All stories by Richard Seff on BroadwayStars

Monday, December 6, 2021

Company at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre by Richard Seff

Saturday, December 2, will now become a red letter day for me. I arrived at the theatre at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre at 1:15 for a 2:00 matinee preview of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company”…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 03:11PM
Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Trouble in Mind by Richard Seff

Seated in the American Airlines Theatre at a recent matinee, I had the feeling that I was not watching a show but was instead privileged to be observing a cast of fine actors as they went ab…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:34PM
Monday, October 25, 2021

Fairycakes by Richard Seff

Douglas Carter Beane was Artistic Director for the Drama Department at Greenwich House Theatre for ten years and in recent times has written a number of merry plays including “The Little …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:41PM

The Lehman Trilogy by Richard Seff

This three act play runs three hours and fifteen minutes, and it is–in a word–a Blockbuster! From start to finish it is eloquent, informed, imaginatively staged, and brilliantly acted b…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:27PM
Saturday, October 16, 2021

Lackawanna Blues by Richard Seff

Ruben Santiago-Hudson is an extraordinary actor, and he is using his gifts to our advantage in this one-man play at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre on Broadway. Ably supported by music compose…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:06PM
Saturday, October 9, 2021

Six by Richard Seff

Here we have it, an early offering after the Pandemic drought, a new musical playing eight performances a week in a Broadway theatre. That in itself  is big news since the theatre district …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 01:50PM
Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Broadway Returns with “PASS OVER” by Richard Seff

A playwright with a powerful voice and a director of taste and imagination have joined forces to end the 18 month drought on Broadway of plays, musicals, revues, and other forms of live enli…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 08:35PM
Friday, March 6, 2020

“West Side Story” is reborn by Richard Seff

Full disclosure: I still vividly remember the night the original company of this masterful musical opened on Broadway. It was September 26, 1957; and I was there because I, as a young agent,…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:30PM
Monday, February 17, 2020

“The Confession of Lily Dare” at the Cherry Lane Theatre by Richard Seff

Playwright and actor Charles Busch is back among us offering a new comedy with serious undertones which takes aim at the “weepy” film genre that was popular from the days of silent films…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:50PM
Thursday, February 6, 2020

“A Soldier’s Play” at the American Airlines Theatre by Richard Seff

Dealing as it does with the incipient integration of black servicemen in the Army in 1944 (The Armed Services were formally integrated in 1948), this new production of Charles Fuller’s Pul…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 12:14PM
Monday, January 27, 2020

“Paradise Lost” at the Acorn Theatre on Theatre Row by Richard Seff

From John Milton’s 1667 epic poem in blank verse, playwright Tom Dulack has created his own 100 minute one-act play also called “Paradise Lost.” Currently playing out a limited run tha…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:24PM
Sunday, January 19, 2020

“My Name is Lucy Barton” at the Manhattan Theatre Club by Richard Seff

There is a photo of Laura Linney on the cover of this play’s Playbill—a photo that is luminous and wistful and wise. Her eyes are focused on the distance outside the frame; her lips are …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 12:53PM
Friday, January 3, 2020

From Jersey City to his start on Broadway, little known stories of Jerry Herman by Richard Seff

Broadway lights will dim on January 7, 2020 at 6:45 p.m. for Jerry Herman, who died on Thursday, December 26 at the age of  88, and at the end of a year that saw at its beginning the death …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:12PM
Wednesday, December 25, 2019

“London Assurance” at the Irish Repertory Theatre by Richard Seff

Dion Boucicault lived through seventy years of the 19th century and spent fifty of them writing plays. He was only twenty-one when he delivered this stylish comedy of manners;  it was  his…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 12:25PM
Tuesday, December 17, 2019

“Harry Townsend’s Last Stand” at New York City Center, Stage 2 by Richard Seff

Younger audiences may prefer their theatre either as a seven hour epic or as a neatly-tied, ninety-minute, one-act bundle; but George Eastman’s play takes the middle of the road aiming to …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:09PM
Sunday, December 1, 2019

“A Bright Room Called Day” at the Public Theatre by Richard Seff

Tony Kushner wrote this play in 1985 when he was 29 years old. It deals with the early 1930s in Germany, the years in which the Weimar Republic was beginning to crumble, and Adolf Hitler was…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:37PM
Saturday, November 23, 2019

“The Inheritance” at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre by Richard Seff

It’s a good idea to prepare yourself if you plan to see both parts of Mr. Lopez’s play at matinee and evening in the same day. It can be done at 1:00 PM and again at 7:00 PM. Make certai…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:10AM
Sunday, November 17, 2019

“Tina: the Tina Turner Musical” at The Lunt-Fontanne Theatre by Richard Seff

  If you happen to be passing the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 46th Street any evening around 9:30 (some nights at 10:30), and you hear a roar emanate from the  theatre’s lobby, don’t be a…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 01:10PM
Sunday, November 3, 2019

“Little Shop of Horrors” at the Westside Theatre by Richard Seff

To get right to it—there is an anticipatory glow, even as we settle into our seats, that shouts at us from the house curtain with the musical’s title splashed across it in all its gory g…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:10PM
Sunday, October 27, 2019

“The Sound Inside” at Studio 54 by Richard Seff

There are actors who begin their careers with training and early professional outings in regional and stock theatres as understudies  and bit players. Many use live theatre as training grou…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 12:22PM
Thursday, October 24, 2019

“The Rose Tatoo” at the American Airlines Theatre by Richard Seff

Broadway will soon have to change its name to “Revival City” for the number of new works (except for juke box musicals and seven hour “events”) has narrowed down to two or three play…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:37PM
Saturday, October 19, 2019

“Linda Vista”, a not so pretty view by Richard Seff

Tracy Letts,  who established himself as a playwright with “August: Osage County,”  is a gifted writer  and actor who has an uncanny ear for the unique rhythms, accents, and insights …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 01:29PM
Saturday, October 12, 2019

“The Great Society” at The Beaumount Theatre at Lincoln Center by Richard Seff

“All the Way” by Robert Schenkkan dealt with Lyndon Johnson’s efforts to influence the 88th U.S. congress to vote in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It first appeared in 2012 at the Oreg…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 01:07PM
Sunday, October 6, 2019

“Fern Hill”, a play by Michael Tucker by Richard Seff

Artists often prepare sketches to guide themselves through the process of creating a painting. Architects draw blueprints which are subject to change before committing to building.  And Pla…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:47PM
Thursday, September 5, 2019

“Betrayal” at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre by Richard Seff

Master playwright Harold Pinter has left us a fistful of fascinating plays, and their highly original tales will be with us for many years to come. “The Birthday Party,” “The Homecomin…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:32PM
Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Hal Prince As I Knew Him by Richard Seff

Top drawer producer-director Hal Prince died on July 31st in the unlikely city of Reykjavic, Iceland. In his case, come to think of it, nothing was unlikely, as he had spent his working life…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:33PM
Thursday, August 15, 2019

“Sea Wall/A Life” at the Hudson Theatre by Richard Seff

The Hudson Theatre on Broadway is playing host presently to two star actors with two playwrights (Simon Stephens and Nick Payne) delivering two acts of delicate magic. On a virtually bare st…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 03:16PM
Thursday, August 8, 2019

“LOVE, NOËL” The Songs and Letters of Noël Coward by Richard Seff

Let’s take a moment to stroll down memory lane. For some of you it will be more of a history lesson, but join us anyway as we think about a time when New York had something called “café…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:30PM
Tuesday, August 6, 2019

“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” Bigger is not Always Better by Richard Seff

You can tell as you enter the Al Hirschfeld Theatre that you’re going to be seeing a big show. The entire proscenium and a lot of the side walls are covered with gilt and glitter and a hug…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 09:55AM
Thursday, August 1, 2019

Hal Prince as I knew him: from back stage apprentice to Broadway producer and director by Richard Seff

Top drawer producer-director Hal Prince died on July 31st in the unlikely city of Reikvik, Iceland, although, come to think of it, nothing was unlikely for this man who spent his working lif…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:42PM
Monday, July 22, 2019

“The Rolling Stone” at Mitzi Newhouse at Lincoln Center by Richard Seff

A young British playwright, Chris Urch, is making his Lincoln Center debut with this play—one written in white heat. It’s fiction but is based on incidents that took pace in Uganda ten y…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:20PM

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