All stories by Frank Scheck on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

'Mother & Father' still OK by Frank Scheck

Several years back, Steve Solomon scored a surprise off-Broadway hit with his solo comedy show "My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy!" An account of his dysfunctional fam…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:57PM

A ‘Pretty’ solid Williams one-act by Frank Scheck

The centenary of Tennessee Williams’ birth has prompted a flood of productions of obscure works from his vaults. Perhaps the most intriguing is “The Pretty Trap,” an early one-act vers…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:54PM
Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Canadian acrobats offer balanced hoverage by Frank Scheck

They must put some thing in the water in Canada. The country has spawned an endless series of circus troupes, the most famous being Cirque du Soleil. The latest arrival is the Montreal-based…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:26PM
Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Pleasure 'Blues' by Frank Scheck

Granted, "It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues" -- but the blues are more than enough in the New Haarlem Arts Theatre's rollicking revival of the Tony-nominated 1999 revue. From the fiery gospe…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:54PM
Monday, August 1, 2011

Shakespeare in the parking lot by Frank Scheck

There's one thing to be said about the Drilling Company's "Hamlet": You can't beat the parking. That's one of the perks of Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot, a series of free productions p…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:49PM
Friday, July 29, 2011

Excelente 'Wizard' by Frank Scheck

Imagine "The Wizard of Oz" spiked with a little salsa and me rengue. Que divertido! You've pretty much summed up "The Yellow Brick Road," a fun new riff on L. Frank Baum's classic. It's g…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:44PM
Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Laced with poor writing by Frank Scheck

As metaphors go, it's hard to beat a pair of shoes. That's the main lesson im parted by "The Shoemaker," in which the title character attempts to fix a woman's broken soul -- sorry, sole -- …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:09PM

Bard funny not for nothin' by Frank Scheck

'The Honeymooners," "I Love Lucy" and "The Merry Wives of Windsor." Which one of these is out of place? None of them, says Claire Beckman, artistic director of the Brave New World theater co…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:08PM
Friday, July 22, 2011

Review: Death Takes a Holiday by Frank Scheck

It’s not easy to kill Death Takes a Holiday. This old chestnut about the Grim Reaper taking a much needed vacation was a Broadway hit way back in the 1920s, spawned a successful 1934 m…

SOURCE: Scheck on the Arts at 06:22AM
Wednesday, July 20, 2011

You'll eat up sweet 'Bred' by Frank Scheck

The opening moments of "Brownsville Bred" suggest we're in for a rough evening. Projected on a sheet hung on a clothesline is a Wikipedia entry about the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, fol…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:26PM

'Victory' less than winning by Frank Scheck

'Victory: Choices in Reaction" is the theatrical equivalent to eat ing your vegetables. Set during the 17th century, when the monarchy was restored to England, this sprawling epic packs in s…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:25PM
Tuesday, July 19, 2011

No shades of gray in contrived gay play by Frank Scheck

Love triangles are al ways complicated. But the one in "A Strange and Separate People" is more convoluted than most. In this new play by Jon Marans ("The Temperamentals," "Old Wicked Song…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 11:17PM
Sunday, July 17, 2011

It's more like a 'dance of the seven wails' by Frank Scheck

Haunted-looking fig ures, their faces painted white, stand motionless onstage as you enter the Flea Theater. It's an arresting image -- one that dissipates as soon as they open their mouths.…

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:42PM

Crowd-pleasing cheese by Frank Scheck

Imagine Blue Man Group ex panding its roster, develop ing the ability to harmonize and turning from blue to white. That, in essence, is "Voca People," about an intergalactic singing group. …

SOURCE: The New York Post Subscription at 10:40PM
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…

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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

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