Sunday, December 13, 2015
Clocking in at nearly three hours, Diner tries to both romanticize and deconstruct a simpler time in the American past. Unfortunately, it fails on both counts.
SOURCE: TalkinBroadway at 09:56AMSunday, October 25, 2015
Photo: Joan MarcusMy colleagues Wendy and Liz generally offered praised for Robert O'Hara's Barbecue, which runs through next Sunday at The Public's Newman Theater (read their thoughts …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:58PMWednesday, October 14, 2015
Annaleigh Ashford garnered praise and a Tony nomination for her scene-stealing work in Kinky Boots; a year later, she walked away with the prize for her dizzyingly satisfying turn as Essie C…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:09PMFriday, October 9, 2015
Sam Shepard's Fool For Love is a strange, searing play. Although it takes place in real time, in the stark and unforgiving Western landscape the author so often favors, one cannot shake the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:12PMWednesday, September 23, 2015
I am pleased to announce that I will be joining Talkin' Broadway as a contributing critic. I will be covering theatrical productions in New Jersey and Philadelphia. Although I can'…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:56PMMonday, September 14, 2015
Two young women reflect each other through a mirror. One is dark-haired and slight, with a deeply expressive face. The other is blond and fuller-bodied, with a guitar strapped to her back. T…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:12PMMonday, September 7, 2015
I find it hard to believe that Philip Ridley's Mercury Fur -- written in 2005, but just now receiving its New York premiere, under the auspices of The New Group -- caused such ire upon …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:38PMSunday, September 6, 2015
Not much happens in The Flick, but you probably know that already. The play's languid running time -- three-and-a-half hours, with the fist act clocking in at almost two -- and liberal use o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:07PMFriday, August 28, 2015
The 2015/2016 theater season has already begun, with the much lauded Broadway premiere of Hamilton (and the less-lauded debut of Amazing Grace) and the first new shows of the Off-Broadway se…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:32AMTuesday, August 18, 2015
photo: T. Charles EricksonAudra McDonald cemented her living legend status in 2014, when she won her sixth competitive Tony, becoming not only the first actor to achieve that feat but also t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:08AMphoto: Paul FoxMike Bartlett --whose Oliver-winning satire King Charles III will premiere on Broadway in the fall -- wrote his taut, often funny, surprisingly moving An Intervention for a ma…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:08AMTuesday, August 11, 2015
photo: Matthew MurphyNo one path leads to an indelible, unforgettable performance. Sometimes an actor takes a classic, timeless role and makes it truly their own, to the point where anyone e…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:14PMMonday, July 27, 2015
There really is no such thing as a bad night at the Delacorte Theater, the venue nestled inside Central Park where The Public Theater has offered free Shakespeare (and Sondheim, and Chekhov,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:37AMTuesday, July 14, 2015
Photo: Joan MarcusLarry David may have left his hit play Fish in the Dark, but make no mistake: he's still up on that stage. And I'm not just referring to the fact that his replacement is hi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:31PMSaturday, July 4, 2015
Photo: Carol RoseggIrish theater values the act of storytelling as much as -- if not more than -- the story itself. The danger each playwright faces is that taken too far, this approach can …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:07PMThursday, June 25, 2015
photo: Joan MarcusThe trickiest part of crafting a memoir is getting your very personal story to speak to something universal and recognizable for a wide audience. The best works of autobiog…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:08PMSunday, June 14, 2015
Photo: Joan MarcusBruce Norris can write. His dialogue crackles, his jokes mostly land, and occasionally he creates surprisingly vivid, three-dimensional characters. He's also a polemicist, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:13AMTuesday, June 9, 2015
photo: Joan MarcusAn almost-bare stage, two actors, razor-sharp direction, simple lighting, a few props: sometimes this is all you need to create an absolutely magnetic piece of theater. Suc…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:12PMSunday, May 3, 2015
photo: Sara KrulwichEvery theater season has a "snob hit," according to William Goldman's classic 1969 insider's guide to Broadway, The Season. It's a play--usually British--that cultured Ne…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:02AMMonday, April 27, 2015
When the classic verismo double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci last appeared at the Met, in 2009, it was clear that Franco Zeffirelli's war-horse pr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:23PMFriday, April 17, 2015
Photo: Sara KrulwichThere's very little to say about Fun Home that wasn't enumerated by Wendy's spot-on comments, so I'll simply say this:I am glad that Alison Bechdel decided to t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:58AMFriday, April 10, 2015
Renee Fleming, Jerry O'Connell, Douglas SillsPhoto: Sara KrulwichFull disclosure: I left Living on Love, the wretched attempt at drawing room comedy improbably playing at the Longacre Theatr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:50AMThursday, April 2, 2015
Photo: Joan MarcusTo watch Chita Rivera in The Visit is to watch a great artist at the top of her game, fully in command of the stage and fully realized in the performance that she's giving.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:57AMMonday, March 23, 2015
Ito Aghayere, Michael Izquierdo, and Kristolyn LloydPhoto: Joan MarcusAs with her previous offering earlier this season, And I and Silence (which Wendy reviewed), Naomi Wallac…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:13PMSunday, March 22, 2015
Alexandra Socha and Keith CarradinePhoto: Joan MarcusOne of the many worthy aspects of City Center's Encores is that it often provides a venue for musicals that would otherwise go unrevived.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:32AMMonday, March 16, 2015
Tracee Chimo, Jason Biggs, Elisabeth Moss, and Bryce Pinkham.Photo: Joan MarcusPeggy Olson, the barrier-breaking copy chief on AMC’s Mad Men, is surely kin to Heidi Holland, second-wave fe…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:00PMMonday, March 9, 2015
Carrie Coon and Florencia Lozanophoto: Joan MarcusI can’t stand people who talk during a performance. It demonstrates rudeness in the extreme and an utter lack of consideration for the enj…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:50AMThursday, February 26, 2015
All aboard, ladies and gentlemen! The express train to musical theatre heaven is departing the station eight times a week. You can catch it at the American Airlines Theatre, where a sub…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:58PMSunday, February 22, 2015
The Winter's Tale is my personal favorite of Shakespeare's plays. It's also one of the hardest to stage well. Neither comedy nor tragedy, it's classified (alongside Cymbeline and The Tempest…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:00PMWednesday, February 18, 2015
Robert Sella, Anna Camp, Matt McGrathPhoto: Erin BaianoI've seen shows that I disliked. Shows that bored me. Shows that confused and confounded me. Yet rarely have I seen a show that is…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:42PMTuesday, February 17, 2015
The film adaptation of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years is remarkably faithful to its source material. That is not necessarily a good thing.Strictly speaking, this musical (which pre…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:22PM 
