Sunday, June 26, 2011
The summer months after the Tonys may once have been relatively slow, but that's not the case any more in the city that never sleeps: Myriad new-play festivals downtown (Clubbed Thumb Summer…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 04:47PMThursday, June 23, 2011
From around the theatre net:"Hasa Diga Convention!" One of seven things The Book of Mormon (the show, not the scripture) can teach producers, from Ken Davenport's blog."Are we [critics] too …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 12:06PMI probably should stop apologizing for my lack of time to properly blog. But in response to seeing The Shaggs: Philosophy of the World last night, I essentially wrote a fan letter to its cre…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:17AMWednesday, June 22, 2011
This may be an unconventional use of my blog, but it's come to my attention that a friend has a block of good orchestra seats for this coming Saturday night's performance (June 25 at 8 pm) o…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 02:50PMThere's a lot of Shakespeare coming our way this summer--more than the usual Central Park fare, what with Lincoln Center importing the Royal Shakes for a four-show rep next month.But a quick…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:18AMTuesday, June 21, 2011
Still not up for a ton of post-conference blogging (yet). Here are some bits and pieces:Oregon Shakes has a broken theater.The Taper's Michael Ritchie: "Fuck subscribers. I’m so tired of s…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:25PMMonday, June 20, 2011
I've got much to blog about, after a week in my old L.A. stomping grounds and four days of the TCG conference...but while I catch up with a week's worth of emails and StageGrade etc., please…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:22AMFriday, June 10, 2011
I'll be traveling next week, mostly for this conference you may have heard about. I leave you with the strong recommendation to catch Tanya Saracho's Enfrascada, a Clubbed Thumb production, …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 04:24PMWednesday, June 8, 2011
This should be interesting: The LA Times will host a panel discussion on my pet subject next week:Is Los Angeles a “theater town”? New York. Chicago. Seattle. San Francisco. For many,…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:30AMMonday, June 6, 2011
I can't be objective about LA Times theater critic Charles McNulty. He's one of the nation's finest theater critics; I think that was clear well before he won the Nathan. But I did campaign …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:48AMFriday, June 3, 2011
"I once saw Stephen Sondheim, at the press opening of a Coleman show, nearly fall out of his seat with delight at an unexpected modulation."-Michael Feingold, writing about the Cy Coleman r…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:57AMThursday, June 2, 2011
Been buried. Two links to explain why, and still more for your reading pleasure:The StageGrade Critics Tony Poll 2011: A lot of Mormons, a lot of strong male performances.A preview of Kate F…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:27AMWednesday, June 1, 2011
Mormons, horses, hoofers, and AIDS activists are shoo-ins for Tony awards this year, if voters in this year StageGrade Critics’ Tony Poll are to be believed. But while there’s near-unani…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 06:41AMWednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
In honor of Dylan's 70th, and because I just reckoned with another Midwestern Jewish artist's relationship with Brecht, it's worth revisiting this juicy piece by Jason Zinoman after Chronicl…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 01:50PMI was underwhelmed by the current revival of Anything Goes, but I found Sutton Foster riveting; like Kelli O'Hara or Raul Esparza, or any of her overqualified generation of musical theater t…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 12:45PMSeen on Nassau Blvd. in Greenpoint this morning.
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:52AMMonday, May 23, 2011
Though he's a bit shrill about it, Eric Alterman has done due diligence in taking apart the politics part of Andrew Ferguson's fawning piece about David Mamet's "conversion" to the right (wh…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:47PMSaturday, May 21, 2011
Looks like Lynn Nottage has done it again: Two years ago her war-torn drama Ruined was the hottest ticket Off-Broadway, her Hollywood-set comedy By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at Second Stage h…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 04:01PMFriday, May 20, 2011
Roughly once a quarter I write about Broadway shows for the Catholic journal America, and though I wish I had seen the relatively amazing Jerusalem and the surprisingly (to me, at least) sha…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 11:21AMThursday, May 19, 2011
photo by Sara Krulwich/New York TimesI enjoyed the premiere of Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen's Shaggs musical back in 2003, so I'm especially happy to see it finally make it to New York with…
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 04:41PMWednesday, May 18, 2011
"Lynn Nottage may well be the one black playwright of whom it cannot be said that she amassed her many awards on her race and gender." -John Simon, reviewing By the Way, Meet Vera StarkIf I …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 10:54AMSunday, May 8, 2011
Broadway may have posted its final openings of 2010-'11 last week, but the season ain't over 'til it's over, and this week boasted a diverse crop of auspicious new Off-Broadway offerings, th…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 09:02AMThursday, May 5, 2011
Must a play be universal or ageless to be great? Doesn't theater, that most ephemeral of art forms, really live only in the moment and space of a particular performance? Do we watch theater …
SOURCE: The Wicked Stage at 02:23PMSaturday, April 30, 2011
It was a year of bold experiments and weary retreads, of revivals that popped and those that fizzled, of familiar faces and bright new stars, of British imports and homegrown gambles. In oth…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 07:12AMThis past week saw five Broadway shows raise their curtains just before the end of Tony eligibility (the nominations will be announced Tues., May 3), and the week had a clear, A-grade winner…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 06:11AMSaturday, April 23, 2011
After last week's remarkable string of raves, a comedown was probably inevitable. This past week had it all: There weren't just a lot of shrugs and pans on Broadway and off, but the season's…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 04:59PMSaturday, April 16, 2011
Either critics are anticipating the joys of spring, or New York theater just took a decided turn for the better: This week saw a string of ecstatic reviews, and resulting high grades, for sh…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 08:20AMFriday, April 15, 2011
Stephen Sondheim ponders his accomplishments, his way of working, and the form and future of the American musical
SOURCE: Theatre Communications Group at 11:13PMFriday, April 8, 2011
The past two weeks were book-ended by a pair of deluxe Broadway musical revivals: The first, of Frank Loesser's How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, opened with a B+ (it's now c…
SOURCE: StageGrade at 05:54AM 
