All stories by Elisabeth Vincentelli on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Heavy 'Stone' sinks by Elisabeth Vincentelli

A lot of energy is spent setting up an explo sive situation in the family drama "Blood From a Stone." But despite the efforts of a strong cast led by Ethan Hawke -- giving his best performan…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:45PM
Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Hotel-room stage a Williams wake-up call by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Location, location, location: That motto applies not only to real estate but to theater. Tennessee Williams' one-act play "Green Eyes" may be slight, but staging it in an actual hotel room -…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:39AM
Thursday, January 6, 2011

Losing her grip, in a semi-gripping drama by Elisabeth Vincentelli

When we first meet Emily Bridges in the new play "A Small Fire," she's wearing a hard hat and chewing up her second-in-command. The head of her own construction company, this no-nonsense …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:41PM
Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Fangs for nothing, 'Dracula' by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The woefully inept drama "Dracula," which opened off- Broadway last night, is as close as we get to dinner theater in New York. There's no prime rib, but plenty of grating cheese. While i…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:54PM
Sunday, January 2, 2011

Get all wound up at provocative Coil fest by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Just when Broadway and off- Broadway go into their post- holiday hibernation, Performance Space 122 steps in with out-there productions aimed at the head, the guts and the heart. No wonde…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:24PM
Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Respect the unexpected by Elisabeth Vincentelli

How tepid was Broad way this year? The most talked-about show didn't even open. While waiting -- and waiting, and waiting -- for "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" to take flight, we watched…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:41PM
Sunday, December 19, 2010

Piano paean can be a pain by Elisabeth Vincentelli

It's not often that you hear Schubert's melan choly song cycle "Win terreise" ("Winter Journey") in a down town theater. And not with classical musicians, either, but with three scruffy dude…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:06PM
Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Kitsch-mas with the Osmonds by Elisabeth Vincentelli

You can take Donny and Marie Osmond out of Vegas, but you can't take Vegas out of them. Or is that Branson, Mo.? No matter: The siblings' holiday concert at the Marquis delivers everythin…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:02AM
Sunday, December 12, 2010

Opposites distract during awkward date by Elisabeth Vincentelli

A waitress silently prepares for work. Her black-and-white uniform in place, she counts her teeth. No. 31 is AWOL, but she finds it somewhere behind her neck, and slides it back in place. To…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:25PM
Wednesday, December 8, 2010

This isn't your garden-variety tale of adultery by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Irish novelist Edna O'Brien wrote a plum part for Brenda Blethyn in "Haunted," an oblique, wordy play about a waning marriage. The actress returned the favor by grounding the piece with real…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:01PM

In deeper by the dozen by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Central Asia is a hair-pulling mess. And as we see in "The Great Game: Afghanistan," it's been a mess for a long time. Covering the years 1842 to the present, this London import tracks a sit…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:02AM
Monday, December 6, 2010

Stunning Egon trip doesn't paint full picture by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Sausage, anybody? Actually, John Kelly's "Pass the Blut wurst, Bitte" has nothing to do with meat products and everything to do with Austrian painter Egon Schiele. A skilled chameleon, wr…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:18PM
Thursday, December 2, 2010

Reasons for elf-doubt by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The head writer for "SpongeBob SquarePants," Steven Banks also moonlights as the dark and twisted Billy the Mime. Now, he tries to reconcile his sugar-and-spice sides in a new play, "Looking…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:40AM
Friday, November 26, 2010

'Coward' worth a shot by Elisabeth Vincentelli

IT'S a good time for pe riod pieces -- espe cially wacky ones. On the Great White Way, the rambunctious "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" is a bio-musical that's part Looney Tunes, part emo …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:05AM
Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Fairy tale's all clogged up by Elisabeth Vincentelli

The best fairy tales have a dark side, and the best storytellers aren't afraid to address it. Adapting Hans Christian Andersen's "The Red Shoes" -- about a girl who literally can't stop danc…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:52PM
Sunday, November 21, 2010

Two-and-a-laugh men by Elisabeth Vincentelli

There's nothing quite like "Elling" on Broadway. Based on the Norwegian book and film of the same name, this Oslo-set play is about a pair of socially impaired men who learn to live on their…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:42PM
Friday, November 19, 2010

Will ring your 'Bells' by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Though it boasts a golden pedigree — a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, music by Jule Styne — “Bells Are Ringing,” from 1956, is often considered a diverting but dat…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 03:28PM

All's well that ends well in overstuffed play by Elisabeth Vincentelli

A spectacular folly has just crash-landed at Lincoln Cen ter Theater. Eight years in the making, John Guare's latest play, "A Free Man of Color," is an ambitious, awkward, fascinating, lumbe…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:18AM
Thursday, November 18, 2010

Fascinating Fassbinder by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Save for a precious few exceptions, the fall theater season has been disappointingly bland. And so Thomas Ostermeier’s cold, cerebral “The Marriage of Maria Braun” comes as a relief. T…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 03:06PM
Wednesday, November 17, 2010

'Secrets' out, but play's not worth keeping by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Fraught reunions, marital discord, Russia, a supernatu ral allusion or two: Heidi Schreck's new show, "There Are No More Big Secrets," is built from promising blocks. It all starts when G…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:26AM
Monday, November 15, 2010

Heiress glitters, outwits Jew in golden 'Venice' by Elisabeth Vincentelli

You come to see Al Pacino, but you stay for Lily Rabe. As the Jewish moneylender Shylock, one of theater's most complex, reviled roles, Pacino has made the Public Theater "Merchant of Ven…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:01PM

Onstage, not his old 'Elf' by Elisabeth Vincentelli

There's a reason candy canes have a twist of peppermint -- to cut the sugar. That's why the best Christmas classics, from "It's a Wonderful Life" to "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," are so …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:01PM
Friday, November 12, 2010

He holds his own by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Before taking off for fantasyland, you're often told to close your eyes. At "The Pee-wee Herman Show," now on Broadway, you need to open them wide. As soon as you catch your first glance …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:35AM
Thursday, November 11, 2010

Kicking & beaming by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Since 1932, it's been impossible to think of the holidays in New York without the "Radio City Christmas Spectacular." The show is now a local tradition -- and, Lord knows, there are fewer an…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:19PM

Don't join this 'Revolution' by Elisabeth Vincentelli

And the avalanche of political plays contin ues. But rather than focusing on the recent elections, or even the Reagan and Bush administrations, Amy Herzog's "After the Revolution" goes furth…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:50AM
Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Stand-up won't make history by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Of all the "Saturday Night Live" alums, Colin Quinn isn't the one you'd picture doing a solo show on Broadway. Will Ferrell, sure. But Quinn? He anchored "Weekend Update" for a couple of …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 05:08PM