All stories by Richard Seff on BroadwayStars

Monday, March 16, 2015

Helen Mirren reigns supreme over The Audience by Richard Seff

It’s always a pleasure to welcome Helen Mirren back to the Broadway stage. Her new vehicle by Peter Morgan, who served her well once before as author of “The Queen,” a film…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:32AM
Monday, March 9, 2015

Larry David’s Fish in the Dark a smash hit by Richard Seff

Larry David's 'Fish' gives new meaning to the word "promising." There's no question his play is full of laughs, but it is peopled by over a dozen completely one dimensional characters who re…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:56AM
Monday, February 9, 2015

Lady, Be Good! at Encores by Richard Seff

At the conclusion of the Saturday matinee during the seven performance run of each Encores! presentation at New York’s City Center, there is always a talkback with members of the compa…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:54PM
Thursday, January 15, 2015

Honeymoon in Vegas by Richard Seff

I hadn’t been to the Nederlander, the theatre that is the furthest south in the neighborhood called “Broadway”, since Rent opened there in 1996. That musical stayed put for…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:15AM
Tuesday, December 16, 2014

The Invisible Hand, new play from Disgraced author, Ayad Akhtar by Richard Seff

Playwright Ayad Akhtar has Disgraced running on Broadway. It’s found its audience, which responds to the play’s sparkling and insightful dialogue dealing with the complicated rel…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:08AM
Monday, December 15, 2014

The Elephant Man, now at the Booth Theatre by Richard Seff

Bernard Pomerance’s play from 1977 has been revived on Broadway for a fourteen week run, starring Bradley Cooper in the title role, which is the only big news connected with the produc…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:35AM
Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Hurricane Sandy aftermath in MTC’s By the Water by Richard Seff

It’s a few months after Hurricane Sandy hit New York on October 29, 2012. Staten Island took a beating from the storm and when the lights come up on Sharyn Rothstein’s new play, …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:09AM
Tuesday, December 2, 2014

On a Stool at the End of the Bar by Richard Seff

One of the unexpected pleasures of covering New York theatre for our site is that I have the opportunity to view the wide spectrum of subjects, themes, current issues that playwrights use as…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:21AM
Monday, December 1, 2014

Side Show on Broadway by Richard Seff

Another revival has plunked itself down on Broadway . As the original new musicals are mostly half baked, I wonder what the season will be like 20 years from now, when there is nothing to re…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:50PM
Wednesday, November 26, 2014

It’s Only a Play but it’s the hottest ticket in town by Richard Seff

I have to credit Jack O’Brien, the director, and lead producer Tom Kirdahy for delivering what is unquestionably the hottest ticket in town as we hit the mid-season mark. I say that be…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:28AM
Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Hugh Jackman in The River by Richard Seff

A full house at the 776 seat Circle in the Square in Manhattan’s theatre district managed to settle in just before 8PM, for there were signs all over the place announcing “No one…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:57AM
Monday, November 24, 2014

Mike Nichols, a master class in living. Recollections from Richard Seff by Richard Seff

When Mike Nichols passed away last Wednesday night at the age of 83, I found myself needing to hit the YouTube buttons to have another look at some of the sketches he and Elaine May performe…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:18AM
Thursday, November 20, 2014

Lost Lake and Billy & Ray, two one acts with disappointments by Richard Seff

I bring you my first double header, as play after play opens off Broadway, courtesy of the dozen not-for-profit theatres that have firmly established themselves. LOST LAKE by David Auburn Lo…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:06AM
Monday, November 17, 2014

A brush with Sondheim at Saturday Night, Musicals in Mufti by Richard Seff

This is a little bonus notice, because it was a rare showing of Stephen Sondheim’s very first musical, written when he was in his early twenties. Twin brothers Julius and Philip Epstei…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:58AM
Friday, November 14, 2014

The Band Wagon at Encores! Hey, Broadway producers, scoop up this hit. by Richard Seff

The winter winds have just begun to blow, yet spring has arrived at the City Center on West 55th Street, where The Band Wagon is making a lot of people happy. Unfortunately, this version wil…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:25AM
Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Stoppard’s The Real Thing on Broadway by Richard Seff

Tom Stoppard is back on Broadway . His Indian Ink is playing at the Cort Theatre and now the Roundabout has produced his 1982 success The Real Thing as part of its season at the American Air…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:57AM
Friday, November 7, 2014

Sarah Ruhl’s latest, The Oldest Boy by Richard Seff

Sarah Ruhl is a writer of imagination and considerable experience. The Lincoln Center Theatre has presented two of her early plays, The Clean House and In The Next Room (The Vibrator Play), …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:49AM
Thursday, November 6, 2014

Sting’s The Last Ship by Richard Seff

We always have high hopes when a gifted writer from one field chooses to drop in on another. Scott Fitzgerald tried it (The Vegetable), so did Henry James (Guy Domville). Ernest Hemingway wr…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 06:16AM
Monday, November 3, 2014

Pulitzer Prize winner Disgraced opens on Broadway by Richard Seff

From the moment Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced begins, we are intrigued. Set in designer John Lee Beatty’s upper east side Manhattan apartment, even the scenery speaks to us. The set ca…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:59AM
Friday, October 31, 2014

A Time for Singing as Musicals in Mufti approaches its 100th by Richard Seff

The 100th Musical in Mufti is about to open at the York Theatre, which is a gem of a small space buried under St. Peter’s Church on 54th Street and Lexington Avenue. This very useful s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:55AM
Friday, October 24, 2014

“It’s a helluva” On the Town by Richard Seff

I was apprehensive when I entered the central lobby of the vast Lyric Theatre on 42nd Street to see the latest revival of Bernstein-Comden and Green’s On the Town. I have to be one of …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:45PM

The Belle of Amherst by Richard Seff

In 1976 Julie Harris, at the peak of her onstage career, brought this one woman play to Broadway. She managed to keep it afloat for over 100 performances at the Longacre Theatre where the re…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:46AM
Monday, October 20, 2014

Deliverance by Richard Seff

James Dickey’s novel Deliverance was a critical and popular success when it was published in 1970. It won the National Book Award, and was the basis of the equally popular film that wa…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:41AM
Monday, October 13, 2014

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Richard Seff

This title of a new play by Simon Stephens may seem long-winded and awkward, but it is an accurate account of what a child with Asperger’s Syndrome might answer when asked to describe …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:06AM
Wednesday, October 8, 2014

This Is Our Youth from Steppenwolf Theatre by Richard Seff

Playwright Kenneth Lonergan has much to be grateful for, to Scott Rudin and his consortium of partners who brought us Steppenwolf’s revival of This Is Our Youth, which established Lone…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:46AM
Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Stoppard’s Indian Ink from Roundabout Theatre Company by Richard Seff

If the Mitford sisters, who attracted attention in social circles in the 1930s, didn’t fascinate or even interest you, then you might have trouble cozying up to Tom Stoppard’s ve…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:34AM
Monday, October 6, 2014

The Country House by Richard Seff

Inspired by Chekhov’s The Sea Gull, Donald Margulies’ new play The Country House makes good use of some of the same raw materials. Chekhov liked country houses and actresses and …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:16AM
Friday, October 3, 2014

You Can’t Take It With You at Longacre Theatre by Richard Seff

In ample time for Thanksgiving, Jeffrey Richards and a slew of associates (“by special arrangement with the Roundabout Theatre Company”) has delivered to the Longacre Theatre on …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:37AM
Monday, September 29, 2014

Uncle Vanya at The Pearl in New York by Richard Seff

Chekhov’s play, now at The Pearl Theater for a few more weeks, offers so many unhappy characters, all rusticating in the country (rural Russia, circa 1890) it’s difficult to foll…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:24AM
Thursday, September 18, 2014

A. R. Gurney and The Wayside Motor Inn at Signature, New York by Richard Seff

A.R.Gurney is a national treasure, who earned his sobriquet slowly and surely by writing over forty plays in the past 60 years, rivaling his contemporary Sir Alan Ayckbourn in productivity. …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:00PM
Monday, September 15, 2014

The Fatal Weakness by Richard Seff

There was for a time, in what we call the golden age of Broadway, a genre known as “the drawing room comedy”. A select few of the major playwrights of the day wrote them, dressed…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:04PM

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
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime