Monday, September 17, 2018
In the acknowledgements at the end of Playing to the Gods: Sarah Bernhardt, Eleonora Duse, and the Rivalry That Changed Acting Forever, author Peter Rader explains that he (with a …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:12PM[SHARE]Thursday, September 13, 2018
It was 1996. I was visiting from California and only had time for two shows. One, of course, had to be the new Sondheim, Passion. I had heard raves about Donna Murphy, who was, of …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:36PM[SHARE]Monday, September 10, 2018
George Bernard Shaw's play Heartbreak House has been compared to the works of Chekhov. He himself hinted at the connection via the play's subtitle: A Fantasia in the Rus…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:12AM[SHARE]Saturday, September 1, 2018
Is any theatre company in New York more consistently satisfying than The Mint? IMHO, the answer is a great big "No!"Larry Bull, Janie Brookshire, Ted Deasy, and Mary BaconPhoto: Todd Cerveri…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:24AM[SHARE]Sunday, August 26, 2018
Last night I went to see The Band's Visit for the second time, with five other people. One had seen it before, the other four hadn't. When the show was over, we were all glowing.We sat …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:06PM[SHARE]Friday, August 17, 2018
I get invited to a lot of shows, and it's not always easy to decide which ones to see. Often I rely on a familiar name: if person A is directing or person B is acting or person C wrote the m…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:48PM[SHARE]Sunday, August 5, 2018
My latest Art Times essay is up:In some ways, it's exciting news: Director Ivo van Hove will stage a production of West Side Story, with new choreography by Anne Teresa De Keersmae…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:04PM[SHARE]Tuesday, July 31, 2018
No theatre is offering more bang for your buck--or return on your time--than PTP/NYC with their evening of one acts: The Possibilities, by Howard Barker, and The After-Dinner Joke,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:06PM[SHARE]Monday, July 30, 2018
It comes as no surprise that Bertolt Brecht's most incisive and cynical writings are painfully timely, right here, right now. The PTP/NYC production of Brecht on Brecht knows this fact …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:48PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 25, 2018
The 2018 Innovative Theatre Awards Ceremony is September 24, 2018. The nominees are as follows:OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLEDanielle Amendola, Jessica Banegas, Ryan Hunt, Kelsey Martin, Joe…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:36PM[SHARE]Wednesday, July 18, 2018
My latest essay is up at Art Times:When I was in college, one of my fellow students was Broadway producer David Merrick's assistant/gofer, which made him a big deal in the Queens C…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:54PM[SHARE]Thursday, July 12, 2018
Six women play Mary Page Marlowe, the titular protagonist of Tracy Letts's 90-minute one act at Second Stage Theater. I imagine that developing the show was a fascinating experience for the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:36PM[SHARE]Saturday, July 7, 2018
Jordan Harrison's annoyingly didactic Log Cabin presents characters who come across as op-ed essays rather than humans. There's a gay couple and a lesbian couple who have done well in t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:36PM[SHARE]Sunday, June 24, 2018
The Elevator Repair Service's production of Everyone's Fine With Virginia Woolf, written by Kate Scelsa and directed by John Collins, is a rollicking feminist take down of/tribute to Ed…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:42PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 21, 2018
The wonderful people at The Mint have done it yet again. They have gifted us with a beautiful production of a lost gem of a play, complete with smart and clear direction, wonderful performan…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:36PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Akin Babatundé, with the outstanding support of guitarist David Weiss, is giving a heck of a concert in Lonesome Blues at the York Theatre Company. Babatundé's voice travels from…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:42AM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Presented as either a lecture nestled in a drama or a drama nestled in a lecture, Secret Life of Humans focuses on whether evolution is an unbroken line of progress, with each living it…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:12AM[SHARE]Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Well, we didn't do too badly this year, although we're not going to win any prizes for theatrical prescience. It was very nice to be wrong about Ari'el Stachel and Lindsay Mendez! They …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:06PM[SHARE]Thursday, June 7, 2018
I love meaningful musical theatre. I adore Sondheim. Caroline, Or Change is one of my favorite shows. But sometimes an old-fashioned, well-done, energetic, deeply silly musical is the perfec…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 6, 2018
As a reviewer, I get invited to dozens of shows each month, and it can be difficult to decide which to see. Sometimes the choice is almost random. I picked This Is Modern Art becau…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:36AM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 30, 2018
I saw Liza Birkenmeier's the hollower three days ago and I have been avoiding writing a review because I don't know what to say. Well, yes, I know that the cast is excellent. And, yes, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12PM[SHARE]Friday, May 25, 2018
About 15 minutes into Hello Dolly, I thought, "I love this stupid show." By the end of the first act, I had eliminated "stupid." Hello Dolly has a silly plot, yes, and so…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:32PM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Lily Thorne treads familiar ground in her new play, Peace for Mary Frances. Estranged members of a family gather due to the death of a parent. Old grudges are revisited, old wounds are reope…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:48PM[SHARE]Tuesday, May 15, 2018
LIZ: Were I to take awards seasons seriously, I'd join with the city's professional theater critics in wringing my hands over the purported death of Broadway at the end of this weirdly incon…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:04PM[SHARE]Sunday, May 13, 2018
Before the Internet, daily-newspaper theater critics would see shows on opening night and write their reviews immediately after. Although these reviews often determined the fate of the show,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:32PM[SHARE]When I wrote my first review of the fabulous APAC production of Follies, I was short on details. Then someone on the often-infuriating but also often-invaluable All That Chat…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:32PM[SHARE]Wednesday, May 9, 2018
After all that's been written about Hamilton, one might think that there's nothing left to say. Turns out there's at least 400 pages' worth, as shown in Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbu…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:48PM[SHARE]Monday, May 7, 2018
How much did I enjoy the APAC production of Follies? I've already purchased my ticket to see it again.APAC (Astoria Performing Arts Center) has an excellent reputation and many awards, as we…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:04PM[SHARE]Friday, May 4, 2018
No doubt: the York Theatre Company is on a roll. Its last show, Desperate Measures, received a bouquet of nominations for best musical (Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, etc.) and will soon o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:24AM[SHARE]Friday, April 27, 2018
I have identified the problem with the musical Chess. It's bad.You've got Florence, who loves bad boy chess player Freddie and has probably been his lover in the past. Does the show do …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:54PM[SHARE]Sunday, April 22, 2018
So, I could rave about the writing (joyfully wonderful and silly rhymes by David Ives) or the acting (from a strong, talented, attractive ensemble) or the design (charming) or the direction …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:48PM[SHARE] 
