David Finkle

To be blunt about it, I've never thought much of Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy as a play, but I'm always willing to change...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:26PM
Tuesday, March 18, 2014

First Nighter: David Grimm's "Tales From Red Vienna" by David Finkle

Nowhere in the program for Tales From Red Vienna, at Manhattan Theater Club's City Center Stage I, is there any...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:24PM
Tuesday, March 11, 2014

First Nighter: The Fiascos Do Measure for Measure, The Pearl Does No Exit by David Finkle

Companies here and abroad, far and wide, high and low devote themselves to William Shakespeare. There's nothing new about the dedication. The Shakespeare devotees just keep coming.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:36PM
Monday, March 10, 2014

First Nighter: Steven Boyer Amazes in Robert Askins's Awe-Inspiring "Hand to God" by David Finkle

Since it's impossible to stay on top of absolutely everything on view from one year to the next in burgeoning New...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:16PM

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