I share Liz Wollman's wonder at the sheer volume of art in this beautiful city of ours. In 2015, I saw 80 shows and there are easily 80 more I wish I had seen. But even with "only" 80 s…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:04PMIn the introduction to Ethan Mordden's On Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide, Mordden writes, "My intention is to bring the reader closer to Sondheim's oeuvre, to explore his unique ap…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:58PMMy latest article is up at Art Times: An odd thing happens to some people when faced with the existence of musicals. They start saying very strange things:“I don’t like musicals, except …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:43AMSteven (Matt McGrath) and Stephen (Malcolm Gets) have been together 16 years. They have an amazing relationship and a fabulous son named Zack. But there are cracks in the plaster. The relati…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:21AMSometimes seeing a mediocre production of a play can be surprisingly elucidating. For example, the Onomatopoeia Theatre Company's version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:45PMPlaywright Jaclyn Backhaus is clearly fascinated with the past, factual and fictional, and how it reflects on the present. In You On The Moors Now, she examines romantic tropes as handed dow…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:58PMThe T. Schreiber Studio and Theatre is one of the undersung jewels of New York City theatre. Year after year, T. Schreiber presents solid productions, often featuring long-time dir…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:16AMSongbird, the new musical by Michael Kimmel (book) and Lauren Pritchard (music and lyrics), directed by JV Mercanti, brings The Seagull to Nashville in the 21st century. The b…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:15PMWilliam Finn, lyricist-composer of Falsettos, Elegies, and Little Miss Sunshine, writes at the corner of idiosyncratic and heartfelt. His topics range far and wide: e.g., a baseball game, tr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:39PMSongbird, the new musical by Michael Kimmel (book) and Lauren Pritchard (music and lyrics), directed by JV Mercanti, brings The Seagull to Nashville in the 21st century. The book is eff…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:15PMFor its 38th season, the Big Apple Circus presents an frequently charming, often thrilling new show called The Grand Tour. Using large travel posters and appropriate scenery and costume…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:15PMHave you noticed that whenever someone announces a "re-imagining" of a musical, the show gets smaller? Why does no show ever get bigger? Why does no one add more instruments? Why doesn't Dam…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:56PMOn one hand, Mac Rogers' Honeycomb Trilogy is a highly entertaining sci-fi epic, covering over 20 years and an extraterrestrial invasion or two. It has everything you could ask for…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:09AMWe don't usually publish press releases at Show Showdown, but I want to make sure everyone is aware that The Honeycomb Trilogy is back. I recommend it very highly! (And if my plug is not eno…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:24PMIt's difficult to review Michael Riedel's Razzle Dazzle because it's difficult to figure out exactly what he's trying to accomplish. In the author's note, he writes that the b…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:09PMConstance Shulman, Arden Myrin Photo: Joan MarcusAs Elizabeth Wollman points out below, Barbecue is a challenging show to review. Almost anything one could write about it would be …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:09PMPart of the yearly Broadway Close Up series, Bound for Broadway presents songs from new musicals that may or may not actually be "bound for Broadway" (only time will tell). Past shows t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:43PMCloud Nine, Caryl Churchill's brilliant riff on sexual politics, colonialism, identity, and love, is receiving an excellent revival at the Atlantic, directed with a sure hand by James Macdon…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:33PMHarold Chapin's The New Morality, the slight but delightful piece from 1915 currently on view at The Mint, resembles an Oscar Wilde play if Wilde wrote about (almost) real people.Brenda…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:38PMIn a long-needed piece of housekeeping, we have updated our list of Theatre Links in the right-hand column of this blog (scroll down). If you'd like us to add your theatre blog/website to ou…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:05PMThere are two ways of looking at the anniversary reading of Carrie Hamilton and Carol Burnett's Hollywood Arms at Merkin Hall last night. As an event, it was a huge success. Just g…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:38PMI'm pleased to announce that I now have the honor of being the theatre writer for Art Times, where I will write essays most months. Here's a link to the latest issue. And here's a link …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:15PMAt first glance, The Acting Company's production of Desire would seem to be an evening of works by Tennessee Williams. After all, the six one-acts are ostensibly based on his short stories, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:09PMIvy Meadows (nee Olive Ziegwart) is an actress by night and a P.I. in training by day. Her current evening gig is The Sound of Murder, a Cabaret-Sound of Music mashup that I'd definitel…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:52AMIn her absorbing new play, John (directed by frequent collaborator Sam Gold), Annie Baker shows that there are many ways to be haunted and many ways to be in touch with the univers…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:28AMI cannot predict that Schooled will be the breakout hit of this year's Fringe, the vagaries of theatre being what they are. However, I can say that it should be. Schooled is just this side o…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:22PMTwo brothers come into a deserted room strewn with debris. Elliot is clearly the leader, smart and full of authority. Darren is the ne'er-do-well, slow-witted and stoned. They are preparing …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:22PMOn hearing the phrase "political theatre," most of us think of painful shows discussing life-or-death issues, often with unhappy endings. (Anyway, that's what I think of, and not without rea…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:08AMThe character of Rose in Gypsy, the masterpiece by Jule Styne (music), Stephen Sondheim (lyrics), and Arthur Laurents (book), is the quintessence of larger-than-life. She's a force of n…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:04PMPound, the fabulous Marga Gomez's satirical exploration of the depiction of lesbians in old movies, has only one more performance (Dixon Place, on July 25, 2015). If you have any interest in…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:12AMAt one point in Yussef El Guindi's brilliantly surprising play Threesome, Leila (Alia Attallah), author of a book on sexual and racial politics, says to the man about to photograph her …
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