Thursday, August 4, 2011
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Cheyenne JacksonPhoto: Kerry LongIf you are at all interested in musical theatre you must see One Night Stand, a documentary about four short musicals that are written,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:31PMKatharine Houghton, Loren Dunn, Robert EliPhoto: Ben HiderOn YouTube you can find faux coming attractions that morph famous films into different genres. The Dark Knight becomes a Pixar carto…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:38PMSaturday, July 23, 2011
Jessica Delbridge and Allison Hirschlag(Photo: Eli Sands)In Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare meets Beckett and a good time is had by all--except Rosencrant…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 05:57PMMonday, July 11, 2011
Death Takes a Holiday is a lovely, old-fashioned musical, with an inviting score by Maury Yeston (which sounds somewhat like his Titanic). The frequently charming book by Thomas Meehan and&n…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:22PMMonday, July 4, 2011
Jessica Hecht (photo: T. Charles Erickson) Jessica Hecht has everything an actress could need to be a brilliant Blanche DuBois: talent, sensitivity, compassion, and intelligence. That's why …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 03:22PMWednesday, June 29, 2011
The magic of Zarkana begins as soon as you enter the gorgeous lobby at Radio City Music Hall. It may take a moment to notice amid the hubbub of the crowd, but there's a white-faced muscular …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:00PMThursday, June 23, 2011
[spoilers below] Sol is in trouble. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot write anymore. He can drink. He can make a mess. He can whine. He can speak with great eloquence. He can have a ner…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:41PMSunday, June 19, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor as Elizabeth TaylorThe one-woman show Finding Elizabeth Taylor started late today because of technical difficulties. At one point, the star and playwright, Elizabeth Taylor,…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:38PMBy coincidence, I saw three plays about soldiers in Iraq this weekend (in order of viewing): Ajax in Iraq (not reviewed), Goliath, and The Eyes of Babylon. The Eyes of Babylon is the only on…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:45PMM. Scott FrankWhen I tell you the plot of the choreopoem Goliath, written by Takeo Rivera and directed by Alex Mallory, you may find it cliche: David, a smart and sensitive teenager, joins t…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:17PMWednesday, June 15, 2011
A good cabaret act often includes a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Ballads. Anthems. Standards. Novelties. Anecdotes. Audience participation. Shtick. Piano player-perfo…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 12:47PMThursday, June 9, 2011
Claybourne Elder, Todd Lawson (photo: Monique Carboni)The New Group & Tectonic Theater Project's ponderous production of Tennessee Williams' One Arm, adapted from his unproduced screenpl…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:00PMWednesday, June 8, 2011
Photo: Mike MartinBarbara Cook. What do you think of when you hear that name? A pure soprano? Glitter and Be Gay? The queen of cabaret singers? The Music Man? Sondheim? An unparalleled inter…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:23PMSunday, June 5, 2011
Ricky Ian Gordon's gorgeous chamber piece, Orpheus & Euridice, is being given an excellent production by The Orpheus Project and Collaborative Stages through June 12th. If luscious song …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:25PMSaturday, June 4, 2011
I'm very pleased to announce that June 9th I will be part of a panel on theatre blogging. I hope you can come! (It's free. More info below.)The panel is part of the Planet Connections Theatr…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:17PMFriday, June 3, 2011
If you wanted to explain the concept of "range," you could do worse than to compare Lynn Nottage's current comedy, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, to her recent devastating drama, Ruined. Few p…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 09:02PMMichael Cristofer and Linda Emond (photo: Joan Marcus)To those who point to previous generations of theatre as being better than this one, I have two words for you: Tony Kushner. (I have two…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:28PMSunday, May 29, 2011
In 2003, in the Signature (Arlington, VA) production, Eric Schaeffer demonstrated that he is capable of directing a sensitive, textured, multidimensional, heart-breaking Follies. Has he forg…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:22PMWednesday, May 25, 2011
I love Marilyn Maye.Really, what's not to love? Maye is an American Classic, a jazz-cabaret singer who started singing professionally in the Great Depression, an 83-year-old who swings with …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 11:12PMIn his director's note for The Best Is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman, David Zippel aptly refers to "the dazzling depth and breadth" of Coleman's work. Dazzling depth and breadth indee…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:00PMSunday, May 22, 2011
OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICALBloody Bloody Andrew Jackson OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAYJerusalem OUTSTANDING BROADWAY MUSICAL REVIVALAnything Goes OUTSTANDING BROADWAY PLAY…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:14PMMonday, May 16, 2011
Joy Yandell, Karson St. John (photo: Daren Scott)Spoilers Throughout. San Diego's excellent Cygnet theatre is presenting a problematic production of Kander and Ebb's classic musical Cab…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 06:18PMTuesday, May 10, 2011
The Patrick Lee Internet Theater Bloggers Association award nominations have been announced. Here they are:OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL Bloody Bloody Andrew JacksonCatch Me…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:50PMSunday, May 8, 2011
Jill Eikenberry, Wrenn Schmidt (photo: Ben Arons)There are no new stories. This fact challenges every playwright (and novelist and screenwriter). Take, for example, the following three scena…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:35PMTuesday, May 3, 2011
There are wonderful moments in theatre when you suddenly realize that you are in the presence of someone special. The first time I heard Lisa Howard sing was one of those moments. It was an …
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 08:06PMBefore I get to her voice, and what she sang, and all those necessary details about someone performing a solo cabaret show, I need to get one thing out of the way: Laura Benanti is a hoot. N…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 07:07PMMamie Gummer and Jenn Gambatese. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.I have to begin this review with a caveat: At the performance of The School for Lies I attended, an electrical outage down the bloc…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:05PMSunday, May 1, 2011
According to the invaluable StageGrade, the Broadway musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown received an average grade of C- from a total of 31 critics. While it's clear that Women…
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 04:56PMSaturday, April 23, 2011
In writing Seance on a Wet Afternoon, was Stephen Schwartz hoping to create his Sweeney Todd?
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 02:17PMWednesday, April 13, 2011
Playwright debbie tucker green's elegant, pared-down Olivier Award-winning play Born Bad is a formidable achievement.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 10:16PMMarie and Bruce is a crass and juvenile--and unsuccessful--attempt at being shockingly funny.
SOURCE: Show Showdown at 01:56PM 
