There is a moment in Evita when, with a single note, you know something magical is about to happen. Unfortunately, it happens halfway through Act I. Even more unfortunate, the actress, playi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:02PMEven after a show runs for 2 months off-Broadway, you might expect it to take a little time to find its legs in the new space of a Broadway house. As of its third preview Once has found its …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:09AMI missed the Nina Arianda train when she was in the off-Broadway production. I missed the Nina Arianda train when she was on Broadway production of Born Yesterday. I was a little annoyed by …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:58PMI saw the Lincoln Center reunion performance of Merrily We Roll Along in 2002. It was a joy to be in the room, to hear the score sung live. But the book and concept (going backward in time)…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:14AMWit is a difficult play. The lead character isn’t particularly likeable on the page, but the audience can’t merely feel sorry for her. The metaphors and deconstructions of 17th Century p…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:48AMI didn’t go looking for shows about people of color, didn’t have an agenda in grouping these three together. I simply happened to see them about the same time and, since all had been run…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:26PMOnce in a while, you get to have an experience in the theatre that is thoroughly satisfying. Every now and then, the experience is completely original. Occasionally, a movie is transplanted …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:59PMGodspell contains one of my favorite scores. Growing up enamored as much by Amy Grant and Sandi Patty as Betty Buckley and Jennifer Holliday, Godspell was one of those college discoveries th…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:54PMNo surprise to find a show in its third full production in fine form during a preview. Three out of four of the lead performances are spectacular. The featured actors, young and old, are str…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:43PMPatti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin are deserved legends. Spending an evening with them singing two dozen or so songs, you know, during some incredibly magical moments, exactly why. When Ms. LuP…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:29AMThe power of this collection of same-sex marriage shorts isn't the words. You won't hear anything you haven't heard before if you've been listening to anyone with anything to say on the subj…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:56PMI am not sure there is anything left to be said about Follies. I saw it early at the Kennedy Center and was more grateful for its existence than evincing its greatness. I was surprised it tr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:09PMI know that walking out on a show should probably disqualify me from reviewing it, so I will only comment on what I saw of Burning. To be completely transparent, I’ve walked out on a numbe…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:04PMI discovered Lee Lessack at a performance in the late 90’s, upstairs at Eighty Eights, the best-of-its-generation New York piano bar that didn’t live to see the new millennium. I left en…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:44AMSeveral years ago, a friend insisted I had to see Gashole. I actually misread his e-mail invitation as Gash Ole. Turns out, it was not a Mexican drag act. I was too sick to go to the theatre…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:04AMTom Dudzick may be the most successful playwright whose work you've never seen. His first play, Greetings, opened off-Broadway in 1994 during a blizzard. Even though Clive Barnes called the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:29PMThere’s something in the water in Montreal. They pump out body-defying acrobatics wrapped in tongue-in-cheek excess like a virus. Despite the shared core, two Canadian exports leaped into …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:55PMOkay, not really. Having been on a work-schedule imposed hiatus from the theatre, I managed to get to a few things in a cluster. The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom Judy Gold is a big old l…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:19PMWhen you have a chance to hear the New York Philharmonic play a Stephen Sondheim score, you just go. Whatever else happens, you will hear the songs differently, more fully, willingly drown a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:04AMOkay, I am late to the rodeo. Nevertheless. . .Imagine how much more brilliant Lion King could have been if Julie Taymor had spent even a fraction of her time during the development period f…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:13PMIf you ever have to choose between catching an STD or Catch Me If You Can, you should know that in either case, you’re screwed—and in only one is there a chance of having a good time. An…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:52AMIf you are going to create a play about Shakespeare, it better be about the writing. The Resonance Ensemble’s production of Shakespeare’s Slave is all about the writing; and in this prod…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:29PMWith friends in town wanting to see the two best musicals of the season, I got a chance to revisit Book of Mormon and Sister Act. I also got a chance to see both from a different vantage poi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:47PMLucky Guy isn't everyone's cup of tea. As a matter of fact, only those with a real taste for tea will leave quenched. If the idea of an overgrown drag queen, a funny-looking little troll, an…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:40PMWhat haunts most about any production of Follies is not the chorus of ghosts that infiltrate the stage, the unfulfilled dreams or festered regrets infecting the wings, or even the bookends o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:37PMHow refreshing would it be to see a movie, a good movie at that, translated for the stage and not simply transferred to the stage? I might just drop to my knees and yell, "Whoopi!" Instead, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:09PMA Little Dessert in the DesertI love the movie, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The performances are nearly flawless, the costumes spectacularly original, and the script and direction fresh …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:20PMA Cole Day in Hell Photo Credit: Joan MarcusI work in the theater. No, I no longer perform; but I am an enthusiastic audience member who believes that once the curtain goes up, I have a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:19PM