What'll we do without the four goombahs of "Jersey Boys" lighting up Broadway with their doo-wop melodies and falsetto trills on such hits as "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Oh, What a Night," "Sher…
After a long period of successive flops, Andrew Lloyd Webber found salvation in "School of Rock," a popular sweet-natured Jack Black film, about a slacker corralling cute kids into a band. A…
The 2002 Best Picture Oscar for "Chicago," ended a long dry period for the movie musical, which had once dominated Hollywood. Such expensive bombs as "Hello, Dolly!," "Star," and "Doctor Doo…
Years before Gene Wilder became a beloved comic actor through such films as "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein" and "Stir Crazy," he was an eager student and devotee of …
Jennifer Holliday, who won a Tony Award for creating the role of Effie White in the original 1982 production of "Dreamgirls," is going into the current Broadway revival of "The Color Purple,…
Off-Broadway's status as stepchild to Broadway is diminishing fast, given how often its fare transfers uptown. Who wouldn't have wanted to get the jump on "Hamilton" when it was off-Broadway…
To paraphrase Howard Beale in the movie "Network," the producers of "Hamilton" and "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" are mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The subject …
In 1998, Nicole Kidman's stage debut in David Hare's "The Blue Room" was, as Newsweek put it, "one of the hottest tickets for a play in Broadway history." In preparing a poster for the show,…
When a one-time theater agent was recently arrested for fraud " he allegedly bilked gullible investors of $165,000 for a non-existent play " the parallels to Mel Brooks's "The Producers" wer…
When playwright Bess Wohl was invited by a friend to an holistic retreat in upstate New York, she brought along snacks and wine and thought it would be a good time to catch up. Instead she w…
The creators of the new musical "Groundhog Day" wouldn't mind repeating August 16 over and over again. That was the day they awoke to some of the best London reviews for a show in a decade, …
One is already a dramatic blockbuster in London; the other is a musical blockbuster in the making. There are no sure bets in the theater, but the stage adaptations of "Harry Potter" and "Fro…
The advent of premium ticket pricing and the cachet of adding Broadway to the resume have resulted in a plethora of marquee names braving the boards in recent years. The new season is no exc…
When Glenn Close sang "As If We Never Said Goodbye" in the revival of "Sunset Boulevard" at the London Coliseum last April, it was as if 21 years had been a mere ellipsis in her career. Afte…
A couple of years ago, playwright Naomi Wallace was meeting with James Houghton, the artistic director of the Signature Theatre, one of the most prestigious of the off-Broadway non-profits. …
Last Spring, Garry Marshall told Vanity Fair that he would be in "a home for old directors" by the time "Pretty Woman," the musical stage adaptation of his 1990 movie smash, arrived on Broad…
Just weeks after "Motown, The Musical" began its return engagement on Broadway, the show's producers announced that it would be closing on July 31, a serious foreshortening of its intended 1…
The casting is intriguing, to say the least. Jake Gyllenhaal was recently announced as the lead in the Broadway revival of Lanford Wilson's tempestuous 1980s drama "Burn This," slated to ope…
Two years ago, Leslie Odom Jr. had few impressive credits on his résumé. He was largely known for a couple of short-lived TV shows ("Vanished," "Smash" ) and a Broadway musical flop ("Leap…
Barbara Cook once observed, "The challenge of performing is to show to an audience what life has done to you."Just how steep the toll has been is divulged in "Then & Now," Cook's new mem…
In the tradition of Spalding Gray, Mike Daisey is a monologist who deftly intertwines personal narratives with socio-political issues coursing through the country. In "The Last Cargo Cult," …
Those who are familiar with Joe Morton as the villainous and conniving father of Kerry Washington in the hit television series "Scandal" might be somewhat surprised at his newest role: Morto…
When the producers of "Hamilton" announced that Lin-Manuel Miranda's final performance would take place on Saturday evening, July 9, the price of an orchestra seat in the secondary market " …
On Thursday, June 30, Broadway reaches an historic first when "She Loves Me," the Roundabout's hit revival at Studio 54, will be live streamed on Broadway HD in a cooperative venture with th…
The precipitous closing of the $12 million musical "Shuffle Along" brought the red tide engulfing the Broadway season even higher, joining such high-profile and expensive flops as "American …