499 stories by "ROB WEINERT-KENDT"
Must a play be universal or ageless to be great? Doesn't theater, that most ephemeral of art forms, really live only in the moment and space of a particular performance? Do we watch theater …
It was a year of bold experiments and weary retreads, of revivals that popped and those that fizzled, of familiar faces and bright new stars, of British imports and homegrown gambles. In oth…
This past week saw five Broadway shows raise their curtains just before the end of Tony eligibility (the nominations will be announced Tues., May 3), and the week had a clear, A-grade winner…
After last week's remarkable string of raves, a comedown was probably inevitable. This past week had it all: There weren't just a lot of shrugs and pans on Broadway and off, but the season's…
Either critics are anticipating the joys of spring, or New York theater just took a decided turn for the better: This week saw a string of ecstatic reviews, and resulting high grades, for sh…
Stephen Sondheim ponders his accomplishments, his way of working, and the form and future of the American musical
The past two weeks were book-ended by a pair of deluxe Broadway musical revivals: The first, of Frank Loesser's How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, opened with a B+ (it's now c…
Critics are bowing down before The Book of Mormon, the hotly anticipated, reportedly sweetly irreverent new Broadway musical from South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker and Avenue Q's Bobby…
Tanya Saracho's success writing plays about Latino culture has earned her acclaim and opportunities to explore wider themes for more diverse audiences.
The biggest news on Broadway over the past two weeks was a show that didn't open, again: Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark, as anyone not living under a rock knows by now, will shut down for a m…
There was no contest in the past few weeks, a busy time with some strong showings: Invasion!, Jonas Hassen Khemiri's topical satire, sailed to the top spot with a resounding A. (This Play Co…
It was the best of times and the worst of times for theatre beyond Broadway this past week, with three wildly divergent shows (two way out in Brooklyn) coming out on top, each with an A-: Ge…
At long last, Spidey was weighed and found wanting, with everyone from the Times to Time Out, and critics from coast to coast, savaging Julie Taymor's ill-starred arachnoid musical. The near…
This week Off-Broadway, critical favor shone on three very different revivals: Irish Rep's mounting of Brian Friel's monologic drama Molly Sweeney was greeted with near-unanimous huzzahs, fo…
Daniel Kitson's solo piece may have had the least promising title in ages--The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church--but this odd, funny import from the U.K. (already closed) got the only …
Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson's "Knickerbocker Holiday" and "Lost in the Stars" " entirely coincidentally " are back for concert readings in New York.
The new year started slowly with A Small Fire, Adam Bock's metaphorical family drama, which divided critics between rapturous and disappointed for a B grade. And the season took a positive s…
Among other milestones, 2010 was the year that StageGrade was officially born (after gestating for more than a year as a blog called Critic-O-Meter). Since our launch took place in April, we…
While Broadway's 2010 openings ended weeks ago, theaters beyond the Great White Way haven't slowed down a bit, and the critical horse races have been no less fierce. At the top of StageGrade…
Designing costumes for Broadway’s The Pee-wee Herman Show
One night back in 1977, Paul Reubens, a wiry sketch comic at the Los Angeles improv company the Groundlings, came up with the …
This week the blood flowed, of both the stage kind and the metaphorical kind, with the sole Broadway opening, the quirky Norwegian comedy Elling, posting its closing notice after just nine p…
The highs and lows were extreme this week on StageGrade. It began with a stark contrast: an A for the acclaimed Broadway transfer of last summer's Central Park hit, The Merchant of Venice st…
Theater for the very young seems to be a growing trend. Three new fathers explore the possibilities.
After a few weeks of mixed reviews and rocky receptions on and especially Off-Broadway, this past week offered a crop of shows in the B-and-above range. If there were an applause-o-meter, th…
