970 stories by "Michael Portantiere"
This year's Easter Bonnet show marked the culmination of six weeks of fundraising that raised $3,677,855 to support the good works of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Here are my pix of th…
Jennifer Cody plays a whore with a heart of gold and a lot of grit in Judith of Bethulia, an over-the-top campy spoof of Biblical films, written by and starring the one and only Charles Busc…
Anita Gillette and Tom Bloom in THE BIG MEAL (Photo: Joan Marcus)
For reasons too obvious to list here and now, the most thoroughly satisfying new American plays — those that feature s…
Tracie Bennett in END OF THE RAINBOW
With so many Broadway shows opening this spring (as happens every year), it can be very difficult to budget one’s money and time in deciding what t…
Kurt Peterson and Victoria Mallory met in the mid 1960s when they were both fresh faced kids studying at AMDA, and even before they graduated, they were cast as the passionate lovers Maria a…
Jason Danieley and his equally spectacularly talented wife, Marin Mazzie, have made a lot of magic on Broadway -- together, as when they took over the leading roles of TKTKTKT in Next to Nor…
Paul Nolan in JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR
People have all sorts of opinions as to what defines an opera as compared to a musical. I think one important difference is that, in opera, the music mak…
For the coveted title "Miss Rodgers & Hammerstein of the New Millennium," I nominate Laura Osnes. Fresh from her delightful Broadway debut as Sandy Dumbrowski in the otherwise …
Bill Coyne and Jody Cook in L'IL ABNER (Photo: Michael Portantiere)
Based on the Al Capp comic strip of the same title, and featuring a terrific score by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer, …
For the next two weeks, the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row will be home to a staged concert revival of one of the most entertaining (if perhaps under-appreciated) musicals of the mid-20th centu…
As if theater-loving residents of N.Y.C. don't have enough shows on and off Broadway to keep them entertained, there's a theater in nearby Millburn, New Jersey that has been a popular audien…
Musical theater guys have sometimes been heard to complain that their female counterparts get the best parts and the best songs in shows such as Mame, Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl, and Wicked. …
Elizabeth Reaser and Norbert Leo Butz in HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE
Like any other award, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama is not always a 100 percent accurate indicator of superior quality or the &…
Each season, there’s a stampede of Broadway openings in the months prior to the Tony Awards. With so many shows arriving at once, journalists and theatergoers pretty much tend to f…
Fred and Adele Astaire set the gold standard for brother-sister showbiz teams -- but she retired very early, leaving him to become a star on his own. Today, we have two super-talented pairs …
Fred and Adele Astaire set the gold standard for brother-sister showbiz teams -- but she retired very early, leaving him to become a star on his own. Today, we have two super-talented pairs …
One of the greatest articles I ever read in Playbill was “Hitpicking,” by Barry Tarshis, which was published in the fall of 1970.
1) Is there at least one major film or TV star i…
Pop music legend Petula Clark makes a rare New York appearance at Feinstein's at Loews Regency.
Well, I'm glad I was at least somewhat prepared for the desecration of the operatic masterwork Porgy and Bess that's now on view on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater, or I probably wou…
Tom Wopat (Photo: Michael Portantiere)
If you’re disappointed in the most recent crop of new Broadway musicals — and who isn’t? — you might want to consider time trav…
Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis star in PORGY AND BESS (Photo: Michael J. Lutch)
Traditionally, January is a slow month for theater in New York (and elsewhere) in terms of ticket sales and ope…
Content dictates form, which is why my year-end look back at New York theater in 2011 is somewhat different from previous surveys. Usually I provide a fairly lengthy list of what I consider …
John Walton West, Christina Bianco, and Christine Pedi in NEWSICAL
Back in the day, there were lots of revues that used current events and politics as fodder for sharp, witty humor. Now, suc…
Hugh Jackman (Photo by Michael Portantiere)
The stars are shining. Although the recent crop of New York theater openings has proved to be pretty lackluster overall, especially in terms o…
The 23rd annual Gypsy of the Year competition, held at the New Amsterdam Theatre, started off with a real blast from the past: A 40th-anniversary reunion of original Broadway cast members of…
