Elizabeth Taylor as Elizabeth TaylorThe one-woman show Finding Elizabeth Taylor started late today because of technical difficulties. At one point, the star and playwright, Elizabeth Taylor,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:38PMBy coincidence, I saw three plays about soldiers in Iraq this weekend (in order of viewing): Ajax in Iraq (not reviewed), Goliath, and The Eyes of Babylon. The Eyes of Babylon is the only on…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:45PMM. Scott FrankWhen I tell you the plot of the choreopoem Goliath, written by Takeo Rivera and directed by Alex Mallory, you may find it cliche: David, a smart and sensitive teenager, joins t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:17PMA good cabaret act often includes a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Ballads. Anthems. Standards. Novelties. Anecdotes. Audience participation. Shtick. Piano player-perfo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:47PMClaybourne Elder, Todd Lawson (photo: Monique Carboni)The New Group & Tectonic Theater Project's ponderous production of Tennessee Williams' One Arm, adapted from his unproduced screenpl…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:00PMPhoto: Mike MartinBarbara Cook. What do you think of when you hear that name? A pure soprano? Glitter and Be Gay? The queen of cabaret singers? The Music Man? Sondheim? An unparalleled inter…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:23PMRicky Ian Gordon's gorgeous chamber piece, Orpheus & Euridice, is being given an excellent production by The Orpheus Project and Collaborative Stages through June 12th. If luscious song …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:25PMI'm very pleased to announce that June 9th I will be part of a panel on theatre blogging. I hope you can come! (It's free. More info below.)The panel is part of the Planet Connections Theatr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:17PMIf you wanted to explain the concept of "range," you could do worse than to compare Lynn Nottage's current comedy, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, to her recent devastating drama, Ruined. Few p…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:02PMMichael Cristofer and Linda Emond (photo: Joan Marcus)To those who point to previous generations of theatre as being better than this one, I have two words for you: Tony Kushner. (I have two…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:28PMIn 2003, in the Signature (Arlington, VA) production, Eric Schaeffer demonstrated that he is capable of directing a sensitive, textured, multidimensional, heart-breaking Follies. Has he forg…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:22PMI love Marilyn Maye.Really, what's not to love? Maye is an American Classic, a jazz-cabaret singer who started singing professionally in the Great Depression, an 83-year-old who swings with …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:12PMIn his director's note for The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman, David Zippel aptly refers to "the dazzling depth and breadth" of Coleman's work. Dazzling depth and breadth indee…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:00PMOUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICALBloody Bloody Andrew Jackson OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAYJerusalem OUTSTANDING BROADWAY MUSICAL REVIVALAnything Goes OUTSTANDING BROADWAY PLAY…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:14PMJoy Yandell, Karson St. John (photo: Daren Scott)Spoilers Throughout. San Diego's excellent Cygnet theatre is presenting a problematic production of Kander and Ebb's classic musical Cab…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:18PMThe Patrick Lee Internet Theater Bloggers Association award nominations have been announced. Here they are:OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL Bloody Bloody Andrew JacksonCatch Me…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:50PMJill Eikenberry, Wrenn Schmidt (photo: Ben Arons)There are no new stories. This fact challenges every playwright (and novelist and screenwriter). Take, for example, the following three scena…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:35PMThere are wonderful moments in theatre when you suddenly realize that you are in the presence of someone special. The first time I heard Lisa Howard sing was one of those moments. It was an …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:06PMBefore I get to her voice, and what she sang, and all those necessary details about someone performing a solo cabaret show, I need to get one thing out of the way: Laura Benanti is a hoot. N…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:07PMMamie Gummer and Jenn Gambatese. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.I have to begin this review with a caveat: At the performance of The School for Lies I attended, an electrical outage down the bloc…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:05PMAccording to the invaluable StageGrade, the Broadway musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown received an average grade of C- from a total of 31 critics. While it's clear that Women…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:56PMIn writing Seance on a Wet Afternoon, was Stephen Schwartz hoping to create his Sweeney Todd?
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:17PMPlaywright debbie tucker green's elegant, pared-down Olivier Award-winning play Born Bad is a formidable achievement.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:16PMMarie and Bruce is a crass and juvenile--and unsuccessful--attempt at being shockingly funny.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:56PMAll I can say to David Leveaux, director of the current Broadway production of Arcadia, is shame on you.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:16AMVictoria Clark Master Class. This is the second master class I've seen given by Victoria Clark. I've also seen Barbara Cook give one. All three were wonderful and occasionally awe-inspiring …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:09PMIf Michael Fray had written nothing but the delightfully hysterical Noises Off, he would still rate a place in the heart of all theatre lovers. However, Frayn has written a great deal more t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:25PMPlaywright Read presents compelling, fully realized characters, and their secrets are both surprising and believable.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:29PMRoom presents an emotional portrait of a writer in desperate need of "the room to move, the room to breathe, the room to imagine; emotional room, creative room."
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:13PMShirley Jones's act at Feinstein's last night was a treat for her biggest fans, who laughed, cheered, stood, and even cried. For the rest of us, however, the news was not as good.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:49PMPhoto: Daniel TernaTheChanging Room, by David Storey, is not big on plot. A bunch of Englishmen enter a locker room, kid around, change, and go out to play rugby--Act One. The owner of…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:09PM