All stories by Gordon Cox on BroadwayStars

Thursday, October 14, 2021

‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ Review: James McArdle and Saoirse Ronan in an Over-Directed and Under-Dramatized Production by Gordon Cox

The title character of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is unequivocal: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it was done quickly.” Director Yaël Farber begs to differ. She …

SOURCE: Variety at 07:01PM
Wednesday, October 13, 2021

‘Thoughts of a Colored Man’ Review: A Welcome if Uneven Excavation of Black Masculinity on Broadway by Gordon Cox

A hope for the future arrives in the final moments of “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” a dutiful and expansive cataloguing of its title subject by Keenan Scott II. “I can’t wait for the …

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2021

How Norm Lewis Found New Rhythms in ‘Chicken & Biscuits’ by Gordon Cox

The fan-favorite Broadway veteran Norm Lewis is doing something he’s never done before: starring on Broadway in a play. After a career marked by many of the great roles in musical theater …

SOURCE: Variety at 02:09PM
Monday, October 11, 2021

‘Is This a Room’ Review: Formally Daring Docudrama Comes to Broadway by Gordon Cox

Everyone knows more than they let on at the top of “Is This a Room,” a taut and pulse-prickling docudrama conceived and directed by Tina Satter. That includes audiences who are likely fa…

SOURCE: Variety at 08:30PM
Sunday, October 10, 2021

‘Chicken & Biscuits’ Review: A Feast of Black Joy on Broadway  by Gordon Cox

“Chicken & Biscuits” is a feast of a production, and there is enough sustenance and libation for the entire family. Zhailon Levingston, who at 27-years-old becomes the youngest Black…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Friday, October 8, 2021

‘Lackawana Blues’ Review: Ruben Santiago-Hudson Brings His Play to Broadway by Gordon Cox

Here’s a treat: a restorative evening of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s loving recollections of growing up in an upstate New York boarding house run by a life force known as Nanny. When Nanny m…

SOURCE: Variety at 06:35PM
Thursday, October 7, 2021

‘The Mirror and the Light’ Review: The Climax of Hilary Mantel’s Historical Trilogy by Gordon Cox

The all-powerful family firm has assets aplenty, but its troubled future is being massively fought over with everyone plotting over the next generation. No, not the upcoming third season of …

SOURCE: Variety at 06:42PM

Director Jerry Zaks Is Bringing Laughs Back to Broadway After 18-Month Shutdown Due to the Pandemic by Gordon Cox

Eighteen months after theaters around the country shut down, Jerry Zaks is back doing exactly what he was the moment things went dark: rehearsing his next big Broadway comedy. One of the ind…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:45PM
Wednesday, October 6, 2021

How Black Creatives Are Working to Shake Up Broadway and Implement Lasting Change by Gordon Cox

When Stephen C. Byrd began producing on Broadway 16 years ago, he and his partner Alia Jones-Harvey were usually the only Black faces they saw in the business. “We would walk into marketin…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:00AM
Tuesday, October 5, 2021

How Director Michael Longhurst Is Resuscitating Theater on Both Sides of the Atlantic by Gordon Cox

Like everyone on Broadway at that moment, British director Michael Longhurst remembers exactly where he was when the COVID-19 shutdown came. “We had just done our dress rehearsal of ‘Car…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:18PM

‘Hamlet’ Review: Cush Jumbo Ignites London Production by Gordon Cox

There are two reasons that, among recent Hamlets, Cush Jumbo (“The Good Fight”) is right up there alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and Ian McKellen. Like those two actors, Jumbo has dazzli…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:35PM
Sunday, October 3, 2021

‘Six’ Review: Long Live These Broadway Queens by Gordon Cox

Strutting strong, arms akimbo and ready for a royal rumble, the sextet of cheeky spouses of King Henry VIII take to the stage in triumph — not just over the much-married monarch who did th…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Friday, October 1, 2021

‘A Crossing’ Review: A Powerful Refugee Journey, But Dance Musical Still Has a Few Miles to Go by Gordon Cox

In “A Crossing,” the new dance musical premiering at Barrington Stage in the Berkshires, a group of desperate immigrants confront hazardous terrains, punishing weather, threatening vigil…

SOURCE: Variety at 03:02PM
Tuesday, September 28, 2021

How Two ‘Playwriting Sisters’ Are Restarting Shows After the Shutdown by Gordon Cox

The playwrights Jocelyn Bioh and Martyna Majok have a bond, in life and in their work. “I feel like Martyna and I are these playwriting sisters in terms of the groups of people and the sto…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:43PM
Monday, September 27, 2021

Tonys Awards: The Biggest Snubs, Surprises and Takeaways of the 2021 Ceremony by Gordon Cox

The long-delayed Tony Awards ceremony has happened at last, and much of it played out as expected — see, for instance, the string of wins for “Moulin Rouge!,” which seemed the likely w…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:04AM
Friday, September 24, 2021

Tony Awards Predictions: Breaking Down the Likely 2021 Winners by Gordon Cox

A Tony predictions story? In this climate? Yes, the Tony Awards are happening Sunday, although you might not know it. Publicity has been hampered by the confusing roll-out of the plan for th…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:20PM

Tony Awards Make Comeback as Nominees Discuss a Changed Broadway by Gordon Cox

With all the uncertainty around Broadway right now, one thing’s for sure: The Tony Awards this year will be unlike any other. The 2021 ceremony comes just as Broadway has begun its recove…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:00PM
Friday, September 17, 2021

‘Camp Siegfried’ Review: Bess Wohl’s New Play at the Old Vic in London by Gordon Cox

The claim to theatrical fame of the Long Island hamlet of Yaphank has thus far rested with PG Wodehouse, who included the town in his lyrics for Jerome Kern’s satirical hymn to the simple …

SOURCE: Variety at 07:00PM
Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Broadway Reopening Hits High Gear With ‘Hamilton,’ ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Wicked’ and More by Gordon Cox

“I don’t want to take live theater for granted ever again, do you?” That was Lin-Manuel Miranda, in a brief curtain speech welcoming back the first Broadway audience at “Hamilton” …

SOURCE: Variety at 10:22PM

How Broadway’s New Diversity Director Aims to Change the Industry by Gordon Cox

Broadway is back — and it’s looking to make some changes to how it used to operate. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: With producers, creators, advocates and exec…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:07PM
Monday, September 13, 2021

‘Back to the Future’ Review: West End Musical Is Lots of Fun Despite Flaws by Gordon Cox

In recent decades, numerous musical have arrived in London with outsized production values swamping the material, leading critics to wish for time machines so that they can fast-forward to t…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:05PM
Wednesday, September 1, 2021

‘Operation Mincemeat’ Review: Hilarious Small-Scale Musical Could Become a Big Hit by Gordon Cox

Is the quite splendid “Operation Mincemeat” ridiculously clever or cleverly ridiculous? Both. Making a song-n-dance show out of a real-life, stiff-upper-lip, British World War II intelli…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:42PM
Tuesday, August 31, 2021

Inside Disney Theatrical’s Global Restart by Gordon Cox

From “Aladdin” in Mexico City to “Frozen” in London to “The Lion King” in Tokyo — not to mention “Lion King” and “Aladdin” on Broadway — Disney Theatrical Productions…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:44PM
Thursday, August 26, 2021

What happens if someone tests positive for COVID on Broadway? by Gordon Cox

No one wants to talk about it, but it could happen: Someone involved in a Broadway production tests positive for COVID-19. In the run-up to reopening, there’s been significant coverage of …

SOURCE: Broadway News Subscription at 09:23AM
Sunday, August 22, 2021

‘Pass Over’ Review: Antoinette Nwandu’s Play Reignites Broadway by Gordon Cox

In Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s surreal and morbidly funny existential drama “Pass Over,” two characters who might be fugitives from a Samuel Beckett play find themselves in a world wh…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:05PM
Thursday, August 19, 2021

‘Cinderella’ Review: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Fairy Tale Redux Opens at Last by Gordon Cox

Where do you go after you’ve seen “Wicked”? That worldwide smash has built a vast young audience hungry for stories propelled by power ballads of female empowerment, and it’s clearly…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:48PM
Wednesday, August 18, 2021

‘Bagdad Cafe’ Review: A London Stage Adaptation With Theatricality but No Drama by Gordon Cox

“Life is a cabaret, old chum.” Oh wait, wrong show. Or is it? Taking on Percy and Eleonore Adlon’s 1987 movie “Bagdad Cafe,” Emma Rice’s music-filled, uber-quirky production boas…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:20PM
Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Broadway’s COVID Expert Talks Returning to Theaters Safely by Gordon Cox

It’s the question on all of Broadway’s mind right now: With the delta variant spreading just as shows are getting back up and running, how do we all — cast, crew and audiences — retu…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:46PM
Monday, August 9, 2021

‘Merry Wives’ Review: Shakespeare’s Farce Updated to South Harlem in a Lively, Powerful Remix by Gordon Cox

For one of New York City’s first major theater events in 16 months, eager audiences cannot do better than reveling in the natural splendors of Central Park’s Delacorte Theater for the gl…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Playing It Safe: Broadway Reopens With Rigorous COVID Protocols by Gordon Cox

In a Manhattan studio late last month, rehearsal was in progress. Two actors ran through a playful chase sequence. A fight choreographer, seated at the head of the room with the director, th…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:45PM

Theater Creatives Reveal What Industry Needs in Sundance Institute Survey (EXCLUSIVE) by Gordon Cox

As Broadway gets back to business and live performances resume around the country, the Sundance Institute has released a new study that diagnoses the state of the theater industry and imagin…

SOURCE: Variety at 12:00PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
TBA: Titanic