1,115 stories by "FRANK SCHECK"
The dissolute playboy played by Matthew Broderick in Nice Work If You Can Get It is frequently inebriated, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to be in a similar state to enjoy the slight ch…
The current spate of Broadway musicalizations of hit movies hits another nadir with Ghost. This adaptation of the 1990 Patrick Swayze/Demi Moore film is mainly notable for its extravag…
'I sense bad vibes," someone says early on in "Festen (The Celebration)," and, boy, is she on target, as a 60th-birthday party turns into a maelstrom of horrific accusations and literally bu…
The new Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire presents a particular dilemma. Its multiracial cast could well attract new audiences for this seminal 20th century dra…
Its Pulitzer Prize not withstanding, Clybourne Park still seems to me a better idea for a play than it actually is. Bruce Norris’ dark comedy, which has now arrived on Broadway after h…
So many plays seem arbitrary, as if the writer were rolling dice to decide what happens next. But "Die: Roll To Proceed" cuts out the middle-man. In Joe Kurtz's endlessly variable, interacti…
The opening line of "Ninth and Joanie" is "It's dead out . . . there's nobody nowhere" " and boy, is that the truth. The characters in Brett C. Leonard's suffocating drama are helplessly tra…
With the notable exception of Noises Off, theatrical farce is far more often labored than amusing. But One Man, Two Guvnors, newly arrived on Broadway from London’s West End, is…
Tennessee Williams certainly doesn’t make it easy to be generous.
The common perception about the legendary playwright’s later works is that they were sad reflections of …
The Civilians, the downtown documentary theater troupe, have tackled such socially and politically charged topics as the evangelical movement and Brooklyn's controversial Atlantic Yards proj…
“Tasteful” is not a word that springs to mind when thinking about Eva Peron, and it shouldn’t when it comes to Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Evita either…
If you’re going to write a play about two legendary sports figures it would help if more than one of them was interesting. Such is the dilemma of Eric Simonson’s second attempt t…
The singer brilliantly juxtaposes and combines the work of Cole Porter and Paul Simon in his wonderful new show at the Cafe Carlyle.
If this whole showbiz thing doesn't work out, Simon Callow would make a great professor. The British performer, best known here for such films as "Four Weddings and a Funeral," just brought …
One of the two characters in "The Morini Strad" is a violin restorer who loves what he does. Watching him painstakingly repair a damaged Stradivarius is to see a true craftsman at work.
The…
At one point during "Out of Iceland," Lea DeLaria, playing a male troll named Thor, steps onstage in a swan outfit and belts out "Bali Hai" in Icelandic.
And that's one of the evening's more…
It may be time to let Judy Garland rest in peace. The beloved entertainer has been a never-ending subject of fascination since her untimely death. Since then, she’s been portrayed on s…
You may be wondering why Gore Vidal’s politically-themed drama The Best Man needed another revival a mere twelve years after its last Broadway outing. The better question is why hasn&#…
There's a surreal quality to Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour," which played this weekend at Newark's Prudential Center, and it's not just because its inspiration…
It’s a hard knock life for the newsboys in Newsies, the stage adaptation of the flop 1992 Disney musical film that has become a cult favorite. When the ragtag group of orphans and runa…
Those impish wags from [title of show] are back to their meta-theatrical tricks in their new, similarly whimsically titled new musical. Starring Hunter Bell, Susan Blackwell, Heidi Blickenst…
Rising British playwright Matt Charman reveals a fascination with the darker aspects of ‘50s era American society in Regrets, now receiving its world premiere from the Manhattan Theatr…
Holocaust deniers are a reprehensible lot. But they can be transfixing.
That's the uncomfortable message one takes away from "The Soap Myth," presented by the National Jewish Theater. In it…
The last time I checked, incest between a brother and sister was still considered relatively abhorrent.
So it naturally comes as a surprise that the Cheek by Jowl production of John …
When Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" opened back in 1991, all three of its leads " Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth and Kevin Spacey " won Tony Awards.
Now it's the children's hour.
In this new r…
