278 stories by "Erik Haagensen"
Whatever made Bonnie and Clyde special is missing from this sentimental musical, as are sufficient character development, adequate dramatic thrust, and any kind of subtext.
It's hard to believe that such an iconic American title hasn't had a New York staging since 1927, but Metropolitan Playhouse's sturdy production demonstrates the play's continued relevance.
Thomas Higgins' naive and glib comedy-drama about a sexually confused Boy Scout suggests that Higgins would be more at home on the small screen than in a small theater.
Playwright J.T. Rogers takes a bracing, multisided look at how America came to be mired in a war against fundamentalism in Afghanistan in this gripping and absorbing drama.
More than just a joyous musical revue, "Cotton Club Parade" is permeated with a sense of legacy, of hometown performers honoring a fabulous past while creating their own ecstatic present.
Director Richard Eyre's insistence on naturalistic acting rooted in emotional truth pretty much does the current Broadway production of Noël Coward's archly delirious comedy in.
I was looking forward to composer Nico Muhly and librettist Stephen Karam's new opera, so it's with great disappointment that I have to report that it's an awfully wan piece of work.
The New Group brings downtown provocateur Thomas Bradshaw to the world of uptown theater, but his peculiar mix of sincerity and satire is no more persuasive here than it was Off-Off-Broadw…
Is there anyone else in show business today who can levitate an audience the way Hugh Jackman is doing right now in his not-exactly-one-man musical show at the Broadhurst Theatre?
Husband-and-wife team Jim and Ruth Bauer's exhilarating experimental musical examining the lives and loves of four European bohemian friends during the first half of the 20th century bloom…
This 1956 Ethel Merman vehicle has a new star in the wonderful Elizabeth Loos, who delivers pure delight as she sturdily supports this rather flimsy, cut-rate show on her highly capable sh…
Michael John LaChiusa has written a strong score for this musical about the first woman to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, a role in which Mary Testa triumphs.
With Rachel Griffiths and Judith Light stepping seamlessly into the tight five-person ensemble, Jon Robin Baitz's compelling family drama remains both grandly entertaining and deeply perce…
The cabaret icon's sunny disposition should be an ideal match for Jerry Herman's songs, but her startling inability to connect with lyrics left me unable to join in the audience's enthusia…
Though intelligent and well-intentioned, Andrew Hinderaker's new play on the subject of male suicide is bedeviled by an unbelievable premise and gerrymandered playwriting.
Tennessee Williams' absurdist meditation on mortality, loneliness, and the general triviality of human existence, is in director Jonathan Warman's hands an outrageously entertaining grote…
Musicals Tonight!'s concert staging of this 1962 Mel Brooks–Charles Strouse–Lee Adams Broadway flop has a few moments but is too shaky, unfocused, poorly adapted, and woefully …
David Henry Hwang's latest play is a smart and uproarious comedy examining the difficulties in bridging the different cultures of contemporary China and America.
This "new American musical" from Charles Strouse and Leslie Lee about Martin Luther King Jr.'s formative years neglects to tell us that it is really a piece of reworked children's theater.
Look out, Elaine Stritch: You've got competition for the most glamorous golden-years gams in town, and French chanteuse Yvonne Constant is currently flashing them with style at the Metropo…
There are few theatrical sights more dispiriting than watching a group of seriously talented, highly professional actors plowing their way through a rankly amateur show.
If you have any doubt about the magnitude of the loss we suffered when playwright Lanford Wilson died this past March, this heart-stopping Keen Company production makes it all too abundant…
Fearless, whip-smart, and hyperarticulate, Jeff Talbott's incendiary political comedy-drama asks hard questions about our supposedly post-racial world and will likely make audiences uncomf…
Paper Mill Playhouse deserves great credit for turning this troubled property into something that could have a long life. There's still work to do, but I smell a hit.
Even if the Pearl Theatre Company doesn't quite sound all the notes of Eugene Ionesco's "anti-play" that laments the limits of language, it's well worth your time and attention.
