All stories by Johnny Oleksinski on BroadwayStars

Friday, November 1, 2024

NY Comedy Festival founder talks Joan Rivers tribute — and Bruce Springsteen’s appearance with wife Patti Scialfa by Johnny Oleksinski

A tribute show honoring Joan Rivers, and the "Stand Up For Heroes" benefit event featuring Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, are all part of the 2024 New York Comedy Festival.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 02:16PM
Saturday, October 26, 2024

Why do Hollywood A-Listers gamble their reputations and egos on Broadway shows? by Johnny Oleksinski

For everybody, Broadway — despite the nostalgic fun of putting on a show — comes at an enormous risk to a star’s pride and reputation. 

SOURCE: The New York Post at 01:07PM
Thursday, October 24, 2024

‘Romeo + Juliet’ review: ‘Heartstopper’ star Kit Connor shines in hollow Broadway show by Johnny Oleksinski

What an impressive, heart-stopping Broadway debut from the young British star of Netflix’s “Heartstopper.”

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:00PM
Wednesday, October 23, 2024

‘Left on Tenth’ review: Julianna Margulies’ Broadway show is a sappy slog by Johnny Oleksinski

Delia Ephron’s play starring Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher wants to be a moving romantic comedy, but it's sluggish and awkward.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:30PM
Sunday, October 20, 2024

‘Sunset Boulevard’ review: Nicole Scherzinger stuns in scorching, brilliant Broadway revival by Johnny Oleksinski

Andrew Lloyd Webber's “Sunset Boulevard,” which opened Sunday night at the St. James Theatre, is Broadway’s most exhilarating show in years

SOURCE: The New York Post at 10:03PM
Thursday, October 17, 2024

Broadway’s ‘Something Rotten’ gets reinvented by Canada’s Stratford Festival — and it’s hysterical by Johnny Oleksinski

What a joy it is to see “Something Rotten” transformed into something terrific.  The caffeinated comedy, which played New York back in 2015, is the marquee musical of the Stratford Fest…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:59AM
Saturday, October 12, 2024

Fleetwood Mac producer sues Tony Award-winning Broadway play that Brad Pitt owns the film rights to by Johnny Oleksinski

The playwright and producers of “Stereophonic,” this year’s Tony Award winner for Best Play, and its landlord the Shubert Organization are being sued by writers Steven Stiefel and Ken …

SOURCE: The New York Post at 02:14PM
Thursday, October 10, 2024

‘Our Town’ review: Bland Broadway revival starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes doesn’t hit home by Johnny Oleksinski

Director Kenny Leon’s staging of “Our Town” is among the most uninvolving and anemic our critic has ever seen.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:05PM
Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Broadway’s Ken Page, star of ‘Cats’ and ‘The Wiz’, dead at 70 by Johnny Oleksinski

Ken Page, the formidable Broadway actor and voice of Oogie Boogie in the film “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” has died.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 12:17PM
Monday, September 30, 2024

‘McNeal’ review: Robert Downey Jr.’s awful Broadway play about AI is a total wipeout by Johnny Oleksinski

The tiresome Broadway play “McNeal,” starring Robert Downey Jr. at Lincoln Center, is about every windbag’s favorite topic — AI.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:01PM

Nicole Scherzinger emerges from theater in nightgown, covered in ‘blood’ by Johnny Oleksinski

No, the former Pussycat Doll didn’t get into a fist fight in Shubert Alley — she’s the star of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical “Sunset Boulevard,” which started previews l…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 06:30PM

Tony-winning Broadway star Gavin Creel dead at 48 by Johnny Oleksinski

Gavin Creel, the Tony Award-winning star of Broadway musicals such as “Hello, Dolly!” and “Hair,” died Monday in Manhattan, his partner confirmed. He was 48.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 01:18PM
Sunday, September 29, 2024

‘Hills of California’ review: A cutthroat new stage mother on Broadway by Johnny Oleksinski

At the Broadhurst Theatre, where Jez Butterworth’s new play “The Hills of California” opened on Sunday night, lives Laura Donnelly's stern and captivating Veronica Webb.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:00PM
Monday, August 12, 2024

‘Once Upon a Mattress’ review: Sutton Foster is a perfect princess on Broadway by Johnny Oleksinski

A show and a star have aligned. Mary Rodgers’ 1959 musical comedy has found Sutton Foster.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 10:00PM
Saturday, August 10, 2024

Disney’s ‘Greatest Showman’ stage musical will play London in 2026 by Johnny Oleksinski

Look out ‘cause here it comes.  Disney Theatrical Group announced that a new stage musical of “The Greatest Showman” is in development at their D23 fan convention in Anaheim, Calif., …

SOURCE: The New York Post at 01:05AM
Monday, August 5, 2024

‘Job’ review: A millennial cracks in tense Broadway two-hander by Johnny Oleksinski

Max Wolf Friedlich’s spicy drama is a collision of all of those essays and studies you’ve read about that age group’s unique tendencies — especially their desire to get paid by doing…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 01:08PM
Saturday, July 27, 2024

The sensational ‘Oh, Mary!’ proves you can’t predict a Broadway hit by Johnny Oleksinski

Something I would have never guessed five years ago: One of Broadway’s hottest shows is a rip-roaring comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:06AM
Thursday, July 11, 2024

‘Oh, Mary!’ review: The funniest show on Broadway by Johnny Oleksinski

The preposterously enjoyable non-musical play does the impossible —thanks to the irrepressible comic genius of playwright and actor Cole Escola.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:00PM
Saturday, June 29, 2024

Nancy Pelosi and AOC play ‘N/A’ is a predictable snooze by Johnny Oleksinski

The behind-closed-doors scenes pitting the Speaker of the House against the upstart New York congresswoman are more like Disney’s Hall of Presidents — reverential and robotic — than Ca…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:59AM
Thursday, June 20, 2024

‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball’ review: The most fun you’ll have at the theater this summer by Johnny Oleksinski

The hottest show in town is… “Cats”? Nobody's said that since around 1984.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:18PM
Wednesday, June 19, 2024

How NYC’s massive Palace Theater was lifted into the air: ‘An inch an hour’ by Johnny Oleksinski

The iconic Broadway venue that’s played host to such luminaries as Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and Bette Midler was dramatically lifted 30 feet.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 04:10PM
Monday, June 17, 2024

Inside the Tony Awards afterparties: Angelina Jolie serves McDonald’s, Billy Porter protests by Johnny Oleksinski

“No more Carlyle! No more Carlyle!,” shouted Billy Porter. 

SOURCE: The New York Post at 03:44PM
Sunday, June 16, 2024

‘Outsiders’ knocks out ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ at an otherwise dull Tony Awards by Johnny Oleksinski

They weren’t outsiders on Sunday night. In a neck-and-neck race, the fantastic new musical “The Outsiders” ultimately took home the coveted Best Musical trophy at the Tony Awards, hono…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:52PM
Saturday, June 15, 2024

Tony Awards 2024 predictions: ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ or ‘Outsiders’ — which will win Best Musical? by Johnny Oleksinski

It’s not just the humidity that has Midtown Manhattan sweating bullets -- it’s the Tony Awards.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 12:26PM

Inside the Tonys’ most legendarily debauched after-party: Fights, fires and passed-out-legends: by Johnny Oleksinski

If you thought Broadway was Hollywood’s classier cousin, you thought wrong.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 09:00AM
Friday, June 14, 2024

‘Titanic’ musical review: Tragic tale is sweeping and thrilling — even without Jack and Rose by Johnny Oleksinski

With a score as lush and transportive as this one, bigger is definitely better.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 04:32PM
Saturday, June 1, 2024

Tom Holland stuck in heinous London ‘Romeo and Juliet’: ‘2.5 hours of my life I will never get back’ by Johnny Oleksinski

Like a fly caught in a web, Tom Holland -- known best for playing Spider-Man in the MCU -- is trapped in a woeful West End production of “Romeo & Juliet.”

SOURCE: The New York Post at 11:31AM
Wednesday, May 29, 2024

The Post was right — Audra McDonald WILL play Mama Rose in ‘Gypsy’ on Broadway by Johnny Oleksinski

A new Broadway revival of “Gypsy,” starring Audra McDonald as Mama Rose, was officially announced on Wednesday.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 04:59PM
Tuesday, April 30, 2024

The 2024 Tony nominations were pretty brutal by Johnny Oleksinski

When the list was read aloud by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renée Elise Goldsberry, it was snub city.

SOURCE: The New York Post at 04:27PM

Tony Awards 2024 nominations: The full list of nominees by Johnny Oleksinski

The nominations for the 2024 Tony Awards, honoring the best of Broadway, were announced Tuesday morning. The 2023-2024 Broadway season was a highly competitive and unpredictable one. Fifteen…

SOURCE: The New York Post at 08:57AM
Saturday, April 27, 2024

This year’s Tony Award nominees for Best Musical have never been so unpredictable by Johnny Oleksinski

This year, the nominations carry almost as much weight as the coveted prizes themselves. 

SOURCE: The New York Post at 10:18AM

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 15, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic