First Nighter: London Consumer Report on "Othello," "Strange Interlude," August Strindberg, Peter Nichols by David Finkle

If you don't mind an Othello (Adrian Lester) and an Iago (Rory Kinnear) policing Cyprus in desert fatigues and...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 3:49am on June 20, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: London Consumer Report on "Sweet Bird," "Merrily," Worthwhile Others by David Finkle

By 1959 when Tennessee Williams got around to presenting Sweet Bird of Youth on Broadway, as directed by Elia Kazan and...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 5:47am on June 15, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Neil LaBute's "Reasons to Be Happy" Will Make You Happy by David Finkle

When Ben Stanton's lights flash up at the Lucille Lortel on Neil LaBute's Reasons to Be Happy, ex-lovers Steph (Jenna Fischer)...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:59pm on June 12, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: John Guare, J. B. Priestley, N. C. Hunter at Your Disposal by David Finkle

Give thanks to the gods of talent for John Guare. They've conferred on him an inquiring mind that finds inspiration...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:08pm on June 11, 2013☆⚑

Theater in the Around Rules(?) by David Finkle

Immersive, site-specific, interactive--call it what you wil--it's here but maybe not to stay.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 1:43pm on June 10, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: "Far From Heaven," the 2002 Movie, Adapted (Not Well) for the Musical Stage by David Finkle

People giddily adapting properties into musicals used to say of the source material--plays, novels,...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 9:56am on June 3, 2013☆⚑

Easy Reader: Tote That Book and All the Other BookExpo America Giveaways by David Finkle

New York City--The most interesting piece of anecdotal information I picked up at this year's BookExpo America was from Paul Oliver...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:46pm on May 31, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Bertolt Brecht, Brian Kulick Collaborate on "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" by David Finkle

For some reason, directors like to take liberties with Bertolt Brecht. Perhaps because the German playwright placed...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 6:26pm on May 30, 2013☆⚑

Easy Listener: Tom Wopat, Kevin Dozier, John Lloyd Young Are Singers You Need to Know by David Finkle

Hey music lovers, let's consider--for want of a better term--pop crooners. At the moment, the greater listening public...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 3:22pm on May 28, 2013☆⚑

Cinderella Stories, or Girls Take Broadway by David Finkle

The Cinderella formula is increasingly affecting what musicals get produced.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:54am on May 27, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: "The Master Builder" Slightly Less Than Masterful, "Murder Ballad" Kills by David Finkle

Santo Loquasto's set at BAM's Harvey for Henrik Ibsen's undoubtedly most challenging, yet ultimately intriguing, play, The...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 1:43pm on May 22, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: "Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812" Doesn't Quite Zoom Across the Tuner Sky by David Finkle

Call it "interactive." Call it "immersive." Call it whatever contemporary term you will. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 7:09pm on May 16, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: James Graham's Politically Enthralling "This House" Gets the National Theatre HD Treatment by David Finkle

If you like theater and you like politics, you're going to jump at the chance to see theater about politics, Then get...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 2:29pm on May 15, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Workplace Woes Scrutinized in Three Plays, One Musical by David Finkle

Perhaps it's this reviewer's imagination, but it seems that more than the usual number of plays set in the workplace are...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 12:06am on May 11, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: City Center's Encores! Series On Your Toes Lives Up to Its Name by David Finkle

The single most spectacular dance number on view at the moment -- and it won't be for long; get there fast -- erupts in the second act of On Your Toes, the current Encores! series entry at C…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 3:06pm on May 9, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Richard Nelson's "Nikolai and the Others" Dances In on Fleet Feet by David Finkle

Just as William Shakespeare did with his history plays, Friedrich Schiller did with Mary Stuart and others have done...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 11:42am on May 7, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Tom Hanks, Other Talkative Tony 2013 Nominees Spark Their Press Brunch by David Finkle

Harvey Fierstein was wearing kinky running shoes by New Balance because, according to him, "I have fat feet." Yes,...

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 4:29pm on May 1, 2013☆⚑

Elaine Stritch Took Advantage of Me and Vice Versa by David Finkle

When she goes--if she goes--she goes as one of the irreplaceables.

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 10:18am on April 29, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Diane Paulus's Pippin Flies Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease by David Finkle

In Chicago, Fosse had Fred Ebb and John Kander explain the power of giving 'em the old razzle-dazzle, and Diane Paulus has taken that dictum to heart with her American Repertory Theater prod…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:26pm on April 25, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Bette Midler Divine in I'll Eat You Last, Cicely Tyson's Beautiful Bountiful, Tristan Sturrock's Mayday Mayday by David Finkle

Tuning into the gossip the Divine Miss M spews jubilantly as another Divine Miss M is such fun it hardly matters that five minutes after the romp ends, much of the dirt dished with such five…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:23am on April 25, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Fiona Shaw's Miraculous Testament of Mary William Christie's Marvelous David et Jonathas by David Finkle

What Nikos Kazantzakis did to de-sanctify Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ, Colm Toibin has done for the Madonna in The Testament of Mary -- with, predictably, the some outraged respon…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 3:39pm on April 23, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Richard Greenberg's The Assembled Parties Well Assembled by Manhattan Theatre Club by David Finkle

It's a strongly recommended drama that takes place on Manhattan's Central Park West in a beautifully furnished 14-room apartment, the confusing layout of which eventually becomes a metaphor …

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 4:33pm on April 19, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Jekyll & Hyde, Orphans, Collapse Bow to Mixed Results by David Finkle

If someone grabbed you on the street and yelled in your face for the next two and a half hours, what would you do? Well, the cast of the Jekyll & Hyde revival at the Marquis scream until…

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:12am on April 19, 2013☆⚑

First Nighter: Nathan Lane First-Rate, as Usual, in Douglas Carter Beane's New Play, The Nance by David Finkle

Plays conjuring Manhattan in the 1930s often take on the look of a live-action Edward Hopper painting. Not a bad thing. Actually, the effect is stunning when the curtain rises on The Nance.

SOURCE: Huffington Post at 8:01pm on April 15, 2013☆⚑

Playwrights Horizons' Sanford Writes a Lengthy Letter on Length by David Finkle

Does "The Flick," Annie Baker's 3-Hour work, really need an artistic director's apologia?

SOURCE: Clyde Fitch Report at 11:31am on April 15, 2013☆⚑