All stories by David Finkle on BroadwayStars

Thursday, June 12, 2014

First Nighter: A Gotta-See Alan Ayckbourn Festival by David Finkle

The big fact about 75-year-old Alan Ayckbourn is that he's written 78--count 'em, 78--plays during his long career,...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 04:12AM
Wednesday, June 11, 2014

First Nighter: Ayckbourn's "Small Family Business" Large and in HD by David Finkle

Alan Ayckbourn is the chronicler of the middle class. Up in Scarborough, England, where he turns his plays out and puts...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:43AM
Tuesday, June 10, 2014

First Nighter: Nancy Harris's Our New Girl Unsure of Herself by David Finkle

The cast members -- despite their now-you-hear-them-now-you-don't accents -- are up to their character's challenges.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:33PM
Monday, June 9, 2014

A Press Room View of the Tony Awards by David Finkle

Jackman hopped, men kissed men, and McDonald made history.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 01:25PM
Thursday, June 5, 2014

Out, Out!: Branagh “Macbeth” a Grand, Flawed Spectacle by David Finkle

The Scottish play turns ticket buyers into clan members.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:30PM

Easy Listener: 5 You-Gotta-Have CDS From Five You-Must-Know Women by David Finkle

If you like great songs -- not necessarily great songs you already know -- and you like women delivering them, here are CDs that you'd be extremely foolish to think you can live without:

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:04PM
Friday, May 30, 2014

First Nighter: Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin," Poe's "The Raven" Take Flight by David Finkle

Guess it's blowin' in the zeitgeist, but two adaptations involving rhymed classics are available in Manhattan this weekend only...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 05:58PM

First Nighter: "Chalk Farm" at 59E59, Carrie Robbins One-Acts at HERE, "Anthem" at Lynn Redgrave by David Finkle

Turns out that AJ Taudevin, who wrote Chalk Farm with Kieran Hurley, and Julia Taudevin, who appears in the 55-minute...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:29AM
Thursday, May 22, 2014

First Nighter": A Feeble "Fable," A Lively "So, This Then is Life" by David Finkle

When Chandra (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) slips happily through an upstage door to smell the trellis roses at the start of A Fable, David Van Asselt's new play at the Cherry Lane, it's the extremely …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 09:50PM
Friday, May 16, 2014

First Nighter: Under My Skin Doesn't Get Below the Surface by David Finkle

Usually the devil gets the best lines, but since there's no devil in Under My Skin, the comedy (?) by Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser at the Little Shubert, it's the angel (charismatic Di…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 03:47PM
Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Tony Nominations: The Snubs Less Noted by David Finkle

What about recognizing artisans in wig making and video projections?

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:43AM
Monday, May 12, 2014

First Nighter: William Inge's Loss of Roses Somewhat Wilted by David Finkle

It seems to me there's more than one reason for staging a revival. The first one that springs to mind, because it's the most obvious, is that a well-written and successful play is always a …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:49PM
Saturday, May 10, 2014

First Nighter: Encores! Irma La Douce Isn't So Sweet by David Finkle

What Irma La Douce really is is rampant idiocy, for which there may be no excuse but for which there may be a wacky rationale having to do with national tastes.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 01:51PM
Thursday, May 8, 2014

First Nighter: Samuel D. Hunter's "The Few" is for the Many by David Finkle

In Samuel D. Hunter's outstanding play, The Whale, presented at Playwrights Horizons in the 2012-13 season, obese and...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:13PM
Monday, May 5, 2014

First Nighter: Noel Coward's Song at Twilight in Top-Drawer Revival by David Finkle

When you look over the plays Noel Coward trumpeted during his fabulous career, few give the impression of being in any direct way autobiographical.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:01PM
Sunday, May 4, 2014

First Nighter: Alessandrini's Forbidden Broadway Comes Out Swinging! Sure Does by David Finkle

When Forbidden Broadway comes out swinging, not everything receives a knockout punch, which is more or less Alessandrini's usual result. Enough does, however, and after the kind of season we…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:16PM
Thursday, May 1, 2014

First Nighter: James McManus's "Cherry Smoke," Oni Faida Lampley's "Tough Titty" by David Finkle

It's not too often that great passion doomed--make that Great Passion Doomed--hits the boards. There's Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra and Cyrano de Bergerac and West Side Story wi…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:36PM
Wednesday, April 30, 2014

First Nighter: "Red-Eye to Havre de Grace" Works and Doesn't by David Finkle

Before Red-Eye to Havre de Grace supposedly begins, a pleasant fellow in a Philadelphia Park Ranger's uniform...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:22PM
Tuesday, April 29, 2014

First Nighter: Simon Russell Beale Monarchic in HD King Lear by David Finkle

It would be folly to claim this is the greatest Lear yet seen, but it's surely no exaggeration to declare it's right up there with the best of them.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 07:30PM
Monday, April 28, 2014

Tony Noms This Musical Season? What About Quality? by David Finkle

Is there a worthy production in the 2013-2014 tuner carload?

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:25AM
Sunday, April 27, 2014

First Nighter: Mary Martin Let Down in Inventing Mary Martin by David Finkle

Somehow it should seem appropriate that Inventing Mary Martin is as corny as Kansas in August. But the kind of corniness prevalent in conceiver-writer Stephen Cole's revue, at the York, trib…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:35PM
Friday, April 25, 2014

First Nighter: The Civilians Confront Climate Change With "The Great Immensity" by David Finkle

It's taken for granted that any superior drama depends on its stakes being high. If that's the case, then The Great

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:09PM
Thursday, April 24, 2014

First Nighter: Sam Mendes's Revived 'Cabaret' Runs on Dimmed Lights by David Finkle

Throughout Ebb's well-wrought lyrics and Kander incessantly rousing melody, Williams presents Sally as angry, as finally and thoroughly disillusioned at her situation, as practically a ghost…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 08:35PM
Wednesday, April 23, 2014

First Nighter: Harvey Fierstein's Highly Accomplished "Casa Valentina" by David Finkle

When you hear that Casa Valentina, Harvey Fierstein's new play, at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman, takes...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:32PM
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

First Nighter: Neil Patrick Harris Ratchets Up Hedwig and the Angry Inch by David Finkle

By fadeout, the actor has given an indelible portrayal of someone mustering the courage not only to drop his gaudy garments but to drop his guard as well.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:17PM
Sunday, April 20, 2014

First Nighter: Daniel Radcliffe Shines in Martin McDonagh's Cripple of Inishmaan by David Finkle

Having seen it again, I can report that it's every bit as lively, as thoroughly hilarious and as consistently heart-tugging here as it was there, if not that much better for the cast members…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:37PM
Thursday, April 17, 2014

First Nighter: Moss Hart's "Act One" in Two Great, Big Acts by David Finkle

When theater veteran Moss Hart published his bestselling Act One in 1959, he packed a lot into it about his impoverished...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:42PM
Wednesday, April 16, 2014

First Nighter: Franco, O'Dowd, Meester Distinguish Steinbeck's 'Of Mice and Men' by David Finkle

Plucking the dialogue pretty much verbatim from his best-selling book, Steinbeck handily transferred his tale to the stage. Again George and Lennie -- traveling together like the scores of o…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:29PM
Tuesday, April 15, 2014

First Nighter: Hollywood Expat Soderbergh Stages "The Library" by David Finkle

It's close to a year since Steven Soderbergh announced he'd be quitting movies. Now he surfaces at the Public Theater...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:21PM
Sunday, April 13, 2014

First Nighter: Audra McDonald Dazzles as Billie Holiday by David Finkle

Perhaps the most complimentary remark to be made about Audra McDonald in Lady Day at the Emerson Bar & Grill is that in 90 minutes and under Lonny Price's fully empathetic direction, she…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:33PM
Saturday, April 12, 2014

First Nighter: Athol Fugard's "Shadow...," Richard Maxwell's "Isolde" by David Finkle

Although Athol Fugard turns 82 in June and his protagonist in The Shadow of the Hummingbird--having its world premiere at...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:06PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic