All stories by Richard Seff on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

McNEAL at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre of Lincoln Center by Richard Seff

The management at New York’s Lincoln Center has brought into its spacious Beaumont Theatre a flashy new production called McNeal  by the highly regarded Ayad Aktar whose plays Disgraced a…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:46AM
Saturday, September 14, 2024

THE ROOMMATE at the Booth Theatre on West 45th Street by Richard Seff

The new Broadway season begins with this two-character play from Jen Silverman who is a “they/them” playwright, novelist, and screenwriter; and they seems to have had productions every…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 12:05PM
Friday, July 5, 2024

A FAREWELL TO ENCORES! by Richard Seff

After 30 years of devotion and much love for this marvelous institution, this will be my final report. The management has for three years ignored my request for a change of seat location. I …

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 02:56PM
Wednesday, June 26, 2024

ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION AWARDS – JUNE 24, 2024 by Richard Seff

On a fine evening in late June with a hundred celebrants in the Green Room at Yotel on 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, I was with my partner, Christian Foy, and two friends– the cartoonist To…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 07:19PM
Tuesday, June 18, 2024

TITANIC at Encores! at City Center on W55th Street by Richard Seff

Chip Zien and Judy Kuhn (Joan Marcus) I was unable to attend an early performance of this grand finale to the 2024 season, but I did catch it just before it finished its brief run on June 1…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 11:40AM
Wednesday, May 29, 2024

MARY JANE at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on West 47th Street by Richard Seff

This is an odd column  for me, as I reviewed this play by Amy Herzog in 2017 when it first appeared in the smaller venue of the New York Theatre Workshop on East 4th Street where it had wel…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 10:33PM
Sunday, May 26, 2024

AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE at the Circle in the Square Theatre on West 50th Street by Richard Seff

Playwright Amy Herzog has given us her version of Ibsen’s masterful play of the same name that remains set in late 19th Century Norway; but it is as though it was first conceived yesterday…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:10PM
Sunday, April 28, 2024

CABARET in the Kit Kat Club at the August Wilson Theatre on West 52nd Street by Richard Seff

I’ve been privileged to be one of the few survivors of the 1966 opening of this landmark musical when its original production opened on Broadway. I was then a young theatre agent represent…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 10:43PM
Friday, April 19, 2024

THE OUTSIDERS at the Bernard Jacobs Theatre on West 45th Street by Richard Seff

There are classical themes that seem to interest and attract playwrights in each succeeding generation. Certainly Shakespeare was aware of the class distinctions of his time in urban England…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:32PM
Tuesday, April 9, 2024

CORRUPTION at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre in Lincoln Center by Richard Seff

There is a note in the Playbill for Corruption the current occupant of the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center.  It’s by the play’s author J.T.Rogers and in it he tells us that his…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 10:09PM
Friday, March 29, 2024

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS at the The Imperial Theatre on West 45th Street by Richard Seff

This elaborately titled musical is based on a novel of the same name by Sara Gruen which was a best seller and served as the source of a film with Reese Witherspoon and others. It’s now be…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 04:48PM
Sunday, March 24, 2024

THE NOTEBOOK at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on West 45th Street by Richard Seff

In the beginning, there was the novel by Nicholas Sparks. Same title as the musical which is based on the book–a runaway best seller. A consortium of over twenty producers (investors) join…

SOURCE: onandoffbroadwaytheaterreviews.com at 05:50PM
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

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
TBA: Titanic