When Daniel Day-Lewis won the Screen Actors Guild award for his leading role in "Lincoln" " having already won a slew of other awards for it as well as an Oscar nomination — I wondered…
Two plays I just reviewed for Backstage, Mat Smart’s "The Steadfast," a play about American soldiers through the ages, and Judith Malina’s "Here We Are," a theater piece about…
At 44, Richard Blanco was the youngest poet chosen for the inaugural poem in U.S. history. He is also the first only gay man and the first Hispanic to read the inaugural poem. “One Tod…
President Barack Obama Inaugural Address Monday, January 21, 2013 Washington, DC Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress, distinguished guests, and fel…
This week in New York theater: January 14, 2013 Big Fish, a new musical based on the 2003 film, Â is opening on Broadway's Neil Simon Theater on October 6 directed by Susan Stroman a with …
The producers of the new Broadway play “Lucky Guy” have listened to the criticism, and changed the marquee at the Broadhurst Theater, getting rid of the billboard (left) with the…
"Cat On A Hat Tin Roof" with Scarlett Johansson and Benjamin Walker could not possibly be so dull, I said during the first intermission; I just must be tired. The couple next to us left duri…
"Well, for all of you 'SNL' fans, I'm 50! I'm 50! You know, I need to do that without this dress on, but you know, maybe later at Trader Vic's, boys and girls. What do you say? I'm 50! You k…
Bette Midler's return to Broadway after three decades is one of three new Broadway shows announced this week, a week in which only one show announced its closing, even though it’s Janu…
Are all single women to be pitied? Would an undisciplined drifter in the 1950's have a torso with a sculpted six-pack? Did William Inge's "Picnic" really deserve the Pulitzer Prize for Drama…
It has been less than two years since I saw The Other Place Off-Broadway, yet what I remembered of it was just the spellbinding performance by Laurie Metcalf (still best-known as Roseanne…
Why isn't Harold Arlen as well-known as George Gershwin? It is a question that provokes debate among connoisseurs of what has become known as the Great American Songbook, or the Golden Age o…
Lincoln leads with 12 Oscar nominations, including best adapted screenplay by Tony Kushner (playwright of “Angels in America”). Les Miserables, the movie of the stage musical, sn…
Laura Osnes as Cinderella and Santino Fontana as the Prince in “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” beginning previews January 25, and opening March 3, 2013
January is the month for theater festivals in New York, more than at any time other than the summer. Â The offerings tend toward the avant-garde and the international and indeed many of th…
When Quiara AlegrÃa Hudes’ “Water By The Spoonful” won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama last year, the standard response I heard was: What? Who? The play had never been prod…
A 22-song album of the music from "Bombshell" will be released on February 12, a week after the Tuesday, February 5th premiere of the second season of Smash. The first season of this Broadwa…
This week in theater includes news about “Wicked,” and about an older musical by the same composer; the longer life of “Peter and the Starcatcher,” a hoped-for life f…
“Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy”, 90-minute documentary by Michael Kantor (Broadway: The American Musical.) aired on PBS New Year’s Day Here’s the link Wat…
Vanessa Redgrave paired with Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network") in a play he's written? A new musical by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame about ex-dictator spouse Imelda Marcos, famous …
Theater, the original social media, meets its digital counterparts in form-breaking new live/virtual experiments: "As a theatre artist, I love space," Whit MacLaughlin is saying as we leave …
Tom Hanks, Shia LaBoeuf, and Cyndi Lauper are all making their Broadway debuts, and Scarlett Johansson returns, during Spring 2013, a season that promises at least two big hits, both of …
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 " exactly 150 years ago. There is no greater evil in U.S. history than slavery, with the possible exception …
Here are the ten most-read articles from this blog this year: Will Slings and Arrows Return To TV? I uncovered startling news for the many fans of "Slings and Arrows," the cult Canadian T…
It is hard not to be sentimental about the theater at the end even of a so-so year. There ARE Broadway shows with performances on New Years Eve: Mary Poppins, Newsies, Peter and the Starcatc…