First Nighter: Audra McDonald Dazzles as Billie Holiday by David Finkle

Perhaps the most complimentary remark to be made about Audra McDonald in Lady Day at the Emerson Bar & Grill is that in 90 minutes and under Lonny Price's fully empathetic direction, she…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:33pm on April 13, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Athol Fugard's "Shadow...," Richard Maxwell's "Isolde" by David Finkle

Although Athol Fugard turns 82 in June and his protagonist in The Shadow of the Hummingbird--having its world premiere at...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:06pm on April 12, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Martha Clarke's "Threepenny Opera" Short-Changes by David Finkle

Not to put too fine a point on it, director-choreographer Martha Clarke's version of the Bertolt Brecht-Kurt...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:34pm on April 7, 2014☆⚑

"Live Theater": As Opposed to What, Dead Theater? by David Finkle

Qualifying "theater" with "live" should be redundant, but has become common.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 7:28pm on April 7, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses Can't Be Kept Up With by David Finkle

Let me tell you that if anyone wanted a spot-on one-sentence review of Eno's newest work, you couldn't do any better than what she said. But we professional assessors are expected to say mo…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:21pm on April 6, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Check Out 'Hellman v. McCarthy,' 'Red Velvet,' 'Heathers' by David Finkle

On January 20, 1980 Mary McCarthy, never known to mince words in print or in person, was asked on Dick Cavett's PBS talk show whom she considered overrated writers. After a moment's thought,…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:23am on April 5, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Denzel Washington Good, Not So Good in "A Raisin in the Sun" by David Finkle

With Washington's return to The Great White Way in the revival of Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 A Raisin in the Sun at the Barrymore, he does a tremendous favor. Once again, as he did with his …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:53pm on April 3, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Encores! Most Happy Fella Mostly Happy by David Finkle

Frank Loesser disliked repeating himself. When he produced book, music and lyrics for The Most Happy Fella in 1956, he decided to go operatic. Not all the way, but more than he ever had be…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 5:43pm on April 3, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Kathryn Forbes's "I Remember Mama" Well Remembered by David Finkle

I Remember Mama, John Van Druten's adaptation of Mama's Bank Account, Kathryn Forbes's memoir of her early 20th-century...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 10:40am on March 31, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Idina Menzel's What/If Is Extremely Iffy by David Finkle

Give me a minute here while I clear my head after attending last night's performance of If/Then, the new musical starring...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:05pm on March 30, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Arin Arbus's "King Lear," David Herskovitz's "Uriel Acosta" by David Finkle

Plays are revelations. Good plays, that is, and the better a play, the more revelatory it can be. And let's just say King Lear--now...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:29pm on March 27, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Terrence McNally's Must-See "Mothers and Sons" With Tyne Daly by David Finkle

Throughout the 1980s and starting with William M. Hoffman's As Is and Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, plays addressing the...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:01am on March 25, 2014☆⚑

Are Theater Critics Becoming Extinct? by David Finkle

Newspapers drop arts criticism in a troubled culture.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 10:48am on March 24, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: 'Les Miserables' Returns in Sizzling 21st-Century Upgrade by David Finkle

This isn't your grandfather's Les Miz. It's the new and enhanced-in-some-ways-diminished-in-others Les Miz, and it very much takes into account the movie and the possible expectations that i…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:59am on March 24, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Christopher Durang's "Beyond Therapy" Back After Its Time by David Finkle

To be blunt about it, I've never thought much of Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy as a play, but I'm always willing to change...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:26pm on March 23, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: David Grimm's "Tales From Red Vienna" by David Finkle

Nowhere in the program for Tales From Red Vienna, at Manhattan Theater Club's City Center Stage I, is there any...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:24pm on March 18, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: The Fiascos Do Measure for Measure, The Pearl Does No Exit by David Finkle

Companies here and abroad, far and wide, high and low devote themselves to William Shakespeare. There's nothing new about the dedication. The Shakespeare devotees just keep coming.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:36pm on March 11, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Steven Boyer Amazes in Robert Askins's Awe-Inspiring "Hand to God" by David Finkle

Since it's impossible to stay on top of absolutely everything on view from one year to the next in burgeoning New...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:16pm on March 10, 2014☆⚑

Lloyd Webber and Rice: Two Musicals Closing Fast by David Finkle

Two musical turkeys, roasted and underdone.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 8:47pm on March 10, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: The Met's New 'Wozzeck' with Matthias Goerne Confidently Stepping In by David Finkle

The first performance of the new Wozzeck production at the Metropolitan Opera House turned into one of...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:30pm on March 7, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: LBJ Bio "All the Way" With Bryan Cranston Goes All the Way by David Finkle

Missing for deliberate reasons or reasons of chronology from All the Way, Robert Schenkkan's sure-fire hit at the Neil Simon, are...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:53pm on March 6, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Consumer Guide to London Theatre Now by David Finkle

London--If you're heading this way with theatergoing in mind, here's a short list of what's on offer in the next couple...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 4:56am on March 4, 2014☆⚑

To Philip Seymour Hoffman, With Gratitude and Anger by David Finkle

Was he really "the greatest actor of his generation"?

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 6:46pm on February 24, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Andrew Lloyd Webber's So Low 'Stephen Ward' and Solo 'Tell Me on a Sunday' by David Finkle

Andrew Lloyd Webber rules Brittania's West End and, as will come as a surprise to few, has for just about 40 years. Right now, three of his musicals are at hand. The Phantom of the Opera is …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:45pm on February 19, 2014☆⚑

First Nighter: Bikeman, Thomas F. Flynn's Captivating 9/11 Memoir by David Finkle

Because of the hell into which he was thrown with thousands, Flynn conjures moments reminiscent of Dante's Inferno. There are even echoes in his lines of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. And w…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:28pm on February 18, 2014☆⚑