All stories by FRANK SCHECK on BroadwayStars

Monday, July 11, 2011

Bruce mimic makes excellent impression by Frank Scheck

'LADIES and gentlemen, Lenny Bruce!" The introduction alone is enough to give you goose bumps -- especially since it's being heard at what used to be the Village Gate, where the brilliant co…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:19PM

Trysts with twists by Frank Scheck

AN old-fashioned thriller in the Agatha Christie vein, "Tryst" is set in Edwardian times. It could just as easily have been written then as well -- and that's a compliment. Originally pro…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:17PM
Sunday, July 10, 2011

Lambs' stew is a tasty treat by Frank Scheck

One of the most ten der love songs cur rently heard on a New York stage is sung by a cannibalis tic killer. Its title can't be repeated here, and you won't be hearing it covered by Harry Con…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:11PM
Friday, July 8, 2011

Review: Master Class by Frank Scheck

Tyne Daly has big shoes to fill in Terrence McNally’s Master Class. Not just those of her character, the legendary opera star Maria Callas, but also such esteemed forerunners in the ro…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 10:09AM
Thursday, July 7, 2011

South Africa, brilliant by way of ancient Greece by Frank Scheck

Greek tragedy is trans posed to modern-day South Africa in "MoLoRa," Yael Farber's adaptation of the "Oresteia." This powerful drama takes the story of the murderous Klytemnestra and her …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:14PM
Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Review: Broadway and Berg by Frank Scheck

This new revue by Neil Berg at Feinstein's at Loews Regency works best when its talented performers stick to Broadway standards.

SOURCE: TheaterMania at 02:00PM
Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Mississippi uprising by Frank Scheck

James Baldwin's "Blues for Mister Charlie" is an in spired choice to open the New Haarlem Arts Theatre, a new professional company based at CCNY. While this play is no longer the urgent w…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:21AM
Friday, July 1, 2011

Shakespeare will Park it at Armory by Frank Scheck

Can't go to England to see the Royal Shakespeare Company? Well, the Royal Shakespeare Company's com ing to you -- and it's bringing its theater. In one of the Lincoln Center Festival's bo…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 04:02AM
Thursday, June 30, 2011

Uneven, gimmicky 'Measure' is no treasure by Frank Scheck

In case you hadn't re alized the Vienna of "Measure for Measure" is a moral cesspool, David Esbjornson opens his Shakespeare in the Park production with horned creatures and menacing hooded …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:29PM

A feeble fable of adultery by Frank Scheck

With its Latin Ameri can setting and fre quent shifts between reality and fantasy, Victoria E. Calderon's "Manipulation" recalls the works of Lorca and Marquez. But the heavy-handed stylizat…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 02:46AM

Cirque is too square by Frank Scheck

At this point in our relationship with Cirque du Soleil, familiarity is begin ning to breed contempt. "Zarkana," set to occupy Radio City Music Hall until the fall, is the prolific troupe…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 02:37AM
Monday, June 27, 2011

You'll be a 'Devil's' advocate by Frank Scheck

IF there's a heaven for enter tainers, the gateway must be St. Luke's Theatre. It's in this church basement that Danny Kaye and Fanny Brice -- or, at least, the people playing them -- have b…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:36PM

Entertaining 'Evolution' a Dar-winner by Frank Scheck

Anyone who's napped through high school biology will appreciate the remedial education Baba Brinkman offers in "The Rap Guide to Evolution," an audacious one-man show on Darwin's theories. …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 09:37PM

Ensemble fares 'Well' by Frank Scheck

The new Shakespeare in the Park production of "All's Well That Ends Well" begins and ends with characters waltzing. The dances nicely bookend the elegance of Daniel Sullivan's staging, which…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 04:25AM

Theater stars blind actors, but still has vision by Frank Scheck

It's not unusual for actors to bump into the furniture. But the performers in "Some of Our Parts" have good reason: Some of them are blind. You won't necessarily know which ones, and that…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 04:22AM
Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Struck by luck, fest finds new home by Frank Scheck

The Ice Factory Festival just got a lot cooler. For the past 18 years, one of the city's oldest, most adventurous theater festivals was presented in a 100-year-old former SoHo warehouse h…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 12:48AM
Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Review: Side Effects by Frank Scheck

The latest in a seemingly endless series of plays about crumbling marriages, Michael Weller’s Side Effects never manages to transcend its formulaic aspects. This companion piece to the…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:32AM
Sunday, June 19, 2011

'Quartered' isn't very well-drawn by Frank Scheck

The beat of a conga drum greets you as you enter the Intar Theatre. Its hard, insistent beats underscore all of "Drawn and Quartered," Maggie Bofill's new play about an estranged couple's st…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:46PM
Friday, June 17, 2011

Review: Drama At Inish at the Shaw Festival by Frank Scheck

A quick visit to the Shaw Festival at picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario yielded an unexpected delight in the form of Drama at Inish. This 1933 little-known work by Irish playwright Le…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:50AM
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Review: Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark by Frank Scheck

After several delayed openings, endless technical problems and myriad cast injuries, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has finally landed on Broadway, officially at least. The much maligned, rep…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:34AM
Monday, June 13, 2011

Grave old show gets a bury odd setting: a cemetery by Frank Scheck

They'll be coming back from the dead at Green-Wood Cemetery tomorrow, and they're not happy. No need to call Ghostbusters -- they're merely actors in "The Spoon River Project." Tom Andolo…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:41PM

Review: One Arm by Frank Scheck

Tennessee Williams apparently had a bottomless drawer filled with forgotten plays and scripts, so it’s no surprise that in recent years they have begun to pop up with regularity. The l…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:06AM
Friday, June 10, 2011

One-acts feel incomplete by Frank Scheck

A good one-act play should feel complete unto itself. Unfortunately, as the offerings in the Ensemble Studio Theatre's "Marathon 2011: Series B" too often demonstrate, contemporary playwrigh…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:00PM
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Review: The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World by Frank Scheck

A fascinating footnote to pop music history is explored to probing effect in the new musical The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World. Music geeks will recall that the band was composed of three …

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:40AM
Wednesday, June 8, 2011

So 'Desperate,' it needs rewrite by Frank Scheck

The title of "Desperate Writers" refers to its central characters, but it might just as well describe the playwrights themselves. Joshua Grenrock and Catherine Schreiber's hopelessly unfunny…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:59PM

A rail good show by Frank Scheck

It may be titled "A Little Journey," but Rachel Crothers' 1918 play takes on big themes: feminism, religion and class. A finalist for the first Pulitzer Prize for drama, it sometimes feels b…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:58PM

Review: Lea Salonga: New York In June by Frank Scheck

The Tony Award winner's new cabaret show at the Cafe Carlyle showcases her crystalline voice and engaging personality.

SOURCE: TheaterMania at 10:00AM
Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Frank Scheck

Through a Glass Darkly, the theatrical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s 1961 film being presented by the Atlantic Theater Company, demonstrates how much his work depended on the brillian…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 04:29AM
Monday, June 6, 2011

Review: Lysistrata Jones by Frank Scheck

The award-winning Transport Group has lately been living up to its name, presenting site-specific revival of such works as The Boys in the Band and Hello Again in lofts in Chelsea and Soho r…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:16AM
Sunday, June 5, 2011

Optimal 'Illusion' is well worth seeing by Frank Scheck

A wide-eyed wonder at the magic of the ater and a jaundiced view of romance form one of the intriguing contradictions at the heart of "The Illusion." Written by Tony Kushner in the late '…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:12PM
Friday, June 3, 2011

Review: The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman by Frank Scheck

The Best is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman, the new musical revue inspired by the famed composer of such Broadway hits as Sweet Charity, Barnum, City of Angels and many others, raises …

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 05:52AM