26 Names by Jason Robert Brown When I first heard of the shooting at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, I was reading the chapters on the debate over slavery in…
There are several great pleasures in "Golden Boy," the play by Clifford Odets about gifted Italian-American violinist Joe Bonaparte who gives up his art for the life and quick fortune of a b…
When did it become unfashionable for Americans to call ourselves "workers"? Certainly, it goes back way before 1978. That was when "Working" opened on Broadway, a musical co-conceived by the…
Right up there with being told there is no Santa Claus is the news, suddenly prevalent, that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is not just a sweet duet for the holidays. First some…
GIVEAWAY TO Les Miserables Enter to win the following: $25 Fandango Gift Card to see Les Miserables in any U.S. movie theater available for ticketing on Fandango.com or your mobile device…
The last of the 19 shows that made up Broadway Fall 2012  opened this past week, and the assessments of the season have begun. So far: meh. Critical consensus: We are not living in Br…
I once asked Luciano Pavarotti what opera meant; the great tenor gave me a baffled look, but he answered that opera was not difficult to comprehend. Farmers played opera in barns to increase…
It is easy to see 45th Street this week as the Tale of Two Mamets. David Mamet's new play, "The Anarchist" is a verified flop, set to close two weeks after it opened. Meanwhile, "Glengarry G…
Here are the ten best plays or musicals that opened (mostly in New York) in 2012, according to 10 critics, including me. That is what this post will wind up being, anyway. I don't have 10 ye…
Clifford Odets' Golden Boy, first presented on Broadway at the Belasco Theater 75 years ago, is back at the Belasco, for the second-ever Broadway revival about a man who defies his family an…
Can theater teach us anything about love? Three very different shows I reviewed this week all believe so " the Flux Theatre Ensemble’s production of "Hearts Like Fist,” "The Drun…
When I first heard about "The Anarchist," David Mamet's play pitting Patti LuPone as an incarcerated violent radical against Debra Winger as her jailer, I immediately pictured the townhouse …
T'was not a great week to be jolly for many in New York theater, with stars leaving shows, closing announcements, and Broadway openings marred by pans. On the other hand, there was some good…
just a wearying lecture~Hollywood Reporter strangely gassy~New York Magazine heavily embroidered slip of a play….where ideas on eschatology, etymology, phenomenology and, yes, criminology …
James Cagney’s tip for actors:Â ”Never relax, and mean what you say.” Sir Ralph Richardson: Before you leave the dressing room, look in the mirror and ask yourself: ̶…
Broadway 2012 was not the worst year ever, but there were so many shows that flopped, critically and/or commercially, that the competition for worst of the year is fierce! You decide: Take t…
How well were you paying attention to New York theater news this month? The answers to the 10 questions below were in my New York Theater blog or in my Twitter feed,@NewYorkTheater
After departing "Smash," the television series she created that looks with fluttering heart at the making of a Broadway musical, Theresa Rebeck apparently has changed her mind about New York…
"As working, and sometimes non-working, actors, we’re focused on paying the bills. It’s only in the rehearsal room and on the stage that we can remember why we do all this. Becau…
Of the ThaBroadway shows still to open this season, four will do so by the end of next week: Dead Accounts, this Thursday, November 29 The Anarchist, December 2 Golden Boy, December 6 Glenga…
The worst, and most common, insult a critic typically levels at a play is that it resembles a TV series. But at its best, television gives us the time to understand a character more deeply t…
About half an hour into the play "Sorry" at the Public Theater yesterday afternoon, the actor Jay O. Sanders suddenly announced: "Somebody is ill. Is there a doctor in the house?" A woman in…
Call them theater lovers or theatre lovers or drama queens or Broadway Babies: If you have somebody in your life who goes to shows, you can choose among many gifts to make them happy " from …
Nov 29, 2012: Dead Accounts - MUSIC BOX THEATRE Dec 02: The Anarchist - JOHN GOLDEN THEATRE Dec 06: Golden Boy - BELASCO THEATRE Dec 08: Glengarry Glen Ross …