All stories by Elyse Sommer on BroadwayStars

Monday, May 25, 2015

Review: The Scottsboro Boys at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Kander and Ebb's dark musical dances to Broadway with its jazzy pizazz heightened

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: In the Wake at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Finally a new play focusing on Lesbians. . .if only Lisa Kron had made it less polemic and talky . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Middletown at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

While Middletown is indeed an Our Town of sorts, don't count on the same homespun pleasures that have made Thornton Wilder's play one of our most durable stage classics.. .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: That Hopey Changey Thing by Elyse Sommer

Richard Nelson's election day dinner party is about as timely as you can get -- perhaps a bit too precociously so. On the other hand,you don't need stimulus money to see it six top of the li…

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

The problem with this film to musical stage adaptation can be summed up in a single word: onkepatchket, a Yiddishism for too busy and overly decorated costume and home decor. While Catherine…

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: After the Revolution at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Amy Herzog's three-generation family saga is a treat: A beautifully staged and performed, intelligent play . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Pee-Wee Herman Show at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Director Alex Timbers has assembled a crew of theatrical artisans to re-create the funtastic atmosphere that once made the show such a hit

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

eview: Personal Enemy at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

an interesting artifact by a still emerging young playwright, but don't expect a lost masterpiece .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Merchant of Venice at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

the quality of good acting makes makes Shakespeare's controversial play a Broadway success . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: There Are No More Big Secrets at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

There's a lot going on in Heidi Schreck's play -- perhaps less would have been better

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Lingua Franca at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

worth seeing for the well portrayed characters and the opportunity to revisit an era straight out of octogenarian Peter Nichols' own youth

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Elling at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Despite a stellar cast, this very un-Broadwayish production may be too quirky and foreign to be a Broadway crowd pleaser

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Collection & A Kind of Alaska at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

a pair of playlet given Pinter-perfect interpretions by actors who know how to make those by now well known pauses speak volumes

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Break of Noon at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Film and TV actor David Duchovny makes an auspicious stage debut as one of Neil LaBute's Everymen in need of toning their moral muscles.

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Rosmersholm at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

In Rebecca West Ibsen created a woman every bit as complex as the better known Hedda Gabler and the Pearl production of this rarely produced play is well worth seeing

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Three Pianos at curtainup.com http://www.curtainup.com/3pianos.html by Elyse Sommer

this hard to classify 3-man show is probably one of the most unusual approaches to serious music as theate

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Not a Review on Spider-Man: at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

could the beleagured musical actually create a new profitable Broadway template?

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Blood From a Stone at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

-If a star ranking system were applied to dysfunctional family dramas, with five for situations extreme to the point of violence, this new play would handily rate 5 stars.

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Importance of Being Earnest at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

In this latest revival of Wilde's ever popular farce the lady is a guy . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Screenplay at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

a Hollywood story with a Faustian twist . . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Screenplay at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

a Hollywood story with a Faustian twist . . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Other Desert Cities at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

The people gathered in this California drawing room are a politically divided and indivisibly connected family whose dialogue sparkles with enough quotable quips to rival Oscar Wilde. . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The New York Idea at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

one can't help wondering if Landon Mitchell would be happy with David Auburn's quite drastic changes of his 1906 comedy . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: What the Public Wants at curtainup by Elyse Sommer

newspaper tabloid mogul gets a funny, attention holding and surprisingly relevant revival at the Mint Theater . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Feature: The Many Approaches For Making Old Plays New Again at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

2 revivals of long forgotten plays opening within days of each other offer insight into the adaptation process.

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Try as she might, Olymptia Dukakis can't elevate this allusion filled play from its ranking at the lower end of Tennessee Williams' canon

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Gruesome Playground Injuries at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

an unusual romance that will have you laughing and crying

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: The Whipping Man at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Matthew Lopez's gripping play about a troublesome chapter in our history gets a vivid New York premiere . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Encores!- Lost in the Stars at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's operatic musical is a somber but memorable experience . . .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

Review: Black Tie at curtainup.com by Elyse Sommer

Leave it to A. R. Gurney, the theater's Playwright Laureate of American Wasp life, to turn a family wedding into a ghostly comedy of manners. .

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM

More Spider-man-ia a curtainup feature by Elyse Sommer

how Feb. 8th made theatrical history as a theater critics' Tea Party

SOURCE: CurtainUp at 05:58PM