All stories by Michael Dale on BroadwayStars

Thursday, November 8, 2018

BWW Review: Patricia Ione Lloyd's Chilling and Evocative EVE'S SONG Honors The Spirits of Real-Life Murdered Black Women by Michael Dale

'Cuddles the puppy had fallen into the 50 foot deep well and was trapped,' an unseen television anchor is heard reporting at the outset of Patricia Ione Lloyd's chilling and evocative EVE'S …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:12AM
Wednesday, November 7, 2018

BWW Review: Larissa FastHorse's Comedy of Social Justice Warrior Errors, THE THANKSGIVING PLAY by Michael Dale

There are many factors, grant and school board requirements that we need to fulfill with this piece, the director explains to the cast on the first day of rehearsal of a Thanksgiving play fo…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:12AM
Monday, November 5, 2018

BWW Review: Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale Are Parents of a Missing Black Teen in AMERICAN SON by Michael Dale

A frustrated African-American woman, convinced that the young, armed, white police officer she's alone with isn't revealing everything he knows about her missing son, loses control of her te…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:24AM
Sunday, November 4, 2018

BWW Review: Mobile Unit's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Parties On at The Public by Michael Dale

For most New York playgoers, the words Shakespeare In The Park will immediately bring to mind the free performances at Central Park's outdoor Delacorte Theater, created decades ago by The Pu…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:04PM
Thursday, November 1, 2018

BWW Review: Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl Bring Harvey Fierstein's Groundbreaking TORCH SONG Back To Broadway by Michael Dale

The play is no longer titled TORCH SONG TRILOGY and the venue is no longer known as The Little Theatre, but there's still a marvelous homecoming taking place at The Helen Hayes, where Second…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:42PM
Wednesday, October 31, 2018

BWW Review: Steven Levenson's Charming and Funny DAYS OF RAGE Takes a Sentimental Look at Young '60s Activists by Michael Dale

'I hate white people,' blurts out a diminutive, small-voiced white teenager, trying to convince the white activist she just met that she would be a valuable addition to his commune. 'I can't…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:32AM
Tuesday, October 30, 2018

BWW Review: Cynthia von Buhler's Entrancing Immersive Adventure THE GIRL WHO HANDCUFFED HOUDINI by Michael Dale

It was October 31st, 1926 when the world famous escape artist Harry Houdini succumbed to the one thing in life that's inescapable, and every year since, believers hold seances on Halloween n…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:04AM
Sunday, October 28, 2018

BWW Review: Eleanor Burgess' Thought-Provoking THE NICETIES Debates Microaggressions and Revolutions by Michael Dale

You're more afraid of looking like a racist than you are of being a racist, an African-American college student surmises when her white professor reacts with panic when it becomes clear that…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:48AM
Thursday, October 25, 2018

BWW Review: Elaine May Returns To Broadway in Kenneth Lonergan's Touching and Humorous THE WAVERLY GALLERY by Michael Dale

'The whole neighborhood is changing,' is the oft-repeated melancholy observation of the 85-year-old woman at the center of Kenneth Lonergan's 2001 Pulitzer-finalist, THE WAVERLY GALLERY.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:18PM

BWW Review: John Kevin Jones is Both Ghoulish and Exquisite in KILLING AN EVENING WITH EDGAR ALLAN POE by Michael Dale

For the past five years the very fine actor John Kevin Jones has been drawing packed houses to East 4th Street's 1832 landmark Merchant's House Museum building for Summoners Ensemble Theatre…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:24AM
Tuesday, October 23, 2018

BWW Review: Miranda Rose Hall's PLOT POINTS IN OUR SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT Has a Loving Couple Torn By Sexual Incompatibility by Michael Dale

Falling in love is the easy part. Functioning day to day as a couple can take work, especially when sexual incompatibility becomes an issue.

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:33AM

BWW Review: MCC Encores Jocelyn Bioh's Colorism Drama SCHOOL GIRLS; OR, THE AFRICAN MEAN GIRLS PLAY by Michael Dale

As the grand finale of their fourteen year residency at Christopher Street's Lucille Lortel Theatre, before moving to their brand new Hell's Kitchen digs, Manhattan Class Company brings in a…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 01:42AM
Monday, October 22, 2018

BWW Review: Jez Butterworth's Olivier-Winning THE FERRYMAN is A Harvest of Engaging Characters and Performances by Michael Dale

The angry graffiti painted on the red bricks of the Bogside alleyway, memorializing Irish Republicans who have fallen in the cause of independence, contributes to the ominous mood of the ope…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:36AM
Sunday, October 21, 2018

BWW Review: Christine Lahti is Gloria Steinem in Emily Mann's Riveting GLORIA: A LIFE by Michael Dale

'I grew up in working class Toledo,' says the subject of Emily Mann's Gloria A Life, arguably the most potent, informative, emotionally riveting and ultimately uplifting theatre piece curren…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:12AM
Friday, October 19, 2018

BWW Review: Daniel Radcliffe, Cherry Jones and Bobby Cannavale Hilariously Debate The Value of Truth in THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT by Michael Dale

'I take liberties with things that deepen the central truth of the piece,' explains writer John D'Agata. 'Don't get bogged down in the details, keep your eye on the big picture.'

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:12AM
Thursday, October 18, 2018

BWW Review: Glenn Close is Joan of Arc's Bewildered Mom in Jane Anderson's MOTHER OF THE MAID by Michael Dale

Behind most poverty-to-celebrity stories, there's usually a hard-working parent or two who dreamed of a better lifefor their child, but perhaps never imagined that better life might include …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:36AM
Tuesday, October 16, 2018

BWW Review: Mark Sonnenblick's Superb MIDNIGHT AT THE NEVER GET Mixes Song, Romance and Resistance by Michael Dale

While it would be easy to exit the York Theatre these days having been absolutely swept away by Mark Sonnenblick's wonderfully engaging and ear-tingling score for his new musical, MIDNIGHT A…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:54AM
Sunday, October 14, 2018

BWW Review: Aasif Mandvi Offers New Yorkers Seconds of His Obie-Winning SAKINA'S RESTAURANT by Michael Dale

Savvy New Yorkers will immediately have a clear picture of the work environment when Azgi, the narrating character of playwrightactor Aasif Mandvi's solo piece SAKINA'S RESTAURANT, says he's…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:48PM
Friday, October 12, 2018

BWW Review: Eddie Korbich Plays Brilliant But Bigoted Richard Wagner in Allan Leicht's MY PARSIFAL CONDUCTOR by Michael Dale

'A Jew In heaven Jews' an incredulous 92-year-old Cosima Wagner asks her delirium-induced vision of her long-gone husband, Richard, at the outset of Allan Leicht's history-based My Parsifal …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 08:42AM
Wednesday, October 10, 2018

BWW Review: Heidi Schreck's Inescapably Truthful WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME by Michael Dale

Though designer Rachel Hauck's set for Heidi Schreck's inescapably truthful, yet eventually hopeful autobiographical performance piece WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME is based on the autho…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 02:54AM
Tuesday, October 2, 2018

BWW Review: Beautifully Sung and Acted GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY Matches Storytellers Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan by Michael Dale

Do not expect a rousing 'Rainy Day Woman''Blowin' In The Wind''Mr. Tambourine Man' dance mega-mix.at the end of Girl from the North Country, playwrightdirector Conor McPherson's lovely, intr…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:12AM
Thursday, September 27, 2018

BWW Review: Richard Bean's Eccentric Comedy THE NAP Introduces Snooker To Broadway by Michael Dale

British playwright Richard Bean made a riotous Broadway debut six years ago with the knockabout farce ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS, but his newest hit to cross the Atlantic, The Nap, while full of g…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:54PM
Tuesday, September 25, 2018

BWW Review: Janet McTeer Speaks The Speeches Ever So Trippingly in Theresa Rebeck's BERNHARDT/HAMLET by Michael Dale

'All that privilege and he can't figure out how to do anything,' ponders one of the world's greatest actors as she attempts to delve into the psyche of one of the world's greatest theatrical…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 11:32PM

BWW Review: Craig Lucas' Job-Inspired Drama, I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU, Performed in Both Spoken English and ASL by Michael Dale

The press script provided to critics reviewing Craig Lucas' somber and overstuffed drama, I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU, specifies that the play was created to be performed by Deaf and hearing a…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:24AM
Monday, September 24, 2018

BWW Review: Kristine Nielsen and Annette O'Toole in Tennessee Williams Rarity A LOVELY SUNDAY FOR CREVE COEUR by Michael Dale

Don't be surprised to immediately sense a bit of familiarity in the dynamic between the two main characters as director Austin Pendleton's very fine La Femme Theatre production of the lesser…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 12:06AM
Friday, September 21, 2018

BWW Review: Edie Falco, Michael McKean and Peter Scolari Tackle Politics and Marriage in Sharr White's THE TRUE by Michael Dale

Dorothea Polly Noonan, the real-life central character of Sharr White's new political drama, THE TRUE, was the grandmother of current United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. If times were …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 04:18AM
Wednesday, September 19, 2018

BWW Review: Musical Dating Adventure NEUROSIS Is Extremely Enjoyable Fluff by Michael Dale

While the exact location of composer Ben Green, lyricist Greg Edwards and bookwriter Allan Rice's funny and frothy new musical dating adventure, Neurosis, is never revealed, it's a safe bet …

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 03:04AM
Monday, September 17, 2018

BWW Review: Richard Nelson Gives UNCLE VANYA The Rhinebeck Treatment by Michael Dale

For the better part of the present decade, playwrightdirector Richard Nelson has been going seriously Chekhovian, first with a quartet of plays set during the Obama years in the Rhinebeck, N…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 10:42AM
Thursday, September 13, 2018

BWW Review: Jen Silverman's Weird and Wonderful COLLECTIVE RAGE by Michael Dale

Eat your heart out, THE PERSECUTION AND ASSASSINATION OF JEAN-PAUL MARAT AS PERFORMED BY THE INMATES OF THE ASYLUM OF CHARENTON UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MARQUIS DE SADE. Paul Weiss' 1963 h…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 05:06AM
Friday, September 7, 2018

BWW Review: R.R.R.E.D. Warns of Genetic Extinction of Redheads by Michael Dale

There are times in musical theatre when a talented cast performing their hearts out can make questionable material not only endurable, but even somewhat enjoyable. Sadly, this is not the cas…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 09:32AM
Monday, August 27, 2018

BWW Review: The Mint Revives Lillian Hellman's Intriguing Labor Drama DAYS TO COME by Michael Dale

Perhaps if Clifford Odets' landmark pro-union drama, WAITING FOR LEFTY, hadn't opened the year before,Lillian Hellman's 1936 labor drama, DAYS TO COME, the sophomore Broadway effort of the p…

SOURCE: BroadwayWorld at 01:18AM

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