All stories by Richard Seff on BroadwayStars

Thursday, March 7, 2024

THE SEVEN YEAR DISAPPEAR at The Signature Pershing Square Theater on West 42nd Street by Richard Seff

The New Group is offering us a play called The Seven Year Disappear by Jordan Seaver. Directed by Scott Elliott, it is now running at The Signature Pershing Square Theatre on West 42nd Stree…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:52PM
Sunday, February 4, 2024

Once Upon a Mattress at Encores! At City Center by Richard Seff

In the glorious days, a star like Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon, Alfred Drake, or a favorite of mine, Chita Rivera (whom we just lost), could lift mediocre material to the level of entertainment…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:43PM
Monday, January 22, 2024

INHERIT THE WIND at the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida by Richard Seff

I spent some time in Sarasota in January as the Asolo Repertory Theatre is celebrating its 65th season. The Producing Artistic Director Peter Rothstein has announced an ambitious collection …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:07PM
Thursday, December 28, 2023

Harmony at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on West 47th Street by Richard Seff

What we have here on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre is a consortium of over FIFTY “producers” who gathered together to sponsor a musical comedy–something to which they could t…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:15PM
Thursday, December 21, 2023

SPAMALOT at the St. James Theatre on West 44th Street by Richard Seff

The dazzling company of 24 gifted singers, dancers, and actors under the remarkably inventive direction and choreography of Josh Rhodes have brought to the St.James Theatre on 44th Street a …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 08:06PM
Monday, December 18, 2023

I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE at the Classic Stage Company on East 13th Street by Richard Seff

A series of conflicting dates meant I had to wait until December 17 to see this musical at the Classic Stage Company where it opened in October and was extended to run through December 17th.…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:04PM
Monday, December 11, 2023

THE GARDENS OF ANUNCIA at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theatre by Richard Seff

This musical tribute to director/choreographer Graciela Daniele is beautiful to look at and mostly delightful to know. It was created musically by Michael John LaChiusa for Daniele–his goo…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 09:51AM
Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Hell’s Kitchen at the Public Theatre by Richard Seff

This s a tough review to write because this new  musical at  the Public Theatre is a prime example of what has happened to Broadway as we approach the middle of  the 21st century. Thi…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 10:34AM
Monday, November 27, 2023

‘TIL DEATH at the Abingdon Theatre in Theatre Row on West 42nd Street by Richard Seff

A visit to the Abingdon Theatre, a compact Off-Broadway Theatre on 42nd Street, felt to me like a visit to help an acquaintance through the very difficult final days of the life of the famil…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:13PM
Wednesday, November 22, 2023

PURLIE VICTORIOUS at the Music Box Theatre by Richard Seff

Ossie Davis is an actor and playwright–born in 1917–whose long career in theatre began in 1939 after his graduation from Howard University. He eventually made his Broadway debut in Jeb i…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:24PM
Thursday, November 16, 2023

I NEED THAT at the American Airlines Theatre by Richard Seff

Theresa Rebeck is a prolific, award winning playwright whose new play deals with an eccentric elderly gent who is an obsessive hoarder.We meet him as the curtain rises on his apartment where…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:21PM
Wednesday, November 15, 2023

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at the Olney Theatre Center, Maryland by Richard Seff

I had worked with Director Peter Flynn a number of times, both as an actor and as author when he staged two workshop productions in New York of a musical to which I’d written the book. I�…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:19AM
Sunday, November 5, 2023

Pal Joey at City Center by Richard Seff

In 1940 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart took hold of John  O’Hara’s original book, borrowed its title character, and brought to Broadway a somewhat cynical musical named for its central…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 10:16PM
Monday, August 14, 2023

THE SHARK IS BROKEN at the Golden Theatre by Richard Seff

This comedy by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon is currently running at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. It serves as a good example of the current trend of new work being presented by a consor…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 03:09PM
Tuesday, August 8, 2023

The COTTAGE at the Helen Hayes Theatre by Richard Seff

The cover of the playbill for The Cottage, now playing at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway, is most promising. It is a painting of an English country cottage burgeoning with a group of wa…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:20PM
Sunday, July 9, 2023

The Days of Wine and Roses at the Linda Gross Theatre by Richard Seff

There was once a play called The Days of Wine and Roses by J.P. Miller, and in 1962 it was filmed starring Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. Now, sixty years later, Adam Guettel has written musi…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 02:26PM
Wednesday, May 10, 2023

GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR at the Belasco Theater on W44th Street by Richard Seff

I watched Oscar Levant on tv–primarily on the Jack Paar Show where he was an almost permanent guest, so popular  were his many visits. Paar himself loved to chat with him about the mos…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 03:44PM
Monday, May 8, 2023

Lionel Bart’s OLIVER! At Encores! at City Center by Richard Seff

The original production of  this British musical is one I thoroughly enjoyed when i saw it in 1960. The New York City Center has now offered it to us again in its “Encores! series for a b…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:13PM
Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Camelot at the Beaumont Theatre in Lincoln Center by Richard Seff

Just as I was about to write off this season on Broadway’s Musical Theatre Scene after many months of second rate offering in that category—shows that are so busy catering to rock and o…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:18AM
Monday, May 1, 2023

The Summer of 1976 at the Manhattan Theatre Club at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street by Richard Seff

David Auburn’s play breaks new ground opening with two women seated at the ends of a large table but facing us, the audience. Each individually recalls how their very dear friendship bega…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 09:28PM
Sunday, April 30, 2023

New York, New York at the St. James Theatre by Richard Seff

This musical tribute to “the city that never sleeps” is a love letter now running at the St. James Theatre on West 44th Street. It has some imperfections as does the city it celebrates; …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 12:58PM
Sunday, April 23, 2023

Chita: A memoir by Richard Seff

Chita Rivera with Patrick Pacheco When I was a “baby agent” back in 1954, my job as a new recruit was to discover young performers, composers, writers. directors, and any others with tal…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 02:03PM
Sunday, April 16, 2023

FAT HAM at the American Airlines Theater on 42nd Street by Richard Seff

There is an article in the Playbill for Fat Ham on Broadway that quotes the play’s author James Ijames. In adapting Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he tells us he only “intended to disrupt the s…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:39PM
Friday, March 31, 2023

Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’ at the Music Box theatre by Richard Seff

I don’t have the vocabulary to properly describe the miraculous work being done 8 times a week at the Music Box, where Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is currently in residence. A company of 22 …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 02:39PM
Thursday, March 30, 2023

BAD CINDERELLA at the Imperial Theatre by Richard Seff

Andrew Lloyd Webber has had his finger on the audience pulse since 1969; and in the following half century, he has become the longest-running composer in Broadway history.  Joseph and the …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 10:14AM
Sunday, March 19, 2023

DEAR WORLD at Encores! At City Center by Richard Seff

I spent a happy afternoon on Saturday at the Encores! matinee of Jerry Herman’s Dear World… which did not have a great success in 1968 when it first opened to very mixed notices and lim…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 06:33PM
Thursday, March 16, 2023

A DOLL’S HOUSE at the Hudson Theatre by Richard Seff

A planned visit to a Broadway show now requires a new sort of preparation. When I learned that a new production of Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House” was heading our way, I delighted i…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:06PM
Monday, February 27, 2023

BECOMES A WOMAN at the Mint at City Center on 55th Street by Richard Seff

Jonathan Bank has been Producing Artistic Director of Off Broadway’s Mint Theatre for many years, and he has made it his mission to search out and rediscover plays which were written in an…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 09:59PM
Friday, February 24, 2023

PICTURES FROM HOME at Studio 54 on W 54th Street by Richard Seff

Jeffrey Richards and his many associates here offer us a one-set, 95 minutes visit with an elderly couple and their middle aged son who is visiting them in their Southern California home. Ba…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 03:52PM
Friday, February 10, 2023

ENDGAME at the Irish Rep on W22nd Street by Richard Seff

New York’s jewel of an off Broadway theatre company called the Irish RepTheatre continues to offer new insights into memorable works like this gem from Samuel Beckett, which first provok…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 09:45AM
Monday, January 23, 2023

THE COLLABORATION at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre by Richard Seff

The Manhattan Theatre Club is offering its subscribers and the general public its production of this play first done at the Old Vic in London and now cast here in New York with the origina…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:15PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards