From the moment June Squibb takes the stage at the Hayes Theater in "Marjorie Prime," you feel lucky to be in her presence. The stage and screen legend is back home on Broadway, where she go…
At its core, "Marjorie Prime" tells a simple kitchen-sink story of two adults trying to care for an aging relative. Harrison tries to up the ante by dipping into his gothic drawer of horrors…
Much of the pre-opening press about this revival has revolved around the 96-year-old Squibb, who might be the oldest actor ever to play a principal role on Broadway. She merits that attentio…
Nixon's Tess is vulnerable enough for you to sense the fear in her eyes, but this is an actress with a steely core and, indeed, Nixon turns on a dime when her character realizes, as I think …
For all the grief boiling over in Marjorie Prime, I walked away yearning to be more thoroughly wounded. But Harrison's script is less interested in piercing the heart than it is the mind. It…
An original, new musical comedy about timing, connections, and unexpected detours. Meet Dougal, an impossibly upbeat Brit who has just landed in New York City for the first time to attend th…
The effervescent new musical comedy "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)," which opened on Thursday at the Longacre Theater, is the most charmingly simple show on Broadway right now…
I felt a disorienting generational whiplash throughout the treacly rom-com Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). The latest British musical to make it through that country's off-off …
But once the two are no longer strangers, the score, which most pointedly recalls Adam Gwon's similarly small-scale tunes for Ordinary Days, loses its precision since there's only so many po…
"Two Strangers" is one of those rom-coms where the two lovers are wrong for each other. He's too boyish, she's too brittle. It's a new soul/old soul dynamic. That frisson works initially bec…
When the show's creators zero in on those feelings, something a lot more specific and wistful than a love story between two strangers, the piece comes alive. If only it stayed there. The pos…
What elevates the show from an assembly-line rom-com is the way Barne and Buchan balance the genre's baked-in cliches with sharp left turns and nuanced commentary about life experience and p…
"Two Strangers" is funny in places, occasionally moving in others, and just a little off-feeling throughout, as if it is trying too hard to charm across the storytelling and whimsy chasms it…
Tutty is an absolute star in the role, displaying boisterous enthusiasm as well as a tender naivete that hints at the inevitable act two disappointment to come. The actor's flawless comedic …
Two Strangers could have sunk into treacly territory, but it stays afloat on a banter-filled book and twinkling contemporary score by Jim Barne and Kit Buchan. While the lyrics aren't ground…
This fall, see powerhouse trio Tony Award® winner Aaron Tveit (Moulin Rouge!), acclaimed stage and screen star Lea Michele (Funny Girl, Glee), and breakout talent Nicholas Christopher (Sw…
Parts of the show are absolutely thrilling and parts are flat at best, aggressively dumb at worst. At least Mayer's production, starring Nicholas Christopher, Lea Michele and Aaron Tveit, is…
In its sweeping musical moments, it's easy to see why "Chess" has diehard fans. However, there's so much else that brings everything down: clunky plotting, nonsensical character motivations,…
Chess has always been a great score in search of a good book, and writer Danny Strong believes he's cracked the code by reframing it as a self-referential examination of Cold War-era America…
"One Night In Bangkok" walked so Sam Rockwell's White Lotus monologue could run. The song is such a ridiculous rush that it pretty much justifies the whole project. I think some plot still h…
The script has been reworked and the characters retooled, only for Chess to end up back where it started: impeccable music, a flat story and a baffling execution. But the eternal contradicti…
While I found myself longing for a wholly heartfelt Chess " whatever that might be " I also enjoyed the peppery, style-forward way that this production almost makes the amoebic musical itsel…
The production at Broadway's Imperial Theatre, directed by Michael Mayer, has plenty of good moves. Memorable and tuneful songs, including some bona fide bangers? Check! Slickly staged music…
Big numbers and baffling story almost spent, Chess leans into the possibility that nuclear war is extremely nigh, and the outcome of a final chess match could kill us all. There is even more…
After the revelatory 2023 revival of "Merrily We Roll Along," which finally clarified another difficult 80s musical, there was hope that "Chess" might enjoy a similar breakthrough. This isn'…