All stories by Stanford Friedman on BroadwayStars

Monday, February 12, 2024

Munich Medea: Happy Family by Stanford Friedman

Nourished by Corinne Jaber’s sharp writing and Lee Sunday Evans’ sensitive direction, this production makes the most out of isolating its players. It serves to effectively express the lo…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 08:15PM
Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Spamalot by Stanford Friedman

The pleasures of the Broadway revival of Spamalot are three in number. Three shall be the number thou shall count and the number of the counting shalt be three.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 12:34PM
Monday, November 20, 2023

Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion by Stanford Friedman

Mind Mangler conjures up a sad loser who fails magnificently at his craft, cracking up the audience while gaining their sympathy along the way.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 11:28AM
Friday, October 13, 2023

The Lights Are On by Stanford Friedman

Playwright Owen Panettieri sticks three jittery oddballs in a haunted house and leaves it to the audience to decide who among them is the biggest victim, the worst tormenter, the most insane.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 09:30PM
Friday, October 6, 2023

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding by Stanford Friedman

The employees of Jaja’s each have their own ways of living with this danger. Bioh intertwines their tales, director Whitney White shapes the action into a tight thing of beauty and the ens…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 03:25PM
Sunday, August 20, 2023

El Mago Pop by Stanford Friedman

Close-up magic accounts for about a third of the production’s 90 minutes and is never less than spectacular.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 10:00PM
Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Prejudice & Pride by Stanford Friedman

It turns out that the sense and sensibilities of Jane Austen can be neatly showcased in a sequence of country-western ballads, played on the banjo and written by a long-haired young man from…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 08:30PM
Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Good Vibrations by Stanford Friedman

Adapted from their true banger of a bio film of the same name, writers Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson again conspire to cage intense musicality within the true life story of Terri Hooley…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 04:42PM

Megan Hilty at Café Carlyle by Stanford Friedman

A short but sweet set of old favorites, tinged with country music and seasoned with a dash of Smash.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 04:35PM
Friday, May 12, 2023

Khan!!! The Musical! by Stanford Friedman

Khan!!! The Musical! crazily, but cleverly, goes where no multi-racial, multi-talented, multi-species cast has gone before.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 03:54PM
Monday, February 27, 2023

Fall River Fishing by Stanford Friedman

In this comically surreal reimagining of the Lizzie Borden story, the playwriting team of Zuzanna Szadkowski and Deborah Knox have more on their minds than just homicide by hatchet. They dis…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 12:48PM
Wednesday, February 22, 2023

A Bright New Boise by Stanford Friedman

This decidedly dark drama chronicles the lives of five emotionally damaged Idahoans who spend their days working at an art supply store and their nights pensively seeking some sort of salvat…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 02:00PM
Monday, February 13, 2023

Melissa Errico: A Noir Romance TWO MORE DATES!!! by Stanford Friedman

You can’t have a proper celebration of film noir music without a murder, so it is fortunate that Melissa Errico kills during her cinematic and sultry concert

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 06:31PM
Friday, January 27, 2023

Anthony Rapp’s Without You by Stanford Friedman

A work that meditates on a heart aneurysm, cancer and the specter of AIDS, but finds joy in a son’s love and an actor’s big break.

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 02:29PM
Thursday, January 26, 2023

The Smuggler: A Thriller in Rhyme by Stanford Friedman

Mellamphy’s assured, charismatic performance, and clear gift of gab, makes Tim an engaging and all too relatable anti-hero who finds his way to success via a series of questionably justifi…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 08:15PM
Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Your Own Personal Exegesis by Stanford Friedman

This risky production could have been holy hell, but director Annie Tippe and an enthusiastic cast clearly have faith in Julia May Jonas’s religious service of a script, making believers o…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 01:05PM
Monday, November 21, 2022

The Rat Trap by Stanford Friedman

Wedded bliss. Marital splendor. Joyful union. Matrimony hath many the happy descriptor. But, in 1918, for a budding 18-year-old playwright named Noël Coward, marriage was The Rat Trap. 

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 11:01PM
Friday, November 18, 2022

Evanston Salt Costs Climbing by Stanford Friedman

Evanston, IL seems an unlikely spot to serve as the frozen, dark epicenter of suicidal thoughts and vanished pasts. But for Peter, a salt truck driver, and his co-worker Basil, its icy roads…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 12:44PM
Sunday, November 6, 2022

Good Enemy by Stanford Friedman

The work brings fresh urgency to the 1980’s aftermath of China’s Cultural Revolution, when young citizens experimented with forgoing the Communist Party in favor of the cocktail party,

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 09:15PM
Saturday, September 24, 2022

Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical by Stanford Friedman

Eight actors and one hand puppet portray over a dozen characters in Jonathan Hogue’s pressurized fire hose of a musical. This parody of the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things, had its ini…

SOURCE: thefrontrowcenter.com at 02:00PM
Monday, August 22, 2016

Book Review "Agnes De Mille: Telling Stories in Broadway Dance" by Kara Anne Gardner by Stanford Friedman

It is a meticulously researched must-read for fans and students of dance, aspiring directors, playwrights, and weekend theatergoers alike; which is to say that de Mille's choreographic contr…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:48AM
Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Book Review "Then & Now: A Memoir" by Barbara Cook by Stanford Friedman

There are goodly amounts of backstage lore and music appreciation surrounding her memories of Candide, The Music Man, She Loves Me and Follies—catnip for theater buffs. Her descriptions of…

SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 11:44AM

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