First Nighter: Dan Hoyle's Outstanding "The Block," Jonathan Brielle's Not Outstanding "Himself and Nora" by David Finkle

If the following four plays are anywhere near as strong as the initial entry, audiences throughout the City are in for a tremendous treat.

Easy Listener: Sizzling-Hot Jazz/Cabaret CDs From Barb Jungr, Dane Vannatter, Barbara Fasano, Tony Yazbeck by David Finkle

Busy Being Free - Barbara Fasano - Human Child Records: Another ultra-classy cabaret singer, she realized some time ago that

Easy Listener: Sizzling-Hot Jazz/Cabaret CDs From Barb Jungr, Dane Vannatter, Barbara Fasano, Tony Yazbeck by David Finkle

The Floor Above Me -- Tony Yazbeck - PS Classics: A hot Broadway triple-threat man of the moment, he's sticking strictly

Easy Listener: Sizzling-Hot Jazz/Cabaret CDs From Barb Jungr, Dane Vannatter, Barbara Fasano, Tony Yazbeck by David Finkle

First Nighter: 'You a Good Man, Charlie Brown' Revival Weirdly Miscast, "Friend Art" Drama No Friend to Art, Marin Mazzie, Daniel Dae Kim Su by David Finkle

The one who comes closest to understanding what he's required to do with the songs and dialog that bookwriter-composer-lyricist Clark Gesner made of Schulz's material (with two songs Andrew …

First Nighter: 'You a Good Man, Charlie Brown' Revival Weirdly Miscast, "Friend Art" Drama No Friend to Art, Marin Mazzie, Daniel Dae Kim Su by David Finkle

The one who comes closest to understanding what he's required to do with the songs and dialog that bookwriter-composer-lyricist Clark Gesner made of Schulz's material (with two songs Andrew …

First Nighter: 'You a Good Man, Charlie Brown' Revival Weirdly Miscast, "Friend Art" Drama No Friend to Art, Marin Mazzie, Daniel Dae Kim Su by David Finkle

The one who comes closest to understanding what he's required to do with the songs and dialog that bookwriter-composer-lyricist Clark Gesner made of Schulz's material (with two songs Andrew …

First Nighter: John Doyle's Stripped Down 'Peer Gynt,' Cirque du Soleil's Broadwayed Up 'Paramour' by David Finkle

Henrik Ibsen is often considered the father of realism, but the citation is, more likely than not, a result of plays written later in a career that began in1850. It was<em> Ghosts</…

First Nighter: John Doyle's Stripped Down 'Peer Gynt,' Cirque du Soleil's Broadwayed Up 'Paramour' by David Finkle

Henrik Ibsen is often considered the father of realism, but the citation is, more likely than not, a result of plays written later in a career that began in1850. It was Ghosts (1879) and A D…

First Nighter: Joe Morton as Dick Gregory in "Turn Me Loose," The Irondale Ensemble Takes on Shakespeare in "1599," The Sluggish & by David Finkle

Dick Gregory isn't playing himself in Turn Me Loose, at the Westside Theatre, although, at 83, he certainly could. Right now Joe Morton, whom current tv viewers know from Scandal, is imperso…

First Nighter: Joe Morton as Dick Gregory in "Turn Me Loose," The Irondale Ensemble Takes on Shakespeare in "1599," The Sluggish & by David Finkle

Dick Gregory isn't playing himself in Turn Me Loose, at the Westside Theatre, although, at 83, he certainly could. Right now Joe Morton, whom current tv viewers know from Scandal, is imperso…

First Nighter: Joe Morton as Dick Gregory in "Turn Me Loose," The Irondale Ensemble Takes on Shakespeare in "1599," The Sluggish & by David Finkle

Dick Gregory isn't playing himself in Turn Me Loose, at the Westside Theatre, although, at 83, he certainly could. Right now Joe Morton, whom current tv viewers know from Scandal, is imperso…

First Nighter: Rupert Everett a Grand Oscar Wilde in David Hare's 'The Judas Kiss' by David Finkle

David Hare, who turns his plays out one on top of the next, can be sly when he wants. The Judas Kiss--about Oscar Wilde on the day he's arrested (April 6, 1895) for indecency and then, in th…

First Nighter: Cheryl Stern's Shoes and Baggage Lively Clothes-Horse Confession by David Finkle

If you loved <em>Love, Loss, and What I Wore</em>, which opened off-Broadway in 2009 and is the Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron adaptation of Ilene Beckerman's book of the same titl…

First Nighter: Cheryl Stern's "Shoes and Baggage" Lively Clothes-Horse Confession by David Finkle

If you loved Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which opened off-Broadway in 2009 and is the Nora Ephron and Delia...

First Nighter: Melissa Errico, Richard Troxell in the Richard Rodgers-Stephen Sondheim "Do I Hear a Waltz?" by David Finkle

What can be said is that the results are right up there with some of the best scores Rodgers helped turn out -- and Sondheim's agile words are also among his most devilishly clever.

First Nighter: "Evening-1910" a Valuable Musical Evening-2016 by David Finkle

When I watched it at a press preview and after maybe 60 or 70 minutes it ended, I was raring for it to start all over again

First Nighter: "Evening-1910" a Valuable Musical Evening-2016 by David Finkle

The team's approach here is to keep everything from stopping to settle on one aspect. Not only do their rhapsodic melodies

First Nighter: "Evening-1910" a Valuable Musical Evening-2016 by David Finkle

If you're the kind of musical lover who gets discerning every once in a while, preferring something other than one boffo number...

First Nighter: What the Tony Nominees Have to Say forThemselves by David Finkle

This is director Marshall Mason, who founded the Circle Repertory Company in the early 1960s and has contributed immeasurably

First Nighter: What the Tony Nominees Have to Say forThemselves by David Finkle

Christopher Fitzgerald, sporting a pair of spanking-new black-and-white running shoes, isn't going to comment when I ask

First Nighter: What the Tony Nominees Have to Say forThemselves by David Finkle

Michael Shannon, sitting in a tufted, black leather chair on rollers, is trying to get comfortable with it. Shifting in...

First Nighter: Jordan Jaffe's 'Crude' Drills the Oil Industry by David Finkle

While I was watching Jordan Jaffe's Crude, I thought that this is one play I can't see ever being done anywhere in or near Texas. That tells you how uninformed about it I was on going into t…

First Nighter: Jordan Jaffe's 'Crude' Drills the Oil Industry by David Finkle

While I was watching Jordan Jaffe's <i>Crude</i>, I thought that this is one play I can't see ever being done anywhere in or near Texas. That tells you how uninformed about it I …

First Nighter: Richard Bean's Workplace "Toast" is Nicely Buttered, Dostoevsky's "Idiot" Transferred Giddily to the Stage by David Finkle

What will happen? Will agreeable Nellie venture into a hot-oven area to retrieve the tin and possibly scorch himself, or

First Nighter: Richard Bean's Workplace "Toast" is Nicely Buttered, Dostoevsky's "Idiot" Transferred Giddily to the Stage by David Finkle

In redacting The Idiot Lyons and Marting have concentrated on the complicated, bordering-on-ludicrous love-hate relationships

First Nighter: Richard Bean's Workplace "Toast" is Nicely Buttered, Dostoevsky's "Idiot" Transferred Giddily to the Stage by David Finkle

Call them gang comedy-dramas, if you like. The truth is, you might want to get in the habit, because they appear to...

First Nighter: St. Ann's "Streetcar Named Desire" Leaves a Certain Amount to Be Desired by David Finkle

Although there's much to praise in the Young Vic-Joshua Andrews co-production of Tennessee Wiliams's superb A Street...

First Nighter: St. Ann's 'Streetcar Named Desire' Leaves a Certain Amount to Be Desired by David Finkle

Although there's much to praise in the Young Vic-Joshua Andrews co-production of Tennessee Wiliams's superb <em>A Street Car Named Desire</em>, now transported to St. Ann's Wareh…

First Nighter: Red Bull Theater's "School for Scandal" Resoundingly Rings the Bell by David Finkle

Jesse Berger has been devoting his Red Bull Theater company to presenting first-rate productions of the classics, which...

First Nighter: Red Bull Theater's "School for Scandal" Resoundingly Rings the Bell by David Finkle

Not when Barber, amusingly pinched mouthed, is on the boil. Or when Mr. Snake is bowing and scraping in an architecturally