All stories by Gordon Cox on BroadwayStars

Sunday, June 16, 2024

‘Prayer for the French Republic,’ ‘Appropriate’ Among Tony Nominees Tackling Antisemitism, Racism and More Social Issues by Gordon Cox

Live theater always reflects the moment in which it’s presented, but this season, Broadway charged head-on into the politics of today with unusual force: A play that directly addressed ant…

SOURCE: Variety at 01:05PM
Saturday, June 15, 2024

Why the Tony Awards Producers Promise This Year’s Ceremony Will Wow You by Gordon Cox

Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, the duo who have produced and directed the Tony Awards telecast since 2003, won’t share too many specifics about the Tony ceremony coming up on Sunday. But …

SOURCE: Variety at 11:02AM
Thursday, June 13, 2024

‘Gatsby’ Review: A Smartly Stinging Musical Adaptation With Spectacle, Grit and Florence Welch Tunes by Gordon Cox

For all its jaw-dropping spectacle, and the musical excitement of the tunes by Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) and Thomas Bartlett (a/k/a Doveman), the American Repertory Theate…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:30PM

How ‘Invasive Species’ Built Big Downtown Buzz for Writer-Star Maia Novi’s Off Broadway Debut by Gordon Cox

Buzz for the new play “Invasive Species” infiltrated the downtown New York theater scene like a swarm of spotted lanternflies. Maybe you noticed one of those photos of Jennifer Lawrence …

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00AM
Tuesday, June 4, 2024

What Tony Nominations Mean to Sarah Paulson and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins by Gordon Cox

Emmy-winning actress Sarah Paulson is no stranger to entertainment industry awards shows — but even so, her current Tony nomination, for her lead performance in the Broadway play “Approp…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:26PM

‘Choice’ Review: Winnie Holzman’s Play Deals With Life’s Big Decisions — Including Abortion by Gordon Cox

Making life-altering decisions is no small matter, especially for the characters in “Choice,” Winnie Holzman’s provocative but imperfect play, which just completed a run at Princeton�…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:38AM
Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Why Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin Love the ‘Organized Chaos’ Backstage at ‘Cabaret’ by Gordon Cox

If you think there’s a lot going on onstage in “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club,” you should see what’s going on backstage. Listen to this week’s “Stagecraft” podcast below: Spea…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:00PM
Thursday, May 23, 2024

‘Romeo and Juliet’ Review: Tom Holland-Led Production Is Hobbled by Director Jamie Lloyd’s Extreme Stylization by Gordon Cox

The relationship is captivating. The energy flowing effortlessly between them means you instantly feel their connection, their shared affection, their give and take. It’s by far the strong…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:00PM
Monday, May 20, 2024

‘Death Becomes Her’ Review: Promising Pre-Broadway Musical Makes for a Campy Improvement on the Cult Film by Gordon Cox

A more-than-respectable entry in the endless parade of movies-to-musicals, this genuinely funny, effervescently performed pre-Broadway take on the 1992 Robert Zemeckis dark comedy “Death B…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:34PM
Wednesday, May 15, 2024

A Spring in Broadway’s Step: After a Grim Fall, the New York Theater Industry Finds Reasons to be Upbeat by Gordon Cox

Are we back yet? That’s the question Broadway has been asking for the past three years, as the theater industry emerged from lockdown into a harsh new reality of rising costs and slow-to-r…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:26PM
Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Why Tony Nominee Jessica Lange Feels ‘Wild and Liberated’ in Broadway’s ‘Mother Play’ by Gordon Cox

Jessica Lange has starred on Broadway before — winning a Tony for her most recent appearance there in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2016. But according to Lange, now back on Bro…

SOURCE: Variety at 04:26PM
Wednesday, May 8, 2024

‘Spirited Away’ Review: Stage Version of the Oscar Winning Animated Film is Less Than the Sum of Its Impressive Parts by Gordon Cox

Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 animated film “Spirited Away” won everything from the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Berlin’s Golden Bear. That there’s an audience for a stage version wa…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:00PM
Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Why Tony Nominees Eden Espinosa and Amber Iman Love That You’re Feeling Some Kind of Way About ‘Lempicka’ by Gordon Cox

The new musical “Lempicka” has inspired a love-it-or-hate-it response from critics and audiences alike — and its two newly-minted Tony-nominated actors, Eden Espinosa and Amber Iman, l…

SOURCE: Variety at 07:01PM

‘Minority Report’ Review: Hi-Tech, Lo-Drama in Flat West End Sci-Fi by Gordon Cox

When, at a dramatic peak, the lead character is running for her life and she’s teetering on a perilously tiny walkway on the outside of a very tall building, and terrified, certain thought…

SOURCE: Variety at 05:55PM

Tony Nominations Snubs and Surprises: ‘The Wiz’ Shut Out, Steve Carell and Michael Imperioli Overlooked, as ‘Stereophonic’ Becomes Most-Nomina by Gordon Cox

With the annual announcement of the Tony nominations comes the yearly list of snubs and surprises, as this season’s shows see their dreams realized — or their hopes dashed — and progno…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:31AM
Monday, April 29, 2024

Final Tony Awards Predictions 2024: Eddie Redmayne, Sarah Paulson, Leslie Odom Jr and Daniel Radcliffe Among Likely Nominees by Gordon Cox

Variety‘s Awards Circuit is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year. It features the official predictions for the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, and Tony Awards, cur…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00AM
Friday, April 26, 2024

‘Illinoise’ Review: A Thrilling, Genre-Defying Broadway Musical Brings the Sufjan Stevens Album to Lyrical Life by Gordon Cox

Sufjan Stevens’s indie folk concept album “Illinois” (2005) is whimsical, earnest, and sorrowful; it weaves together events and figures from Illinois history (including UFO sightings, …

SOURCE: Variety at 02:16PM

Life Is a ‘Cabaret’: Bebe Neuwirth’s Latest Role Is a High-Stakes Broadway Homecoming by Gordon Cox

Bebe Neuwirth calls herself a “theater rat.” So it’s natural she’d be sitting in an old-school New York diner on Eighth Avenue, on the edge of the Broadway district, right around the…

SOURCE: Variety at 11:00AM
Thursday, April 25, 2024

‘The Great Gatsby’ Review: Broadway Musical Has Glamour but Little Grit by Gordon Cox

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel “The Great Gatsby,” which captured the roaring twenties with shocking clarity, is a staple of high school curricula and has been immortalized in two fa…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Wednesday, April 24, 2024

‘Uncle Vanya’ Review: Steve Carell Fits Seamlessly Into a Stellar Ensemble in a Gorgeous Broadway Revival by Gordon Cox

Director Lila Neugebauer sets Lincoln Center Theater’s starry, breathtaking new Broadway production of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” in current-day America rather than Russia around …

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Monday, April 22, 2024

‘The Heart of Rock And Roll’ Review: Huey Lewis and the News Jukebox Musical is Easy to Like, Harder to Love by Gordon Cox

When a character in the new musical “The Heart of Rock and Roll” tries to convince his ex to leave her job at a factory that makes shipping materials, he is stunned: “Oh, my god. It’…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM

‘Patriots’ Review: Peter Morgan’s Disappointing Power Play About Putin’s Rise in Post-Soviet Russia is a ‘Nyet’ by Gordon Cox

In Peter Morgan’s tantalizing but disappointing new play “Patriots,” Boris Berezovsky is presented as a larger-than-life oligarch in a post-Soviet Russia who transforms Vladimir Putin …

SOURCE: Variety at 08:14PM
Sunday, April 21, 2024

‘Cabaret’ Review: Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin Lead High-Style Revival That Cuts to the Bone by Gordon Cox

When Eddie Redmayne’s slithering Emcee assures the audience at “Cabaret” that “here, life is beautiful,” he’s telling a half-truth. The August Wilson Theater, done up like the Ki…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Saturday, April 20, 2024

‘Hell’s Kitchen’ Review: Alicia Keys Musical Brings a Vibrant Depiction of Teen Girlhood to Broadway by Gordon Cox

“Hell’s Kitchen” opened on Broadway on April 20, 2024. The following is Aramide Tinubu’s review of the show’s Off Broadway premiere published on Nov. 19, 2023. The credits and copy…

SOURCE: Variety at 09:00PM
Friday, April 19, 2024

‘Stereophonic’ Review: Behind the Music, There’s Theatrical Solid Gold in This New Broadway Play by Gordon Cox

There’s a moment in David Adjmi’s play “Stereophonic” when a discordant, mid-’70s band-on-the rise hears one of its songs played back to them in the recording studio for the first …

SOURCE: Variety at 11:59PM
Thursday, April 18, 2024

‘Suffs’ Review: Broadway Musical About Women’s Fight for the Vote Gets Thrilling and Entertaining Musicalization by Gordon Cox

A musical that captures the sweep of history in all its complexities without sacrifice of character or credibility is no easy feat.   But “Suffs,” which tells the story of the final pus…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Wednesday, April 17, 2024

‘The Wiz’ Review: In a New Broadway Revival, Dorothy and Friends Get Lost in a Hypercolor Whirligig by Gordon Cox

A flight of imagination born of the trippy 1970s, “The Wiz” can shoulder a lot of interpretation. Sidney Lumet’s shadowy film, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, sets the Black s…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Why Grant Gustin Loves the Scary Parts of Starring in a Broadway Musical by Gordon Cox

Grant Gustin, the former CW superhero now making his Broadway debut in the musical “Water for Elephants,” has been headlining his current, critically praised stage gig since it began pre…

SOURCE: Variety at 02:14PM
Sunday, April 14, 2024

‘Lempicka’ Review: Broadway Musical Leaves a Visionary Artist Out of Focus by Gordon Cox

To the list of larger-than-life, survivalist women in musical theater, add Tamara de Lempicka — but with an asterisk. The name of the Polish-born portraitist who died in 1980 might not be …

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM
Friday, April 12, 2024

‘Player Kings’ Review: Ian McKellen and Toheeb Jimoh Give Star Turns in a Chilly New Take on Shakespeare’s ‘Henry IV’ by Gordon Cox

According to theater lore, it was Elizabeth I who demanded Shakespeare write another play about Falstaff, which, allegedly, is why he wrote “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The Queen might …

SOURCE: Variety at 01:21PM
Thursday, April 11, 2024

‘The Outsiders’ Review: Broadway Musical Packs Heart and Soul but Little Punch by Gordon Cox

Tough guys with a soft side have long held a firm grip on the American imagination. S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders,” about a cadre of down-and-out boys, has been read by millions o…

SOURCE: Variety at 10:00PM

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 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime