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All stories by David Finkle on BroadwayStars

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Monday, April 20, 2015

Overreaching Revisions of Broadway Revivals by David Finkle

"Gigi" and "An American in Paris" underline a disturbing trend.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 02:25PM

Thursday, April 16, 2015

First Nighter: Peter Sarsgaard in Shakespeare's and Austin Pendleton's "Hamlet" by David Finkle

It's surprising how many actors appearing as William Shakespeare's Hamlet don't take heed of the young Dane's advice to the players about speaking trippingly on the tongue and not sawing the…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:06AM

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

First Nighter: Flying Off Course While 'Finding Neverland' by David Finkle

Weinstein has certainly toiled industriously to render the movie he produced into a hit. Maybe the hordes of Peter Pan fans will turn it into one.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:11PM

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

First Nighter: The Schwartz-Almond "Iowa," The Good-Time "39 Steps" by David Finkle

Towards the end of the Jenny Schwartz-Todd Almond somewhat musical Iowa--or Iow@, as the program has it--four Mormon sister-wives...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:52AM

Sunday, April 12, 2015

First Nighter: Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon Sparks the Gershwins' 'An American in Paris' by David Finkle

Christopher Wheeldon's choreography for An American in Paris, at the Palace, is so spectacular that you have to forgive anything else wrong with the production--and believe you me, there's p…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:53PM

Thursday, April 9, 2015

First Nighter: Tracey Scott Wilson's "Buzzer" Fizzles; "Clinton the Musical" Frazzles by David Finkle

As Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer gets underway at the Public, Jackson (Grantham Coleman) introduces himself to the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:47PM

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

First Nighter: Little Girl "Gigi" Does Not Grow Up on Broadway in a Most Delightful Way by David Finkle

The reference to the release from Arthur Freed's incomparable MGM unit is recorded here as preamble to the unhappy news that a woefully cheap travesty of the gloriously romantic film has now…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:11PM

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

First Nighter: Robert Askins's "Hand to God" Deserves a Big Hand by David Finkle

Tyrone is a puppet with sharp teeth that lives at the end of the right arm belonging to timid Jason (Steven Boyer). The fabric...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 06:21PM

Monday, April 6, 2015

“Wolf Hall” Director Jeremy Herrin Holds Court by David Finkle

How one of the theater season's most anticipated events came to be.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:40AM

Friday, April 3, 2015

First Nighter: New Dance Craze "Flexn" Fills Park Avenue Armory by David Finkle

Would the 21 dancers of Flexn, directed by Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray and Peter Sellars, object to their movement styles...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:02PM

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

First Nighter: The Royal Shakespeare Company's Regal 'Love's Labour's Lost' and 'Love's Labour's Won' by David Finkle

Both are surpassingly good treatments. I heartily recommend them, although I definitely question whether it's commercially wise to attach the Love's Labour's Won name to a script that would …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 06:55PM

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

First Nighter: "Don Carlo" at the Met Is Grand Opera, "Soldier X" Marches Well at HERE by David Finkle

You don't hear the term "grand opera" much anymore. That's if you hear it at all. But it's going to be revived right now in regards to the opening night performance of Giuseppe Ver…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:23PM

First Nighter: "Don Carlo" at the Met Is Grand Opera, "Soldier X" Marches Well at HERE by David Finkle

<![CDATA[You don't hear the term "grand opera" much anymore. That's if you hear it at all. But it's going to be revived right now in regards to the opening night performance of …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:23PM

Sunday, March 29, 2015

First Nighter: Bedlam Company's Double Go at 'Twelfth Night, or What You Will' Perhaps Too Much Bedlam by David Finkle

In the program's statement of company purpose, there's a sentence about the fun for them and the audience of "inciting laughter and chaos." There's nothing wrong with inciting lau…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:00PM

Monday, March 23, 2015

First Nighter: "Ken Ludwig's Baskerville," Richard Maxwell's "The Evening" by David Finkle

With his prolific works Richard Maxwell gives the inescapable impression that he finds the niceties of theatrical production -- things like scripting, acting, design -- compromising. The mor…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:04PM

Thursday, March 19, 2015

First Nighter: Wendy Wasserstein's "Heidi Chronicles" in A+ Revival by David Finkle

When Heidi Holland, studying for a degree in art history, is first seen, she's at a college dance with best-friend-forever Susan Johnston (Ali Ahn) where she meets admirer Peter Patrone (Bry…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:47PM

First Nighter: "Paint Your Wagon" Revival Paints Town Red-Hot by David Finkle

When Paint Your Wagon was first done and record companies still actively scoured upcoming scores for chart-topping possibilities, the ones selected were "I Talk to the Trees" and &…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 03:17PM

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

First Nighter: Folk Music Honoring 'Lonesome Traveler' Sure is Folksy by David Finkle

As writer and director, O'Neil is so intent on keeping Lonesome Traveler at a good-time hootenanny level (remember hootenannies?) that though he brings in some of the harder crises and their…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:37PM

Monday, March 16, 2015

First Nighter: Melissa James Gibson Prescribes an Ineffective "Placebo" by David Finkle

Louise (Carrie Coon) spends her time at the lab working on a study of female desire--with desire-depleted Mary (Florencia...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:47PM

First Nighter: A Strong Review for "Posterity," Des Bishop Is "Made in China" by David Finkle

Doug Wright loves to wrangle with deceased figures of greater or lesser fame, and in Posterity, at the Atlantic's Linda Gross Theatre, he comes up with a humdinger.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 01:53PM

Sunday, March 15, 2015

First Nighter: Chenoweth, Gallagher at Full Steam in Three-Quarters Steam On the Twentieth Century' by David Finkle

During the On the Twentieth Century revival -- a musical comedy vehicle about a vehicle -- any number of Broadway veterans, including Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher, are working at th…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:46PM

Thursday, March 12, 2015

First Nighter: "Long Story Short" Sizes Up Marriage Fairly Enough by David Finkle

Nervous-as-a-tomcat-on-a-hot-tin-roof Charles (Bryce Ryness) and in-control-if-slightly-confused Hope (Pearl Sun) have just met perhaps...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:25PM

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

First Nighter: Cush Jumbo Truly Stars in Josephine and I by David Finkle

Pauline Kael once wrote -- and probably said many times -- that "it takes a star to play a star." I thought of the quote while watching Cush Jumbo performing her Josephine and I, a…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:25PM

Saturday, March 7, 2015

First Nighter: Fiennes in Shaw's "Man and Superman," Patrick Marber's Revived "Closer," Mike Bartlett's New "Game" by David Finkle

London--George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman isn't produced very often, in part because of its length. To be more precise,...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:15AM

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

First Nighter: Mark Rylance in 'Farinelli and the King,' John Hollingworth's 'Multitudes,' Zinie Harris's 'How to Hold Your Breath' by David Finkle

Since William Congreve wrote that "music hath charm to soothe a savage breast," people have assumed he was right. The composer Claire van Kampen has decided to demonstrate its tru…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:19AM

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

First Nighter: Ivo van Hove's "View From the Bridge" View, David Hare's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" Gaze by David Finkle

London--What can ordinarily be objectionable about Ivo van Hove's too often juvenile look-at-me directing is that he thinks it's innovative to play up a script's subtext. That, of course, i…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:04PM

Monday, February 23, 2015

“Hamilton” as Superb Edutainment by David Finkle

Lin-Manuel MIranda's new musical has extra-special potential.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 04:15PM

Sunday, February 22, 2015

First Nighter: Stoppard's Hard Problem Neatly Solved, Last of the De Mullins Deftly Revived, Homer's Odyssey in 60 Minutes by David Finkle

Almost immediately after Tom Stoppard's new and intellectually thrilling play, The Hard Problem, at the National Theatre's Dorfman, begins, the just-about-peerless playwright has his charact…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 06:47PM

Friday, February 20, 2015

First Nighter: James McAvoy Rules 'The Ruling Class,' A Feminized Treasure Island,' 'Di and Viv and Rose' on Friendship by David Finkle

When Peter Barnes decided the ruling English class was nutty, he created Jack Gurney and wrote The Ruling Class, a hellzapoppin satire during most of which Gurney (James McAvoy) contends he'…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:22PM

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

First Nighter: Nick Jones's "Verité," Stephen Adly Guirgis's "Between Riverside and Crazy" by David Finkle

Nick Jones could have fooled me. And did with Verité, his new comedy(?) at Lincoln Center's Claire Tow. But he didn't fool...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:42PM

Sunday, February 15, 2015

First Nighter: Ronald Keaton Makes an Imposing 'Churchill' by David Finkle

When I was at college, a favorite pastime of mine was sitting around with a bunch of other procrastinators keen on determining the most important person of the 20th century. I maintained it…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 06:55PM

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