Thursday, September 14, 2017
The New York Theater Workshop's Mary Jane doesn't open officially until September 25, but I suggest you get your tickets now, before they become unavailable or you have to pay way more …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:48PM[SHARE]Monday, August 28, 2017
The press info for Thomas Klingenstein's play, If Only, includes the following description:In 1860 Abraham Lincoln came to New York City where he befriended a well-educated ex-slave, and a y…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:33AM[SHARE]Saturday, August 26, 2017
Playwright Teresa Deevy lived from 1894 to 1963. The youngest of 13 children, she lost her hearing in her late teens, roughly at the same time that her family's financial situation became mu…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:04AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 17, 2017
Waiting for Van Gogh's Ear to start is a pleasure, since it gives you time to really examine Vanessa Jame's open and elegant set. It's all black and white, with dramatic strips of …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:12PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 9, 2017
I was not a huge Barbara Cook fan. It would never occur to me to play a CD of hers. I certainly didn't consider her the premiere cabaret singer ever or the best interpreter ever.Yet every ti…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:48AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 30, 2017
My latest essay is up at Art Times:I walked out on a production of the brilliant comedy Cloud Nine the other night. The problem? The performers were trying too hard to be funny.I r…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:33PM[SHARE]Saturday, July 29, 2017
It is telling that the line from which this play's title comes is "No pity in history." It's the 17th Century, during a civil war in Britain, and of course the war is not remotely civil…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:32PM[SHARE]Saturday, July 22, 2017
Tom Stoppard always offers scrumptious meals for the head, but not always for the heart. Arcadia, his brilliant play about literature, history, math, science, gardening, and sex, featur…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:48AM[SHARE]Saturday, July 15, 2017
Forty years ago, on July 13, 1977, I was at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, watching Threepenny Opera starring Ellen Greene, Philip Bosco, Caroline Kava, and Tony Azito. I was st…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:54AM[SHARE]Sunday, July 9, 2017
What is a disability? Does it define a person? What does it mean to care about someone? To care for someone? What is trust? How is it earned?Sullivan, WilliamsPhoto: Joan MarcusThese are jus…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:36AM[SHARE]Monday, July 3, 2017
Marvin's Room lost me quickly. Perhaps it's because I've been dealing with bunches of doctors recently and they've been wonderful, but I found Marvin's Room's jokey, stupid physici…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:18PM[SHARE]Wednesday, June 28, 2017
In spring of 1973, I saw a sweet new musical called Shelter written by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford, who would later write I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road. I like…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:42PM[SHARE]Saturday, June 24, 2017
My latest essay is up at Art Times:The original title of this essay was "Is Broadway Committing Suicide? And Does It Matter?" But the more I thought about it, the more I came to admire Broad…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:33PM[SHARE]Saturday, June 17, 2017
I am not a fan of John Doyle's, as evidenced in my review of his production of Passion, so I didn't plan to see his production of Pacific Overtures at CSC. But three things changed…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:48AM[SHARE]Monday, June 12, 2017
Liz wins the Show Showtime "Predicting the Most Tony Wins Award of 2017," with 15 correct (out of 24 categories). Sandra is first runner up, with 13. And Wendy brings up the rear with 12. It…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:48AM[SHARE]Monday, June 5, 2017
[spoilers throughout]Watching Clare Lizzimore's play Animal is an odd experience. You never quite know what's going on, because Rachel, the main character, is unraveling, and partially becau…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:42AM[SHARE]Saturday, June 3, 2017
Earlier this year we lost David Bell, respected playwright and Show Showdown cofounder, way too young (he was in his early 40s). If you'd like to read reviews of his play, The Play About the…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:06AM[SHARE]Monday, May 22, 2017
In A.A. Milne's The Lucky One, currently playing at The Mint, we hear it again and again: "Poor old Bob." "Poor old Bob." "Poor old Bob."Bob's problem is simple: for years he has been wither…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:18PM[SHARE]Friday, March 31, 2017
Bette Midler and Dolly Levi would seem to be as perfect a match as, oh, Glenn Close and Norma Desmond or Angela Lansbury and Mame. But, rather than giving us Dolly Levi, Bette has chosen to …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:06PM[SHARE]Tuesday, March 28, 2017
I won the lottery for Sunset Boulevard last Sunday matinee. The tickets were $55 each. I was thrilled when the box office woman handed me C2 and C4 in the orchestra. While they're arguably "…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:48PM[SHARE]Monday, March 27, 2017
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, Lonnie Price's documentary on the making of Merrily We Roll Along, is jammed with treasures, such as footage of auditions, rehe…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:18PM[SHARE]Sunday, March 5, 2017
By the time you read this, the York Theatre Company production of Dear World will be over. Part of the York's Musicals in Mufti series (their version--in many ways better--of Encores!),…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:54PM[SHARE]Thursday, March 2, 2017
From public/political discussions and debates, you might think that sexual boundaries between adults and minors--and sexuality itself--are clear, defined, and unambiguous. They're not, as vi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:32AM[SHARE]Thursday, February 23, 2017
Perhaps it wasn't fair to see Wallace Shawn's mildly compelling dystopian play Evening at the Talk House so soon after seeing Caryl Churchill's wildly compelling dystopian play Escaped …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Caryl Churchill's brilliant, bizarre, puzzling, horrifying, and strangely sweet Escaped Alone packs the punch of a major dystopia into its lean 55 minutes. It also allows us to meet, enjoy, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:48PM[SHARE]Monday, February 20, 2017
My latest essay is up at Art Times:Good acting is a matter of opinion. A performance that you perceive as brilliantly emotional, I might perceive as overacting. A performance that strikes me…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:06PM[SHARE]Wednesday, February 8, 2017
The Sherwood Forest in the Flux Theatre Ensemble's delightful production of Adam Szymkowicz's Marian, or The True Tale of Robin Hood has its full complement of merry men--except most of them…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:03PM[SHARE]Monday, January 30, 2017
So much depends on where you begin a play. Do you start when character A is behaving well? Or when character B is? Do you start at the foundation of their relationship or in media res? In Yo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:32PM[SHARE]Thursday, January 19, 2017
Due to some health issues, it has been two and a half months since I've seen a play--what a gift that the first one back was August Wilson's superb Jitney, beautifully directed by Ruben Sant…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:12PM[SHARE]Friday, December 30, 2016
It was late summer 1974 and Debbie Reynolds was returning to the musical Irene for a brief stint before taking it on the road. (Jane Powell had been her replacement.) My friend R and I …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:42PM[SHARE]Thursday, December 22, 2016
Due to some health challenges, I only saw 42 shows in 2016--my lowest total in decades. Yet it was still difficult to carve my best list down to 10 entries.I remain in awe of the breadt…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:33AM[SHARE] 
