All stories by David Finkle on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

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

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:42PM

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

SOURCE: www.huffpost.com at 11:42PM

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...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:42PM
Sunday, May 1, 2016

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...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:48PM

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…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:48PM
Tuesday, April 26, 2016

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...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:10AM

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

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:10AM
Thursday, April 21, 2016

First Nighter: Musicalized "American Psycho" Frighteningly Beautiful to Behold but Insufficiently Psychotic by David Finkle

No, American Psycho, an imported Almeida and Headlong production, is not about the current Republican presidential campaign. On the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:51PM
Tuesday, April 19, 2016

First Nighter: Alice Birch's 'Revolt, She Said, Revolt Again' Introduces the Feminist Absurd by David Finkle

Yoo-hoo, theater cognoscenti! Remember Theater of the Absurd, the new strain of writing that--to fall into reviewer's clichés--burst on the scene in the 1950s? That's when playwrights lik…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:48PM

First Nighter: Agatha Christie's "and Then There Were None" in Smashing New Treatment by David Finkle

According to some statistics, And Then There Were None is bestselling Agatha Christie's all-time bestseller. It's been filmed more than once, perhaps the favorite adaptation until recently b…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:24PM
Thursday, April 14, 2016

First Nighter: Dena Blizzard's "One Funny Mother," Neal Brennan's "3 Mics" by David Finkle

It's been a while since Roseanne Barr flaunted her domestic-goddess self before the public. Therefore, room should exist for...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:37PM

First Nighter: Dena Blizzard's 'One Funny Mother,' Neal Brennan's '3 Mics' by David Finkle

It's been a while since Roseanne Barr flaunted her domestic-goddess self before the public. Therefore, room should exist for Dena Blizzard, as Miss New Jersey of 1995, no less, who's now cr…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:37PM
Wednesday, April 13, 2016

First Night: Van Gogh Lovers Will Want to See Leonard Nimoy's 'Vincent' by David Finkle

If you're searching for an example of genuine brotherly love, you don't start with Cain and Abel. Perhaps the choicest place to look is Vincent and Theo Van Gogh.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 05:26PM
Tuesday, April 12, 2016

First Nighter: Ike Holter's 'Exit Strategy' About Failing Public Schools Not Sufficiently Strategic by David Finkle

The picture of the astonished, speechless faculty members is accompanied by a devastating sound effect that designer Daniel Perelstein unleashes. Once and for all, the deafening blare drive…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:43PM
Tuesday, April 5, 2016

First Nighter: The Royal Shakespeare Company Turns Four Shakespeare History Plays into Solid Gold by David Finkle

Anyone devoted to William Shakespeare and, specifically, to his history plays had better make plans instantly to see The Royal Shakespeare Company's King and Country: Shakespeare's Great Cyc…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:14PM

First Nighter: The Royal Shakespeare Company Turns Four Shakespeare History Plays into Solid Gold by David Finkle

Anyone devoted to William Shakespeare and, specifically, to his history plays had better make plans instantly to see The Royal Shakespeare Company's <em>King and Country: Shakespeare's…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 02:25PM
Monday, April 4, 2016

First Nighter: A. Rey Pamatmat's Two-Families Drama "House Rules," Peter Mills Teams With Long-Gone Carlo Gesualdo in "Death for Five V by David Finkle

Pamatmat clearly believes the family that fights intramurally together eventually comes right together and demonstrates the

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:00AM

First Nighter: A. Rey Pamatmat's Two-Families Drama "House Rules," Peter Mills Teams With Long-Gone Carlo Gesualdo in "Death for Five V by David Finkle

Why deal with one dysfunctional family when you can handle two? A. Rey Pamatmat apparently considered the question...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:00AM
Friday, April 1, 2016

First Nighter: Ivo van Hove Skews Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" by David Finkle

It's only a few months since Ivo van Hove brought his startlingly strong production of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge from London to Broadway.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:22AM

First Nighter: Ivo van Hove Skews Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" by David Finkle

It's only a few months since Ivo van Hove brought his startlingly strong production of Arthur Miller's <em>A View From the Bridge</em> from London to Broadway.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:22AM
Monday, March 28, 2016

First Nighter: Tarell Alvin McCraney's 'Head of Passes' Is the Play of the Year, With Phylicia Rashad Giving the Performance of the Year by David Finkle

If superlative acting interests you -- and you probably wouldn't be reading this if it didn't -- you're well advised to make every effort you can to see Phylicia Rashad as Shelah in Tarell A…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:50PM

First Nighter: Tarell Alvin McCraney's 'Head of Passes' Is the Play of the Year, With Phylicia Rashad Giving the Performance of the Year by David Finkle

If superlative acting interests you -- and you probably wouldn't be reading this if it didn't -- you're well advised to make every effort you can to see Phylicia Rashad as Shelah in Tarell A…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:50PM
Thursday, March 24, 2016

First Nighter: Patrick Wilson in Nassim Soleimanpour's "White Rabbit Red Rabbit," Andrew Schneider in "Youarenowhere" by David Finkle

The thin program for Nassim Soleimanpour's White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, at the Westside Theatre, includes a prominently...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:42PM
Monday, March 21, 2016

First Nighter: Lucy Prebble's "The Effect" Smartly Questions Scientific Experimentation by David Finkle

Lucy Prebble, who fiercely took on big business in the rousing Enron, is now grappling with science and scientific experimentation. She targets it in The Effect, an impressive, if not entire…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 03:46PM
Saturday, March 19, 2016

First Nighter: Timothy Olyphant in Kenneth Lonergan's "Hold On to Me Darling," Marin Ireland in Martyna Majok's "Ironbound" by David Finkle

With his new Hold On to Me Darling, at the Atlantic, Kenneth Lonergan has written one of the season's most head-scratching plays. That's if it's not the most head-scratching entry, as direct…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:57AM
Sunday, March 13, 2016

First Nighter: George Bernard Shaw's Little-Seen "Widowers' House" Viewed Smartly Now by David Finkle

When George Bernard Shaw, who had strong opinions about what constituted potent theater, wrote his first play,...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:34PM
Thursday, March 10, 2016

First Nighter: Anna Ziegler's 'Boy' Is a Smart, Fresh Transgender-Play Twist by David Finkle

The current trend towards transgender plays gets a heart-jolting spin by way of Anna Ziegler's Boy, another of her Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan-backed plays and now under Keen Com…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:23PM
Friday, March 4, 2016

First Nighter: 8 Plays Worth Seeing in London Now by David Finkle

Like New York City there are good productions and bad productions. The rambling I've done this trip has ranged broadly, as the following round-up of offerings outside the National Theatre an…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 03:08PM
Thursday, March 3, 2016

First Nighter: Shakespeare Globe Smartly Does the Bard's Jacobean Works by David Finkle

LONDON--During the winter months the Shakespeare's Globe crowd--as the current artistic director Dominic Dromgoole...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 03:14AM
Wednesday, March 2, 2016

First Nighter: Hot Times Right Now at London's National Theatre by David Finkle

LONDON--For whatever reason--recent artistic director Rufus Norris's enthusiastic approach?--things at the National...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 03:28AM
Saturday, February 13, 2016

First Nighter: Mike Birbiglia Thanks God for Jokes, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs by David Finkle

Mike Birbiglia is an immensely likable guy, the sort you think would make a great friend. Anyway, that's what I was considering throughout his current--and third--stint at the Lynn Redgrave …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:04AM

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