All stories by EMMA BROCKES on BroadwayStars

Monday, April 29, 2024

‘I was brought up among giants’: Gillian Slovo on her revolutionary parents – and her mother’s murder by Emma Brockes

As she takes the words of Grenfell Tower fire survivors to the New York stage, the playwright talks about being drawn to painful subjects, and the disaster’s worldwide relevance The night …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:32AM
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand review – funny girl by Emma Brockes

An exhaustive account of ambition, insecurity, and one astonishing career It is hard to know where to start with My Name Is Barbra, the much reported on 1,000‑page memoir that took Barbra …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:18AM
Thursday, April 20, 2023

#MeToo hasn’t always made for great art – but now there's Jodie Comer’s Prima Facie | Emma Brockes by Emma Brockes

On Broadway, there wasn’t an empty seat in the house – and we finally saw how compelling stories of victimhood can be It comes around intermittently every few years; a show on Broadway t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AM
Saturday, November 20, 2021

Lin-Manuel Miranda: ‘Doing Hamilton every night saved me. It kept my head from getting off the swivel’ by Emma Brockes

When his Broadway show became a global phenomenon, the rigours of daily performance kept the actor and songwriter grounded. Then Disney and Hollywood came calling. Now, the ‘musical theatr…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:33AM
Saturday, May 15, 2021

Cush Jumbo: ‘He’s doing less screen time but being paid three times more? Er, no!’ by Emma Brockes

The Good Fight star went from relative obscurity in the UK to primetime in the US. Now she’s coming home on her own terms Even virtually, Cush Jumbo’s energy enters the room before she d…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:18AM
Saturday, March 2, 2019

Glenda Jackson: ‘I’m a big admirer of Theresa May’ by Emma Brockes

The former MP is set to play King Lear in New York – her second take on the role. She talks acting, ambition, and her admiration for the woman ‘slogging away’ at Brexit Glenda Jackson,…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:00AM
Thursday, March 15, 2018

Fights, fishnets and backbends: the rotten razzle-dazzle of Chicago by Emma Brockes

As the murderous $1bn musical returns to London, composer John Kander and Ann Reinking, one of the first Roxies, unpick the secrets of its successIn the spring of 1924, Maurine Watkins, a yo…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AM
Sunday, September 25, 2016

Lin-Manuel Miranda on his Broadway smash: ‘Hamilton is from the school of Eminem’ by Emma Brockes

The creator ​of ​the hit musical, ​whose fans range from Barack Obama to Salman Rushdie​, reveals how​ ​mixtapes, hip-hop​ and America’s founding fathers inspired himOn a hot…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:56AM
Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Troilus and Cressida review – searingly modern Shakespeare by Emma Brockes

Public Theater, New YorkThere is something deeply gratifying about seeing these characters, worn over centuries to archetypes, shaken into relevance by sheer force of performanceOne advantag…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:58PM
Sunday, July 31, 2016

Cats review – kitsch, dated … yet strangely adorable by Emma Brockes

There’s no plot, no subtext and no apparent point, but the tunes – including Memory, sung by Leona Lewis – drill into your brain like a flesh-eating worm Related: Leona Lewis on joinin…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:12PM
Friday, July 22, 2016

The Merchant of Venice review – a barometer for the anxieties of the times by Emma Brockes

Lincoln Center festival, New YorkThough the production is traditional, with Jonathan Pryce as Shylock leading the cast, it has truths to impart about modern hatred, violence and prejudiceSo …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:16PM
Thursday, July 21, 2016

Takarazuka Chicago review – all-female Japanese cast revitalize tired classic by Emma Brockes

Lincoln Center Festival, New YorkThe Kander and Ebb musical gets a new lease of life and a kitsch encore thanks to a delightfully playful production by Japan’s single-sex troupe Chicago, t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:39PM
Monday, July 18, 2016

Privacy review – Daniel Radcliffe seeks connection in a post-Snowden world by Emma Brockes

Part docu-theatre, part love story, the innovative Privacy reveals that the more we share online, the less available our interior lives become to ourselvesAt the beginning of Privacy, James …

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:58PM
Sunday, July 10, 2016

Big beasts of Broadway … Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine on the art of writing musicals by Emma Brockes

They are one of the greatest combos in the history of musicals. The Pulitzer-winning pair behind Into the Woods talk about bumpy first nights, how to read audience coughs – and why shows t…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:10AM
Monday, May 25, 2015

‘Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt’ By ROBERT GOTTLIEB by EMMA BROCKES

In Robert Gottlieb’s sharp, efficient biography of Sarah Bernhardt, the woman whose name is a byword for theatrics emerges as the first modern celebrity.

SOURCE: The New York Times Subscription at 05:58PM

Stephen Sondheim: A life in music by Emma Brockes

When Stephen Sondheim was in his 30s, he would get approached, occasionally, by out-of-town theatre companies, struggling with a production. He was the hot new thing, the lyricist of West Si…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:58PM
Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Alan Alda’s eureka moments by Emma Brockes

He may be adored for his portrayal of Hawkeye the wisecracking doctor in MASH, but Alan Alda has a second passion: science. Which is why he has written a play, Radiance, about the hounding o…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM
Saturday, January 3, 2015

Emily Blunt: 'Nobody goes through life unscathed' by Emma Brockes

She made her name playing Queen Victoria and Meryl Streep’s mean assistant – but is Emily Blunt as plain-speaking in real life? Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AM
Thursday, November 27, 2014

Sting to the rescue; it’s what every sinking ship needs by Emma Brockes

The Broadway musical, The Last Ship, is struggling and there’s only one way to save it. Sting has to join the cast himself Continue reading...

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:38PM
Thursday, July 17, 2014

Elaine Stritch: a personality polished to a furious shine by Emma Brockes

The comic actor, who has died aged 82, performed a version of herself that became as famous as the songs she sangI interviewed Elaine Stritch six years ago, when she was still in residence a…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:08PM
Monday, May 19, 2014

Phantom of the Opera: musicals we love by Emma Brockes

Andrew Lloyd Webber's monster hit has all the subtlety of a plunging chandelier but it will soothe and transport youThe Phantom of the Opera is a perfect expression of the time it was writte…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:46AM
Thursday, April 24, 2014

Cabaret review Alan Cumming is saucy and menacing in a sly revival by Emma Brockes

Studio 54, New YorkCumming, Michelle Williams and a great ensemble will break your heart and lift your spirits in Sam Mendes's production which has the ghost of Bob Fosse in the choreography…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:00PM
Friday, January 10, 2014

Broadway's clever business model: painful can still be pleasurable | Emma Brockes by Emma Brockes

Why pay hundreds to 'enjoy' cramped seats, overpriced booze and being herded like cattle? Because it's the theatre, that's whyJust before Christmas, I went to the theatre. It was a Harold Pi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:00AM
Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Adrienne Truscott: the naked comic by Emma Brockes

She performs semi-nude and asks audiences: 'Ever been raped?' Are you ready for this brash New Yorker's brand of polemic standup?Adrienne Truscott apologises to me before our meeting: the vi…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AM
Thursday, December 5, 2013

Carrie Underwood's Sound of Music - gag me now | Emma Brockes by Emma Brockes

Julie Andrews found a little subtlety in the score. Underwood will go at it with the pop-eyed mania only Simon Cowell appreciatesJoining all the other things to make one's spirits sink at th…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:30AM
Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Et tu, Boehner: what US Congress could learn from an all-women Julius Caesar | Emma Brockes by Emma Brockes

Even 400 years on, Shakespeare's play is as alive as ever to an imaginative reinterpretation that shows the raw truth about powerMembers of Congress currently holding the House to ransom, co…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:15AM
Friday, April 19, 2013

Sam Mendes: life is sweet by Emma Brockes

Sam Mendes on making Bond, coming home and turning Charlie And The Chocolate Factory into a musicalCharlie and the Chocolate Factory has taken five years to become a stage musical, for reaso…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:00PM
Friday, April 12, 2013

Matilda is Broadway's new Dahling by Emma Brockes

Review: With its epic burps, parenting parables and anarchic high spirits, it's no wonder the RSC's musical has New York enchantedThe RSC's Matilda opened on Broadway this week, and it was s…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:59AM
Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Career out of control: how Hollywood and Broadway portray professions | Emma Brockes by Emma Brockes

After all the cliches – sleezy hack, crusading attorney, tart with a heart – isn't it time showbiz tackled chemical engineering?There isn't much to recommend the Broadway revival of Glen…

SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:42PM

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 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic