67 stories by "Lizwollman"
Jim Bauer and Ruth Bauer's musical The Blue Flower, currently in previews at Second Stage, has an awful lot going for it. Its sweeping, romantic plot covers both world wars, and its complex…
Is it the fall season, or is it just me? Truly--and I don't mean to be overly dramatic about this, even though arguably this is exactly the place for it--I can't figure out why this season f…
Add Follies to my list of shows that I wish I'd seen in their original productions.Mind you, I very much enjoyed the revival, which is currently running at the enormous Marquis theater. It m…
There are so many shows I wish I'd seen, either because I missed brilliant performances by actors I admire (thus, just last season, The Merchant of Venice) or shows I've been told I would ha…
While I am always happy to see original, innovative musicals succeed Off Broadway, I've been a lot less happy in the past few seasons to see how such shows fare once they've been moved to Br…
Image: Robert Day
Seán O'Casey once described his play The Silver Tassie (1927-28) as "a generous handful of stones, aimed indiscriminately, with the aim of breaking a few windows." I …
The last time I weighed in on Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, it was being griped about in the press daily, and actors were being gravely injured on a regular basis. Glitches in the flying se…
Okay the critics were right, The Addams Family is a total mess. Its creators were clearly so caught up in devising their own unique blend of extra-schticky vaudeville, self-referential pomo…
Photo: Carol RoseggNo one is happy in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, regardless of whether they are Iraqi or American, soldier or civilian, human or animal, alive or dead. The living are t…
Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem, currently playing at the Music Box Theater, takes its name from a hymn that, according to director Ian Rickson, is held dear by the English people. "Its words," …
Photo: Joan MarcusLarry Kramer's 1985 play The Normal Heart, currently in revival at the Golden Theater, is about as subtle and gentle as an angry camel. The characters are all spitting mad …
In the past few years, the Roundabout Theatre Company has had a lot of trouble delivering the goods when it comes to musical revivals. Their productions, last year, of Pal Joey and Bye Bye B…
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's revival of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, which has been running at the American Airlines Theatre on Broadway since mid-December, adds we…
Photo: Annie Leibovitz
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which has been in previews since late November, has blown through at least $65 million dollars and three lead producers. Four actors…
If Broadway is a museum, the mediocrities depicted in Jason Miller's 1972 play That Championship Season (in previews at the Bernie Jacobs Theater) are dinosaurs. In the Pulitzer Prize-winni…
Hi. My name is Liz, and I'm an assistant professor of music at Baruch College, CUNY. I specialize in the American musical, and focus for the most part on late-20th and early 21st century pro…
