All stories by Howard Miller on BroadwayStars

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "The Who's Tommy" 3/28/24 by Howard Miller

The thing about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is that before you can get to the "post" part, you are going to have to endure the trauma part. And there is trauma aplenty in the first half o…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 11:02PM
Thursday, March 21, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Water for Elephants" 3/21/24 by Howard Miller

Ladies and gentlemen!!! Children of all ages!!! Feast your eyes on the center (and only) ring, where you will witness feats of wonder the likes of which have never been seen before!!! Welcom…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:32PM
Friday, March 15, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "The Notebook" 3/14/24 by Howard Miller

Love at first sight. Love everlasting. 'Til death do us part. That, in a nutshell, is a description of The Notebook, the heartfelt musical adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' best-selling 1996 no…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:40AM

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Ibsen's Ghost" - 3/14/24 by Howard Miller

Anyone who thought plays featuring men in drag were on the way out (Pick your poison: Insulting to women? Exploiting transgender stereotypes? Too old hat for words?) should cast their eyes o…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:40AM
Thursday, March 14, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Slow Dance" - 3/14/24 by Howard Miller

Neurosis meets whimsey in Lisi DeHaas's The Slow Dance, opening last night at 59E59 Theaters, a play about a whiny, immature, and insecure middle-aged man who, over the course of 75 minutes,…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 10:34AM
Thursday, March 7, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Doubt: A Parable" 3/7/24 by Howard Miller

Never underestimate Sister Aloysius Beauvier, principal of St. Nicholas Elementary School. It's easy enough to peg her as a stereotype, a tough-minded old-fashioned conservative nun who, whe…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:38PM
Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Ally" - 2/27/24 by Howard Miller

"The meaning of a performance depends most of all on who is in the audience." So says one of the characters in Itamar Moses's scorching new play, The Ally, opening tonight at the Public Thea…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 04:37AM
Sunday, February 25, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Deadly Stages" - 2/25/24 by Howard Miller

Deadly Stages, Marc Castle and Mark Finley's genial comedy opening today at Theater Row, is a spoofy, affectionate homage to low-budget movie murder mysteries that might have been third on t…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 06:04PM
Thursday, February 22, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Jelly's Last Jam" - 2/22/24 by Howard Miller

Death comes for us all, of course, though it is not typically featured in the opening moments of a big splashy musical such as the one on view at New York City Center, which is hosting an al…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 03:33PM
Friday, February 9, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Oh, Mary!" - 2/8/24 by Howard Miller

History generally has not been terribly kind in its portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the 16th President of the United States. More like the bane of his existence. Angry, bitter, depre…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 03:57AM
Monday, January 29, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Days of Wine and Roses" 1/28/24 by Howard Miller

If you had the good fortune of experiencing the intimate Off-Broadway production of Days of Wine and Roses a few months back, anchored by the exquisite lead performances by Kelli O'Hara and …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 04:53AM
Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Greatest Hits Down Route 66" - 1/23/24 by Howard Miller

If you've ever been curious about who the "she" is in "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain," you will be happy to learn several differing hypotheses in The Greatest Hits Down Route 66, a so…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 12:15AM
Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Prayer for the French Republic" 1/9/24 by Howard Miller

Prayer for the French Republic, Joshua Harmon's deep-dive of a play about a family caught up in the growing surge of antisemitism in France, has taken on a darker, more urgent tone in its tr…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:01AM
Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Buena Vista Social Club" - 12/13/23 by Howard Miller

Go for the music. Stay for the music. And the dancing. And the acting. And the story. And the direction. And the set design. And all the rest of the et ceteras thrown into the mix. Buena Vis…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:45PM
Sunday, December 10, 2023

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "How to Dance in Ohio" 12/10/23 by Howard Miller

Remember how it felt during the months leading up to your high school prom? Ignore this question if you were full of confidence, aware of who you would be going with, sure of your appearance…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:12PM
Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Manahatta" - 12/5/23 by Howard Miller

The Public Theater in New York City regularly makes it a point to respectfully acknowledge that the land on which it stands is the original homeland of the Lenape people. How fitting it is, …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:04PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "The Gardens of Anuncia" - 11/20/23 by Howard Miller

Addressing the audience, the title character in Michael John LaChiusa's charming if evanescent musical The Gardens of Anuncia, describes the setting as one in which "flowers float, tomatoes …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 06:09AM
Monday, November 20, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Hell's Kitchen" - 11/19/23 by Howard Miller

New York City in the 1990s was just beginning to emerge from a low point in its history, at least so far as the 20th century goes, a period marked by violent lawlessness, a rocketing plague …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 01:48AM
Thursday, November 16, 2023

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Monty Python's Spamalot" 11/16/23 by Howard Miller

And now for something completely different. Or maybe it's pretty much the same. Anyway, they're back! And not a moment too soon, those wild and crazy characters whose wacky ways are somehow …

SOURCE: www.temptalkinbroadway.com at 08:14PM

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Good Night, Oscar" 4/23/23 by Howard Miller

Playwright Doug Wright has carved out a highly successful niche for himself by creating for the stage, with sympathy and affection, works about actual people whose uncommon behavior and/or m…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 12:48PM

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Foxes" - 6/14/23 by Howard Miller

After many years of being on the theatrical down-low, stories of gay Black men (if not women) are starting to show up with some regularity on and off Broadway. In A Strange Loop, Fat Ham, an…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 12:48PM

Regional Reviews: Off-Broadway - "Make Me Gorgeous!" - 11/15/23 by Howard Miller

Have you ever thought of being a hairdresser in a brothel? No? Well, that's merely one of the stops along the way in the life of professional female impersonator Kenneth "Mr. Madam" Marlowe,…

SOURCE: www.temptalkinbroadway.com at 12:48PM

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Jaja's African Hair Braiding" 10/3/23 by Howard Miller

A couple of years back, Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh led the post-pandemic reopening of the Delacorte Theater in New York's Central Park with a delightful retelling of Shakespea…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 12:48PM
Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Harmony" 11/13/23 by Howard Miller

"And your punishment is to remember everything!!" With these words unleashed on a rapt audience late in the evening, we are engulfed by the burden felt every day of his life by Josef Roman C…

SOURCE: www.temptalkinbroadway.com at 06:03AM
Friday, November 3, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Pal Joey" - 11/3/23 by Howard Miller

Imagine you are the proud owner of four lovely die cut jigsaw puzzles. Each puzzle consists of pieces that have been shaped using the same pattern. Carefully assembled, you will wind up with…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 04:55PM

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "I Need That" 11/2/23 by Howard Miller

Theresa Rebeck's new play I Need That, opening tonight at the American Airlines Theatre, was created specifically as a vehicle for actor/comedian Danny DeVito and his daughter Lucy DeVito. N…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 02:45AM
Saturday, October 28, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "King of the Jews" - 10/28/23 by Howard Miller

Ask yourself, what would you do? What would you do if, like Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, you were "one frightened voice" trying just to get by in the face of the rising tide of Naziism in …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:11PM
Friday, October 27, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Arms and the Man" - 10/26/23 by Howard Miller

Gingold Theatrical Group's production of George Bernard Shaw's 1894 comedy Arms and the Man, opening tonight at Theatre Row, is light as a feather and delectable as a piece of chocolate crea…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 04:06AM
Tuesday, October 24, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Daphne" - 10/23/23 by Howard Miller

A thrum of fear and dread saturates playwright Renae Simone Jarrett's cryptic new play Daphne, opening tonight at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theater. Indeed, the play could be said to be al…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 04:41AM
Friday, October 20, 2023

Talkin' Broadway Off-Broadway - "Chasing Happy" - 10/19/23 by Howard Miller

Playwright Michel Wallerstein's Chasing Happy, a production of Pulse Theatre opening tonight at Theatre Row, is a well-acted if wobbly plotted comedy about a love triangle among three gay me…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 03:58AM
Friday, October 13, 2023

Talkin' Broadway on Broadway Review: "Gutenberg! The Musical!" 10/12/23 by Howard Miller

Silly meets heart-warming affection in Gutenberg! The Musical!, opening tonight at the James Earl Jones Theatre. It stars Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells, real-life pals ever since they worked …

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 05:11AM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards