Here are some of the shows that have excited me as much as Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton:A Little Night Music (original Broadway production)Pacific Overtures (original Broadwa…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:34PMYou On The Moors Now, written by Jaclyn Backhaus, is a de- and re-construction of the romantic tropes that have permeated our culture from Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Little Wo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:35PMTalk about an anticlimax.First there is the announcement: Peter Dinklage and Taylor Schilling (aka, "The woman from Orange is the New Black") in Turgenev's A Month in the Country a…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:18AMI suspect that there is something kind of brilliant and heart-breaking going on in Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's play, The World of Extreme Happiness. It didn't quite come across in the early prev…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:44PMI don't believe that every white person in the United States is a racist at heart , waiting only for the right provocation to reveal his or her true colors. I also do not believe t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:20PMOsceola Mays was the daughter of sharecroppers and the granddaughter of slaves. She sang for the love of singing, her family, and Jesus. John Burrus was a rodeo cowboy who sang cowboy songs …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:25PMThe concept of Film Chinois, by Damon Chua, is a good one: noir goings-on in 1947 China, with a femme fatale who also happens to be a Maoist revolutionary. The writing is smart, wi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:10PMIn the truly amazing Between Riverside and Crazy, the wonderful Stephen Adly Guirgis signals us quickly that all is not what it seems. Pops, the old man in the wheelchair, is neither il…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:17PMSo, suddenly there's an announcement. Julie Taymor. Anne Hathaway. Grounded. Tickets already on sale, and going fast.Anne HathawayVivien Killilea/Getty Images for PsiffIt's my turn to order …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:11PMThe line between elliptical fascination and obscure tedium can be thin, and the current production of A Delicate Balance falls to the wrong side far too often.John Lithgow, Glenn ClosePhoto:…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:28PMRebekah Brockman, Tom Pecinka in ArcadiaPhoto: Joan MarcusAaah, the joys of being an online reviewer. I don't get paid, and I often have to buy my own tickets, but I don't have to see shows …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:16PMHe's not really the messiah. His mom is Mandy, not Mary. She's certainly not a virgin. For that matter, neither is he. Well, you know the story.It's Monty Python's Life of Brian, only now it…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:36PMIn the first scene of Kristen Palmer's Once Upon A Bride There Was A Forest, Josie (Rachael Hip-Flores) tells her boyfriend Warren (Chinaza Uche) that she will finally marry him but fir…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:03PMIs all really fair in love and war? Not according to the thriller-comedy-love-story-political-commentary Asymmetric, written by the wonderful Mac Rogers, directed by the also wonderful …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:56PMThe 1950s and early 1960s masqueraded as an innocent time in the United States, and nowhere was the masquerade more vivid than on television, with its faux perfect white families with thei…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:55AMMany people consider The Real Thing to be Tom Stoppard's most accessible play, and I suppose that's true--but at what cost? Instead of Stoppard's usual verbal and mental fireworks, and …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:29PMThe show is by Tom Stoppard. It takes place in two time periods. In the more recent period, a scholar is trying, with mixed success, to understand what happened in the earlier one. The play'…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:38PMI'm sad to say that the Yale Rep production of Arcadia closed yesterday. It's one thing for me to suggest that you take a train up there to see it and another to suggest a time machine.…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:16PMBridget Everett, creator and performer of Rock Bottom, has been described as challenging, gutsy, provocative, hard-rocking, raunchy, and raucous, and those adjectives don't even begin to de…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:51PMOn one hand, The Last Ship, music and lyrics by Sting, book by John Logan and Brian Yorkey, has already had a run in Chicago and should be in pretty good shape. On the other hand, it do…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:09PMBy intermission, I found Bootycandy to be an entertaining, occasionally insightful, and random collection of skits. By the end of the play, I realized that Bootycandy is a sma…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:36PMNext to Normal is a superb musical. Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey's depiction of a woman derailed by mental illness and loss, and of the people around her, mixes compassion, humor, insight, and …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:45PMIn Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne's charming new piece, The Valley of Astonishment, the titular valley is that uncharted, elusive area where brain metamorphoses …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:09PMI have this theory about plays and movies. If the main character or another character learns something and grows, the piece can last hours. But if the characters remain stuck and learn nothi…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:00PMIf there is a theatrical heaven whence long-deceased playwrights can watch their work, then I'm certain that George Kelly is thrilled with The Mint's new production of his fascinating play, …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:46PMOh, the joys of a well-made, genuinely funny comedy. Oh, the joys of a solid cast of Broadway stalwarts doing what they do. Oh, the joys of a sold-out theatre rocking with laughter. Oh, the …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:20PMWhat happens when people have no options? Specifically, what happens when a pair of women, best friends who met in prison, try to make good lives for themselves in a world that has little us…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:05PMIt's a great concept: "the story of a Young Adult paranormal romance writer who accidentally creates a dangerous cult." The cast includes the fabulous Lorinda Lisitza and Hannah Sloat. What …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:37PMIf ever a play merited skewering, it's Shakespeare's messy, pointless bloodbath, Titus Andronicus. The delightful Puppet Shakespeare Players skewer it with great glee, fabulous pup…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:34PMI am a big fan of Cirque du Soleil, so it pains me to write the following: Varekai is mediocre and even kind of boring.Octavio AlegriaTo be perfectly fair, I'd like to provide some context. …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:35PMBob Fosse was talented, driven, kind, nasty, dedicated, unfaithful, brilliant, limited, addicted, and unhappy. By all accounts, he was also charismatic, seductive, and a great lay. Since the…
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