617 stories by "Jan Simpson"
The first face-to-face debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is scheduled for this Tuesday, Sept. 29, and the uncertainty over the outcome of the election five weeks from now has me in a…
Traditions are important even"maybe especially"in troubled times. And so although theaters remain dark and I've been posting here infrequently, I've decided to go ahead with my annual Labor …
Macbeth is a great gateway drug for Shakespeare newbies. It's got a straight-ahead plot, some of the Bard's most memorable lines, plus witches. Us Shakespeare oldies like it too. It's one of…
Sometimes you want a gourmet meal filled with rare or surprising ingredients. But sometimes you just want a big yummy bowl of macaroni and cheese. Seared, the latest play by Theresa Rebeck, …
The monologue play is an odd hybrid. Unlike traditional monologues in which one actor talks directly to the audience, it usually features three or more performers. But unlike traditional pla…
In the old days, when tickets were cheaper, people went to musicals for the thrill of hearing new songs. Today, when seeing a Broadway show can cost more than a car note, they go for the sec…
Yes, I know it's not a Saturday when I usually post but the holidays and other end-of-the-year obligations have turned my schedule topsy-turvy. So I've decided to invoke my old practice of p…
It's been a while since I last turned on the ghost light that theaters use when they're temporarily empty but I'm doing it now. That's mainly because I've been running around seeing so many …
..and a Happy Chanukah, a tardy Good Winter Solstice, a strong Happy Festivus, a slightly premature Joyous Kwanza and the all-around sincere hope that however you celebrate it, your holiday …
For those of us who write about culture, the holiday season includes making Top 10 lists. But this year, I've decided against trying to anoint the best shows I've seen or even tallying up my…
Happy New Year! Happy New Decade!! Here's hoping that they're both filled with more happiness (including lots of good theater) than not. Cheers!!!
Sing Street, the new musical that opened last week at New York Theatre Workshop and which is the final big show of the fall season to open, arrived with high expectations. But that can hurt …
Bigger isn't always better. The British director Richard Jones won deserved kudos in 2017 for staging The Hairy Ape in the vast drill hall at the Park Avenue Armory. That production li…
No review post this week (although if you have a chance you should try to catch Talene Monahon's How to Load a Musket, a really thought-provoking play about historical reenactors and the fra…
The best preview for the spring 2020 theater season I've seen was the one that my friend and fellow theater junkie Howard Sherman posted on his Facebook page a couple of weeks ago:
I can…
Just like Shakespeare, the great Greek playwrights staged their plays with all-male actors. But unlike the Bard, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides centered many of their plays around great …
Wither the musical? Not the jukebox musical or the ones that strap themselves to popular movies like a shipwreck victim clinging to a lifeboat or even those with rock scores whose songs self…
One of my best friends worked for the Negro Ensemble Company back in its heyday and so I got to see the original productions of such shows as Zooman and the Sign, The River Niger and the NEC…
Christopher Chen's intriguing memory play The Headlands works on so many levels that it's hard for me to keep track of all of them.
It starts out as a crime procedural centered around an i…
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Time flies. And this year it's whizzing by so quickly that I almost forgot to take some time out to celebrate the 13th anniversary of Broadway & Me…
I had planned to post a review this week but it was a pan of a play that I really didn't like and that seems somehow wrong at this time when concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 virus h…
Spring doesn't officially arrive this year until week after next but the spring theater season is already here, with new shows opening almost every day. And I'm already running behind as I t…
It's been a month since I last posted here. With theaters everywhere closed, there's been too little to say. But today is Shakespeare's birthday and I'm taking comfort from the fact that …
We're all longing for moments of clarity, sanity and even a little levity during these days of social distancing and self-isolating. But while there may be no live performances on Broadw…
Happy Fourth of July! This is obviously a more unusual summer than most. COVID-19 continues its rampage across the country and most theaters remain closed. People are marching in the streets…
