Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown never expected to find himself performing onstage at Madison Square Garden. But he did — thanks to his pal Ariana Grande. Brown met Grande before s…
Every dramatist has their off plays. Stage Shakespeare in full and you're stuck with "Two Noble Kinsmen." Tackle Chekhov and your problem is "Platonov." Director-producer Jamie Lloyd's charg…
Political plotting has become a national pastime in Britain. Hardly a week goes by without an attempted parliamentary coup. “The Tragedy of King Richard the Second,” Joe Hill-Gib…
"The Cane" lands with a thwack — a timely intervention in a topical debate. By dredging up the specter of corporal punishment in British schools, Mark Ravenhill's terse allegorical dra…
The Emmy- and Tony-winning actress Tyne Daly doesn’t enjoy acting. When her younger brother, Tim Daly, was a kid, he thought actors were just “drunken grownups who wouldn’t…
Against all odds, writer Aaron Sorkin and director Bartlett Sher have succeeded in crafting a stage-worthy adaptation of Harper Lee's classic American novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." The ever…
How does a musical stage adaptation of Amy Heckerling's 1995 film comedy of oblivious privileged teens, "Clueless," play in the era of female empowerment and millennial engagement? True, …
Acting onstage has been a regular part of Daniel Radcliffe’s career for more than a decade — and the “Harry Potter” star says there’s a good reason for that: It…
With the rumbling of semis careening by and the sound of Middle Eastern music in the distance, "The Jungle" aims to vividly immerse audiences into the world of the real-life migrant and refu…
The 1976 film "Network" won four Academy Awards, including best original screenplay for writer Paddy Chayefsky, for its blistering portrayal of an American society fueled by greed and bloate…
Sometimes on Broadway, you have to mobilize quickly. Take producer Jeffrey Chrzczon. He scored a prime Broadway theater, the Imperial, for his new Christmas-themed show " but he landed the v…
Cher has been famous for so long, it’s tempting to think there’s nothing new to know about her. But on the latest episode of “Stagecraft,” Variety‘s theater pod…
Ethan Hawke is starring on Broadway in True West " and no one is more surprised about it than Ethan Hawke. "I never thought I'd do this play," says the Oscar and Tony-nominated actor. It's n…
Choosing to recreate the spirit of the television variety shows that Sonny and Cher " and then Cher sans Sonny " headlined in the '70s is a choice that lands as flat as the jokes in Broadway…
It seems safe to say that Joan Allen has a pretty good handle on screen acting — she’s been nominated for three Oscars, after all. But on the latest episode of Stagecraft, Variet…
It's hard to imagine "Summer and Smoke" in better shape. Rebecca Frecknall's spare staging takes a lesser Tennessee Williams play and reveals the great drama at its core — a devastatin…
Michael C. Hall is always hearing about the return of “Dexter” — but not from anyone actually involved in the show. “People on the street are always telling me about …
Imogen Heap was involved in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child before she even knew the play existed. During the early days of the play's top secret development, the movement director, Steven…
It seems like a dubious musical mash-up: Broadway narcissists-turned-activists take over a middle-American town to help a lesbian teen who just wants to bring her date to the prom. But with …
Twelve years in the making, "Hadestown" has hit its moment bang on. A show that started life as a touring production for schools, instilling the Orpheus myth into kids through song, became a…
Glenn Close has thought about what “Fatal Attraction” means in the #MeToo era — and she’s got an idea for how to retell the story. “I think she's considered mor…
"Pinter at the Pinter" is not merely completist, it's meticulously curated. A decade after Harold Pinter's death, director Jamie Lloyd's six-month season of the writer’s short plays an…
One evening after a recent performance of the play Apologia, its star, Stockard Channing, welcomed three friends backstage " and was astonished to discover that her pals had tears in their e…
"Does it scare you? Being face to face with the modern mind?" Thom Pain, in the persuasive person of Michael C. Hall (“Dexter”), throws out the challenge at the top of Will Eno&#…
When is a standup routine not a standup routine, but a legitimate play? Partly when it comes with theatrical trappings like a thoughtful set, subtle lighting and sound effects. (Give a pass …