Monday, November 2, 2015
I saw something I've never seen when I went to an October evening preview of Allegiance: a 69-question survey taped to my seat. From queries about story lines and characters to why you chose…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:15PMThursday, October 1, 2015
The intimate atmosphere of the Minetta Lane Theater -- a venue that seats just under 400 -- provides a perfect place for Company XIV's 2015-2016 season. With their signature slinky and sexy …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:13PMWednesday, September 9, 2015
The MCC Theater’s latest offering, The Legend of Georgia McBride, shows drag queens at work: those that dress up as a sparkly symbol of protest against discrimination; those who are just b…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:39PMThursday, August 20, 2015
Three Reasons to Go See One of Shakespeare's Least Liked PlaysThere are four days left to see Cymbeline, the second offering of The Public's annual Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delaco…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:50AMTuesday, May 19, 2015
Yo ho ho ... here be the tales of some of the most infamous women pirates known. Staged on the 100-year-old Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79 in Red Hook, also home to The Waterfront Museum, Blood …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:16PMSunday, May 10, 2015
Doctor Zhivago closes today after just 49 performances (including previews) ... and that's a shame. Because even though it mostly deserves the mixed to negative reviews it received, the show…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:56PMMonday, November 17, 2014
Photo Credit: Carol RoseggAlan Alda and Candice Bergen replaced Carol Burnett and Brian Dennehy as the two life-long pen pals that rarely physically connect in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:05AMFriday, January 24, 2014
A slight, but emotional play by John Patrick Shanley (Doubt--Tony Award/Pulitzer Prize), Outside Mullingar excels at beautifying life's minutiae without delving deeply into its complexities.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:22AMSaturday, December 14, 2013
The cast of Blessed Unrest's A Christmas Carol. Photo by Alan Roche ‘Tis the season when perennial favorites, such as A Christmas Carol, come to visit. Just as Scrooge’s three spiri…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:37PMTuesday, December 3, 2013
I’m always late to the party—so it is predictable for me to see a show days before its closing. But Romeo and Juliet, which ends on Sunday, deserves an audience. The first Broadway reviv…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:39PMTuesday, August 13, 2013
Love and the fools it makes of us sets the background for The Public Theater’s world premiere of a new musical version of Love’s Labour’s Lost, the second show of The Public’s 2013 f…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:06PMWednesday, June 26, 2013
Carlo Adinolfi as Geppetto/Photo credit: Stefan Hagen Even before Geppetto (Carlo Adinolfi) walks into his workshop, the simple set reflects a yearning of years gone past. Its brick wa…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:18PMThursday, April 11, 2013
Matilda, both the musical that opens tonight, and its source material—the beloved 1988 Roald Dahl children’s novel—challenges the typical mythology of childhood, where angelic preschoo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:31PMSunday, March 24, 2013
--> Cinderella (Laura Osnes) and her Prince (Santino Fontana) dance at the ball.Photo credit: Carol RoseggWhat does a girl need to do for a little attention? In the new version of R…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:00PMSunday, January 13, 2013
Even as the audience finds their seats at Manhattan Theater Club’s presentation of The Other Place, the juxtaposition of human strength and fragility and the whisper of the bridge between,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:39PMMonday, October 29, 2012
--> Photo by Charlie WinterThis Halloween, AliveWire Theatrics provides a sepulchral journey to self-discovery with You Will Make a Difference, a collaboratively created show more e…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:24PMMonday, September 24, 2012
Changing the sex of the characters in the workinggirls productions presentation of ART, the Yasmina Reza play that swept the 1998 awards season (Tony, New York Drama Critics’ Circle and Ev…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:58AMSunday, July 29, 2012
Ricky Martin gives good lean—posing against a wall, languishing next to a pillar, and climbing a ladder, tilting his body precariously away from the rungs. Despite a voice that merely hits…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:20PMFriday, July 20, 2012
Fairytales should seem magical—and parts of this prequel to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, (adapted by Jersey Boys co-writer Rick Elice from humor writer Dave Barry and suspense novelist Ridle…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:47PMFriday, June 29, 2012
The Etiquette of DeathPhoto by: Ves PittsCaption: Chris Tanner as Joan Girdler (standing) and Everett Quinton as Death.The premiere of Chris Tanner’s heavy-handed farce, The Etiquette of D…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:34PMThursday, May 17, 2012
The Show Showdown review for Company XIV's version of Snow White posted on December 16, 2011 written by Sandra Mardenfeld is a finalist in the Press Club of Long Island Media Award competiti…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:40PMMonday, February 13, 2012
Photo by Michael J. LutchWhile watching The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, the newest incarnation of the famed opera, Audra McDonald’s performance in the title role continually reminded me o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:46PMSunday, January 8, 2012
My New Year's resolution is to see more theater. I just joined Show Showdown last spring, and, as a result, only saw about 16 shows last year. That does not qualify me to do a "Best of" list…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:31AMFriday, December 16, 2011
Caption: Gracie White as Snow White, Ashley Handel & Laura Careless as the Evil QueenPhoto credit: Steven SchreiberWith two big-budget Snow White films coming out in 2012, the porcelain-face…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:32PMTuesday, November 8, 2011
A story I once heard kept haunting me during Manhattan Theatre Club’s presentation of David Ives’ Venus in Fur: when Michelangelo worked on the Sistine Chapel’s The Last Judgment, the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:29PMMonday, October 24, 2011
Composer Steven Sondheim really, really hates the idea of the new version of Porgy and Bess on Broadway (opening on January 12, 2012). In summary, he disagrees with the decision to dub it Ge…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:02PMSaturday, October 1, 2011
I think Liz stole my best lines in her review of Follies last week—my damn procrastination foils me again! Seriously, though, my colleague and I share much of the same impression of the sh…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:10PMFriday, September 23, 2011
I never understand the fascination with Ethel Mermen. Her brassy voice on recordings never really impresses me and, yet, she is one of Broadway's most treasured icons(I know. I know. It's he…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:37PMThursday, September 15, 2011
Photo credit: Sal Cacciato Caption: Don DiPaolo and Therese PlaehnIt seems we never leave high school. In the revival of Stephen Belber’s Tape, the indelible mark of former school days per…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:59PMWednesday, July 6, 2011
I admit it. I’m a Steve Burns groupie. With three children under the age of four, “Blue’s Clues” gets plenty of airtime on our television. So curiosity to see Steve sans his sidekick…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:38PMWednesday, May 25, 2011
The most poignant character of Larry Kramer’s incendiary The Normal Heart appears silently throughout the action: the growing count of AIDS victims. Character, perhaps, provides an insuffi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:20PM 
