Saturday, November 9, 2024
Whether performers liked him or disliked him, they agreed that Gil Wiest—the last of the great nightclub impresarios—kept them working. He routinely booked artists for long runs—a mon…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:49AMTuesday, November 5, 2024
Seeing this presentation of “Ragtime” was the most satisfying theatrical experience I’ve had in years. I hope a way can be found to bring “Ragtime” back to Broadway—ideally with…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 07:20AMMonday, November 4, 2024
“Drag: The Musical” has the look and feel of a winner. Production values are first-rate. And the sweet, tender, innocent contributions of a young cast member, Yair Keydar—who sings be…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 07:17AMSaturday, October 19, 2024
The show may have been overly long, but I’m very glad I caught it. Because I saw two up-and-coming “unknown” singers—Robert Levey II and Johnny Sullivan—with as much promise and p…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 09:28AMSaturday, October 12, 2024
For decades under James Morgan’s leadership, the York Theatre Company has occupied a unique spot in New York’s theater world—celebrating musical-theater, past, present, and future. Th…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:37PMSaturday, July 27, 2024
I just got back from the Bucks County Playhouse, which I always enjoy visiting, to catch the world-premiere production of “Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” a new musical about Sophie Tucker. …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:16AMWednesday, July 3, 2024
Berlin, incidentally, could not write music. He could play piano—not too well, and in only one key. He would play, sing, and hum songs that he created, which a musical secretary would …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:56PMTuesday, June 11, 2024
They’ve created a theater that actors love to work in. And that was reflected by the terrific array of actors (including assorted Tony and Drama Desk Award winners and nominees), who gath…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:47PMWednesday, April 3, 2024
This is, essentially, Woody Allen’s band, without Woody. It’s the only seven-piece New Orleans-style jazz band with a steady gig in New York. And if you like traditional jazz, this ban…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:50PMTuesday, March 26, 2024
I’ve never seen any student production—at the high school or college level—achieve a more glorious ensemble sound than the ensemble sound produced by the students of the Sinatra School…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 12:01PMWednesday, March 20, 2024
I’ve always loved their work, from the very start of their careers. Jimmy (on guitar) and Jerry (on tenor sax) have worked with some of the biggest names in the business--Tony Bennett, Bru…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 07:11PMThursday, March 14, 2024
I think the city’s top performing-arts schools—Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music & Arts, and the Performing Arts; PPAS; and the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts—are among the…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:47PMWhat a terrific, beautifully layered performance Ben Levi Ross gives in “The Connector”—a moving, original new musical from Jason Robert Brown, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Daisy Prin…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:13PMThursday, March 7, 2024
On March 4th, 2024, I witnessed the best major-club debut I’ve seen in years. And I kept thinking, as I watched David Marino sing, “The good old days are now…”
The post appeared f…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:22PMFriday, February 23, 2024
I don’t think I’ve ever been as disappointed by a Paper Mill Playhouse presentation as I have been by their production of After Midnight. This adaptation of the original Broadway produc…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:32PMThursday, November 9, 2023
This fall, I saw two of the most rewarding tribute-type concerts I’ve seen in recent years—one a glittering (if overlong), star-filled salute to “the Voice of Broadway,” Betty Buckl…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:47PMSunday, August 20, 2023
Brice—as a pioneering Jewish female Broadway star who took charge of her own fabulous career in an era when few women did—became a source of inspiration for many aspiring young Jewish pe…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 08:01PMTuesday, July 25, 2023
He sang all his life. When New York's Triborough Bridge (known today as the RFK Bridge) opened in May of 1936, Tony Bennett--then a boy singer from Astoria who loved the work of Al Jolson a…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:03PMWednesday, June 28, 2023
As a lover of the performing arts, I’ll remember this month as when I witnesseed Matthew Broderick give one of the finest, subtlest performances of his career. I’ll remember, too, the u…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 07:54AMWednesday, May 24, 2023
Oliver! is darker than most so-called family musicals—mixing elation and heartbreak as casually as life itself does—but it touches us more than most family musicals. And Encores’ prod…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:53PMSunday, May 14, 2023
In the last few weeks I feel like I’ve been stepping back in time—in a nice way. I’ve enjoyed seeing the new Broadway musicals "New York, New York" (set in 1946-47) and (with some …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 06:41PMTuesday, May 9, 2023
Each was an individual; I liked hearing all of the different voices and accents and inflections. Each one brought his or her own personality to the work. But—and this is a compliment--…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:43PMMonday, April 24, 2023
He was perhaps best-known for his play "Kennedy's Children"--produced successfully on Broadway and on the West End, and in many cities, internationally. He also gave us some 60 other pu…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:18AMFriday, April 21, 2023
Roundabout, under Haimes' leadership, was noted both for new works and for revivals of older shows with strikingly new elements (like this season's gender-bending revival of "1776.") He w…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:10AMSaturday, February 11, 2023
Rapp’s show—directed by Steve Maler, with musical direction/orchestrations by Daniel A. Weiss (who was the associate conductor/second keyboards player of the original Broadway production…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 01:40PMSunday, January 1, 2023
"Fiddler"--brilliantly directed by Joel Grey—is an unusually impactful production. It’s emotionally rich, moving, and timeless. And wholly believable. They had me from the first words …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 10:34PMTuesday, December 13, 2022
Everyone who loves theater owes a debt of gratitude to Julie Boardman and Diane Nicoletti. About five years ago, they got the idea of creating a museum in the theater district, dedicated t…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:25PMMonday, December 5, 2022
The new production of "The Sound of Music" at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse is such an utter delight, you shouldn’t be wasting time reading this review, you should be ordering tick…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 05:18PMBoy! This is going to be a tough review to write. The York Theatre Company, which has such a strong track record when it comes to honoring important songwriters, is currently presenting a …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 11:12AMSunday, November 27, 2022
Clary scored a great success on Broadway in "Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952." My father, who enjoyed that show, recalled Eartha Kitt and Robert Clary as the standouts in the cast of…
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 04:47PMWednesday, November 23, 2022
He saw seemingly everything, and championed plays and productions he found meaningful, even if they were at the smallest of theaters. He chose what he wished to cover, and would sometimes …
SOURCE: www.theaterscene.net at 02:26PM 
