617 stories by "Jan Simpson"
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Word of mouth has not been kind to The Film Society, the
Keen Company's revival of Jon Robin Baitz's first play, now running at The Clurman
Theater on Theater Row through Oct. 2…
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Philip Goes Forth seemed tailor-made for me. It's a play about a young man who dreams of a
life in the theater. It was written by George Kelly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning…
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This is the first time that The Old Friends, the Horton
Foote melodrama now playing at Signature Theatre's Irene Diamond Stage through
Oct. 20, has been fully staged. And
th…
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Seeing a bioplay always makes me nervous that what I'm going
to get is caricatures instead of characters. Seeing one with my husband K, who
hates watching people pretend to b…
Maybe if I'd known more about Brendan Behan, I would have
had a better time at Brendan at the Chelsea, the gloomy drama about the Irish
poet and playwright Brendan Behan that's playing at Th…
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You don't have to love a show to admire it. At least that's how I'm feeling about two of
the shows that have kicked off this new fall season.
The first I saw was A U…
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Between you and me, I'm a little reluctant to list the shows
I'm most looking forward to this fall. That's
because my picks for past seasons have turned out to be some …
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Lots of people seem charmed by First Date, the first
musical to open in this new Broadway season.
And I wish I could have been too.
Because I admire the fact …
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Labor Day has snuck up on me this year because it's been a
busier summer than usual. Some publications have asked me to write about
theater-related subjects and instead of ki…
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We need more poor playwrights. I don't mean bad writers or even those who are living hand-to mouth for the sake of their art but people who have grown up in families that had …
There's a certain magic about seeing a show in Central Park, no
matter what the show is. I've seen two
there over the last couple of weeks and although not crazy about either, I'm
sure…
We theater lovers used to beg for things to see in the summer.
And so we got festivals. Lots and
lots of festivals. Maybe too many
festivals.
There's the New York Musical…
Theater slows down in August. Or at least I
do. So while I'll continue seeing a few
shows, I'll only be writing about them here once a week, instead of the usual twice, until sometime …
Just like the TV reality shows it lampoons, the new musical
Nobody Loves You, now playing at Second Stage Theatre through Aug. 11, is silly and yet
enjoyable at the same time.
The playwri…
We're all obsessed with celebrity these days and almost
everyone (me included) has a story to tell about an encounter
with one. Writer Elizabeth Fuller's
was with the movie star Bette Davis …
Comeuppance for the financial scoundrels who
bilked people out of their savings and helped wreck the broader economy is once
again a hot topic. In "Blue Jasmine,"
the new Woody Allen m…
Choir Boy isn't a musical but the best thing about it is the singing. Now playing at the Manhattan Theatre Club's studio space at New York City Center through Aug. 4, this ambitious work abo…
I'm back and I bring news of something light and breezy and perfect for summer theatergoing. Because it would be hard to find a more buoyant
offering than The Explorers Club, the airy comedy…
My husband K and I are off on our first big vacation in a long while and so there will be no new posts here for the next couple of weeks. Which is why you're now looking at the ghost l…
Summer is my favorite time of the year. And one of the
things I love about it is sharing this annual list of books for theater lovers
to read at the beach, under a tree or, perhaps like me, …
My mother gave me my
first diary when I was eight years old and I continued to keep a journal into
my 30s, thinking, I'm now chagrined to confess, that I might one day be famous
and so shoul…
Given a choice between Shakespeare's comedies and his
tragedies, I'll line up on the side of the serious stuff almost every time. Which
is why I was nervous when I set off to meet my theater…
Maybe if I'd had a better sense of who Charles Ives is, I'd have had
a better time at Charles Ives Take Me Home, the new play that is running at the
Rattlestick Playwrights …
Playwright John Guare has given us many enjoyable nights in
the theater with such works as The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of
Separation and A Free Man of Color (click here to read my …
The question is the same every year: should the Tony Awards be a celebration for
Broadway insiders and their fellow travelers (like me) or should the televised
ceremony be basically a …
