All stories by Steven Suskin on BroadwayStars

Monday, July 27, 2015

Aisle View: "Down the Jersey Shore" by Steven Suskin

James Lecesne in The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. Photo: Matthew Murphy The Absolute Brightness of...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:23PM
Monday, July 20, 2015

Aisle View: Odets Sings Out by Steven Suskin

We now have another Awake and Sing!, this time at the Public. But there is a major difference. This is a production of the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO). The cast consists…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 05:22PM
Thursday, July 16, 2015

Aisle View: Fall from Grace by Steven Suskin

The authors and producers seem to be very much in earnest in this anti-slavery, pro-faith tale of the mid-18th century. They provide something of a history lesson, based on the life, adventu…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:58PM
Sunday, July 12, 2015

Aisle View: Penn & Teller, Back in Town by Steven Suskin

Penn Jillette and Teller in Penn & Teller On Broadway. Photo: Francis George Penn Jillette and the mononymous Teller...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:09PM
Monday, June 29, 2015

Aisle View: Backstage Coming of Age by Steven Suskin

Shows for Days is closer, in style and genre, to Joseph Stein's 1963 adaptation of Carl Reiner's Enter Laughing. But that play--which launched the acting career of Alan Arkin and the direct…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:56PM
Sunday, June 28, 2015

Lullaby of B'way at 35 by Steven Suskin

Thirty-five years to the day after the first performance of the long-running Broadway musical 42nd Street, almost two hundred alumni gathered last night to celebrate. The David Merrick/Gowe…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 06:09PM
Thursday, June 25, 2015

Aisle View: Finn's Brainy Musical by Steven Suskin

Jonathan Groff and Aaron Lazar in A New Brain. Photo: Joan Marcus Theatergoers with a keen interest in dramatic,...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 02:46PM
Saturday, June 20, 2015

Aisle View: Gloria's Wild Ride by Steven Suskin

How do you describe a play that is so surprising -- and so excellent -- that you don't want to give readers an idea of what they are in for?

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 02:29PM
Thursday, June 18, 2015

Aisle View: Significant Laughter by Steven Suskin

Playwright Joshua Harmon burst into view in 2012 with Bad Jews, one of those plays that sounds like a bad idea but turns out to be very good.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:55PM
Monday, June 15, 2015

Aisle View: Writer's Block à la Russe by Steven Suskin

The play itself, an LCT3 offering at Lincoln Center Theater's Claire Tow playhouse, turns out to be an intriguing, challenging evening of theatre.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:03PM
Sunday, June 14, 2015

Aisle View: Swingers with Qualms by Steven Suskin

Kate Arrington, Jeremy Shamos and Sarah Goldberg in The Qualms. Photo: Joan Marcus Bruce Norris, who has given us...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:13PM
Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Aisle View: To the Author/Star Goes The Spoils by Steven Suskin

Since achieving stardom in 2010 as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, Jesse Eisenberg has diligently applied himself to writing plays. The Spoils, his third off-Broadway offering in five…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:08PM
Monday, May 25, 2015

ON THE RECORD: "Quiet Please" From Steven Blier & Darius de Haas, and London's Make Me an Offer by Steven Suskin

We listen to "Quiet Please," a collection of standards and jazz from Steven Blier and Darius de Haas, and the cast album of the award-winning 1959 West End musical Make Me an Offer.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

ON THE RECORD: "Quiet Please" From Steven Blier & Darius de Haas, and London's Make Me an Offer by Steven Suskin

We listen to "Quiet Please," a collection of standards and jazz from Steven Blier and Darius de Haas, and the cast album of the award-winning 1959 West End musical Make Me an Offer.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE DVD SHELF: Garbo and Minnelli From the Archives, Plus "Naked Kiss," "Broadcast News," "Color Purple" by Steven Suskin

We screen Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in "Two-Faced Woman"; Vincente Minnelli's "Two Weeks in Another Town"; Sam Fuller's "The Naked Kiss"; James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News"; and Stephen …

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE DVD SHELF: Garbo and Minnelli From the Archives, Plus "Naked Kiss," "Broadcast News," "Color Purple" by Steven Suskin

We screen Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas in "Two-Faced Woman"; Vincente Minnelli's "Two Weeks in Another Town"; Sam Fuller's "The Naked Kiss"; James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News"; and Stephen …

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

ON THE RECORD: "Originals — Musical Comedy, 1909-1935," With Highlights From Antique Shows, Plus an Overture Collection by Steven Suskin

We listen to "Originals — Musical Comedy, 1909-1935," a collection of old recordings by old stars; and "Another Openin' Another Show," Lehman Engel's 1958 album of 12 Broadway overture…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE BOOK SHELF: Gerald Bordman's Updated "American Musical Theatre," Plus "Diaghilev" & Three Librettos by Steven Suskin

We page through the Fourth Edition of "American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle"; newly published librettos of Oklahoma!, Sound of Music and Avenue Q; and a biography of Serge Diaghilev.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE BOOK SHELF: Gerald Bordman's Updated "American Musical Theatre," Plus "Diaghilev" & Three Librettos by Steven Suskin

We page through the Fourth Edition of "American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle"; newly published librettos of Oklahoma!, Sound of Music and Avenue Q; and a biography of Serge Diaghilev.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

ON THE RECORD: From Off-Broadway, Ordinary Days and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Steven Suskin

We listen to two Off-Broadway musicals, Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days, from the Roundabout in 2009, and the 1964 adaptation of James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

ON THE RECORD: From Off-Broadway, Ordinary Days and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by Steven Suskin

We listen to two Off-Broadway musicals, Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days, from the Roundabout in 2009, and the 1964 adaptation of James Thurber's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE DVD SHELF: "All About Eve," "An Affair to Remember,"Gielgud's "Ages of Man," The Norman Conquests, "Glee" by Steven Suskin

We screen the classics "All About Eve" and "An Affair to Remember"; John Gielgud's Shakespearean recital series; Alan Ayckbourn's Norman trilogy; Woody Allen's latest; and "Glee: Season Two …

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE DVD SHELF: "All About Eve," "An Affair to Remember,"Gielgud's "Ages of Man," The Norman Conquests, "Glee" by Steven Suskin

We screen the classics "All About Eve" and "An Affair to Remember"; John Gielgud's Shakespearean recital series; Alan Ayckbourn's Norman trilogy; Woody Allen's latest; and "Glee: Season Two …

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

ON THE RECORD: Cook & Feinstein "Cheek to Cheek," Plus the Original London Cast Recording of Mattress by Steven Suskin

We listen to the new live recording of Barbara Cook and Michael Feinstein's cabaret act "Cheek to Cheek," plus the 1960 London cast album of Mary Rodgers & Marshall Barer's Once Upon a Mattr…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

ON THE RECORD: Cook & Feinstein "Cheek to Cheek," Plus the Original London Cast Recording of Mattress by Steven Suskin

We listen to the new live recording of Barbara Cook and Michael Feinstein's cabaret act "Cheek to Cheek," plus the 1960 London cast album of Mary Rodgers & Marshall Barer's Once Upon a Mattr…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE BOOK SHELF: "Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919," "The American Stage," "Collected Plays of Tennessee Williams" by Steven Suskin

We page through Thomas S. Hischak's guide to "Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919"; a problematic survey of "The Golden Age of the Musical Theatre"; a cornucopia called "The American Stage"; an…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM

THE BOOK SHELF: "Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919," "The American Stage," "Collected Plays of Tennessee Williams" by Steven Suskin

We page through Thomas S. Hischak's guide to "Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919"; a problematic survey of "The Golden Age of the Musical Theatre"; a cornucopia called "The American Stage"; an…

SOURCE: Playbill at 05:58PM
Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Permission Denied by Steven Suskin

Like Hand to God, Permission is outrageous and profane; like its predecessor, it can be seen as a sledgehammer attack on religion featuring violence and sex, albeit without as much bloodshed…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:53PM
Monday, May 18, 2015

Aisle View: Popcorn in the Aisles by Steven Suskin

Annie Baker, in The Flick, has drawn three disparate loners in dead-end menial jobs; engaged them in often aimless-seeming banter, as opposed to meaningful discussion; and keeps them at it f…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:49PM
Sunday, May 17, 2015

Aisle View: Lake Erie Idyll, with Laughs by Steven Suskin

Noah Galvin in A.R. Gurney's What I Did Last Summer. Photo: Joan Marcus If you have written upwards of fifty plays over...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:20PM
Thursday, April 23, 2015

Aisle View: The Final Visit by Steven Suskin

Not enough. An interesting show, to be sure; but in this crowded April, with at least ten intriguing new productions on view, I wonder whether this Visit is quite worth the visit.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:04PM

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