470 stories by "Jacob Malizio"
It's a rare and special experience to watch performers of the calibre of Peters and co-stars like Lea Salonga backed by a sensational 14-piece orchestra in an intimate room that seats just 6…
To those unfamiliar with Sondheim's oeuvre, Old Friends offers a respectable and professional introduction to the late master's voice, both as a peerlessly witty lyricist and as a unique com…
Unlike what Salonga does with a song, other singers in "Old Friends" tend to overact every song. Beth Leavel sings "The Ladies Who Lunch" from what sounds like a cocktail shaker. The only th…
While [Bernadette Peters'] voice has lost some of its rich timbre, her rendition of "Send in the Clowns" is so deeply infused with soul-searching that any vocal imperfections are quickly for…
Betty Boop longs for an ordinary day off from fame in her black-and-white world. What she finds is an extraordinary adventure of color, music, and love in New York City!
The post BOOP! The M…
The most disappointing subgenre of musical, at least in terms of opportunity cost, is the "why?" show: a well-crafted, charmingly performed, highly professional production that nobody asked …
In "Boop! The Musical," the canonical cartoon recounts stints as a lion tamer, judge and hula dancer " professions lifted straight from her shorts. But evidently, Betty Boop missed a credit:…
The alternating worlds are meant to be playful, but Toontown especially gets exhausting quickly, with characters mugging, clowning and amplifying every limp punchline. But the real world is …
With a zippy score, terrific tap numbers choreographed by director Jerry Mitchell, energetic performances from a top-notch cast, and a plot that doesn't tax your brain, Boop! is one of the f…
We may not know Betty Boop deeply, but we can agree she has that certain "It" quality that has made her stick around for nearly a century, even if just on lunchboxes. I wish, after seeing th…
Like all the best early 20th century works tragically and systematically erased from our cultural memory, she's bright, effervescent, relentlessly charming and sexy. Pretty much the same can…
It's difficult to say what's more embarrassing: the people in Disney outfits out on the street or the chorus at the Broadhurst in costumes that look just as seedy and smelly. Pooph, anyone?
…
Yet you will likely have more fun at Boop! than in many other theaters this spring; this is an old-fashioned stage-frolic filled show, with big songs and bigger dancing, including roof-raisi…
[Rogers] can do it all. As smiley, effervescent and, well, animated as t he actress is for most of the night, she finds power and emotional resonance in her 11 o'clock number "Somethin…
Directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, this is an old-fashioned candy shop of a show, where tasty confections are sold in bulk. When Boop! is corny, it's candy corn. Gorge on the mult…
Experience the messy, euphoric, sexy, savage, fleeting rush of falling in and out of love in New York City at The Last Five Years, starring Grammy Award® and Golden Globe nominee Nick Jon…
But in the show's first Broadway incarnation, starring the resplendent Adrienne Warren and an underpowered Nick Jonas, the structure (along with the balance) has been compromised. The produc…
Each song must bear the emotional fullness of a scene, because it's an entire memory. Warren can do this. Jonas, simply, cannot. Or does not.
The post 'The Last Five Years' is a romance that…
But for the most part, this is still The Last Five Years as devoted fans know it: a tuneful sketch of an ill-considered marriage between two young people who still hadn't fully discovered wh…
They sing magnificently and there's real chemistry between the two of them, but Whitney White's direction is literal and unimaginative to the extreme. There's no emotional payoff in these tw…
White has crafted an intriguing and intellectually ambitious revival, one that embraces the brutal emotional honesty of Brown's source material.
The post An Ambitious LAST FIVE YEARS On Broa…
Whitney White's revival is sleek and unpretentious"Stacey Derosier's lights, elegantly juxtaposing oranges, golds, and blues, are particularly lovely in helping to score the story's temporal…
In the ugly revival of a work that doesn't belong on Broadway in the first place, the pair's already monotonous journey becomes a textureless concert that's frustratingly hard to track for a…
The score, as ever, is jammed with gems. But like a troubled couple, the production has issues. Under the direction of Whitney White, Warren and Jonas overdo their performances, pushing too …
In a season of overhyped shows, the evident sincerity, the effort, the fervent belief in character " and Warren's occasional transcendence " feels refreshing.
The post Nick Jonas and Adrienn…
