1,783 stories by "ELISABETH VINCENTELLI"
The premise of "The Call" is ripped from the headlines " or rather from the parenting chat rooms where some white middle-class couples share their thoughts about adopting kids from Africa.
I…
Here's what a $150 orchestra seat gets you at "Motown: The Musical": bargain-basement sets, basic choreography performed merely adequately, and laughable dialogue.
But then there are the son…
'Sleeping Rough" has just three characters, but none of them makes much of an impression. By the end of the show, the first thing that comes to mind is, "Bye. It was dull not knowing you."
…
Once in a blue moon, a show comes out blazing and restores your faith in Broadway. "Matilda The Musical" is that show.
"Matilda" landed at the Shubert Theatre with daunting advance word from…
This season, chimps are champs. In the recent dark comedy "Trevor," a chimpanzee dreams of making it as an actor, while in David Ives' newly revived "All in the Timing," three primates armed…
In David Harrower's intense 2007 drama "Blackbird," Alison Pill played a grown woman seeking out the man (Jeff Daniels) she slept with back when she was 12 to his 40.The past also catches up…
When shows are inspired by stars, they tend to be either fawning tributes or studies in self-destruction. With Judy Garland alone, just think of Rufus Wainwright's enamored cover of her Carn…
If you judge a show's popularity by how many productions it's had, then "The Last Five Years" is a "Wicked"-size blockbuster.
In the 11 years since its brief off-Broadway run, this intimate…
Nora Ephron's "Lucky Guy" is a eulogy. A really fun, really entertaining eulogy.
You may have heard that Tom Hanks, making his Broadway debut, is the star of the show " and he is, his Every…
Fittingly for a show about art, "Three Trees" has the speed and intensity of drying paint.
Alvin Eng's new play centers on the intense bond between the painter/sculptor Alberto Giacometti (…
When August Strindberg wrote "A Dream Play," in 1901, he was mentally shaky, having just emerged from a bout of paranoid psychosis. This may explain why the plotless work is a lot more freef…
Broadway draws the stars and the attention, but theater fans know there's gold in them downtown hills " and this spring, off-Broadway is going to see plenty of action.
A lot of it is the mu…
Watching the sluggish revival of "Happy Birthday," you start fantasizing about what 10 drag queens could do to the play. They probably would be a better match for Anita Loos' comedy than the…
There's a reason "It's a Bird . . . It's a Plane . . . It's Superman" hasn't had a major revival since its 1966 Broadway premiere: That musical isn't very good. Yet the concert version prese…
You can't help but root for the likable people on the Brooks Atkinson Theatre's stage " both the actors and their characters.
It's harder to muster similar enthusiasm for "Hands on a Hardbo…
With Holly Golightly, Truman Capote created a carefree, impish sprite " who happens to make money from gentlemen callers. Is it any wonder she's become one of America's most beloved heroines…
Making your Broadway debut is nerve-wracking enough. Add a bit of cat-wrangling and a nude scene in a bathtub, and even seasoned pros would have the jitters.
Did we mention the role is Holl…
W.C. Fields reputedly warned actors to "never work with children or animals." He should have added ". . . especially cats."
Look no further than the Broadway production of "Breakfast at Tif…
The archaeologists in "The Mound Builders" spend a lot of time talking about their work. You can't blame them: The Illinois field hosting their important dig is about to be submerged by a ma…
Few Chekhov-inspired shows make you laugh out loud, and repeatedly at that. In fact there's probably just one such rare bird on the planet: Christopher Durang's riotous "Vanya and Sonia and …
The Motor City of the '60s was famous for three things: cars, Motown and riots. The last two figure prominently in Dominique Morisseau's endearing new play, "Detroit '67" " we'll have to wai…
Thunder, lightning: A star deserves a grand entrance, and Bette Davis gets one in Craig Lucas' new two-hander, "The Lying Lesson."
The show zooms off to a dramatic start when an older woman…
In Annie Baker's "The Flick," which takes place in the run-down movie theater of the same name, two employees start arguing as they sweep the aisles. Avery declares that there hasn't been a …
It's hard out here for a chimp. The title character of the new off-Broadway show "Trevor" is a primate desperately trying to revive his acting career. His claim to fame: He once shot a show …
Holland Taylor's "Ann" is a labor of love. The actress, best known for key supporting roles on "Two and a Half Men" and "The Practice," spent about four years researching and writing this so…
